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Brené Brown says that nearly half of people in the self-help space are “sheer grifters.” She tried to separate herself from the category when she realized people online were editing her own advice into provocative, misleading clips.
“I always tried to be very, very careful when I was in that space,” she told The New York Times in an interview earlier this fall. “There was a moment when I made a very specific, tactical ‘get the hell out of Dodge’ decision to not be anywhere near that space.”
Brown split self-helpers into three different categories.
“I think there are a lot of well-meaning, well-intentioned, well-trained people in that space,” she said of 30 percent, and she labeled another 30 percent “underqualified,” although “often benign.”
And then there are those who she says are purposefully deceitful.
“I think there are 40 percent sheer grifters,” she says. “Everything they say is predatory advice-giving.”
Lauren Larkin, a licensed mental health counselor and content creator who is familiar with the self-help world, was more careful when describing the group who offers that kind of advice online.
“I do think there are a lot of people out there who are perhaps trying to sell or make really punchy, really ‘self-helpy’ content that provides or offers some sort of quick fix when there really isn’t one,” she said in an interview with CNBC, but she warned against generalizing. “These blanket statements are exactly what gets people in trouble online in the first place.”
Still, Larkin agrees that you can’t trust everything someone says. Solutions to human issues are often more complicated than watching a video online.
She recommends that people analyze the nugget of advice at hand and bring it up to a therapist to determine how it may apply to their personal situations.
“Take every single thing that you consume, including my content, with a grain of salt,” she says.
Brown said she’s felt that the media has misunderstood her intentions on multiple occasions. One cover story in Texas Monthly that profiled her called her “America’s therapist.” She said she’s always been clear that she isn’t a mental health practitioner.
“I respect that work,” she says. “I have a therapist. I’m not a therapist. And I don’t want to be your therapist, or anybody’s therapist. And so I’ve just drawn a very hard line around where I think I can make a contribution and where I can’t. That’s it.”
Now, in an effort to shift away from that space, she said she’s more interested in macro topics like leadership.
“I don’t see myself the way the world sees me,” she said.
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Ava Levinson
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