Anonymous asked this question on 4/29/2000:

I know a person who gives mental health advice to strangers.

Ordinarily that is not too much of a concern since it is often helpful to people to hear avice from any one, not just professionals.

However, this person is a member of the Scientology organization. That Church teaches in its Scriptures that humans are trapped here on this prison planet by evil aliens (see http://www.xenu.net) and that all psychiatrists and psychologists are being controlled by those evil aliens from their bases on Mars and Venus.

Is such a person considered safe giving advice to people on mental health issues?

Thank you for your time.

R_Ann gave this response on 4/29/2000:

Dear Anonymous;

Hi! I have many feelings about Scientology. I would because I am Christian and belong to a Christian church. However, I do not have a problem with someone giving mental health advise or even physical health advise simply based on their choice of religous beliefs. If that person can separate good, sound, helpful advise (you said that the advise was helpful) from their personal religous beliefs, then there should be no problem. I cannot condemn someone for their religous beliefs or personal beliefs. I feel that as long as the person is truely sincere and helpful and in no way deterimental to the mental or physical health of another, then there is no issue to be brought up.

There are many religons that believe different things. I worked in neurology and neurosurgery and saw people of different faiths come into our office and into our hospitals. Some belonged to a faith that didn't allow blood transfers and we needed to respect that. We actually did surgery on some who were sent by other neurosurgeons who would not operate on them due to this belief. We did. And we saved lives. I may not have believed that the person was correct in saying no blood, no IV fluids, and I know that the one neurosurgeon whom I worked with on these cases didn't feel good either, but it didn't mean we let them go, it meant that we did everything possible to help them and still maintain their beliefs.

I know treating someone and being treated by someone is different, but just as we respected the patient who was of a different faith, they respected us even though we didn't share the same faith.

Just my opinion.

Take care and God Bless, Rhonda R_Ann gave this follow-up answer on 4/29/2000:

I just wanted to add a couple more things to my response.

Not only am I an "expert" on this site, but I am also a patient who has been under the care of a wonderful psychiatrist and therapist since 1994. For personal reasons, I switched therapists about 18 months ago. I did so since my previous therapist was atheist. She did me a world of good but the clinic expanded to include a Christian Minister who had his degree in Clinical Counseling and also another therapist who happened to be Christian as well. I chose the second, as I had reached a point in my own life that I wanted to be able to include my faith into my healing and this was easier to do with someone who shared a common belief.

I wouldn't have made it to 18 months ago had it not been for the intensive and kindness and professionalism of my first therapist, who happened to be a Ph.D. She was my saving grace and was professional enough to allow me to expand in my healing without feeling guilty about switching therapists.

Just as she did not try to separate me from my beliefs, neither did my new therapist try to push me toward a more spiritual approach. He allowed me to pursue this and when he felt comfortable enough, he began to incorporate our shared belief into therapy.

I think that if this person you speak of is truely helpful and sincere, then there is definately a place for him as there are thousands of people who belong to the same faith as he does and need to find some common ground within that belief system.

I just had given more thought to this question and wanted to add to my response. Thanks. Rhonda The average rating for this answer is 5.

Excellent! Your answer deserves a "50" at least. :-) My concern is not one's religious beliefs: it is about a person causing harm based on religious beliefs such as evil space aliens controlling mental health professionals. Suppose that person talks a sick individual out of taking medication, and that person's depression comes back and she kills herself. Who is responsible?

http://www.xs4all.nl/~xemu/Christ2.html

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