Please note: the following contains descriptions of sexual abuse that may be distressing for trauma survivors. Also, as Muzacz appears to be a trans-identified male, I will use male pronouns. Arien K. Muzacz, PhD, is a clinical assistant professor of mental health counseling at Oregon State University. On Linkedin, Muzacz states that he works with “transgender, bisexual, HIV-positive and older clients, and those who are involved in BDSM, kinky, or polyamorous relationships.” In June 2021, Muzacz published a paper titled
Thanks for the warning. I found this incredibly hard to read; to take in and even harder to process. Simply to know, to accept that it's come to this. Apart from anything else, we lose all rights, moral authority - call it what you will - to decry FGM for example. Even coercive rape, within a narrative as spun above, could be rebooted as 'therapy'.
Genevieve, thank you very much for so clearly highlighting this obvious manipulation of a vulnerable young woman by a person with their own agenda and clearly unsuited to a position of power within mental health. Your research and description are thorough, well presented and eye opening! Much appreciated. 🙏
Everything about the gender religion screams misogyny and homophobia. This is yet another illustration of it. As Genevieve says, this is ACTUAL conversion therapy of ACTUAL vulnerable people, and it all reads like some hideous experiment.
Thanks for the link Jeri. And again thank you Genevieve. It's astonishing what some professions and those in some fields get up to. There is no greater shield to get yourself into a profession, and have the professional standing, the CV, the colleagues, the clubs, the uniform if you're lucky enough, the institutions, colleges, the trade bodies behind you. The culture. But, but, but he's a doctor! We trust them! He’s a good chap! He's just like me! And the profession we hand analysis of this over to? Psychiatry. And they're 'proper' doctors, so they hold sway over the Psychologists. Then this is filtered by the criminal justice system. There are always controlling, venal and nasty people hopping onto processes and pathways that already have power imbalances and vulnerable people. Positions of authority attract those who like wielding power and unless the rest of the organisation and culture puts a brake on that, what happens?
We used to have some notifications of those who had had their professional qualifications, certifications, status or membership of some bodies rescinded. It was buried at the bottom of some pages and was remarkably hush hush. But somehow everyone knew but it was never spoken about outside of a select few. There were a few every year. Ahem, so and so isn’t a member any longer. Oh why? Well their hard drive was checked and found wanting. After complaints that were dismissed for two decades is always chilling. Or, they're now allegedly serving a term at Her Majesty's pleasure.
Many of these professions are very close-knit and we think we know what the rumours are. But sometimes there's nothing and no clue. It takes an awful lot, and a lot of evidence to stop some people, and there is always the necessary supposed balance of not affecting the rest of the profession that means things inevitably get squashed. We need to get our own houses in order.
We need more mental health professionals willing and able to speak up. I know it's the UK not the US but the NHS isn't so good at supporting the freedom to speak up and is still grappling with what this means.
Does this guy not have a supervisor and a job description that stipulates ethical practice, duty of care etc., or is he counselling's equivalent of Dr.Nick from the Simpsons?
"Hey Arien, did you go to the Hollywood Upstairs Medical College too?"
Interesting. Interesting that this entire movement just happens to focus all of its energy on the single most vulnerable, most open to grooming and manipulation, most desperate for help and guidance- demographic. Women; young women; young women questioning their sexuality; young questioning women with a history of family trauma; young questioning sexual assault survivors from broken homes.
This is a charter for violent psychopathic sexual predators.
It depresses me that this psychopath has PhD after his name, almost as much as the fact that they published this garbage.
This reads like some bad erotic fanfic masquerading as an academic case study. I truly hope this is just fantasy and that Z is not a real person, but knowing how pervasive the attempts to normalise "kink" are, I can believe all too easily that this was one of Muzacz's real clients. How is this seen as appropriate care? An article like this should trigger an investigation by the appropriate regulatory body (if there is one, I know in many jurisdictions just about anyone can set him/herself up as a counsellor with minimal qualifications, as distinct from psychologists psychiatrists and social workers who need tertiary degrees and professional training).
I struggle to see how this is much different from a therapist who sexually abuses a patient. Since Z was at uni, she could have been as young as late teens or very early 20s. This reads like a predator using a purported academic journal to brag about his abuse or publicise his fantasies.
Many are allowed into sectors and professions with some flaky qualifications and even first or further degrees that are fairly meaningless for the role they end up doing. Jump enough hoops and you're away. Lack of staff and those employing new staff not having the best qualifications themselves or through agencies means you employ who you can. There are a lot of subsidiary, support and associate roles now, in particular in mental health and social services, and the less sexy parts of health care. You can call yourself, or be employed as an 'assistant' or a 'worker' and these may not have the particular protected characteristics (!) that some like 'doctor' or 'nurse' do.
