CultNEWS101 Articles: 6/27/2024

[Patrick Ryan]

Psychotherapy, Life Coaching Industry, Christian Patriarchy Movement, ICSA Conference Session

PsyPost: Psychotherapy frequency more crucial than session count, study suggests

"A recent study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders has provided new insights into the most effective ways to deliver psychotherapy for adult depression. Researchers investigated how various indicators of the amount and frequency of psychotherapy sessions are related to treatment outcomes. The key findings suggest that while the number of sessions and total contact time with therapists do not significantly impact effectiveness, the frequency of sessions does.

Depression remains a significant public health challenge, being one of the leading causes of disability worldwide. Despite the proven effectiveness of psychotherapy in treating depression, the optimal amount and frequency of therapy sessions remain unclear.

Efficiently delivering psychotherapy could potentially reduce the disease burden by maximizing the effectiveness of treatment while minimizing costs. In their new study, researchers aimed to clarify how the amount and frequency of psychotherapy sessions impact treatment effectiveness, thereby informing better clinical practices and resource allocation."

Pro Publica: When Therapists Lose Their Licenses, Some Turn to the Unregulated Life Coaching Industry Instead

"A frustrated woman recently called the Utah official in charge of professional licensing, upset that his office couldn’t take action against a life coach she had seen. Mark Steinagel recalls the woman telling him: “I really think that we should be regulating life coaching. Because this person did a lot of damage to me.”

Reports about life coaches — who sell the promise of helping people achieve their personal or professional goals — come into Utah’s Division of Professional Licensing about once a month. But much of the time, Steinagel or his staff have to explain that there’s nothing they can do.

If the woman had been complaining about any of the therapist professions overseen by DOPL, Steinagel’s office might have been able to investigate and potentially order discipline, including fines.

But life coaches aren’t therapists and are mostly unregulated across the United States. They aren’t required to be trained in ethical boundaries the way therapists are, and there’s no universally accepted certification for those who work in the industry.

Simply put, anyone can call themselves a life coach — an industry that is rapidly growing. The International Coaching Federation has estimated that, in 2022, active life coaches generated more than $4.5 billion in revenue worldwide.

But with that growth have come complaints by clients about mistreatment by their life coaches and growing calls for some type of oversight.

In California, a woman sued her life coach in 2020, claiming the coach convinced her to sign over her home to the coach's nonprofit organization. She settled her lawsuit and got the title to her home back. A Connecticut life coach was given probation after he was charged last year with stealing money from a client with a traumatic brain injury. And this year, a Nevada life coach was sentenced to a year in jail after he admitted to taking money from clients that he was supposed to use for investments on their behalf — but that he spent at casinos instead.

In Utah, there’s a heightened sense of urgency after a therapist-turned-life-coach named Jodi Hildebrandt was sentenced to prison for abusing two of her business partner’s children.

One former client, who was not a part of Hildebrandt’s criminal case, also flagged concerns about how she conducted life coaching with him. Ethan Prete told The Salt Lake Tribune and ProPublica that Hildebrandt had ordered him to cut off contact with friends and family, and at one point asked him to live in a tent in order to “humble” himself. He also said Hildebrandt told him she didn’t want to be limited by the regulations therapists have to follow in Utah.

ICSA Conference Session "Stay-at-Home Daughters: The Unique Challenges of Women Raised in the Christian Patriarchy Movement" (Katherine Spearing and Cait West)

Session Abstract: Culture wars and backlash against the feminist movement in the 1990s led to the rise of an ideology called Christian patriarchy in the United States. Organizations such as Vision Forum and grassroots magazines and newsletters such as Patriarch spread this ideology, gaining followers across evangelical denominations, many of whom continue to follow this lifestyle today. This movement established men as the leaders of the church, and fathers as cult leaders of their families. Those raised as female in this movement were kept isolated and homeschooled and were often forbidden higher education, dating, and working outside the home, hence their name “stay-at-home daughters.” Instead, they were trained to propagate the ideology by becoming homemakers, told to marry and bear as many children as possible. This panel will explore the specific challenges that stay-at-home daughters face when leaving their community, from delayed developmental learning (adolescence) to learning independence in their twenties and thirties. While previous literature has focused on women in patriarchal marriages, unmarried daughters have not been studied extensively in this movement. These survivors usually require extensive support to find happiness and wholeness after growing up in a high-control environment. This includes learning to be independent, access to education, and mental health services. If accepted, we would consider adding an additional panelist, such as Sarah Stankorb, Ashley Easter, or Eve Ettinger.

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