Who Is Michelle Rabin, Ph.D.?

I think it would be helpful to my readers to really know who is the author of this substack that they’ve subscribed to or simply visited because they liked a comment I made on another site perhaps. I certainly don’t expect my readers to share my beliefs but I think it’s important for you to be aware of my personal experiences and have an understanding of the values I hold dear, which serves as the lens through which I view the world.

I am a wife, a mother, an adopted grandmother, a feminist, a former clinical psychologist and have been an old school liberal Democrat my whole life, although those who have been readers here understand that I’m challenging many of my long held political beliefs.

I come from an upper middle class background where art was revered above all else. Although my father served during WWII, my parents were never really involved in or interested in politics. My only recollection from his years in the military was his long standing refusal to purchase a German car, which he dropped in his later years.

I met my husband in junior high, or should I say middle school, and we’ve been together since then. We left the east coast 19 years ago and made the move to the pacific northwest where we believed we’d find more like minded people. My husband is also a clinical herbalist so we’ve been involved in the “alternative health” community for decades. We also wanted to live closer to nature and there’s nothing like the pacific northwest for its outstanding natural beauty. The image that is at the top of this post is the view from my home. It is the first thing I see each morning when I open my eyes. It inspires me each and every day and helps me to feel connected to nature. I believe we all are a part of nature and therefore are all connected to one another.

My first job as a psychologist was at a community mental health center which was attached to a community hospital. I was hired as an emergency clinician whose job it was to deal with any psychiatric emergencies that occurred in any department of the hospital or clinic. One of my first cases was to evaluate a prisoner from the local jail who was accused of raping and killing a 7 year old girl. The question was, should he be placed on suicide watch? I decided to speak with the sheriff first to get some information that might prove to be useful as I was pretty green as a psychologist and hoped he might have some information that would be helpful for me. I was told, by the sheriff, that he had been in his job for over 25 years and had never seen the brutality and obscenity of what he observed at the scene.

I remember seeing a handcuffed, skinny, scruffy man being escorted by a police officer to my office door. He assured me that he would be right outside my door and that if I needed him, he’d be there immediately to help me. We did have an alarm switch under our desk, much like those provided to bank tellers in the event of a robbery, which I could use in case of any aggressive behavior. I took a deep breath and suggested the prisoner take a seat. I started a standard interview but quickly learned that this man wasn’t going to cooperate. All he wanted to talk about was his description of the events of his crime. He spoke with glee about the horrific things he did to that little girl, remembering each unspeakable act, culminating in strangling her. I have to admit being horrified by what I was hearing. As a human being, my first instinct was to say that he wasn’t suicidal and hope that he was able to end his own tragic life. On an emotional level, I considered him to be subhuman to have perpetrated these horrors on a child. I actually found it difficult to remain in the same room that he occupied. I did discover, however, that he was indeed afraid of how he would be treated once he was proven guilty of these horrific crimes against a child. Apparently even hardened criminals don’t approve of child rapists or killers.

Ultimately I did the right thing, or should I say the professional thing. I concluded that there was in fact a risk of suicide. After he left my office, I actually had to leave my office and go outside for a while. I didn’t want to return to the space I had temporarily shared with this man.

After completing the requirements for my license, I left the clinic and co-founded a private practice with my husband, who is also a psychologist.

I believe my prior substack posts paint an accurate picture of my values and beliefs but in an attempt to provide full transparency, here’s what I do believe in, which is NOT in order of importance. I have numbered them for your convenience as I’d like to ask those you are interested, to note in the comments which ones they agree with along with those that they don’t. My goal would be to tally up all those comments to get a sense of what my engaged readers believe and report those conclusions back to everyone in my next post.

1) I believe we are ALL Americans first. Until we can make decisions as Americans vs a member of a political party, we all lose.

2) I believe in a women’s right to choose.

3)I believe in the existential reality of climate change. 97% of the world’s climate scientists believe that the planet is in crisis. Some believe it might actually be too late to prevent ever increasing natural disasters that we’ve been struggling to deal with over recent years.

4)I believe everyone has a right or actually an obligation to vote in general elections, without measures that increase voter suppression. Here in Oregon, where I’ve lived for the past 19 years, we can only vote my mail. There has never been any suggestion or indication of voter fraud in this form of voting in the numerous states that have required mail-in ballots only. I must confess however to missing the excitement of going to the polls on election day and stepping into the curtained booth to cast my vote but if it insures that more people will actually vote, then I’m all for it.

5)I believe voter suppression is a poison to our very democracy. I am shocked and dismayed at the renewed efforts at making voting more difficult around the country. Removing drop boxes, reducing or limiting voting hours, dropping people from voter logs, preventing automatic voter registration or mail in ballots for any reason... how can anyone honestly believe that is anything other than voter suppression.

6)I believe we must provide a leg up for those who have been on the wrong end of long standing discrimination.

7)I believe healthcare is a right as an American citizen, not a privilege. This belief is shared by the majority of first world countries.

Although I’m a non-practicing Jew, I believe in the Judeo-Christian values of the 10 Commandments. I believe these values are shared by Muslims and many other spiritual traditions.

8)I believe everyone should have the right to select the religious/spiritual beliefs, or non-belief, that speaks to them, so I support religious freedom.

9)I believe Black Lives Matter. I believe it’s especially important to identify this group specifically as they have been prevented from enjoying the full rights that all Americans enjoy and have come to expect.

