"Tacky"?
Kek AND love it.
I have not heard that word since…
Junior high? Maybe high school?
And it was always the most basic of the Basic B's
who described things as "tacky".
Sooo, there is a thing called "Informed Consent".
An ethical therapist will discuss with a client potentially beneficial treatment approaches/protocols and identify pros/cons, using language that is very clear/appropriate to the client's ability to understand vs. providing explanations that are loaded with jargon/whatever.
The way I'm reading your post, it seems that psychotherapy as a whole is being written off as some sort of shady fuckery.
As a whole, it isn't. The court systems (all of them) really do a disservice when they force folks into therapy as part of the legal decision.
The client is not seeking treatment by choice, the provider is stuck in the pretty fucked position of trying "force" change, which is basically the opposite of good therapeutic practice. I don't want to cast aspersions or anything, yet it's always been an ethical issue in my mind.
Anyway… That may have been a rant.
Blurgh.
I've always thought it looked rather like this:
"animal rights activist"?
OR
"self-mutilation junkie co-opting a thing"?
TBH, it looks like "self-mutilation junkie co-opting a thing" to me.