I have to admit, my old college counselling classes and the tiny amount of psychology I studied in school, provided just enough education for me to be dangerous. I went into the Dr. Phil encounter as biased as a liberal at a conservative convention.
It was with this “Frasier mentality,” that I judged the man before ever meeting or talking with him. His cocky attitude and fast food counselling model was to me the apex of emotional suicide for his patients. I couldn’t have been more wrong…true he takes guests on his program and in less than an hour offers home spun wisdom and professional advice…but that is what it is, advice from a seasoned pro. He does not claim to psychologically analyze his guests. Nor is he against long term therapy in the proper setting. But get real, he has one hour to make a TV program work.
Those who know me will be choking on the cocky attitude thing, knowing I am the king of naked self promotion. Who am I to pass judgment?
Dr. Phil is one of the best speakers I ever heard. The audience was spell bound the entire two hours and would have stayed for much more. What really sold me was when he left the 4000 people in the ball room, then went across the street to the audience watching by video to spend time in person with them. Selfishly, that is when I got my up close and personal time. He made many comments about the importance of family and how hard travelling was to keep personal family priorities in balance. He spoke glowingly of Oprah. Telling the story how they met.
He was the “professional,” attorneys brought in to testify when she was sued by the cattle men in Texas. Remember her negative beef comments? She thought telling the truth was the entire defence she needed. Dr. Phil said, “Those good old boys are going to eat you alive.” From there they won the case and Oprah put him into the national spotlight.
He claims that if you come to his home you’ll probably get BBQ with lots of liquid smoke, since he fancies himself quite a chef.
I think I would like that…good food, good company, and good advice…how could you go wrong?