“If you have come here to help me you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
― Lilla Watson & other Aboriginal activists
I’ve been taking seriously advice from queer astrologer Chani Nicholas to tend to the “creative incubators” in my life. I took a break from posting on social media and gave myself permission to not send out a newsletter because I wasn’t feeling inspired to share. I also enjoyed a two week stay-cation at the end of 2020 that allowed me to reset, recharge and realign with my commitments. It feels like a huge privilege to be able to rest and reflect in the midst of what feels like so much chaos in the world, and I don’t take it for granted.
After two successful 6-month Trauma, Oppression & the Therapeutic Relationship Consult Groups last year, I've learned a lot and made some changes in the format of this offering. I realized early on that "consult group" was really a misnomer. In order to consult in a meaningful way on cases that centered these topics, the group participants needed a shared understanding of the embedded concepts, as well as a container safe enough to explore them together. That became the focus of the groups, and by the end, I realized that what I had created was more of a course in the foundations of these concepts than a consult group.
If you are a therapist, counselor or other mental health or wellness practitioner, you are invited to join the Trauma, Oppression & the Therapeutic Relationship Foundations Course that has emerged from all this learning. Completion of the Foundations Course will now be required to join the ongoing drop-in consult group, where we will use the shared language and culture we've developed to consult on cases and practice issues. Registration for the course closes February 1st.
My intentions for the Foundations Course and the Consult Group are rooted in the quote at the top of this email. My profession has been steeped in white supremacy culture that dehumanizes those with less cultural power and casts those with more cultural power as saviors. If our work as healing practitioners is to be truly liberatory, we have to leave behind these ways of being in relationship and vision new ways of connecting based on anti-oppressive principles. And not just because it’s the right thing to do for someone else, but because that’s the only way we get free. Through the Foundations Course and the Consult Group, I'm seeking to create spaces for developing these visions in community with others engaged in similar work.
Thank you for taking the time to read this in the midst of everything else that's asking for your attention. May you be safe, peaceful and free in the days ahead.
Take good care,
Heather Branham, LCSW