Hi Daniel, I just watched your video about why you quit being a therapist, and it feels a bit weird, but I just spontaneously wanted to say something I felt I see there: I see anger and frustration on your face, in your being, towards "the system". I also see something very deep and beautiful in your eyes. It looks as though and old, heavy identity is dying on your face (have seen this fenomena before in spiritual gatherings), and I´m shure something light, loving and better is in the process of being born. I wish you all the best, love &light on your way. Greetings, Riikka from Finland

Dear Daniel, Please tell me how we can discuss further "hiring" you We are not currently in the states Thanks JM ELIE MD

Hello there, I very much like your honesty and courage. No masks just you being YOU. People either like that or they are afraid of someone who is able to be unmasked and comfortable. That shows real strength of character.. Me? I like you a lot and would love to have a coffee with you one afternoon. I've just watched your video on "Why I Quit Being a Therapist" I did also for very similar reasons. A lovely lady (a sectioned patient) in a secure locked hospital) said to me, on my first day at work; "Don't be afraid of us Honey but be afraid of them (the Doctors and Psychiatrists!) She was absolutely right !

Hi Daniel... I am writing in response to a youtube you did on why you discontinued working as a Therapist. I left the mental health world here in my City, point for point, about 10 years ago. I was trained , interned, received my post-grad ed from a wealthy county on the east coast and then moved to the city whre I live currently....sometimes I worked around the system to do real counseling/therapy with positive results while constantly battling insurance/case management. this must be a systemic problem throughout the U.S. and was simply trained in an exception-to-the-rule system where I was trained to take take a whole person approach to treatment and diagnosis. I left mental health to work in the allopathic medical system which morphed into an interest in natural medicine due to the same broken approach to physical health. I love your blog profile...we are like thinkers... blessings, peace, and all the best, Eli

Hello Daniel, I am blown away having inadvertently found the explanation for why you stopped being a therapist. I too am an LCSW but stopped practicing in 2013 when I turned 65. Ii am so with you in your observations straight across the board. I feel you spoke for me, Daniel - I am and was so aligned with you. I can't write it all out but it would be awesome if we could talk. I am a New Yorker but have lived in VA for a long time now. (My hubby rescued me from NY and all my triggers there and brought me here. My background is in graphic arts and I was a photographer for 25+ years before returning for a masters. I got my MSW in my early 50's and trauma was/is my area: wounded healer stuff. I am just now finishing an essay (long in coming) on therapeutic writing in jail based on my experience with non-violent drug offenders -often with co-morbidities- over a period of years. I have no website; I'm an anonymous nobody but having finished a memoir not to long ago, I feel liberated from the s***storm of my life in the FOO. It's taken a lifetime (of living and therapy) to gain my distance- my chosen modalities are ISTDP, Trauma-focused CBT and Somatic Experiencing (I'm and SEP). I use them on my own body-mind and as a lens through which to find understanding of the people who cross my path on a day to day. It would be nice to hear from you but I suspect you are very busy doing the good work you do and I truly commend you for what you've done so far. i will listen to your music, etc and follow your blog. With best regards, Cassie (Arnold) Alexandria, Virginia

Hi. I discovered you on youtube from childhood trauma. I did watch your films and i am happy that your films are making a difference in the world as far as people knowing their are different alternatives to taking anti anxiety and anti depressants. I have seen first hand people who have no resolved childhood tramuas how it affects their confidence how they arent in healthy relationships. I did agree with you some therapists not able to help their patients because they are too deattached to help their patients or are simply not have the empathy to help them. I look forward to more of your videos on youtube.com

