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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2056 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 11, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Does anyone have any advice around relationships counselors in Western countries? Particularly regarding 'counselors' (eg did a counseling course with accreditation) vs actual trained psychologists. I'm looking at seeing one individually, but unsurprisingly there aren't any male counselors available so I'm trying my luck with a female one. I'm concerned that a woman won't be able to properly empathise with a male point of view, and might balk at certain 'how the sausage gets made' conversations.

This isn't for anything critical, just relationship advice regarding my specific situation (with details I wouldn't share here, even incognito).

I am dating a zoomer who thinks “Everyone should go to therapy regularly even if there are no specific problems, it’s just a health checkup for the brain!”. This means, apparently, both singles therapy and couples therapy. We have just the one female counsellor who serves all three roles (her individual sessions, my individual sessions, and the couples sessions). Which I’m sure must be a conflict of interest, but whatever, I go to indulge my adorable basket case of a zoomette, not to be the professional ethics police.

Sample size N=1, but I have absolutely found, as you suspected, that she is completely unable to empathise with the male perspective on anything.

Turns out Scientology was prescient! You have to periodically exorcise the Thetans to maintain the Clear status.

(The prescience being about having someone in a position of authority poke around your psyche occasionally being both happily accepted and conducive to keeping the population compliant. Of course, you could argue that the Catholics got there first with confession, but it was the Scientologists who gave it a "scientific" coat of paint and the idea that it is for your health rather than otherworldly obligations.)

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