ThrivingCampus Is Directing Students to Politicized Mental-Health Care

An online portal connecting college students with mental-health professionals promises access to “over 25,000 licensed and vetted therapists and prescribers.” Sadly, the vetting in question has not resulted in an ideology-free user experience or eliminated woke providers.

According to its webpage, ThrivingCampus.com partners with universities to help students navigate a “daunting” mental-health landscape. As such, the organization “walk[s] [students] through the process” of seeking care, not only explaining “the ins and outs of therapy” but helping clients “choos[e] a provider” in the first place.

Some of these services are useful, especially for those individuals who have never previously sought assistance with their mental health. For example, a ThrivingCampus “Student Guide” explains to potential care-seekers the broad differences between therapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists. It tells students what to expect when they first speak to a clinician and even advises them on how to leave a voicemail for a mental-health professional.

The organization’s problems, however, are evident the moment one glances at its search filters. Students in need of therapy may sort healthcare professionals according to such apolitical criteria as “Setting” (in-person or online), “Specialties” (e.g., anxiety), or “Insurances.” But they may also produce a list based on “Genders,” “Community Expertise,” or “Race & Ethnicity,” options in which progressive ideological assumptions are deeply embedded.

For instance, a drop-down menu under the “Genders” filter produces a whopping 13 choices: not only the often-seen “Transgender” and “Non-binary” but such boutique possibilities as “Femme” and “Masc.”

Using the “Community Expertise” menu, prospective patients may find providers who specialize in treating “Activists,” a category of uncertain clinical validity to say the least.

Most troubling is the “Race & Ethnicity” menu, the existence of which is presumably based on the debunked “racial-concordance” theory — the disproven idea that patients do better when their doctors share their racial or ethnic heritage. Never mind that some therapists on ThrivingCampus list nearly a dozen races in their profile. The point appears to be giving therapy-seekers an opportunity to choose their providers according to the color of their skin.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, an organization with these ideological priors offers plenty of woke healthcare professionals from which to choose. To wit, clicking the aforementioned “Activists” box (for a variety of zip codes) produces the following results:

• Shirin Zarqa-Lederman, aka the “Diaspora Psychologist,” a New Jersey counselor who “support[s] marginalized individuals and communities by creating safe, culturally sensitive spaces where they can process identity conflicts, racial trauma, and the emotional toll of witnessing global injustices in real time”;
• Erin VanVoorhies, a Portland, Ore., psychologist who “practice[s] from a feminist and anti-oppressive perspective and strive[s] to create a culturally responsive, affirming space where all aspects of your identity and experience are welcomed”;
• Sasha Mieko Vasilou, a Chicago pre-licensed professional who “support[s] clients navigating family-of-origin concerns [and] racial, historical, and intergenerational trauma”;
• Mojdeh Mansoori, a San Francisco therapist who “connect[s] with clients who have been historically oppressed” and works with patients to “begin the process of examining systemic issues, advocating for social change and healing ancestral & intergenerational trauma”;
• Brianna Halasa, a Cleveland “psychotherapist, yoga teacher, perpetual student, [and] community organizer” who “always add[s] a multicultural and anti-oppressive lens” to her therapeutic techniques.

And we could go on and on.

These self-descriptions are buzzwordy virtue signaling. Indeed, we worry that “activists” seeking mental-health treatment will be so “affirmed” by these and similar providers that few of their problems will be solved.

Yet our graver concern is for the politically naïve college student who stumbles upon ThrivingCampus.com and takes its promise of “vetted” care seriously.

That young person had better tread very carefully.