Propaganda I’m Not Falling For as a Therapist Colorado Springs
When you’ve been in the mental health field long enough, you start to notice that certain “truths” about therapy get repeated so often that people take them at face value, even when they don’t actually hold up in practice.
Some of these ideas are outdated. Others were never based in good science or an understanding of the nervous system in the first place. And some of them are rooted in systems that benefit from keeping us disconnected from ourselves and from one another.
As a licensed trauma therapist who specializes in somatic approaches, I’ve seen firsthand how these myths can harm people. They can keep clients from getting the kind of care they actually need, and keep therapists stuck in approaches that aren’t truly supportive.
Here’s the propaganda I’m not falling for anymore.
1. “Therapists should be a blank slate.”
The idea is that therapists should remain emotionally neutral and unresponsive, never laughing, smiling, or making a normal human comment during a session.
Here’s the problem: our nervous systems are wired for connection. When someone sits across from you stone-faced and silent in moments where a warm smile or reaction would be normal in human conversation, your body notices. And not in a good way.
Therapy should feel safe, not like talking to a robot. For many trauma survivors, silence in the face of emotion doesn’t feel “professional” — it feels like rejection. It can activate old wounds from childhood when someone needed warmth and instead got nothing.
We heal in connection, not in sterile observation. That doesn’t mean therapy becomes about the therapist, it just means the therapist gets to be human. A little responsiveness can go a long way toward regulating a nervous system that’s been living in hypervigilance. And let’s be real, none of us want to talk to a wall, we want to connect with real people.
2. “Mental and physical health are separate.”
This belief is one of the most harmful and most outdated ideas still floating around.
Our bodies and minds aren’t separate systems. They are deeply, intimately connected. Your nervous system is one network that spans your entire body. Emotional stress can create physical symptoms. Physical injuries or illnesses can create emotional distress.
We know about the mind–gut connection, how stress can affect digestion, and how gut health can influence mood. But it goes further. Chronic pain can make anxiety worse. Inflammation can affect depression. And nervous system dysregulation from trauma can keep the body in a state of tension that worsens physical symptoms.
Healing requires us to address both. You can’t just treat the mind and ignore the body, or vice versa, and expect lasting results.
3. “The onus of mental health is on individuals rather than systems.”
This one is insidious. It suggests that if you’re struggling with anxiety, depression, or burnout, it’s all about your mindset, your habits, or your ability to “work harder” on yourself.
The truth is, our nervous systems are deeply impacted by systemic issues like racism, sexism, capitalism, war, climate disasters, poverty, and more. These aren’t “background factors”, they are central to understanding why someone might be struggling.
A nervous system under constant threat, whether from interpersonal trauma or systemic injustice, will adapt in ways that can look like mental health symptoms. This isn’t personal weakness. It’s survival.
When we ignore these larger forces, we gaslight people into thinking their suffering is only about their personal choices, when in fact their body is responding to real, ongoing threats.
4. “The cheaper the therapy, the better.”
I understand why this one exists — therapy is expensive, and accessibility matters. Sometimes the right option for someone is a lower-cost therapist or community clinic, and there’s no shame in that.
But there’s a harmful assumption here: that cost and quality are unrelated. In reality, the better supported a therapist is financially, emotionally, and energetically, the better care they can give you.
You can feel the difference between a therapist seeing 25 to 30 clients a week versus one seeing 12 to 15. The former might be stretched thin, rushing from session to session, and running on fumes. The latter has space to breathe, think, and truly be present.
Cheaper doesn’t automatically mean better for you. Sometimes paying more means you’re working with someone who has the capacity to be deeply invested in your care.
5. “You have to tell your trauma stories to heal.”
Not necessarily. This is one of the biggest misconceptions about trauma therapy.
Yes, sometimes telling the story is important, especially if part of the wound is that you were silenced or disbelieved. Being witnessed can be profoundly healing.
But trauma isn’t stored in the thinking brain. It’s stored in the body, in your nervous system and implicit memory. That means you can work through trauma without ever telling the story in detail.
In fact, for some people, repeated storytelling can be retraumatizing. True processing happens when you can sit with the sensations and emotions in your body without being overwhelmed, not when you bulldoze through the story for the sake of “getting it out.”
