Disclaimer: The purpose of this Blog
“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do bad things, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” – Albert Einstein
This blog expresses my (Monica Pignotti) opinions and analysis based upon evidence and facts, as I understand them. See my other blog, Monica Pignotti: The Truth for rebuttals to the internet smear and disinformation campaign about me initiated by people who are obviously upset by my evaluation of certain mental health practices. Go here to read a Statement of Support from social work, psychology and other mental health professionals.
The intent and purpose of this blog is to provide the readers with information and points of view that they might not otherwise be provided with by proponents of the therapies I am discussing who may sincerely believe they are helping people. It is not the purpose of this blog to give any specific advice on specific professionals and it is not the purpose of this blog to dissuade anyone from seeing any particular professional or to recommend any particular professional and my positive or negative views ought not to be interpreted in that manner. My purpose is to provide the reader with accurate information so that the reader can make more informed choices, should they or anyone in their family need help from a mental health professional, but the choices are yours and yours alone to make. The opinions I express on this blog are solely my own and ought not to be interpreted as advice. I would urge people to consult a wide variety of sources of information before consulting any mental health professional. The decision you make is yours and yours alone.
Please note that contrary to misinformation that has been posted about me where I am falsely accused of being a “paid shill”, I am not paid, nor have I ever been paid for any positive reviews I give with regard to any mental health professional on this or any other blog or internet forum, or anywhere else and such positive reviews are not intended to be specific recommendations for any specific reader. I have no business relationship whatsoever with any mental health professional and I provide information, simply as an expression of my constitutional rights to express my opinions and as a public service.
Straw man argument alert!
To correct misinformation about me that is on the internet, nothing that I do or write about here had any basis whatsoever in Scientology. I am a very strong critic of Scientology, a group I left and completely repudiated over 35 years ago, 20 years before I ever became a mental health professional in 1996. Scientology has nothing whatsoever to do with the work and writing I presently do. One person whose intervention I expressed concerns over used the straw man argument that I use Scientology as the basis for my credentials. Obviously I do not. Scientology was a mistake I made as a teenager and after spending only two and a half years of my adult life in it, have long since repudiated. It has nothing whatsoever to do with my professional credentials. My credentials include an MSW, a PhD from a Research One university and extensive training, publications and experience in evaluating mental health interventions. This makes me very well qualified to critique certain therapies for lack of evidence to support them and raise questions about them.
And in response to the argument I have to have internationally adopted children with serious behavior problems to critique interventions aimed at this population, no, I do not have to have raised an adopted child to know it is not a good idea for parents to use prone restraint on their children at home, any more than I would have to have a sleep problem to know that it is not a good idea to ingest the surgical anesthetic propofol at home and if an MD told me it was okay, I would challenge that, just as I challenge the use of prone restraint on a child at home, even if self proclaimed experts chastise me for challenging them.
Additionally, nothing in this blog is intended to be legal advice in any way, shape or form. I am simply expressing my opinions on certain cases. As a human being, I make no claims of being infallible. If any reader believes that I have made any factually incorrect statements, I welcome feedback and correction, as long as adequate evidence is provided.
If you were to give advice to me or my children, or even children to come in our family, what would it be?
First of all, as I stated in this posting, it is not the purpose of this blog to give specific advice to anyone about any particular situation, so I cannot give any specific advice to you about your children. That is not my role here. I can only give general recommendations suggestions and express my opinions and whatever I say in my blog is just that. People can read what I write and decide for themselves if what I say makes sense. Margaret Singer has an excellent list of questions she suggests people ask when hiring a therapist (see her book, Crazy Therapies). Do not assume that just because a therapist is licensed, that they will necessarily make the best choices because that is not always the case. I would highly recommend anyone seeing a therapist ask that person what evidence exists to support the interventions they are offering, and if all they can offer you is positive testimonials from clients rather than actual studies, that is not a therapist I would want to recommend to anyone in my own family. A therapist should be able to tell a client what all of your treatment options are, even for treatments they do not provide and the evidence that exists for those options. I may do a post on this in the future, as there is more to say on this topic than I can put into a comment.