Economic, racial, gender-based and other forms of injustice are not new – but since the inauguration of the current administration there has been a significant spike in anxiety, particularly for marginalized and oppressed groups. Over the past few months, working as a therapist with clients experiencing this anxiety (and personally experiencing it), I have formulated a short list of reminders for surviving or coping in the current environment. What this looks like is very specific to the individual – we are collectively experiencing this period of anxiety, but how it impacts an individual is always unique. Be as informed as…
A fundamental principle of Feminist Therapy is that “the personal is political.” This is a term taken from Second Wave Feminism and refers to the idea that the problems a person experiences are often social – or political – in nature, rather than individual issues. As someone who practices from a Feminist Therapy perspective I see this concept at work every day in sessions with clients – seeing how broader social issues, including access to health care, affordable housing, racial, social and economic injustice, and human rights concerns – impact a person’s mental health. Therefore, as an advocate, I want…
I woke up this morning at around 5 a.m. and turned on the TV – I had gone to sleep last night with the election results not final yet, but not looking good. At 5 a.m. I immediately saw that what I (and so many others) had feared had come to pass – Donald Trump will be President again. It will still be several months before he is inaugurated and can start to actually do anything, so at the moment there is just speculation about what he will do as President. But there is good reason for concern, especially among…
There is one week until the last day of this election cycle (I phrase it that since as many people – including me – have already voted) and I decided to do a post with some thoughts about how I approach election-related issues in therapy, and some substantive thoughts about the election in general. This is a very stressful period for a lot of people, including (1) those who are afraid of a second Trump presidency (particularly marginalized and oppressed groups), and (2) those who struggle over casting a vote for either candidate based on what is happening in the…
Yesterday I created a social media post with the quote – “Anxiety and Depression Can Be Reasonable Responses to Unreasonable Circumstances,” along with a short blurb on that point. I decided to write a longer blog post to add to and clarify that point. As a starting point, I italicized the “Can Be” portion of the quote to emphasize that I wasn’t speaking to all experiences that people have with Anxiety and Depression, that these are essentially “symptoms” that might be attached to a number of things (e.g., these are symptoms that some people experience after a pregnancy and may…
The idea of “boundaries” in a person’s life is getting more and more attention recently – and deservedly so. Having said that, I find some of the takes on the concept a bit limiting, they can often feel defensive and at time very binary (do the thing or don’t do the thing, spend time with the person, don’t spend time with the person). I think a more flexible, more nuanced perspective is warranted. As someone who spends a good amount of time at the beach I’m finding more of my metaphors are coming from there – hence the one-minute video…
Below is some information that it is essential to understand if you’re working with transgender and non-binary (T/NB) individuals, drawn from my professional and personal experience. It is not an exhaustive discussion, and of course you shouldn’t assume what any individual client has experienced, but I think it’s a good starting point. Before getting to that I want to make a general point – “coming out” and exploring your gender identity can be a very exciting and fulfilling experience, and it can be very confusing and scary, even without external factors. But external factors are there and can be overwhelming,…
I’ve thought about this question off and on since I started going to school to become a therapist, and then in the years since I started practicing. The answer has changed over time, and I assume it will continue to change – though at this point it feels more like fine-tuning the answer, and modifying language without substantively changing the answer. This is my answer to the question – I’m genuinely curious about how others would answer it. I’ll start with a one-sentence response – an answer that covers every client I work with – and then go into more…
“Anti-capitalism,” along with Socialism and Democratic Socialism, has been gaining traction in recent years, likely in response to growing economic disparity and suffering around the world. What role, if any, does this have in a therapy setting? I think a good starting point, before discussing anti-capitalism, is to define capitalism itself: “Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit.” Some of the systemic issues of capitalism are laid out in this article, including inequality and financial instability, two issues in particular that often come up in my work…
My purpose in writing this is to discuss what I have experienced working with clients who have expressed concerns about what is happening in Israel/Palestine, and the reactions to it in the U.S. Before I get into that, I want to be transparent about where I stand, rather than writing from a neutral position – I am a long-time supporter of the Palestinian people and their desire for basic human rights. I have had an interest in this area for a long time and have read and learned as much as I could over that time – a couple of…
In recognition of World Mental Health Day I wanted to share a quick technique I use with clients, which I have called my “Mental Health Checkdown”© (working title). But first I think it’s important to set out the context that it emerged from, specifically how I conceptualize the idea of “mental health” (recognizing that I am by no means alone in this view – but that it does stand in serious tension with the more prevalent “medical model” of mental health). The ”medical model” is the idea that “mental disorders are believed to be the product of physiological factors.” While…
Since it is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month I thought it would be a good time to post some of my thoughts and observations about working with people who experience suicidal ideation. Some of my thoughts and ideas come from personal experience – periods in my own life of feeling varying degrees of suicidal ideation – and from my work as a therapist with clients who have experienced them. Suicide prevention is a very important mission – according to the CDC, in 2019 45,861 adults died as a result of suicide, and an estimated 381,295 adults visited hospital emergency departments for…