Connect With A Therapist Who Understands Being Secular
One in four adults, approximately 61.5 million Americans, qualifies for a mental health diagnosis in a given year. In order to overcome these problems, large number of people seek out mental health treatment from psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, and other therapists. In conjunction with this growth in need for effective mental health providers has been an increase in the number people who classify themselves as atheist, agnostic, or simply non-religious. Unfortunately, many secular people report that they cannot find a secular counselor who uses evidence-based treatment in their community. They seek out a local therapist, attend a few sessions, and are sometimes met with recommendations from their healthcare provider to pray, attend church, or participate in faith-based activities as part of their therapy plan. This is unethical and unacceptable, but happens all to frequently. However, we can help.
Our Network of Secular Therapists
There are many secular therapists available to help people who prefer an evidence-based approach, but finding them on your own might be difficult. Some therapists are even concerned about openly advertising as being secular for fear of losing clients and facing other negative social and professional consequences. Our Secular Therapy Project Director and his team of volunteers carefully screen each therapist who has applied to be a part of our network to ensure that the therapists in our database are a) professionally qualified, b) secular in nature, and c) using evidence-based practice. That is how we can be certain our recommendations are solid and you will receive the quality of care you deserve.
Dedicated secular mental health clinicians review each application submitted by every mental health care provider who wishes to be listed in our database. Our experts evaluate each application based on three separate criteria:
- Appropriate licensing in their state and/or country
- Maintaining a secular practice
- Exclusive use of evidence-based treatments
Once an applicant has been proven compliant to these criteria, they are added to our extensive database of health care providers so that people seeking help through out platform can find them.
What is Evidence-Based Treatment?
Evidence-based treatment is a set of methods that have undergone rigorous clinical trials and been found to be effective at treating particular types of mental health issues, from cognitive-behavioral therapy for numerous disorders to applied behavioral analysis for autism spectrum disorder to interpersonal therapy for depression. A significant number of mental health clinicians have not been trained to use evidence-based treatments or even actively reject the notion that psychotherapy can be scientifically-informed and evidence-based. That means their clients are not receiving gold-standard treatments for many problems. By requiring health care providers in our network to use evidence-based treatment, we are making sure that everyone we refer to these providers receive the best in treatment.