Degrees of Separation

“WERE YOU OFFENDED BY ANYTHING I said today?” My client's hand rested on the doorknob as they posed this casually asked question on their way out the door.

“No, of course not,” I eagerly reassured her.

I made a mental and literal note to address this inquiry with her next week, but this second session would turn out to be our last. I had a decent idea about the question's origins, and the answer left me feeling familiarly uneasy. I learned early on as a therapist that we are all walking Rorschach tests, contending with the projections clients place on us. My particular inkblot, however, appears especially messy.

Of the complex anxieties that can hound therapists, apprehension about displaying diplomas on the office wall is probably an uncommon one. But with both of my degrees hailing from Brigham Young University (the flagship school of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; i.e., “LDS” or “Mormon”), this anxiety is quite tenacious. Even with contemporary psychoanalysis acknowledging the inevitability and even usefulness of the therapist's subjectivity in the room, this type of subjectivity on display feels unwieldy.

Growing up in Maryland and now living and working in the DC metro area, I am attuned to the associations people can have with the Utah-based faith. When people hear “Mormon,” some think of a hit Broadway musical, Utah pioneers, proselytizing missionaries, or gosh-darn friendly, if not weird, people. The conservative practices of church members might also be familiar, including abstinence from alcohol and coffee, no premarital sex, and modest dress and language. Though sharing similarities with other conservative faiths, key doctrinal differences make this American-grown, restorationist religion distinct from many other denominations. Throw in more divisive issues—including a polygamist past, rigid patriarchy, and opposition toward gay marriage—and it's easy to imagine the variety of projections clients might have.

Born and raised as a member of