HI Daniel, Withdrawing from the system brings up the question what one is looking for instead. Many spiritual groups were on my way when I was on such point 30 years ago. All these groups had something good. But my \"dilemma\" was, that I couldn\'t belong to all at the same time and neither to one exclusively. I was looking for what brought them all together. One day when the pain got to me I asked God to give me a sign. I did. Right in that moment my phone rang with a woman being on the other end of the line who held the answer. She introduced me to revolutionary knowledge. We all feel in one way or another that the world as we have come to know it is declining. While we are separating and dividing more and more - either within our selves, in marriages, between generations, nations etc. and feel the pain that is coming with this - we, at the same time, are filled with the longing to come together in a new way. For this unity to come about we will need a new road map. We need new knowledge, or, to say it with Einstein\'s words: We can\'t fix a problem with the same mindset that created them (problems). After my withdrawal from society 30 years ago I searched intensely. Many spiritual groups were on my way which I liked all. Whether Buddhism, Hinduism, Mystical groups, etc.... each of them had something good to offer. My dilemma was I couldn\'t belong to all at the same time and neither to one exclusively. I was looking for something that brought them all together. I asked God to give me a sign. which I could read as a sign. I was really on the edge at that time. And right in that moment my phone rang with a woman being on the other end of the line introducing me to The Head Wing Philosophy and the Divine Principle. This knowledge is of revolutionary nature given to mankind in this particular period in history for us to master the challenges upon us. Humanity as a whole is ask to outgrow its comfort zones. With more and more war zones emerging, with nations declining and people feel increasingly pushed to the edge, it is our challenge now as the only alternative to what doesn\'t satisfy us any longer, to go beyond anything we have know so far and create a world which has never been before. It will come about through us changing as individuals, as families, generations, societies and nations. Will it be easy to take on such work? No it won\'t. It is pioneer work. To be precise, it is very difficult. It feels as having to climb a mountain we didn\'t know existed as the only choice to get out of our misery. In case you are intersted, there are organisations which in a step by step way build on this knowledge for a better world to emerge: WFWPU Women\'s Federation for World Peace and Unification UPF Universal Peace Federation/Interfaith Dialogue FFWPU Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. Best wishes, Insa

Your a breath of fresh air to a women who has been in the Mental Health System beast for 25 yrs. Currently social worker at the VA. Nice to hear someone who can think for himself. I want to leave the va because I just can work in such a confused, bob down system. Thanks

Hi Daniel, I show your film, Healing Homes, in a mental health class that I teach. When I showed it, the students asked for \"evidence\" that it works, and what happens long term to the people who receive this services. I also show the video on Open Dialogue in another class and a lot of research is cited in that video, and I include articles on that approach in their reading list. Can you point me to any \"evidence-base\" for the Healing Homes approach? What\'s the research?

Dear Daniel, I just saw your video \" If I Had Kids How Would I Want to Raise Them? -- 36 Ideas from a Former Therapist\" Sounds wonderful. Have you ever heard about Waldorf education. My son was in a Waldorf School. I think it would meet your ideas and expectaions. They are all over the world. Here is a video about a school in Nairobi. One of so many. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upmMD4JnCus Love your honesty! Lots of love to you. Insa Rose

