The American Psychological Association had a “pretty disingenuous” response to a federal panel’s Jew-hatred concerns, but there are opportunities for progress via better training, according to Dean McKay, a psychology professor at Fordham University.
The APA, which says that it has more than 190,000 members, stated Oct. 2 that testimony about Jew-hatred did not justify suspending its authority to accredit psychology programs and warned that a suspension could cost programs federal funding.
“They’ve been hearing about this for quite a while,” McKay told JNS.
He and Miri Bar-Halpern, a psychology lecturer at Harvard Medical School, testified at a September hearing before the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, which advises the U.S. Department of Education on accreditation, among other topics.
McKay said the witnesses, represented by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, sought reforms but did not ask the committee to recommend a suspension.
On Sept. 24, the committee recommended suspending the APA commission on accreditation's federal recognition for a year. The commission remains federally recognized while the department considers the recommendation.
In an Oct. 2 letter, Arthur Evans Jr. and Wendi Williams, the association's CEO and president, respectively, said public commenters had identified two of the commission’s more than 1,300 accredited programs as problems and that the commission was already investigating the complaints before the hearing.
“The dramatic rise of antisemitism in all corners of our society requires serious, targeted and sustained action to stem its spread and to support Jewish communities,” the two wrote.
McKay’s and Bar-Halpern’s research on Jew-hatred in the psychology field focuses on “decolonial therapy,” an approach that examines how historical oppression affects mental health and which encourages activism as part of treatment.
That approach can assume patients share the political views of their therapists, and some practitioners treat attachment to Israel as a psychological problem, McKay said.
In a recent paper in the Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism, McKay, Bar-Halpern and colleagues refer to the “blind spot” of decolonial therapy.
“Mental health treatment must be client-centered and evidence-based, not driven by political agendas. Therapy should validate Jewish trauma, not erase it,” they write. “This would require a significant re‑orientation in the mental health professions that have fused a political ideology, without corresponding political knowledge, to become more inclusive of Jews.”
They add in the article that Jewish clinicians must be protected from bias.
“Anti‑discrimination policies that explicitly mention Jewish identity and Zionist perspectives will reduce burnout and help retain diverse mental health providers,” they write.
'Traumatic invalidation'
Bar-Halpern testified at the hearing about a Jewish student who sought counseling for anxiety about Jew-hatred that was disrupting sleep and concentration. The counselor pivoted to Palestinian oppression and suggested better time management, she told JNS.
Bar-Halpern calls the dismissal of Jewish suffering “traumatic invalidation.”
A study she co-authored, published Sept. 19, surveyed 733 Jewish American adults. More frequent invalidation was associated with more severe post-traumatic stress symptoms and poorer mental health, and participants also reported stronger connections to Jewish identity and community, her research suggested.
McKay and Bar-Halpern are working to improve training for future therapists. An Academic Engagement Network grant supports their effort to teach faculty in doctoral clinical psychology programs how to address Jew-hatred.
McKay said there has been progress at the APA. Its flagship journal, American Psychologist, published a commentary he wrote with Elysa Koppelman White and Beth Rom-Rymer which challenges anti-Zionist assumptions in decolonial scholarship.
Bar-Halpern told JNS that Jewish patients might unknowingly find themselves sitting across from a therapist who will take the approach that Zionism is something of which to be ashamed, that it is associated with white supremacy, fascism and settler colonization and that healing requires abandoning Israel and Jewish beliefs.
“It can add more trauma. It can create shame,” she told JNS.
She advises new patients, before hiring a therapist, to “ask the questions to make sure that your whole identity is being accepted.”
“I had a client who told me that their therapist told them to cancel appointments and go protest with them,” she said.
“If you’re a Jewish client and you’re having grief, and you’re trying to find a therapist, and then your therapist is telling you, ‘Well, what did you expect? Did you see what’s happening in Gaza?’ This is traumatic invalidation,” Bar-Halpern said.
“Not only are you not getting care for what you came for,” she told JNS. “You’re also being told you should feel ashamed.”
Bar-Halpern has developed her own approach, the “shalem” method, which gives patients and clinicians tools to rebuild a sense of safety and belonging. She has provided training in the United States and Canada and is set to release a companion book in November.
“People need to be aware, and institutions need to repair,” she told JNS. “Clinicians are engaging in activism. It’s not about therapy anymore.”