Stern Therapy
So appreciated the workshop offered by the Toronto Institute for Group studies yesterday! "Building Group Therapists' Responsiveness to Micro-Aggressions" by Dr. Aziza Belcher-Platt and Dr. Noelle Lefforge. A lot of generosity and wisdom was shared.
Some points that stuck with me
- It's a gift to point out to someone they have committed a microaggression, because it means you care about the relationship.
- Race is the not the problem, racism is.
- Therapists need to expand their window of tolerance so that we can go towards these ruptures when they happen, rather than avoid them.
- Privilege is a tool, the more you have, the more you need to use it to cultivate equality.
- Never stop learning, find regular ways to increase knowledge about cultures or identities different from your own.
On my mind lately has been the idea of splitting. We are seeing it increasingly in our political discourse and it can be quite re-traumatizing. Especially if you grew up in a family in which splitting was the norm. In which parents made generalizations about their kids. Tommy was a 'good' kid and Jane was the 'troublemaker'. Splitting hurts so much because in trying to categorize others, we end up ignoring their complexity. This leaves everyone feeling unseen and when people feel unseen, they get angry and often lash out. This seems to be epidemic right now. The video below is talking directly about political discourse in the US but I wonder how it can be applied to other aspects of life as well. https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/videos/2083841821628403/
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