Hi Daniel. I\'ve bee a fan of yours for a few years now. I stumbled upon your YouTube videos a few years ago and spent a very fair amount of time listening and absorbing. I can honestly say that you have made me think and have challenged me to ask myself some hard questions. For that I thank you and can report that you have provided me with a great deal of support and validation. Thank You!!! For the most part, I agree with much of what you say, almost all of it. Even much of the stuff I don\'t fully agree with, like the stuff about having kids, I probably agree with somewhat but to a much lesser degree than you. I am a married man with four kids, I am also an Orthodox Jew and my Judaism, which reflects the Torah, which is understood by Orthodox Jews to represent the revealed will of G-d in this world, explicitly demands that one do all that one can to have and raise children. I think you make some very valid points about people having and raising children, but I am unable to reconcile your point of view with that of the Almighty\'s, whom I, for one, believe created the world and all that is in it and continues to recreate it and influence everything that happens in the world day to day, moment to moment. Who am I, and for that matter, and please forgive me for being presumptuous, who are you to contradict G-d who is perfect in all ways? If he prescribes the pursuit of having and raising children to be an absolute good, how can I (and for that matter, how can you) with our very limited, finite, and small minds (in relationship to The Almighty\'s \"mind,\" if you can actually say such a thing) think that we know better? I just can\'t get on that bandwagon, even though you make some very salient and valid observations! Although I could absolutely discuss this subject in greater detail, such as how to then incorporate the mandate to have children and remain a therapist, this is not the point of my correspondence here today with you. My intent here today is to connect with you, introduce myself, perhaps even begin a dialogue with you. Mostly, I wanted to communicate my support to you and admiration for who you seem to be. And really, to just say thank you!! I am about your age, I received my LCSW in 2012, but I have been an MSW since 2007. I agree with so much of what you say about being a therapist and just wanted you to know that I am listening closely and appreciate your perspective. I share, as I said, just about all of it. As an Orthodox Jew, I suspect that politically, and socially, we likely diverge on many of our perspectives. I tend to favor a more conservative approach. Which is fine, I can tolerate and consider another\'s perspective. But it is interesting how much of your perspective on trauma, parenting, mental health, and relationships I feel that I agree with you on. So please keep at it! Your efforts are much appreciated. Oh yeah, thought I\'d mention this to you. I find it threatening to refer my clients to your videos although I often have the impulse to do so. I guess I fear that my clients will then have more of an edge on me and will more easily be able to see through me and through the veneer that I apply to my relationship with them (which is only the result of my own insecurities and years of trauma). But I think I am going to start to do it. I am going to start to send them in your direction and que sera sera. It will be good for me. All the best!! Loren Ecker Queens, NY PS-My website really stinks! I know it. I\'ve put about zero effort into it. With all of my work and responsibilities I just haven\'t put in the effort it requires to be any good. So if you check it out, please don\'t judge me by it. Thanks again!

Oh yes Daniel you get the criticism from those who are like your parents and from those who wish to break free but can\'t. You make yourself very vulnerable. I would like you to know I was a teacher and the children gave me their trust. That was what mattered most to me. But now I am a mother and I find myself feeling guilty towards my child. It is hard for me as a parent to find out that all what I have learned in my life was not enough. I still make mistakes and my child shows me. I am truly sad about myself then and disappointed. I believe this is what every generation has to go through. Less or more. Much love to you Daniel, Insa Rose

To your Dec. 27th 2017 video... You are doing the right thing in a world that it totally off. You are fighting the right battle. But fighting it alone that is what creates the anxiety. I am with you Daniel. It is important to create a support system. Much love to you Daniel. Insa Rose

Hello, I found your website and think you are essentially living your life in a good way. The type of things you do--making music about the most important issues, writing frankly and clearly about what concerns you, taking action once you\'ve identified an inner problem (not being afraid)--are some of the deepest desires I hold. Currently I am a college student growing more disillusioned by the day. I yearn to be free. To challenge myself. To throw my kite to the wind and finally embark into the ocean. My parents were not abusive and my childhood was very happy... But I still mirror them. It was not difficult emotionally to become who I am today. I have been blessed with advantages and I desperately want to break from my fear, the traps that will keep me in inadequacy like my parents. My life is following their exact pattern and I face a crucial moment where I break free and become myself or fail and become a copy. There is a deep well of curiosity and acceptance within me. I want to learn about everything. I want to learn from everything. I want to experience music and art and movies and make them as well. I want to meet people: good people, terrible people, weak people, strong people, those who are all that and more in one. I am studying for finals at top-ranking college in the US. My major is worthless. I have such a fortunate position and yet I think what I am doing is almost worthless... Here is something I wrote today~ All I want is a good job. All that I should want is a good job. All that matters is having a good job. Everything may be sacrificed to achieve the ultimate goal, which is of course having a good job. Lying, cheating, stealing, deceiving, hurting others, foregoing happiness, and moral failure are acceptable means to the end of a good job. We should lie, cheat, steal, deceive, hurt others, forego happiness, and fail morally in the uncertain pursuit of a good job. Hope should be chiefly in the aim of a goo djob. THE moral system is a good job. I have read about 2 essays, 2 blog posts, and watched 1 video of yours about hitchhiking. Yet I already understand you well enough to know that you will react to that piece the way I want people to react. Read, let it hit you, accept what it is. Accept. Thank you. I hope I break my fear. Declan