214. Too Buddhist, Not Self-Hating Enough: Counseling Whistleblower Suzannah Alexander

What this episode covers

In this episode, I sit down with Suzannah Alexander — counseling-education whistleblower, writer of the Substack Diogenes in Exile, and now organizer with the National Association of Scholars. Suzannah enrolled in a Tennessee counseling master's program after 25 years as a stay-at-home parent, only to discover that what was being taught wasn't psychology at all. It was demographics, identity politics, and what she eventually came to call a totalitarian philosophy dressed up as "multicultural competency."We unpack the moment that broke her trust in the program: when she described the Buddhist practice of the non-self — focusing less on your own identity so you can extend loving kindness toward an aggressive client — three separate professors told her, within 48 hours, that this was "invalidating to other identities." She was ultimately deemed unsafe for practicum because she hadn't sufficiently absorbed the program's values around whiteness, privilege, and cultural deference.From there, the conversation widens into the structural picture. Suzannah walks us through CACREP, the accrediting body that's been quietly building a near-monopoly on counseling education, the ACA Code of Ethics that's now baked into most state licensure boards, and the consortium of organizations that decided — without testing whether any of it produces better clinical outcomes — that critical social justice ideology would be the "professional identity" of American counseling.We talk about why this matters for patients, what it does to the people who would have been excellent therapists, how we might build alternative training pathways and apprenticeship models outside the current system, and why the problems of the 21st century — including AI psychosis — will demand the kind of pioneering, free-thinking practitioners this ideology is actively driving out.Suzannah Alexander is the External Affairs Coordinator for the National Association of Scholars. She came to this work after blowing the whistle on ideological indoctrination in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Master's program at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Since that experience, through work with FAIR, she has spearheaded OCR complaints against the counseling accreditation body CACREP and Colorado State University, where her reporting work drew attention to the Whitelash Study, documenting public humiliation of white social work students due to their race, and the disparagement of minorities as not good enough to succeed on their own. Now she is focused on policy measures to curtail accreditor and higher education overreach that are threatening free speech on campus.Substack Diogenes in Exile: https://www.diogenesinexile.comX/twitter: https://x.com/DiogenesInExileYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/@DiogenesInExileMinding The Campus: https://mindingthecampus.org/author/suzannahalexander/National Association of Scholars: https://www.nas.org[00:00:00] Start[00:04:59] What She Found In The Program[00:14:32] Steel-Manning Critical Social Justice[00:18:39] Pushed Out Before Practicum[00:24:05] The Bitter Irony Of Buddhism Rejected[00:34:37] Realizing The Problem Is Bigger[00:41:02] Counseling Futures And The Historical Roots[00:47:09] Who Gets To Be Okay?[00:56:37] What CACREP Is And Should Do[01:00:25] Microaggressions And Borderline Thinking[01:05:47] The CACREP Monopoly Explained[01:14:38] ACA Code Of Ethics And The Need For Alternatives[01:22:52] Mia Hughes Parallel And A Field Breaking Down[01:26:43] AI Psychosis And 21st-Century Problems[01:30:22] Building New Networks Outside The SystemROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month.PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCoursesPRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services.MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission. ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend!Learn more about Do No Harm.Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com.Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products.Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration.Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

PodParley-generated summary based on available episode metadata and transcript content.