Should You Talk Politics in Therapy?

If politics are currently ruining your mental health, trust us, you’re not alone. It’s hard to even sum it all up as just “politics” when what that actually encompasses is: the recent election, its devastating outcome, the possibility of losing basic human rights, the fear of democracy crumbling, and the overriding feeling of helplessness about all of it.

Now’s the time to lean on all the coping mechanisms you have: self-care, support groups, friends and family, and of course, therapy. But if talking to your loved ones comes with some trepidation when you don’t know which way they voted (or when you do), the same could be said about your therapist — to an even greater degree. After all, it’s normal to talk politics with the people closest to you, but therapy comes with stricter boundaries than friendship.

Because, ass open (or shall we say emboldened) as some people now feel about sharing political opinions once considered extremist, it still feels like there’s a taboo on bringing up politics in an environment like therapy. After all, your therapist isn’t, strictly speaking, your friend — as much as you might have cultivated a friendly, open environment with them. But if politics and Donald Trump’s re-ascension to the presidency are weighing on your mental health, you might need to talk about it, awkwardness be damned. So… can you talk politics with your therapist? And how?

Politics are on the table in therapy

SheKnows spoke to three experts who unanimously agreed that yes, you can absolutely talk about politics in therapy if they’re affecting your mental health. “Therapy must always be a safe space,” psychologist Dr. Alfiee Breland-Noble, founder of The AAKOMA Project and Project Healthy Minds advisor, tells SheKnows. “Patients come to therapy to speak about their lived experiences and to process their feelings and there should never be unreasonable limitations on what they can share in treatment.”

According to Dr. Andrew Kami, a licensed clinical psychologist and faculty member at Pacific Oaks College, discussing politics in therapy can actually “lead to valuable self-discovery and a deeper understanding of yourself.” As much as you might feel like it’s just venting, there’s a lot to be learned about your own values, triggers, and boundaries from your response to and feelings about this election, and therapy is a great place to tackle those lessons.

And, at the end of the day, “the time you spend in therapy is for you and about you,” therapist Beth Brown, director of health and wellbeing at ComPsych, tells SheKnows. “If politics is a key driver of disruption for your mental and emotional well-being, a therapy session is the ideal place to process those thoughts.”

And it’s totally understandable that you need that outlet right now. As Dr. Breland-Noble points out, therapy is a place where many of us process big feelings, “and there are a lot of big feelings about the racism, sexism, homophobia and toxic masculinity that was displayed by the male candidate in this presidential election cycle,” she says. “A large swath of the language used on the international stage by the candidate (and surrogates) was extremely hurtful.”

How to talk about politics in therapy

All that said, it might not be the easiest thing to bring up politics with your therapist if you haven’t done it before. Dr. Kami has a few specific recommendations for starting that conversation, including using “I” statements “to anchor your feelings in light of others and events,” he says. (Something like, “I have noticed that my stress and feelings of worry have increased since the election and I’d like to explore this in therapy.”)

It might also be worth noting that while you’re working towards certain goals in therapy, “this emergent issue is something you’d like to speak about,” Dr. Kami says. That framing can help to clarify boundaries and ensure that the conversation aligns with what you’re hoping to get out of therapy. Depending on what that goal is, “you may want to be specific about what you’d like to gain, such as stress relief, improved coping skills or an understanding of your values, to keep the focus on your growth.”

And if you’re feeling nerves around bringing it up — or even just feel awkward about it — being honest about that can help too. Try just acknowledging that “what you’re about to say feels uncomfortable and you’re not necessarily sure where to start,” says Brown. “Phrasing it this way lets [your therapist] know you’re struggling, and they then have the option to meet you with empathy and understanding.”

What if it’s still weird?

If talking about politics — or any topic, really — still feels weird to do with your therapist, it may be time to seek care elsewhere, if that option is available. “A culturally responsive provider must by definition create a safe therapeutic space for all patients,” Dr. Breland-Noble says. “If a patient does not feel safe enough to broach the subject of politics in therapy, then the provider may not have done a thorough job of creating that safe space, and no patient should be in an unsafe clinical space.”

It’s also worth noting that, for many people, this feeling may not be new. “Patients with marginalized identities have always entered clinical encounters worried about what they can and cannot bring up in treatment for fear of bias, lack of understanding or dismissal/minimization,” Dr. Breland-Noble points out. Realizing that gives us the opportunity to gain empathy from this experience — the election, broadly, but also just the struggle of not knowing whether therapy is the place to discuss your feelings about it. “I hope we will allow that to give us some insights into the lived experiences of people around us with marginalized identities,” she says.

At the end of the day Brown says, it’s about remembering that “your time in therapy is about you.” Even if your emotions are complicated, you should feel comfortable and safe talking about them. And while your therapist has their own biases like any other human, “the goal is always to practice complete acceptance of a client,” Brown emphasizes. “Your therapist may care about politics and have their own views, but when you enter into a session with a therapist, they are there to care about you.”

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