Venting and processing are not the same thing. Processing requires mindfulness, awareness, and the ability to stay present with what arises.
6. “Putting diagnoses on a pedestal.”
I don’t put the DSM (the manual of mental health diagnoses) on a pedestal.
It pathologizes a lot of normal human responses to unsafe environments. Instead of looking at someone’s symptoms as evidence of “faulty” functioning, I see them as evidence of adaptation.
If you’ve grown up in a chaotic or unsafe environment, whether in your family, your community, or the larger world, your body and mind adapted to help you survive. That’s not a disorder. That’s resilience.
Diagnoses can be useful for insurance or for finding the right support, but they’re not the full truth. And they’re definitely not the whole story.
7. “Everyone is a good fit for me.”
Not true. I’m not the right therapist for everyone, and that’s a good thing.
I’m not a spacious, silent, “let’s just see where this goes” kind of therapist. I’m directive, honest, and playful. I will help you feel your feelings (…like really feel them), even if it’s uncomfortable. I will point out patterns like people-pleasing when they get in the way of your healing. And I will move the session forward when I see you getting stuck.
If you’re looking for someone who will let you chit-chat for the full session without redirecting, I’m probably not your person.
I specialize in somatic approaches for adults with trauma and chronic pain. I don’t see everyone, and I believe that’s a strength. You can’t specialize in everything. When someone claims they do, it can be a red flag.
8. “Healing is linear” or looks like all rainbows and sunshine
Healing has ups and downs. The “downs” aren’t failures, they’re an important part of the process.
When you’re breaking old patterns and learning new ones, discomfort is inevitable. Your nervous system is adjusting to a new normal. There will be moments when it feels worse before it feels better.
That’s not a sign you’re doing it wrong. It’s simply a part of the process.
Who I Am and How I Work
I’m Martha Carter, a licensed trauma therapist providing virtual services to adults in Colorado. I’m trained in somatic, neurobiology-based modalities that help people with trauma and chronic pain heal from the inside out.
My approach is relational, nervous-system-aware, and direct. I’m not a blank slate. I’m a human who will laugh with you, hold space for you, and also challenge you when needed. I see therapy as a partnership in which I don’t run the show, but I guide when necessary.
Why I Offer Immersive Sessions
Sometimes 50 minutes isn’t enough. When you’re in the middle of processing something big, watching the clock can create more anxiety.
That’s why I offer immersive sessions, which are extended therapy sessions that give us the space to go deeper without rushing. Immersives are especially powerful for trauma and chronic pain work because they allow your nervous system to fully settle into safety before we start working and give us time to integrate before ending.
In traditional therapy, you might spend 15 minutes getting grounded, 20 minutes doing the actual work, and then 15 minutes trying to wrap up and stabilize before you leave. In an immersive session, we have the luxury of staying with the work longer, following it through to a natural point of rest.
This means you can process more in one sitting, which often reduces the total time needed in therapy to find relief. It also means we can work on patterns that need more time, like people-pleasing, dissociation, or chronic pain cycles, without stopping just as we’re making progress.
If you’ve ever left therapy feeling like you “just got started,” an immersive session can change the game.
The Bottom Line
Therapy shouldn’t be about fitting yourself into outdated models or working with a therapist who treats you like a case file. It should be about connection, safety, and approaches that actually work for your nervous system.
That means letting go of the myths that therapists should be blank slates, that mind and body are separate, that cheaper is automatically better, that everyone needs to tell their trauma story, that diagnoses define you, or that every therapist is for everyone.
If you’re in Colorado and ready for deep, nervous-system-focused work with a therapist who’s present, direct, and ready to help you shift patterns for good, I’d love to work with you. Especially if you’re craving more space than a traditional 50-minute hour can give you, my immersive sessions are designed to help you make real, lasting progress.
About the Author: Somatic Therapist Colorado Springs
Martha Carter is a licensed therapist providing virtual services in Colorado. She is trauma-informed and trained in somatic, neurobiology-based modalities to help people with all types of trauma, chronic pain, and eating disorders heal from the inside out.
(Colorado residents only)
