I am overdue for a post about what is happening in our country and for that, I apologize.

Like many of you, my thoughts have been racing, my heart has been pounding, and my stomach has been in knots. Everyday I try to wrap my head around all that has transpired since the inauguration while still showing up for my clients in a grounded, connected, and human way. I am having déjà vu to the pandemic, struggling to know how to support others through an on-going trauma that I am experiencing too.

I am finding myself constantly asking, what can I do? What should I be doing? What would make a difference? Will anything make a difference? I fluctuate between feeling energized and ready to fight and feeling overwhelmed, helpless, and hopeless.

And my clients are feeling the same way, asking the same questions. Looking to me for guidance and support.

What Do We Say In Response?

If you follow my blog, you know I am a big fan of validating the valid. So I usually start there. Validating the severity of the uncertainty right now. That there are real risks to the safety, health, civil liberties, and freedom of so many. That there is so much information swirling around constantly that it is impossible to know where to turn. That we do not know what will come next.

And I acknowledge to my clients, as I will to you, that I don’t have the answers. There is no existing formula we can follow to make our voices heard, enact needed change, stay connected to and protect our loved ones and our community, and take care of ourselves in the process. There is no one course of action for us all to take. The beauty in that is that it means there is a course that’s right for each of us, and that may include—or even prioritize—rest.

I’ll get more into what these paths may look like, and how to talk about them with our clients in future posts. Today’s entry is going to focus more on our duty to educate ourselves and stay informed. Though naturally, some of the guidance I offer can also apply to how we may guide our clients. The joys of parallel processing…

Before I go further, Important Things to Acknowledge

Sometime in the last few weeks, it dawned on me (late to game, I know) that the paradigm of treating a trauma that you are also surviving is an all too familiar concept for so many. Providers of color, indigenous providers, LGBTQ providers, providers from immigrant families, and all combinations of providers therein, have been navigating this reality their entire careers.

What I, we, are facing is not new and was not new even during the pandemic. My privilege protected me from a great deal and still does.

Therefore, in offering my support to you today and in future posts on managing these overwhelming and scary times, I turn to the guidance and wisdom of those who have been embedded in this work from the start. Some of my sources are from mental health providers. Many are not. Rather they are history-makers, grassroots activists, and more.

A note on language. As encouraged by Bernice King, I will not be using 45’s name, nor the names of anyone in this regime.

Staying Informed

It is our duty as mental health professionals to be educated. We need to know the art and science of our work. We need to be up on the latest interventions and research to have confidence our efforts will be effective. And we need to be aware of current events and how they may be impacting our clients.

Information from the regime is constantly changing and it is impossible to keep up. It is deeply overwhelming. It is not feasible to track every statement, threat, executive order, initiative, and harmful allegation made by politicians. Much less, every response by a judge or activist organization and every call-to-action on social media.

So how do we balance staying informed with staying sane?

Be selective.

Be selective in terms of when, from where, and how much content you ingest. Which news sources do you trust the most to provide accurate information? Do you want to read your news, watch it on television, or listen on the radio or a podcast? What time of day is best for you to get your news? First thing in the morning so you feel informed? Or at the end of the day? What are the risks/benefits of your options?

Social Media

Set a social media timer. Or don’t use social media at all.

I like social media because I find it to be the fastest way to find out what is being done locally and nationally to resist. I find validation, empowerment, and motivation from trusted accounts. And I have to set a limit (this is one of my hardest “practice what you preach” areas). Too much social media and I feel overwhelmed that there is nothing I can do and that simultaneously there are a hundred things I should be doing.

Identifying Priorities

We may need to be selective in prioritizing what information we focus on. Remember, you cannot keep up with it all. There is too great a risk of becoming overwhelmed, shutting down, dysregulating your nervous systems and/or taking ineffective and/or unsustainable action. It is also impossible to learn all we must overnight.

What are the topics most salient to you? You may not have much of a choice in the matter if the safety, rights, and civil liberties of you, your loved ones, and your community are being threatened. If your hold privileges wherein this is not the case, find your cause(s). Go about it intentionally. Are you a breadth or depth person? Can you be most effective knowing a little about a lot, or do you do your best work with a deeper understanding of fewer areas? I gravitate towards the latter.

As such, you may have noticed that the list of social media accounts I provide below is nowhere near fully inclusive. It is biased towards what I have been focusing on learning more about, namely the pervasive impacts of slavery and colonialism and how those impacts manifest in racial and intergenerational trauma.

Some of the social media accounts I follow include:

*I have notated the authors of works I have personally read and therefore feel equipped to recommend. Many cited folx also have published works that are on my TBR. As I complete these works they will be added to below.

Mental Health:

• Raquel Martin, PhD
• Jenny Wang-Hall, PhD
• Jennifer Mullan, PsyD author of Decolonizing Therapy
• Nalgona Positivity Pride

Social Justice/Education:

• American Civil Liberties Union
• The Florence Project
• Misha T. Hill and Ckyourprivilege
• Ijeoma Oluo author of So you want to Talk about Race
• Ibram X. Kendi
• Layla F. Saad author of Me and White Supremacy
• Brittney Cooper author of Eloquent Rage
• @mharrisperry author of Sister Citizen
• Lynae Vanee
• AloK Vaid Menon

Other:

• RemakeOurWorld
• Indigenous Bookshelf
• Archivist Books

Reading is Rebellion

There is much more for me to learn, other stories for me to bear witness to, and new ways of adapting my therapy practices to be more informed and attuned. This is where I turn to reading. I learn best by reading. Others gravitate towards podcasts. Those aren’t my jam, so I apologize for lacking resources in that domain to recommend.

Reading is both an act of educating ourselves and an act of rebellion (check out this IG post by Ty Allen Jackson to learn more and this post by thief of memory for some great recommendations). As the number of banned books rise, reading (and yes, listening to audiobooks counts as reading) is even more important. Also, if staying up with current events is too daunting, maybe focus your energies on educating yourself on the past. Read books that will give you insights on how we got here. Learn how the impact of colonialism, slavery, racism, misogyny, xenophobia, and more is alive and well today. The books noted above are a great place to start. Read the stories and histories that are being banned. Learn more about your own people’s histories. Discover the beauty, joy, and cultural practices of the people you serve.

Decolonizing Therapy

The number one book I recommend to mental health practitioners at any stage of their career is Decolonizing Therapy by Jennifer Mullan, Ph.D. It has been seminal to my re-education on the history of mental health care in America. It called to my attention limitations of euro-centric conceptualizations, the duality of erasing some indigenous practices while appropriating others, and the influences of slavery and colonialism in how and who we diagnose, and so much more. It called me to question internalized rules and norms of what is the “right” way to do therapy. It emboldened me to politicize my practice.

For Clinicians: I leave you with Keep Marching On by Shaina Taub from her Broadway show Snuffs. Listen, enjoy, and keep marching on.

For Those Seeking Healing. Ditto. Keep Marching.