Zoe, I appreciate your detailed feedback. As to your point about my comparing mental health to finance — I’m not sure I actually did that. Nor do I think the two are comparable. However, I was speaking about mental health as a field of study, as opposed to, say, a concept. So yes, I do believe that someone can be an expert in that field, if one actually looks at what the definition of expert actually is. It doesn’t say you know all there is to know. It says you have specialized training or knowledge.

But mental health is not nearly as nebulous or abstract as most people think it is, and that’s exactly my point about the misinformation that is out there. We can predict with almost mathematical accuracy what will happen in certain situations, what symptoms to expect, etc. Mental health is not mysticism. As a field it is based on scientific research and practical application.

While it is impossible to boil down the psyche to numbers and logic, it is not impossible to treat symptoms, address behaviors, or assist clients in the development and attainment of their goals. Humans like to think we’re a lot more complicated than we actually are. But we really aren’t.

Thank you so much for your response!