on being a therapist during societal turmoil
If you’re American or in any way or keep up with American news, you know it’s a shi*t show. And if you didnt know, is there room for one more under your rock?
I constantly find myself reflecting on the unique experience of being a first-ten American AND trauma therapist while I am living in the turmoil of our current country. I have the professional insight, the proximity the wildest enactment of dissonance and ignorance, and the responsibility to help clients build, maintain, and stay connected to any source of hope and responsibility ON TOP of things they were already healing through. All my trainings have had a very intentional and strict emphases on systems therapy and social justice. In the oddest way, a part of me feels like I;m in my prime of work knowing how to explain and talk about what’s going on and what to expect. But they never taught us exactly how to work with this on the weekly nervous system level. I must have been absent for the lecture on what to do when your government hates you and white supremacy is at a high.
Being a therapist while witnessing the downfall of the empire requires me to witness with the delicate balance of silence, to honor each clients own journey and where they are, and mentoring, with sharing information, reading, and resources to the clients who are asking and ready to expand int his way. It also means spending on hour hyping clients up to keep their hope and energy for action alive, and the next hour holding the deepest of grief and despair. I truly feel like I've lived through 5 lifetimes in the stories and nervous systems I support, and to do this day I can firmly say it’s my biggest honor.
Being a therapist during this time also means that I am constantly navigating my own grief waves. Cause believe me I have BIGGGGGGGGGGGGGG feelings about everything and anything currently. How do I allow that to show up in the therapy room? Do I allow it? How can I bill self-disclosure as an intervention to showing my clients they truly aren’t alone in their feelings so insurance reimburses their superbill? Being a therapist during societal turmoil means working within the system for those who still choose that, while slowly expanding my clients belief in the system to include more internal system trust (AKA DONT WAIT FOR THE EXTERNAL TO SAVE AND SUPPORT YOU, START THAT YOURSELF FOR YOU IN ANY WAY NOW).
Being a therapist during societal turmoil is NOT how I imagine my career to go when I started grad school in 2019, hell I didn’t even imagine a pandemic to hit 8 months after starting. Being a therapist during this (and all times) is embodying and teaching the balance of we can prepare and reclaim a lot, and we MUST leave 5% to chance since the thing that makes life life is the presence of uncertainty. And if this national era teaches us anything, its that uncertainty is promised.
