Dr. Jameca CooperForensic Psychology Consultant, Emergence Psychological Services · Board Certified Counseling Psychologist and Forensic Psychology Consultant

Therapy isn’t supposed to feel cold #mentalhealth #therapytruths #healingjourney #psychology

4 Apr 2026 · 1 min

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In this segment, Dr. Jameca Cooper highlights a problematic aspect of many doctoral psychology training programs: the instruction that therapists should minimize emotional expression during sessions. She argues that such emotional flatness is unrealistic, can feel inauthentic, and often fails to respect cultural norms and the diverse needs of clients. Cooper emphasizes that therapists should adapt their delivery and demeanor to match the demographic and individual preferences of each client, ensuring authenticity and cultural relevance in therapeutic interactions.

Chapters

What? What? Wait, huh? Girl, huh? This is actually very accurate. They actually train psychologists in doctoral training programs to not show much emotion in therapy. And what we know now is that's damn near impossible, and it's also not culturally relevant and appropriate for everyone that you work with in therapy. You have to make sure that your delivery, your demeanor, are both appropriate for the demographic of people that you see and also each specific person. So while that was taught and maybe is taught in still a lot of training programs, it's not always the best way to act when you're in the room with a person who would see you as inauthentic if you didn't show any emotion.