a new world?

It's an interesting time to be a psychotherapist, especially coming from a background in social work.  Social workers believe that you cannot separate the person from their environment, that the way to support people in their daily lives must always include looking at their family environments, their communities, their society.  (It's been a dream of mine that my practice would include my patients bringing in the people in their lives, so the whole system can get help to feel better and meet their goals.  I am grateful that people are starting to bring the ones they love to the therapy room.)

I am trying to figure out how best to help people who feel that the foundations of a civilized society are not supporting them.  From the fear of their health insurance or disability benefits being threatened, to the terror of being harassed and rejected for not being part of mainstream dominant culture, I am meeting daily with people who are really scared about the state of our country.  It is painful to sit with their realistic concerns.

I also see some people who have connections to the Trump voter, who are struggling to make their lives and family relationships better and don't know how.

What can psychotherapy provide at a time like this?  At its best, therapy is a process of making reality more and more tolerable for the humans who live it.  The idea is that the more we can directly cope with the facts in front of us, the less energy we will spend hiding from what we know.  Masking things from ourselves takes a lot out of us, it makes us feel anxious and depressed, it makes drugs and alcohol really seductive.

So I am slogging on, hoping that by talking openly about the political realities of our day and the way they connect to our daily lives, we can feel a little less alienated, a little less confused.  I hope you have a place where you can talk about your ideas and fears and get a little more clarity when you do.