When 'Wright' means wrong: IHOPKC's latest unlicensed trauma-healing BFF

IHOPKC, Catch the Fire KC, say next week's free 'brain science expert' promises to 'love people into life,' but does she love Uncle Sam enough to pay her taxes?

Something’s rotten in the state of Red Bridge Road. With apologies to ol’ Willie S.—and to Denmark—it’s increasingly easy to sniff out the chicken poop and find the rotten eggs— despite the back of the IHOPKC prayer room parking lot having fences around it now.

The past couple of weeks have been busy for the IHOPKC’s board and staff, as they have been working hard to address all the trauma in its midst. These efforts seem to come forth like the ghost in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, foreshadowing doom. This issue only announces one, of these, but never fear, Dr. D is here with another post coming your way soon with a familiar foe you may know.

This past week, IHOPKC announced a special healing and freedom event, which would be conducted by Ms. Susan Wright—who could be all wrong.

Now, to be entirely fair, Dr. Dénouement must be clear that in this case of fake trauma treatment, IHOPKC is not the sole perpetrator—this time. It’s sharing the hostess-with-the-mostest culpability with Catch the Fire KC (CTFKC). (Think Toronto Blessing; this is that denomination.)

Here’s the announcement. When a registrant clicks “Sign up” then the Catch the Fire link appears.

The IHOPKC announcement edited with the “About” from Wright’s bio

You may also book with two of the others on her staff. Perhaps Dr. Dénouement could ring up Mark and Melanie here in the UK? It appears Uncle Charles and dearly departed Aunt Elizabeth may be missing their fair share too, since the double M brigade of healers also prefer you pay

But wait. Whose budget is it? Dr. Dénouement was keen to discover this because it sounded like a cost might be associated, regardless of whether IHOPKC or Catch the Fore KC was charging or not. Indeed, Susan Wright and her partners in healing trauma—here we go again—do charge. That’s not always an issue. People deserve to be paid for their labor and the harder someone trains or more experience someone may have, the higher the pay may be. A heart surgeon earns more than a GP, for example, and both earn more than an LPN. A pilot earns more than a flight attendant, but I don’t know many FAs who can fly an A321 or a 787. You get the idea.

Then why is it in the church community, people can decide they can pray a bit more and get some “favor of God” and counsel people for as much as a real counselor might charge? Maybe even tax-free?

Meet not-Doctor, not-counselor, not-anything more than any of us (not anything less, but not someone who seems to have any special background to earn $125-$150 an hour counseling traumatized people). Making money off the gospel of Jesus Christ is disgusting.

Please note that Wright’s picture and bio are superimposed on the top of her booking page; to view the page in its entirely, visit the full site.

You may also book with two of the others on her staff. Perhaps Dr. Dénouement could ring up Mark and Melanie here in the UK? It appears Uncle Charles and dearly departed Aunt Elizabeth may be missing their fair share too, since the double M brigade of healers also prefer you pay

We’re not counselors but we play them in the church

Of course there’s more. And it’s worse than Uncles Sam and Charles—and Aunt E. It’s the IHOPKC modus operandi: unlicensed counselors charging a fee, pretending to know something magical about “brain science” that will “unlock” something.

Let’s take a look again that that big claim about the big brain (emphasis added):

Most traditional counseling and therapy addresses just the left brain by helping the person to think differently providing behavior modification. Even though it is important to act in a godly manner and way, we do not stop with just the left brain modification but address the feelings, thoughts, behaviors and experiences that are being suppressed.

This statement is baffling.

To imply one knows what “most” counseling and therapy does also implies one has studied it. Of all the staff that is listed on the LIL site, only one has a degree remotely related to being a mental health professional, but she, Sarah J. Lee MSMHW (Master’s in Mental Health and Wellness) is not even bookable. The others may be sincere, kind believers. They may have been teachers, or “attended several ministry schools” or whatever the heck they did. But these are not qualifications to practice trauma therapy. And make no mistake, the other outrageous statement is just as bizarre:

The definition that we use for trauma at LIL is being ‘all alone without any help’. Anything that is overwhelming, upsetting, triggering and makes you feel all alone without any help will be stored in our subconscious.

Look, LIL, Ms. Wright (and Wrong) and Mr. and Ms. Brooks (people with whom Dr. Dénouement suspects she would enjoy chatting with in line at the M&S café over a scone, but not those to whom she would entrust CPTSD):

With respect, and on behalf of all who work hard for years to earn advanced degrees, Dr. Dénouement herself holds a PhD in “brain science”—technically the specialization with her psychology field was “Learning Sciences: Giftedness, Intelligence, and Creativity.” That means she studied, in essence, cognitive psychology, how the brain takes in, processes, stores, and disseminates information. This field can be broad, encompassing such questions as how situations such as life stressors, traumas, and even everyday events, may impact information processing.

