Therapists, Let’s Talk: Why Dismissing Gen Z Is Dangerous

When Nepal erupted in September 2025 after the government banned 26 social media platforms, including WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, few predicted the intensity of what would follow. Peaceful demonstrations escalated into violent clashes. At least 19 lives were lost. Hundreds were injured. And within days, the prime minister, embroiled in corruption scandals was forced to resign.

This wasn’t just another protest. It was a generational revolt, described by many as the world’s first Gen Z revolution. Organized through Discord and other platforms that were themselves under threat of being shut down, young Nepalis proved that they would not wait quietly for the slow drip of reform. They wanted accountability...now.

And while they risked their lives in the streets, many therapists were sitting comfortably in their clinics, labeling this very generation as “arrogant, angry, rootless, and disrespectful.”

That disconnect should trouble us deeply.

The Context: Corruption and Complacency

Nepal’s Corruption Perceptions Index score currently stands at 34/100 (Transparency International, 2024), ranking the country 107th out of 180 nations. These are not abstract figures. They translate to:

• Bribes as a condition for basic services.

• Public resources diverted for private gain.

• Justice delayed or distorted for those without connections.

• An economy weakened by mistrust in governance.

This is the daily reality Gen Z has inherited. And unlike older generations, they are unwilling to normalize it.

We often hear older voices complain:

“Gen Z doesn’t respect tradition. They don’t wear our clothes. They don’t visit our temples. They don’t read our authors. They cheer for Hollywood, not our heritage.”

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: what good are these so-called roots if they breed complacency? If they anchor us to passivity in the face of injustice? If they teach us to tolerate broken systems rather than demand accountability?

The Therapist’s Blind Spot

Therapists are meant to hold space for anger, grief, and transformation. But too often, when it comes to Gen Z, we pathologize what we don’t understand.

• Their urgency gets labeled as entitlement.

• Their protests are written off as tantrums.

• Their refusal to adapt to broken systems is reframed as disrespect.

This isn’t therapy. This is betrayal.

When we dismiss Gen Z’s rage as immaturity, we become complicit in silencing them. We align ourselves with the very passivity and corruption they are fighting against. We reinforce the old narrative: wait your turn, respect authority, trust a system that has consistently failed you.

And in doing so, we risk harming the very clients we are supposed to help.

Lessons from Nepal and Beyond

Nepal isn’t an isolated case. Across the world, Gen Z is redefining civic engagement:

• Kenya’s #RejectFinanceBill2024 protests forced the president to withdraw a controversial tax bill.

• Bangladesh’s July Revolution toppled Sheikh Hasina, receiving constitutional recognition as a Gen Z uprising.

• Serbia and Indonesia have seen student-led protests against corruption and state brutality.

Each of these movements is dismissed by critics as impatient, angry, or disrespectful. Yet each reveals a pattern: Gen Z refuses to accept a broken status quo.

What Therapists Must Confront

If therapists continue to view this fire as pathology, we will fail an entire generation. Worse, we will harm them by invalidating their most powerful resource: their refusal to normalize injustice.

Instead, we need to:

1. Reframe Anger as Energy Anger is not pathology. It is fuel for change. Help Gen Z channel it, don’t smother it.

2. Validate Urgency: Their impatience is not entitlement; it’s survival in systems that delay justice until it’s meaningless.

3. Challenge Our Own Biases: Question where our allegiance lies: with comfort, or with truth.

4. Expand Therapy Beyond the Individual: Acknowledge systemic harm, not just personal coping. Healing isn’t only about adjustment, it’s about resistance.

   
   

The Choice Ahead

Therapists cannot afford to stay neutral. Neutrality in the face of injustice is never neutral, it favors the status quo.

Gen Z is showing us, through Nepal and beyond, that transformation is possible when complacency ends. They may be restless, impatient, and angry. But those qualities are exactly what this world needs.

If we as therapists cannot respect their fire, if we continue to shame them as “disrespectful,” then we are not healers. We are obstacles.

The question is simple: will we stand with Gen Z in their fight for accountability and justice, or will we be remembered as another generation of professionals who sat on the sidelines, judging, while history was being made?

About the Author:

Pritha Saha Dutta is a counseling psychologist and founder of IMHS