Evaluating Information on the Internet — an Informal Checklist

How do we know who to trust? What is the different between #traumainformed and trauma informed?

Like many burnt out people during the pandemic this year, I got really into bodywork, cultural somatics, ‘embodiment’, and all of the fun stuff in the zeitgeist right now because we are all very fucked up :)

Wellness Resources Are Easy to Find

I’m new to this world — I’ve read a lot of books, fallen into a lot of different Google research holes, but have no clinical or therapeutic training.

In some ways, this lack of training has not been a barrier to learning about embodiment — significant public interest in mental health, wellness, and a general societal recognition that most things about capitalism are simply not working means there is a ton of information about somatics online. There’s even more stuff out there that is “trauma informed,” or at least uses hashtags that have the word trauma in them.

But there’s a drawback to accessibility — without much knowledge, background, mentorship, or relationships in somatic spaces, I often find it hard to evaluate the the quality information I’m getting.

this hit home for me one day after staring at very long Instagram meme about trigger point therapy and trauma created by a physical therapist. In the caption, she argued at length that certifications created by psychologist s around trigger point therapy arrest the contributions of indigenous people, were based on exploitation, and were designed to regulate profit, not support people.

I agreed with her completely on all of those points — but it was hard for me to tell if the claims she was making about trigger point therapy had any basis in reality.

I sent the meme to four or five friends in therapy, cultural somatics, and physical therapy (hi Noelle). All of them found the chart interesting, the arguments compelling, and when it came to the efficacy of the science?

They had no idea.

Your Mileage May Vary, or, Life is An Experiment

Even in writing my concerns down, I have some strong reactions. For example: why am I so obsessed with the science of this person’s claims? if what she suggests works for me, or even if it doesn’t, it works for the people she’s working with, doesn’t matter truly if there is “science” about it?

And this is the part where I start to sound a little paranoid.

The Wellness Algorithm

People taking their health, mental well-being, and emotional skills outside of the realm of the DSM professionalized, insurance based 1 on 1 care is a good thing.

Most exhausted therapists burnt out on zoom sessions and billing calls will tell you that.

The more people who know about the nervous system and activation, who have meaningful actionable ways to address activation, the better.

But when wellness and trauma is on social media, it is also subject to the algorithm and the corporate rules that govern the algorithm.

Social media is a weird place — it’s designed with intensive calculation to encourage random, emotional impulse decisions on the part of the user. This isn’t to say anyone on social media is unable to make good decisions, or that we’re all mindless Matrix drones the second we login — but it is important to understand that in spite of what social media company’s PR might say, the ultimate goal of a tailored social media algorithm is to encourage the user to spend more time on social media.

This fact dramatically impacts the type of contact that everyone, not just wellness influencers, is making for these sites — and it dramatically impacts what you, a user, will see.

It’s important to think about how social media and the algorithms that control them impact how people share information about trauma, especially stuff that is designed to be actionable and accessible.

Solutions

I always feel sort of nervous whenever I talk about the algorithm — so many people are so paranoid about the ways social media can impact us, that sometimes I think we erase the fact that social media has made really critical knowledge and community more available to more people, in more actionable ways.

There are plenty of an actionable ways to address the algorithms control over what we see — frankly, you probably know all of them (social media blocking apps, scheduling tools if you use it for work, scheduling days without screens). Or you’re beating yourself up about not doing them.

So, instead of telling you to get off social media, to use your willpower to fight the 50+ psychological designers attempting to hack your brain through the newsfeed, I wanted to share an informal checklist I use to evaluate the practitioners I follow online. The best way to truly be able to evaluate what someone is saying is to be part of an active community around a topic, subject, or issue.

But you have to start somewhere: I think these questions can help kickstart your brain when it comes to evaluating what you read — not just in terms of the information, but your emotional reaction to it. I hope some of these questions give you room for reflection, not just on somatics, but how you use social media overall.

The Evaluation:

Do this practitioner encourage self exploration around the topic they make content for? Do they have reasonable and “safe” expectations or advice around that exploration?

Does this practitioner have measured explanations of why they do or do not use certain certifications/standards/tools?

Are their marketing tactics based in authenticity, even if I don’t necessarily vibe with what they do? (for example: pages and pages of citations of black and indigenous scholars around breathwork workshop, intense explanation of how chiropractors are trained and why that is different from their bodywork practice on website, long story with lots of capital letters about how being assaulted as a teenager led them to become a physical therapist and develop the practice they have today).

Is their stuff trademarked? It’s not necessarily good or bad, just worth noticing — it impacts what part of their business generates income.

What do related communities of practice think of them? (subReddits, Somatics social justice spaces, other physical therapists, people I trust that know them)

Do they make a lot of free content? Do they explain why or how it is different from their other content/services?

Are they clear about how who their products are for/how that impacts how they approach their work?

Are they aware of ways that their mode of practice fundamentally differs for people based on race, class, gender, other identity, ability, other components of oppression?

Are they engaging with or at least aware of people who have different planes of experience in their community of practice?

Are they a fucking nerd abt their social justice, which is to say, are they EXCITED by difference or afraid of it?

Are they clear about their limitations of practice in terms of identity while staying proactive (have their own analysis, not just quoting BIPOC practitioners ad nauseum)?

Do they engage with the ambiguity around their pursuit or lack of pursuit of scale/audience growth?

Do they have a single core message, in terms of their marketing, but acknowledge or discuss their current struggles, or how things have changed for them?

Reflection Points:

What do I find compelling about this person and their work?

What emotions do they bring up for me, and what about their persona, how I heard about them, their body of work, excites me?

How did I hear about this person? When did I decide to follow them, and why? Do I remember clicking the like or follow button? If so, do I remember anything about where I was at in that moment?

Is there a story this person is drawing on (implicitly or explicitly) that I am often drawn to?

How does this person want to be perceived in their community, at least based on their marketing?

How do I feel answering these questions?

I hope these questions are helpful for you, please let me know if you try any of them out, if you find them useful or not useful, and good luck out there.