The brain is highly complex and capable of myriad tasks and processes. To presume one can treat the brain because of years of experience doing… —uh, what is it you do?—is nothing short of arrogance and pride. Spoiler: there’s a Bible verse about that too. You see, Dr. Dénouement is one of multitudes of those “doctors” who have read the Bible, too,—and all the way through, if you can fathom. More than once! While she doesn’t pretend to counsel people—since it is not that sort of brain science (that’s sort of a big topic, heady, if you will…) and she does not have a license for practice (or a licence for practise, for our UK friends), she would be oh-so-curious to learn where you learned all about the big brain.

The IRS: Are you charging money for a service?

Trauma is real, serious, and devastating. How dare you presume to know it, reduce it to a session of therapy. By today’s exchange rate in the UK, a £90 session is about $122. That’s a bit cheaper per hour for the Brooks than Wright’s $150 an hour fee. Most of which appear to be tax-free if people are paying via PayPal “friends and family.” LIL bookings are a set fee, not a “free will offering” as this conference is. That is the same way a therapist charges. Every therapist in the US has to file taxes if the therapist makes over $600. Why doesn’t Wright? Because of PayPal?

As Dr. Dénouement always reminds readers, she does not purport to know the inner workings of another’s motivations, but here’s what PayPal says regarding taxes—and exemptions for reporting them.

PayPal explicitly states that “Tax laws don’t affect money sent as Friends and Family payment.” The problem is obvious. Tax laws do apply to “goods and services.” Is LIL defrauding its respective nations’ tax laws then?

Further piquing Dr. Dénouement’s curiosity, especially regarding the financial improprieties with which IHOPKC has found itself the subject of myriad questions thus far, is the fact that the organization is holding the two-day event at the Leawood Community Center. For those out of the area, Leawood is the first city across the state line in Kansas, when traveling from the prayer room address at 3535 E. Red Bridge Road, KC MO 64137. Red Bridge becomes College Boulevard when crossing Stateline (creative name there, huh?). Along with higher gas prices and higher tax rates, come nicer facilities (and better snow plows in the winter).

If there are financial issues that involve taxes, two Missouri churches holding an event in Kansas is a recipe for federal disaster.

Many questions exist with the way LIL does financial business. These need to be answered by Wright and her colleagues, as well as by John and Patricia Bootsma, pastors of CTFKC, and the IHOPKC Board of Directors, and IHOPKC Executive Leadership Team (ELT), some of whom are the same people.

Has IHOPKC learned nothing from Tracey Bickle?

The only thing missing in this recipe for disaster is Tracey Bickle. No one has forgotten this issue:

I'm not a counselor, but I play one in the church

Soon Dr. Dénouement will share about the latest IHOPKC ministry, as well as the early Tracey Bickle venture. The point is that the place that prides itself on inspired prayer and revelation seems to keep thriving on a hamster wheel of harm.

At minimum, for over 15 years records exist showing that IHOPKC and those connected directly to it have practiced emotional “healing” for trauma and other serious issues for which those in leadership were not and are not qualified to do so.

This latest iteration—whether initiated by IHOPKC or not—is shameful in that whether the organization(s) charge $125 a person directly or not, they are condoning and endorsing another person pretending she can rename trauma and heal it without so much as any evidence of specialized training and education.

I’ll never forget the day I walked up to Kay. I had moved back to town after making a horrible mistake in thinking I was “called by God” to be elsewhere. In Sunday school, Kay had shared that she and her family did something similar. I never knew her well, but I thought maybe I would ask if I could talk to her about how she got through that “yuck” of coming back after realizing they’d missed it. Like that’s what you do, right? You talk to your Sunday school teacher, ask to meet one day for “coffee”—not that I drink coffee, but you get the idea. Do you know what that unlicensed woman did?

“That would be fine, but I do need to let you know if you want to meet more, I do charge…”

YOU CHARGE?

I’m sorry, but at what point in your Christian walk are you important enough to charge money for being a friend, a mentor, a leader, a compassionate ear, a sister-in-Christ, a whatever? The church did not have a formal counseling department, and even if it did, Kay was not degreed and licensed. Further, I didn’t ask for counseling. I asked someone who had been there to tell me how she walked through it.

I’m sure you can gather that was my last conversation with the almighty Kay.

The fact that IHOPKC, and all its BFFs blesses—and pays—these people is disgusting. These people is a phrase that means unqualified, unlicensed, pretend counselors, therapists, trauma experts.

The Holy Spirit does not issue LCSWs or LPCs. The verse that says you do not need anyone to teach you because the Holy Spirit teaches you is probably the most abused verse in the New Testament after the Matthew 18 justification for sin.