Understanding TEAL SWAN | PSYCHOLOGIST REACTS -'the Deep End' | E.1 (TRIGGER WARNING)

WATCH THIS IF YOU ARE A FOLLOWER OR SOMEONE INTERESTED IN FOLLOWING TEAL SWAN

This is an open-minded reaction to "Into the Deep End" E.1 and Teal Swan's work.

#thedeepend #tealswan

If you are interested, check out my New Channel at:
It is a different format - focused more on psychological concepts, my professional life, and coaching/consulting

____
SOCIAL

____
LEGAL
This video is not affiliated in any way with my employer or colleagues/coworkers. The opinions expressed herein are mine alone and do not represent the opinions of my employer.

[melissaj]

I had never heard of her until I saw an ad for the documentary series, and having watched the first two episodes, I’m where you’re at. She’s not in any way qualified beyond her own personal experience. I chuckled when you said “grief sherpa” because Teal does have commonalities with Rachel Hollis as far as “I’ve been through this thing so now I am the expert and you all must listen to me.” It is alarming to me how devoted her inner circle is to her, and how controlling she is of them. It isn’t healthy, at the very least. At the worst, it’s potentially very dangerous.

[trconsulting]

European psychologist here. I went to one of her workshops quite a few years ago, as I was curious about the entire Teal Swan phenomenon. I certainly would have described the mood in that theater as cult-like. Quite horrific to watch her force people into "insights" that fit into her spiritual framing while in front of an audience that hangs on her every word. It was abusive, humiliating and likely gave rise to some obsessive worrying about the consequences of "manifesting the wrong thing", although I don't think that was what the people present intended. I think Teal has some intuitive awareness of the mechanisms of mental health- perhaps through personal experience and the odd psychology course- but she’s ultimately unqualified and moronically convinced of the reality of her spiritual gifts. While that’s plenty to be concerned about already, you also have her mental health adding to the situation. I share your opinion that she’s suffering with some cluster B personality disorder. She cannot maintain relationships unless they are entirely one-sided. She is unable to set aside her own ego in order to prioritize the needs or perspectives of someone else. Whenever there is a clash between her perspective and someone else’s, she becomes volatile. As a result, rather than putting clients’ wellbeing and healing process at the forefront, she makes everything about her. Not sure this is her intention, as she preaches something quite different in her videos, but it certainly is the reality. I don’t think she is attempting to con people. I think she fully believes what she says and is unable to notice the symptoms of her PD and how they affect others. Watching this footage makes me worry even more about the people that follow her. It also makes me question the state of the mental healthcare system, as it’s clearly not meeting the needs of many people. Otherwise, I doubt they would be as driven to go follow someone like Teal Swan.

[kathleen]

A mentor would keep her accountable. She is accountable to no one.

[elizabethgulley]

I was horrified by the way she treated Blake! She was so threatened by his partner that she could not see straight. She proceeded to put that girl through an inquest- and invited her more sycophantic underlings- and literally told her- You are my enemy, you interfere with my process, etc. it was obvious at the wedding of Blake, that Teal can get married 5 times, but Blake better stay a loyal lapdog. She wants yes men who tell her how great she is. She also almost drowned the girl who she couldn’t fix. The girl who kept coming at her telling her her platitudes don’t work for her. This woman terrified me and I would be afraid of the trauma she would inflict on those already very traumatized. I want nothing to do with her or her videos ever again. Scary!

[discoveringthei]

Teal Swan suffered severe depression when she was a child, she went to a therapist that was responsible for the Satanic Panic in the 1980's, and had repressed memory therapy. During that time she "remembered" being kidnapped by a satanic cult, her parents doing nothing, and her being raped constantly, before she eventually escaped. Police have been able to find no evidence of such events and her parents say such events never happened. Teal Swan doesn't talk to her parents because they won't admit what happened to her and thus she doesn't believe they love her. After this therapy, at 18 or 19 years old, she left home and moved in with her friend Blake.

I believe, if we dig into her story more, largely what I've read of her process and what she was doing with others in Costa Rica (the frog venom therapy). She likely explored self-help and psychology, possibly some form of psychedelic treatment with Ayahuasca or 5-Meo-DMT, if not both. This likely really helped with her depression. She started sharing her ideas with Blake. Blake had a camera and he told her that she should start posting videos to Youtube. If you watch her early videos, you can see her evolution to become more and more confident in speaking. Also, you can see her ideas changing, largely in flow with the level of egoism she's feeling at the moment. So at some points she's an Alien, sent here to help people transform, and with all the insight in the world. In other moments, she's a spiritual teacher, here to help. The belief that she's helping is key, as it forgives any and all negative consequences for her actions, and it forgives any selfishness, as everything she's doing is helping people, thus to get it further out there will help more people.