10)I believe we have much to learn from nature.

11)I believe our public health agencies have been captured by the pharmaceutical industry.

12)I believe our research institutions at universities and hospitals around the country have been captured by the pharmaceutical industry.

13)I believe our left leaning legacy media has failed to do its job of investigative journalism regarding the Pandemic. I had previously relied on them to keep a watchful eye on our government.

14)I believe the vilification and criminalization of physicians who seek to provide informed consent to their patients is CRIMINAL.

15)I believe people who are of sound mind should continue to be allowed to own a gun. I do NOT believe anyone, outside of the military, has a need for an automatic or semiautomatic weapon. I think any Congress person who supported a bill that allowed such weapons to be approved for the general public should be shot - just kidding of course, but you get my message. Years ago, my husband and I purchased property in Upstate New York. We setup our land as a wildlife refuge which essentially meant that there was no hunting allowed on our property. We were literally surrounded by thousands of acres of New York State forests so we didn’t feel we were preventing hunters from doing their thing. This was a community that closed schools for opening day of hunting season. Despite our posting, we had to take down deer blinds every season because hunters felt entitled to hunt on our land. The most disturbing ones showed evidence of salt licks that had been set up to lure helpless animals to their site. That is not the type of hunting that I support. Despite these experiences, I continue to support the ability of Americans to own guns. Do we have a gun problem in this country? I believe strongly that we do. We have more gun violence each year than any other country in the world. If I’m not mistaken, we have more gun violence each year than all of the EU countries combined. What are we waiting for? I had actually thought that the Sandy Hook mass shooting of children would have been the turning point in our national position on guns. Boy was I wrong. We need to make some changes to our policies. Again, I don’t have the answer as to how to accomplish that, other than the removal of all automatic weapons from the public. I don’t believe however that alone will be sufficient to deal with the unacceptable amount of gun violence that has plagued our country.

16)I believe the mainstream media’s commitment to the Trusted News Initiative has disallowed them from doing their jobs as investigative journalists. We needed them during these last 2 years, more than ever before, to do a deep dive into the science of Covid and vaccines, and subsequent medical policies. Unfortunately for all of us, they simply carried the party line.

17)I believe the safety of the vaccines cannot be fully assessed until autopsies evaluate the deaths of otherwise healthy people who were vaccinated within days, weeks or even months of their inoculation. Prior to Covid, it took between 7-10 years to confirm long term safety of any vaccine. To ignore the safety signals that we have gotten from over 1 million independent VAERS reports, over the last year +, is criminal in my mind. If we add up all the VAERS reports from ALL vaccines that have been given over the past 50 years, that totals much less than what we’ve seen from the Covid vaccines in the short period of time that they have been available/required.

18)I believe in the kindness of strangers. I’ve been on the receiving end of much kindness of this sort, even some on this very site.

19)I believe in the future. Check out this Ted Talk, which has had 1.3 million views, which shares this belief. How to Break Down Barriers and Not Accept Limits.

20)I believe that immigration makes America better. My grandparents immigrated to the U.S. in the early 1900’s. I believe we are better, stronger and more resilient because we are diverse, IF we can embrace our differences rather than be divided by them.

21)I believe that lobbyists must be removed from our political arena. We cannot allow the vested interest of corporations to determine the direction that our country takes.

22)I believe that corporations are NOT people. I lost all faith in our Supreme Court when they ruled in that fashion. I believe that will be the death toll of our country unless we change that ruling.

23)I believe that as human beings, we are intuitive and creative beings who have the capacity to imagine and build a brave new world. This new world will not see the color of our skin or the religious or political beliefs that we hold dear. I believe we can be the creators of a new world order that values every living soul, be it human or animal, and sees each person as a valuable member of society that actually celebrates our differences.

24)“I believe that children are our future” and must be supported in every possible way to encourage their developing into compassionate, creative, curious and thoughtful adults.

25)I believe in love. I believe that if we teach our children to love people who are like them AND people who are different from them, the world would surely be a better place.

I’m sure there are countless more things that I believe, but I think I’ve provided the greatest hits:

I started this substack as a way to explore my thoughts and feelings on a variety of topics and to be in a position to voice them. I also wanted to hear what other people thought and felt about the topics that I’ve chosen to write about. I want to reiterate that I always welcome differing opinions. I request however that they be made in a respectful manner which certainly means no name calling. If you want to prove a point, it’s helpful to provide a suitable link to support your beliefs. Of course, opinions are always fine but let’s be clear that an opinion is simply one person’s belief. I have tried, in prior posts, to provide such links when I felt it might be helpful. I know these are extremely challenging times and people have very strong feelings but resorting to name calling is below each of us. When in doubt, ask yourself, how would I feel if my child/teen heard my comment? Hopefully, when we’re trying to impart our wisdom to our children, we will be especially careful in the way that we share our values and beliefs. I grew up during a time when our parents expected us to follow in their footsteps. If they were Republican, then they expected us to be the same. If they married within their faith, they expected us to do so as well. If they were college educated at Yale, then they expected us to attend Yale. I hope today’s parents will encourage their children to be true to themselves. Yes, we can model desirable behaviors and values to our children but we should not expect them to be a replica of ourselves. We need to allow them to be who they were meant to be. If we love them unconditionally and encourage their indepence, we will be helping to create this new world that they will inhabit.