And many 'Associations' or 'Colleges' are just trade bodies, they are not regulators or have fuzzy roles and no one outside, the public or patients, could be reasonably expected to know what the professional qualifications or continuing professional development are or should be. They get their funding through membership fees. Then we devolve regulatory roles to them or expect professions to self-regulate. Then some wiseguys think we need to cut red tape. And this happens. It's made difficult to complain, or you get colleagues using the threat of dobbing you in to your professional body. You get little vexatious groups in some hospitals, with a few consultants acting as a law unto themselves. Or are they? Are they genuine whistleblowers?
Oregon State University? And assistant profs in the US aren't the same as elsewhere and it's easier to become one. And people can sell whatever they like on LinkedIn, chuck in a few papers and pad it out and bingo. Who can determine who is an expert in Gender Ideology Fairydust? It's a made up field. Good luck with sorting all that.
That bloke who inveigled his way into rape crisis centres in Edinburgh and is now CEO comes to mind. Nowhere have I seen any evidence that he has any qualifications in social work or psychology. The fact he lied his way into a position reserved for a woman is bad in itself, but to compound the danger, he plainly has NFI what he's doing. And he's been positively celebrated when he spouts incoherent nonsense about sexual assault, its effects on victims and treatment and support, because of the magic "trans" shield. It's dangerous.
Good spot, fits doesn't it. And got that role and qualified, experienced, skilled women didn't. Apparently no migrant or refugee women were qualified enough. Can't think why. The whole thing stinks. Apparently the CEO's 'lived experience' counts more. To lie so egregiously to get advancement. The gall of that CEO opining on women's responses to rape and our need to be re-educated as we're bigots is breathtaking. That CEO's excuses are legion and appear to satisfy whoever is running Scotland these days. Self-ID is apparently law in Scotland. Who knew! And who knows what the hell it means!
Trans shield is a perfect expression. Let us all genuflect at the knee of The Most Vulnerable of The Highest Order of The Most Vulnerable. It has been decreed. By someone somewhere.
Did you see “You’re Kidding, Right?” Do a piece on a podcast he did, in which he spoke about his call centre job in India? It really exposed him for what he is.
The fact that this sick cult is so emboldened that they even want to make this stuff public and boast about it 🤬 On the plus side, this overreach is what hopefully will peak more and more people 🤞
Thanks for the warning. I found this incredibly hard to read; to take in and even harder to process. Simply to know, to accept that it's come to this. Apart from anything else, we lose all rights, moral authority - call it what you will - to decry FGM for example. Even coercive rape, within a narrative as spun above, could be rebooted as 'therapy'.
Genevieve, thank you very much for so clearly highlighting this obvious manipulation of a vulnerable young woman by a person with their own agenda and clearly unsuited to a position of power within mental health. Your research and description are thorough, well presented and eye opening! Much appreciated. 🙏
Everything about the gender religion screams misogyny and homophobia. This is yet another illustration of it. As Genevieve says, this is ACTUAL conversion therapy of ACTUAL vulnerable people, and it all reads like some hideous experiment.
The reference to the scientific article about historical experimentation in this context was fascinating: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-021-02232-0
Thanks for the link Jeri. And again thank you Genevieve. It's astonishing what some professions and those in some fields get up to. There is no greater shield to get yourself into a profession, and have the professional standing, the CV, the colleagues, the clubs, the uniform if you're lucky enough, the institutions, colleges, the trade bodies behind you. The culture. But, but, but he's a doctor! We trust them! He’s a good chap! He's just like me! And the profession we hand analysis of this over to? Psychiatry. And they're 'proper' doctors, so they hold sway over the Psychologists. Then this is filtered by the criminal justice system. There are always controlling, venal and nasty people hopping onto processes and pathways that already have power imbalances and vulnerable people. Positions of authority attract those who like wielding power and unless the rest of the organisation and culture puts a brake on that, what happens?
We used to have some notifications of those who had had their professional qualifications, certifications, status or membership of some bodies rescinded. It was buried at the bottom of some pages and was remarkably hush hush. But somehow everyone knew but it was never spoken about outside of a select few. There were a few every year. Ahem, so and so isn’t a member any longer. Oh why? Well their hard drive was checked and found wanting. After complaints that were dismissed for two decades is always chilling. Or, they're now allegedly serving a term at Her Majesty's pleasure.
Many of these professions are very close-knit and we think we know what the rumours are. But sometimes there's nothing and no clue. It takes an awful lot, and a lot of evidence to stop some people, and there is always the necessary supposed balance of not affecting the rest of the profession that means things inevitably get squashed. We need to get our own houses in order.
We need more mental health professionals willing and able to speak up. I know it's the UK not the US but the NHS isn't so good at supporting the freedom to speak up and is still grappling with what this means.
Does this guy not have a supervisor and a job description that stipulates ethical practice, duty of care etc., or is he counselling's equivalent of Dr.Nick from the Simpsons?
