Jan 7, 2026
In this episode I had a powerful conversation with Dr. Andrew Hartz, a clinical psychologist and founder of the Open Therapy Institute. We explored how politics, values, and therapy are increasingly showing up together in the therapy room and why that matters for both clients and clinicians.
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Key takeaways:
- Therapist bias is a real and growing concern. Many clients feel alienated due to perceived political or ideological leanings of their therapists, often unintentionally communicated through things like pronoun usage or assumptions about worldview.
- Most therapists lean left politically, which can lead to clients self-censoring, feeling misunderstood, or avoiding therapy altogether.
- The Open Therapy Institute (OTI) was created to support therapists who want to offer politically neutral, values-attuned therapy and serve populations that feel underserved, especially those with conservative or centrist views.
- Therapists can grow their practice by learning to work effectively with clients from across the political spectrum. There is high demand and low supply of therapists trained to do this well.
- We discussed the importance of dialectical thinking. This means helping clients (and ourselves) hold multiple perspectives and tolerate ambiguity, especially around politics, religion, and identity.
If you're a therapist who wants to grow in this area or reach more clients who feel left out by traditional therapy, check out Open Therapy Institute, https://opentherapyinstitute.org.
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