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Thursday, December 22, 2005
ED HUSSERL, Phenomenologist New York Magazine reports that a new law will subject bogus NY psychotherapists to a $5,000 fine and possibly malpractice suits if they continue to call themselves psychotherapists but don’t have a master’s degree and a license. State Assemblyman Steven Sanders, who sponsored the bill, proclaimed that it would solve the problem that “anybody could advertise themselves as a psychotherapy something-or-other, and you didn’t know who you were going to.” “When you’ve gone to school in the sixties [the era of good feelings, psychotherapy-wise] and they want verification, it’s very difficult,” one of the uncredentialed says. “The professors I had are dead.” “Therapists,” the New York writer points out, “could decide to skirt the law by calling themselves ‘emotional educators’ or ‘life coaches.’ But neither sounds quite as prestigious.” (As ‘therapist’?) One guy, who at $350 a session is helping non-qualifying therapists with their certification efforts, says: “For those who don’t get through on this, I’m going to work with them to set up other practices. They can be phenomenologists. That’s a term that no one’s familiar with, but it sounds impressive. In Jersey, people go, ‘Is that a therapist?’ No, no, this is much more powerful!” |