"Hey Arien, did you go to the Hollywood Upstairs Medical College too?"
Awful, awful people.
They are so broken and must be some of the most easiest people to manipulate :(
Interesting. Interesting that this entire movement just happens to focus all of its energy on the single most vulnerable, most open to grooming and manipulation, most desperate for help and guidance- demographic. Women; young women; young women questioning their sexuality; young questioning women with a history of family trauma; young questioning sexual assault survivors from broken homes.
This is a charter for violent psychopathic sexual predators.
It depresses me that this psychopath has PhD after his name, almost as much as the fact that they published this garbage.
Thank you Genevieve, although it’s so hard to read this kind of stuff and not have miserable nihilistic thoughts about everything being hopeless 😔
This reads like some bad erotic fanfic masquerading as an academic case study. I truly hope this is just fantasy and that Z is not a real person, but knowing how pervasive the attempts to normalise "kink" are, I can believe all too easily that this was one of Muzacz's real clients. How is this seen as appropriate care? An article like this should trigger an investigation by the appropriate regulatory body (if there is one, I know in many jurisdictions just about anyone can set him/herself up as a counsellor with minimal qualifications, as distinct from psychologists psychiatrists and social workers who need tertiary degrees and professional training).
I struggle to see how this is much different from a therapist who sexually abuses a patient. Since Z was at uni, she could have been as young as late teens or very early 20s. This reads like a predator using a purported academic journal to brag about his abuse or publicise his fantasies.
Many are allowed into sectors and professions with some flaky qualifications and even first or further degrees that are fairly meaningless for the role they end up doing. Jump enough hoops and you're away. Lack of staff and those employing new staff not having the best qualifications themselves or through agencies means you employ who you can. There are a lot of subsidiary, support and associate roles now, in particular in mental health and social services, and the less sexy parts of health care. You can call yourself, or be employed as an 'assistant' or a 'worker' and these may not have the particular protected characteristics (!) that some like 'doctor' or 'nurse' do.
And many 'Associations' or 'Colleges' are just trade bodies, they are not regulators or have fuzzy roles and no one outside, the public or patients, could be reasonably expected to know what the professional qualifications or continuing professional development are or should be. They get their funding through membership fees. Then we devolve regulatory roles to them or expect professions to self-regulate. Then some wiseguys think we need to cut red tape. And this happens. It's made difficult to complain, or you get colleagues using the threat of dobbing you in to your professional body. You get little vexatious groups in some hospitals, with a few consultants acting as a law unto themselves. Or are they? Are they genuine whistleblowers?
Oregon State University? And assistant profs in the US aren't the same as elsewhere and it's easier to become one. And people can sell whatever they like on LinkedIn, chuck in a few papers and pad it out and bingo. Who can determine who is an expert in Gender Ideology Fairydust? It's a made up field. Good luck with sorting all that.
That bloke who inveigled his way into rape crisis centres in Edinburgh and is now CEO comes to mind. Nowhere have I seen any evidence that he has any qualifications in social work or psychology. The fact he lied his way into a position reserved for a woman is bad in itself, but to compound the danger, he plainly has NFI what he's doing. And he's been positively celebrated when he spouts incoherent nonsense about sexual assault, its effects on victims and treatment and support, because of the magic "trans" shield. It's dangerous.
Good spot, fits doesn't it. And got that role and qualified, experienced, skilled women didn't. Apparently no migrant or refugee women were qualified enough. Can't think why. The whole thing stinks. Apparently the CEO's 'lived experience' counts more. To lie so egregiously to get advancement. The gall of that CEO opining on women's responses to rape and our need to be re-educated as we're bigots is breathtaking. That CEO's excuses are legion and appear to satisfy whoever is running Scotland these days. Self-ID is apparently law in Scotland. Who knew! And who knows what the hell it means!
Trans shield is a perfect expression. Let us all genuflect at the knee of The Most Vulnerable of The Highest Order of The Most Vulnerable. It has been decreed. By someone somewhere.
Did you see “You’re Kidding, Right?” Do a piece on a podcast he did, in which he spoke about his call centre job in India? It really exposed him for what he is.
Muszacz sounds like, and has the eerie look of, something out of Dante's seventh circle of hell.
If I beat my partner with a baseball bat, leave marks and then feel bad about it, i’m simply kink shaming myself?
I think in this case, Z was the receiver of the violence?
Beam me up, Scottie....I'm like Brian May, albeit without his millions, struggling to live comfortably in this broken world now.....
The fact that this sick cult is so emboldened that they even want to make this stuff public and boast about it 🤬 On the plus side, this overreach is what hopefully will peak more and more people 🤞
Oregon State University, eh? Your tax dollars at work.
Chilling.
Utterly nonsensical. Everybody concerned needs serious help.