Influencer Therapy Jeff Is at the Center of Controversy — Will His Apology Be Sufficient?

Content warning: This article mentions sexual abuse.

Being an influencer means having some form of parasocial relationship with your audience. While many on social media don't take that responsibility seriously, and they post whatever they want without regard to how their followers may receive it, Therapy Jeff is not that type of influencer.

Jeff Guenther, aka Therapy Jeff, is an online therapist whose content includes information such as "We Need to Talk About Privacy vs. Secrecy" and "Do You See the Good in People Because of Your Trauma?" He also answers followers' questions, chats with them online, and hosts a therapy podcast called Problem Solved. However, lately, Jeff has been labeled the "problem" as the influencer is at the center of controversy.

Therapy Jeff has found himself at the center of not one, but two controversies, which happened almost immediately one after the other. Arguably, the lesser of the two issues, the influencer was answering a follower's question, but neglected to censor the content properly.

Instead, Jeff was overly explicit and graphic in the question and answer, which the therapist acknowledged "crossed a line." In a clip in which he apologized, Jeff assured his followers, "I’m going to be more careful about which questions I hand to a big audience and which questions I take to a consult group or a colleague first."

The other controversy, which Jeff addresses in the same video, was regarding previous content he'd created. Talking about men who were worried they might sexually assault someone, Jeff wanted to provide a resource for those individuals to provide preventative measures. While his heart was most certainly in the right place, Jeff removed accountability from possible sexual assaulters by speaking about their actions as if they were outside of their control.

Simultaneously, he addressed the topic in a manner that was far from ideal. Jeff admitted, "Instead of centering survivors, I centered the internal experience of the men who might do the harming." Adding salt to the wound was the unfortunate timing of the content in question. The influencer posted it shortly after CNN ran a story about men who had drugged and sexually assaulted their wives. Jeff assured his audience, "You can expect more care, more pause before posting."

Unsurprisingly, the internet was a mixed bag of people who appreciated Jeff's robust apology and those who believed the influencer should be cancelled. An example of the former is a comment that reads, "As a survivor ... Apology accepted. Thank you for acknowledging this. We all make mistakes, and no one is perfect, therapists included."

However, posts in the latter category contained, "In a world full of misogyny, you have a duty as a male therapist to be better. I was so disappointed in your posts. ... The damage here is bad. Really bad."

Rather than wait for the public's verdict as to whether or not he should be canceled, Jeff has decided to do a self-cancellation of sorts and pause his content for an undisclosed period of time. In a clip captioned, "I’m going to take a break, " the therapist shared that posting more content feels "inauthentic and weird" at the moment. He continued, "It doesn't feel in alignment with how I want to show up in any relationship — including parasocial ones."

While many people were happy to hear that Therapy Jeff was taking a pause, as evidenced by comments such as "Definitely go figure your s--t out," others weren't so pleased. One person aptly wrote, "We need to stop expecting people to be perfect deities. We need to stop vilifying people when we are triggered by them."

Well, now people who genuinely benefited from Jeff's content will no longer be able to do so. Yes, he messed up, but he also apologized and took steps to correct his mistakes. As this commenter put it, "You’ve published a long trail of educational and good content, most importantly with good intent. ... I, personally, will be waiting for your return."