If a therapist starts off with “I could be wrong so please let me know if I’ve missed the mark, I’ve noticed that…”, please know 9 times out of 10 they are about to read you like a book
Respectfully, after the last two years I think we’re beyond the “is anyone else having trouble concentrating with everything going on” phase and need to be asking why we’re upholding a culture that expects us to carry on business as usual
A fact that has stuck with me since I’ve learned it, in part because it’s so disturbing, is that some of the first suicide prevention strategies were developed in response to African captives dying by suicide on slave ships.
Just want to give a long overdue, well-deserved shout-out to
@CDCgov
@CDCDirector
! Your hard work does not go unnoticed! I am 1 of 4 masked people on my flight and without y’all this public health nightmare would not have been possible!!
It reminds me a lot of how the origins of many helping professions and fields were wrapped up with white supremacy, upholding and advancing it. e.g., the invention of Drapetomania - a psychiatric illness that overtook enslaved people and caused them to run away.
If Black and brown people are telling you something is racist and your response is you haven’t seen anything racist, you should pause and reflect on why you’re unable to detect racism and why racism is so normalized to you (in addition to denying our lived experiences)
@drjenwolkin
Mm I agree that procrastination is often avoidance of how we feel about a certain task, but I’m not sure about it being a trauma response and I’m not sure it’s helpful to label it as such
When people frame Black victims of racist violence in this way, it perpetuates a hierarchy of deservingness to live. Accolades, respectability, their relationships to others are not what determines their right to live; their humanity does. Black people deserve to live, period.
If it’s not safe for an honor student, a child who is a 2022 Missouri Scholars Academy Scholar and All-State Band qualifier to innocently knock the wrong door, it’s not safe for any Missouri child.
We demand that our children be safe from gun violence. Now.
Brene Brown is the Robin D’Angelo of shame & vulnerability & some of yall had a really hard time hearing that - probably in part for the same reason you find Brene and Robin as more palatable messengers of communal knowledge produced by Black and Brown women who came before them
Slaveowners needed an explanation of why enslaved people would run away, because the most obvious and in-your-face answer just *couldn’t be*. The treatment for this fake illness? “Whip the devil out of them” and “amputate toes”.
Slavers were well aware of the physical and psychological trauma captive Africans were subject to. How do we know? They documented mass melancholy and “gloomy pensiveness”among their “cargo” and even heard some of the Africans say in their native language that they wanted to die.
Many captive Africans preferred death to their enslavement. Instead of address the obvious, in-your-face answer about what was driving their despair, melancholy, and gloomy pensiveness, slavers instead attempted to deny Africans of their agency to choose death over enslavement.
Mysteriously (/s), a sign of the “illness” was lesions on the back. Again, the in-your-face, obvious answer is ignored. This feigned ignorance also happened in the context of trying to keep captive Africans from dying by suicide during the middle passage.
Middle class and rich white women will continue to have access to safe abortion. Black and Brown women will bear the brunt of this decision. We already do. We have the highest maternal mortality rates regardless of SES and education level.
In typical fashion, suicides by captives and enslaved people were pathologized and chalked up to something being wrong with African people. Abolitionists argued the contrary - these suicides were a product of the oppressive, brutal nature of slavery and the slave trade.
They also used unspeakable violence against Africans who refused to eat in an attempt to achieve their submission and intimidate other Africans who might be thinking about doing the same. I want to reiterate the amount of thinking and planning that went into preventing suicides.
In addition to these physical devices, slavers also weaponized the captive Africans’ spiritual beliefs against them, telling them that if they died by suicide, their souls would not return to Africa like they thought.
A Danish medical officer said they “had to use the greatest forethought to prevent it” because “slaves used any and every opportunity to kill themselves.” They reduced access to strips of linen, string, and rope to prevent the captive Africans from dying by suicide from hanging.
This is further underscored by slavers’ understanding that sickness, failed revolts, and despair were common precipitating factors of suicide onboard. One way the captive Africans would attempt suicide was by refusing to eat. The speculum oris was developed to forcibly feed them.
@BettyetRoddy
@TheRBKing80
You do realize the ICU is a different unit within the hospital right? Likely different from the unit she was in recovering from her hip injury. If you’re going to be a jerk to someone going through a terrifying experience like this, maybe at least get it right (or just don’t)
My dad recently took up teaching himself how to kayak and will randomly send me pictures of his outings. You have no idea how happy it makes me to see him out here living his best life 🥲
There is one prevention method that we still use today. To prevent captive Africans from jumping overboard to die by suicide, slavers ensured rails on deck were high and/or would use netting on the ships to catch them.
Suicide prevention is:
- safe, affordable housing
- livable minimum wage
- access to opportunity
- social connectedness
- eradicating racism & other forms of discrimination
- marriage equality
- ending poverty
- preventing and addressing ACEs
- trans rights
4/
I want to address something 45 said.
SUICIDE RATES ARE NOT INCREASING.
I am so tired of his party weaponizing increasing suicide rates while continuing to push policies that actually contribute to suicide risk and not properly allocating resources for suicide prevention.
The point is: suicide prevention is so much more than crisis hotlines and convincing people to stay.
Suicide prevention is not just about a life worth living but also about making this world one worth staying in.
I will no longer be recommending The Embody Lab as an organization for social justice, trauma, and somatic training. They have chosen to platform Nicole LePera, despite her problematic history and behavior and have completely dismissed concerns brought up about her.
The reason “check on your strong friends” and reposting the suicide prevention hotline number rubs me wrong is it’s always on the back of someone who died and the discourse is never sustained.
