This is the first of what I am planning to be monthly blog posts connected to the general theme of mental health systems as a form of oppression. Over the course of the coming year I will write other posts – some of which will expand on some of the ideas discussed below. I do hope that this comes through as the critical analysis that I intend it to be, and I welcome feedback! The term “disorder” appears frequently in the context of mental health, particularly within the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). The APA (American Psychiatric…
Systemic racism permeates every aspect of American life, and in particular the criminal legal system. The criminal legal system is perhaps the primary institutional force behind it, and the harm inflicted on people of color by this system is widespread and devastating. This is a simplified (VERY simplified) flow-chart showing of the criminal legal system in America: I use this flow-chart in my training sessions to demonstrate how racism exists at every point in the criminal legal system. We need to recognize that because if systemic racism is to be truly addressed and eliminated it needs to happen at every…
I’ve been spending some time recently trying to figure out how I can engage in the anti-racist protests and activism that’s been going on – then I realized that it wasn’t that I didn’t know, it’s that I was nervous about how my involvement might be received. So now I’m taking the advice that I’ve given to a number of people recently (it’s awesome when you start to hear your own words as a therapist coming back to you) and just engage and learn. There are a few posts that I plan to write about topics that I’ve studied, learned,…
[This was an excerpt from a paper I wrote as an MSW student] The concept of “Continuous Traumatic Stress” (CTS) emerged from research in Apartheid South Africa and later in conflict areas to discuss traumatic stress that is not in the past, but is present and is reasonably foreseeable into the future. It has been offered as a way of explaining the “psychological impact of living in conditions in which there is a realistic threat of present and future danger, rather than only experiences of past traumatic events” (Stevens, et al., 2013). CTS is seen as occurring on top of,…
[This post is a lightly edited excerpt of a paper that I wrote as an MSW student in 2018] Feminist Therapy is a meta-theory more than a specific modality. In my own work with it, I find that its purpose is to inform my overall practice with clients in a way that emphasizes empowerment and an egalitarian working relationship, among other things. One of its driving principles is to make marginalized viewpoints central, often addressing the concerns of people of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, people with special needs, immigrants and refugees, and others (Goodtherapy.org, 2015). Feminist Therapy is ideally suited to…
[This is an excerpt from a paper I wrote as an MSW student in December 2017] Feminist Therapy is a meta-theory more than a specific modality. In my own work with it, I find that its purpose is to inform my overall practice with clients in a way that emphasizes empowerment and an egalitarian working relationship, among other things. One of its driving principles is to make marginalized viewpoints central, often addressing the concerns of people of color, LGBTQ individuals, people with special needs, immigrants and refugees, and others (Goodtherapy.org, 2015). There are four tenets that encompass the overall philosophy…
[This was a report that I wrote for a class on Grief, Loss and Bereavement as an MSW student in 2017. As an Existential Therapist I am particularly interested in how death is addressed at all ages, including how parents can address it with children.] Summary and Impressions of the Book This is a relatively short, nicely illustrated book. The premise of the book is to describe life as what happens in between the “beginning” and “ending” for all living things, including people. It specifically talks about plants, birds, fish, trees, and animals, and people. It then goes through some…
This is a paper that I wrote during my second year as an MSW student at NYU. The assignment was to choose from a short list of books and videos and then basically diagnose the main “character.” I chose the movie “Grizzly Man” – this paper demonstrates one example of a more mainstream perspective of mental health – in the discussion of possible diagnoses – and then a more human-centered approach to analyzing the person’s circumstances. Current Problem and Client’s Ego Functions In the documentary “Grizzly Man,” we’re introduced to Timothy Treadwell, a man who spent 13 summers living among…
[This is an excerpt from a paper I wrote as a first-year MSW student at NYU in 2017] Transgender people experience most of the same issues that impact cisgender people, in addition to some that are the result of, or exacerbated by their gender identity and/or expression. Underlying the latter set of issues is a sense of gender incongruence, which is the discord between their personal sense of gender identity and the sex assigned them at birth (Winter, et al., 2016). Gender incongruence is the concept that defines which individuals are transgender (Hughto, Reisner, & Pachankis, 2015). Understanding the impact…
The following is a paper I wrote as an MSW student at NYU in 2016 Policy Summary In December 2014, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that New York State’s Medicaid regulations would be amended to include coverage for expenses related to the treatment of Gender Dysphoria (previously referred to as “Gender Identity Disorder”) for transgender individuals. Gender Dysphoria is a condition marked by a conflict between the gender that one is identified with (by others) at birth and the gender that a person actually identifies as. The move was prompted in part by a class action lawsuit filed in June 2014…
[This was a “Reflection Paper” that I wrote for an assignment in a first semester class – Diversity, Racism, Oppression and Privilege – as an MSW student at NYU. It focuses on some issues impacting the transgender community. I wrote this in 2016, some of my views have shifted from what I wrote here. It was also written from my own experience as a woman who is transgender, so it doesn’t refer to men who are transgender. The beginning of the last paragraph – discussing issues of oppression – unfortunately may be more true now than it was in 2016]…
[This was a paper I wrote for a policy class as a first year MSW student on restorative practices in NYC public schools] Susan Dominus discusses a new approach, “restorative practices,” to handling disciplinary problems with students that is being used by the Leadership and Public Service High School in Manhattan’s Financial District, and has been tried in other school systems around the country. The approach “asks students and teachers to strengthen connections and heal rifts by sitting on chairs in circles and allowing each participant to speak about how a given incident affected him or her.” New York City…