What concerns me most about this, is that she is using these repressed memory releasing techniques on her clients, and they are walking away believing they've been raped by their parents, or other things. She is recreating whatever trauma and pain she has in the people around her. This is dangerous.

[laurenhowell]

Just finished the series. I can’t find a better word than flabbergasted. The narcissism just pours out of her.

[Noelle]

As a therapist it’s so dangerous to see an unhealed trauma survivor trying to heal other survivors of trauma. Asking those hard questions need to be asked by a trained therapist not on a stage by someone who is benefiting from that revelation. This is much more about Teal trying to regain the control she lost when she was victimized as a child than it is about her followers.

[UniversoSpiritualUnido]

She curses a lot too. The way she would laugh in the YouTube videos when discussing suicide or depression send chills up my spine.

[gratefulviolet]

I love how you mention she doesn’t appear to organically want to help others. That becomes so clear as you watch through The Deep End. She wants fame

[boniw]

I had watched her maybe 10 times or less a few years back and never watched her again. She’s a narcissist. It comes across so plain in this documentary. Maybe because I’m old and I’ve read so many books and now we watch YouTube. She does not allow you to continue your growth without her wisdom. Excuse me. You Teal are human like the rest of us. She’s hurt herself by cutting off her growth. Glad I was never fooled by her.

[marinatonkonogy]

This is the first intelligent, objective critique of Teal Swan I have heard so far. Everyone else is just trying to polarize the topic into deciding whether she is "good" or "bad". That doesn't do anyone any service. It just keeps people stuck in their rigid positions. Those who worship her continue to worship her even more, those who have been hurt by her and hate her hate her even more. But there has been no real understanding of her phenomena, and what makes people go to her events and join her community. It's not just because vulnerable people get easily exploited. It's because she, actually, fills some void that nobody else seems to manage to fill, she serves some big collective need no one else seems to serve. The fact that someone like her has such huge influence on so many people is a sign that our mental health industry is failing them, and that's the real conversation we should all be having.

[ps]

The reason you feel like she has narcissistic tendencies is because she is for sure a grandiose narcissist. There’s no way she’s not. She’s very dangerous because she’s so hypnotic and also who she’s drawing are the very types of people that narcissist prey on.

[michalamoodie]

I can see how that could further traumatise someone who is already traumatised having someone else screaming about their own traumatic experience right in their face.

[ivegotthingstodo]

I've never met her, but the teal swan videos on YouTube have changed my life forever. I will always be grateful for them.

[Angelala]

I used to watch her YouTube videos years ago. I was once a one income household and I couldn’t afford therapy unfortunately so she was my therapy. I am thankful that she could help me through my early trauma recovery. However, I am now going back to school for social work and going for my LAC. After watching this documentary I was floored to see how she now conducts herself. I really am curious to see if you dive deeper into her older videos in your opinion of those. Because they did help me in the past. But now watching her recent materials makes me wonder if all of the fame got to her ego in someway?

[Terilynnwilkins]

I think the worse part of watching her was that she reminded me of myself decades ago. Possessing the confidence of someone wise but someone who has barely scratched the surface of her own healing. Able to regurgitate words of wisdom from others, incredibly convincingly but without real emotional intelligence and understanding. She is emotionally still a teenager in the “I know it all” phase. But because she is an adult, attractive, and so utterly convinced of her own “specialness” (out of necessity to find the meaning from her own trauma) she has been persuasive enough to create a following. Boy. What a mess. 🤦‍♀️

[JTT]

The documentary isn't really a great source to make a judgement on her though. It can be heavily edited for drama and entertainment purposes. Maybe a commentary on a direct video of hers would be a better source

[deesisfaith]

"In today’s episode we interview Diana Hansen Ribera, who was one of Teal’s closest childhood and adolescent friends. In her interview, Diana provides thorough detail to challenge Teal’s false claims of being a victim of satanic ritual abuse and sex trafficking as a child, and explains how Teal developed her coercion skills and harmful techniques with Diana — that Teal would eventually employ on a broader scale."

[eviewilde]

An excellent analysis of Teal Swan. Thank you. I haven't seen that doco about her yet, but just seeing her on YouTube, I immediately had red flags come up. Personally, I've pegged her as BPD + NPD + Histrionic. As a retired advocate and counsellor for trauma survivors and cult victims, I have found that most cult leaders seem to have that particular 3-fold expression of Cluster B traits. They are usually magnetic, charismatic, super self confident narcissists who are consummate confabulators and grifters, pathological liars and manipulators who can bluff their way through any situation and talk their way out of any challenge to their supremacy. Given her kind of 'pro' stance on suicide, I feel if she and her co-conspirators get pushed into a corner far enough to where they feel 'hopelessly persecuted by the evil world', they could well become another cult that mass suicides. We need to stay alert to this possibility in the future.

[nensi]

You can think of her whatever you like but considering how many followers she has proves her insights are helping people. I am happy someone is connecting spirituality with psychology.