1/
The reaction to
@NicoleLewisLCSW
setting a boundary about who she works with reminds me of how folks did this to another Black therapist who said that Black men need therapy. Y’all proved the original point then and you’re proving Nicole’s point now.
#ProtectBlackWomen
Many people are raised by parents with CPTSD. These parents: struggle to regulate their emotions, can’t cope with their child’s needs, are highly anxious, and can dissociate or withdraw their love for extended periods of time.
Adult children carry the pain.
Every time I see someone use minoritized instead of minorities or marginalized, I get the best little spark of joy witnessing the language shift. It may seem small, but the language we use matters.
Dear Therapists, in the year of our lord 2022, we should not still be talking about (or using 🥴) no suicide contracts or “contracting for safety”.
(Not to be confused with safety planning)
Therapists can be excited about having time off from work (and celebrate it). We have demanding jobs like others. Therapists being excited about time off doesn’t mean we don’t enjoy our work or don’t enjoy our clients - all it means is that we’re humans, too.
Tmw, I’m starting my first training to become a board approved clinical supervisor.
Becoming a clinical supervisor wasn’t on my radar until I realized how badly I wished I had a clinical sup. who was a Black woman.
Creating space for our future Black & Brown therapists 💜
Planning a
#suicideprevention
conference for us, by us. Please help spread the word to all Black, Native, Asian, Latinx, and Pacific Islander folks doing this work who are interested in helping plan, present, attend, etc!
Hi. Going private for a little because of the continued vitriol from THP’s followers, their racism, and their threats to report me to the board and encouraging others to do so. I appreciate everyone who has reached out to check on me, I’ll be getting back to you all soon. 💜
Apparently we were just notified masters candidates will not have their names read at graduation due to the heat - but doctoral candidates will. To say this is disappointing is a complete understatement. I’m not even excited about graduation now
@JohnsHopkinsSPH
I disagree, strongly. Clients have a right to know if their therapist votes against their basic human rights. The therapy room cannot be unwed from the world around it. You can’t be a conduit of healing and support oppression. Trauma is political. Therapy is political.
Some helpful reminders:
1. Racism is the risk factor, not race.
2. Bitterness and anger are natural responses to injustice.
3. Anger can be a really motivating emotion for change.
I have c-ptsd and firmly reject the notion that everything happens for a reason or that you have to find a silver lining in your trauma. This isn’t a trauma response, it’s the internalizing of society’s reactions to people sharing their trauma
If you keep tabs on every time you’ve helped someone, use that against them during times of conflict or when the relationships ends, and share their personal business you’ve been entrusted with, you lack integrity and your friendship was never genuine to begin with.
Happy Monday! Just a friendly PSA that:
1. Yes, I am a therapist
2. But, I am not *your* therapist
3. Like other humans, therapists are also multidimensional human beings
4. Therapists are allowed to have an online presence that is distinct from their professional persona
Do random Holistic Psychologist stans think it hurts my feelings when they say they wouldn’t work with me and assume I’m a bad therapist?
I mean first of all, I don’t accept clients I engaged with on social media because I have ethics and boundaries. Let’s start there…
@1NativeSoilNerd
Also it’s not the student’s work to do - this oft uncompensated burden disproportionately falls on minoritized students and colleagues when the person who needs to learn should be doing their own work!
Hey
@MindfulTom
, if you’re going to use my content verbatim for your 634k followers on TikTok, the appropriate thing to do is properly credit me and not pass it off as your own.
Resilience as a concept often places too much onus on an individuals perceived shortcomings to deal with the outside world. We attempt to help people “adapt better” to an unjust and cruel world rather than trying to improve the world and make it a place worth living
Self-immolation is an extreme act of protest. There’s no evidence that self-immolation increases suicide contagion. Even so, extremely painful and gruesome means tend not to catalyze contagion in the way other methods do. Don’t act like you give a shit about suicide now.
Kim Kardashian channels her inner culture vulture in tired display of cultural appropriation for
@voguemagazine
March issue.
Here,
@Popfactions
, fixed it for you. You cannot channel your inner black woman, if you are in fact, not a black woman.
I don’t know who told the public that therapists have to work w/ anyone who comes thru their door, esp if that person thinks they don’t deserve rights or are less than human because they’re Black, LGBTQ, etc.
We don’t have to subject ourselves to harm for you - or anyone.
You have to stop saying therapy isn’t political. You can’t be a conduit for healing and vote against the basic rights of many of your clients. Our responsibility to protect our clients’ rights and uphold our ethics extends beyond the therapy room.
I actually think I’m going to have to take a social media break. The rage I feel from constantly seeing blatant racism and privileged people griping about trivial ‘problems’ in the midst of so many life-and-death issues for minoritized people is beginning to feel insurmountable
Since we’re talking about ethics and harm, let’s talk about the ethics and clinical ramifications of firing a therapist abruptly, leaving clients with no therapist and not allowing said therapist to have termination sessions with their clients.
The layers of harm are numerous.
The pandemic is forcing people to slow down and have to sit with themselves. Avoidance isn’t working anymore. So many people are having profound realizations about themselves and their identities
Kids should not have to divulge their trauma, including how race has impacted their life, in college application essays as a means to give them a stake in being admitted to higher ed.
@ArtIrreverent
So yes & yes BUT these two in particular are superficial about it and lack the depth, and they fail to cite the knowledge they’re capitalizing on and making insane money off of. They could lift up the voices of people already doing the work.
Holding space for all of the Black folks dreading to have to go to a work environment where they will either ignore the most recent lynching of a Black man or will make a performative statement and “hold space” for a few minutes before proceeding with business as usual