The past 12 months have been rough for most people. While certainly not inherently worse, there have been unique challenges for those of us working as therapists. We have weathered the global COVID-19 pandemic and its associated personal, social, and political impacts right alongside the young people we work with and their families.
We have been isolated and overwhelmed, faced unthinkable loss both in our families and in our communities, as well as on a global scale, and we have been subjected to one political firestorm after another. On top of that we had to learn zoom. Many of us have risen with hope as part of the movement for Black lives -- and have also found ourselves heartbroken and exhausted as structural and interpersonal race-based violence continues to proliferate. Some of us did all of this with our children attending online school right beside us, never getting a break from being on duty or, conversely, in total isolation, without having the experience of in-person connection that usually fills us up and keeps us going.
Our beautiful, flawed, resilient, and precarious human-ness has been on full display, and given the limitations of the COVID lifestyle, there’s not a lot we can do about that. It has affected each of us differently given our own identities, family structures, geographical and social locations. One thing is for certain: our common humanity is more pronounced than ever in our work.
Our beautiful, flawed, resilient, and precarious human-ness has been on full display, and given the limitations of the COVID lifestyle, there’s not a lot we can do about that. It has affected each of us differently given our own identities, family structures, geographical and social locations. One thing is for certain: our common humanity is more pronounced than ever in our work.
In learning to live with what is becoming ‘COVID normal,’ I sit with questions about what it means to be a therapist and balance my humanity with the service I am offering to others. Consider this illustration of a therapist’s office, with a 2020/2021 twist. Simply drawn, the room is immediately familiar: the classic therapy couch, chair, framed degrees on the wall, and a box of tissues on the table. But the therapist’s chair is empty, and both the therapist and client are on the couch, sitting close together, facial expressions somewhere in the vicinity of bewildered. The therapist’s pen and clipboard are strewn on the floor.
This year more than ever, it may be true that we are ‘on the couch’ with our clients. As we live through so many tragedies and painful changes side by side, we are all simply doing our best with the tools we have at any given moment. There is healing in joining, and perhaps this joining is integral to the deconstruction of the western, white supremist ideologies that therapy as we know it was built on. These frameworks serve to maintain the veil of separation between therapist and client, upholding the false notion that one person in the room is an expert, and the other, a problem.
This year more than ever, it may be true that we are ‘on the couch’ with our clients. As we live through so many tragedies and painful changes side by side, we are all simply doing our best with the tools we have at any given moment. There is healing in joining, and perhaps this joining is integral to the deconstruction of the western, white supremist ideologies that therapy as we know it was built on. These frameworks serve to maintain the veil of separation between therapist and client, upholding the false notion that one person in the room is an expert, and the other, a problem.
As therapists in training, we are taught about boundaries, professionalism, and keeping our selfhood out of the therapeutic relationship. Do not talk about yourself. You are a blank slate. Do not burden the client with your issues. Keep your messy humanity out of the work. Of course, this has value in terms of cultivating a space where the client can be the focus of the attention and receive necessary support, rather than be in a position of feeling beholden to the needs of the therapist. That being said, the antiquated notion of the therapist sitting in silence -- quietly diagnosing, holding knowledge and power, showing no vulnerabilities -- is deeply rooted in the othering that is inherent to the western and white supremist ideologies that the field of psychotherapy was built on. Going back to the illustration for a moment, it is important to note that both the therapist and client are white men.
In the drawing, to be even more specific, the therapist is wearing what appear to be Sigmund Freud’s signature glasses. I imagine this was an artistic choice made by the illustrator to indicate simply and clearly the who’s who of the scene, and it is effective. However, when taking into consideration the role that medical and scientific racism has played in the creation of therapy as we know it over the past 100 years or so, this is an opportunity to reflect on and shift out of the unspoken understanding that therapy is by and for white people. As a white therapist myself, looking at this from a decolonial or liberatory lens gives us a chance to consider the alternatives. By releasing ourselves as service providers from the western and white supremist ideologies of individualism, objectification, and hierarchical relationships (which Freud exemplified) we have an opportunity to participate in healing internally and in our therapeutic relationships.
Dr. Eduardo Duran spoke on “Decolonizing Therapy and Healing the Soul Wound,” recently at the Compassion in Therapy Summit where he shared, “in a practice of therapy or a community intervention, if we bring in only a western approach, we are acting as colonizers, and basically imposing more trauma on the community,” causing more harm even as we operate with positive intentions toward healing.
So how do we make this shift as individual humans who want to heal ourselves and be better therapists at the same time?
One avenue for this will come from Seneca’s All-In Program’s upcoming 3 month long clinical training series with Dr. Jennifer Mullan, who is most widely known for her revolutionary Instagram account, @decolonizingtherapy. Through this medium as well as her role as a psychologist, consultant, trainer, and activist, her work has significantly contributed to the ongoing conversation around the importance of, as our training series is called, “Politicizing Your Practice.”
So how do we make this shift as individual humans who want to heal ourselves and be better therapists at the same time?
One avenue for this will come from Seneca’s All-In Program’s upcoming 3 month long clinical training series with Dr. Jennifer Mullan, who is most widely known for her revolutionary Instagram account, @decolonizingtherapy. Through this medium as well as her role as a psychologist, consultant, trainer, and activist, her work has significantly contributed to the ongoing conversation around the importance of, as our training series is called, “Politicizing Your Practice.”
By directly acknowledging our own intersecting identities in the therapeutic relationship, actively taking an anti-racist stance and striving to dismantle white supremacy in all its forms, accepting our areas of growth, releasing perfection as an ideal, and embracing the cultural and contextual knowing of the individuals and communities we work with, we can begin the work of deconstructing the inherently oppressive elements society of as they show up in therapy, social work, and even the role of the non-profit agency itself. There is no one single way to approach this as it’s not a linear progression that starts in one place and follows a straight line to another. For each person, this journey will be different. Speaking for white therapists like myself, often the work starts with learning about how we are benefiting from and upholding white supremacy in our daily lives. Everyone has their own path, but nobody is alone on this journey.
In doing this work, as we ‘sit on the couch’ with our clients, perhaps we can cultivate our humanity together. By starting with acknowledging our own humanity and honoring that of the people we work with. This is more than being kind or cracking a few jokes during a session to build rapport. It’s a deep and meaningful exploration of ourselves and each other, our histories shared and distinct, and a readiness to face the complexities of truly showing up as human in our relationships.
In doing this work, as we ‘sit on the couch’ with our clients, perhaps we can cultivate our humanity together. By starting with acknowledging our own humanity and honoring that of the people we work with. This is more than being kind or cracking a few jokes during a session to build rapport. It’s a deep and meaningful exploration of ourselves and each other, our histories shared and distinct, and a readiness to face the complexities of truly showing up as human in our relationships.
"The energy of resistance is fundamentally about claiming our humanity, our right to be fully human. This right is both for ourselves and for others. We must clearly see those forces that try to hold us down or hold us back. The inner work is about not holding ourselves down or holding ourselves back from manifesting our own highest humanity. It is about setting our souls free to sing, to shine, to soar. What song will you free your soul to sing? How can you support someone else in allowing their soul's power and beauty to shine more brightly? Let's all claim the cancellation of the captivity and enslavement of our minds and souls!” -Dr. Shelly Harrell |  |
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Blog Post Written By: Brittany Allinger, Outpatient Clinician
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