Therapy is political

If you’re thinking about counselling as the one-to-one encounter that happens in a confidential space between two people, then this might seem a strange idea.

If you’re a member of a marginalised group, it may be a very familiar idea.

The world around us

Clients do talk about what’s going on in the wider world and I make space for that. It’s a worrying time. War, international instability, economic upheaval, environmental degradation. Close to home I see growing prejudice, hate and division and it pains me too.

We will all be affected by what is going – prices rising, our local authorities struggling to afford to keep community amenities and support running, people putting flags up near our homes perhaps. Our climate is changing and biodiversity being destroyed.

Some will be affected more than others. As a white woman, I acknowledge that I can never fully know what it feels like to walk past those flags if you are of another race or wearing something like a hijab.

‘We’re all just human beings’

Yes, we are. And we also live at a time when there are growing attempts to divide us and to sow prejudice and hate.

To ignore that in the therapy room (or in my case the therapy woods!) would say more about my relative privilege as a cis-gender heterosexual, white woman without disabilities than it would about what it really means to be human at this time and in this place and about what people need from therapy.

I will not ignore the harm caused by the prejudice and discrimination that some people suffer. I will not try to keep therapy within the bounds of the individual psyche when our experiences and emotions are profoundly intertwined with the society we live in.

This means that I am committed to developing my cultural awareness and that I accept this will be an ongoing effort.

I am committed to learning more about the experiences of LGBTQ+ folk, of neurodivergent communities, of people with disabilities.

Fixing people to fit in or questioning a flawed system

You find your job stressful and are spiralling into emotional turmoil over it. Is there something wrong with you or is the working environment commonly a damaging, inhumane place?

Help for people of neurodivergence used to focus on treatment for so-called deficits or dysfunctions. Siting the problem within the person, who needed to learn strategies to be more ‘normal’.

Now, it is more common to question those ‘normal’ systems. The ND person is not ‘wrong’ but ‘different’. We may struggle because the world around us is set up for neurotypical people, not because we are ‘dysfunctional’.

In a wider sense, ecopsychology radically questions the systems we live in and the harm they can do to us all. We feel separated from the natural world that we evolved to operate within, our natural drive towards community is thwarted by individualistic economic systems.

We are so often forced to be workers and consumers rather than living, feeling animals with a gift for communication, collaboration and creativity.

Our relative privilege within this system can shield some of us from its harms more than others.

And yet even for those seemingly handed the greatest kudos and power – straight white western men of a certain class – it can be damaging. The message that men must hide their emotions and that their worth comes through earning power, job title and reputation leaves us with an increasing male suicide rate.

As a therapist, I will not ignore the system that clients live within and pretend that their challenges and distresses are purely internal problems.

Reconnection as antidote

I am an introvert and an HSP (highly sensitive person), probably neurodivergent. I have a strong reaction to injustice and hate, which makes me want to take action, but I’m not going to be out there leading marches or engaging in direct activism.

My gift to the world is one of reconnection, which runs throughout my work with both individuals and groups.

Reconnection with ourselves, with each other and with the rest of nature. As a direct antidote to the division that seeks to keep us powerless and alone in our grief and pain.