{"id":1563,"date":"2016-06-28T09:00:45","date_gmt":"2016-06-28T16:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/?p=1563"},"modified":"2016-06-28T22:32:26","modified_gmt":"2016-06-29T05:32:26","slug":"its-summer-time-to-speak-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/josephshaub.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/its-summer-time-to-speak-out\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s Summer! Time to Speak Out"},"content":{"rendered":"

My goodness! \u00a0I looked at the date of my last post and see I’ve been asleep at the wheel for a while. \u00a0Well, Spring\u00a0has<\/em> been lovely here in the Northwest. \u00a0It comes earlier every year – buds sprouting in February are lovely, and a warning of more dramatic changes to come. \u00a0We are also in a political season, spun so tight \u00a0and amped to such volume that it invades every corner or our psyches. \u00a0Do therapists have a responsibility to engage politically, or should we keep silent, so as not to offend or distress those we are pledged to support? \u00a0That\u00a0is an important question which has found airing in forums from the New York Times to a noted therapists’ own web site.\"Notrump\"<\/p>\n

In March, the New York Times ran an essay encouraging psychotherapists\u00a0not<\/span> to disregard the social and economic stresses (and injustices) suffered by their clients. \u00a0It is entitled\u00a0Why Therapists Should Talk Politics\u00a0<\/em>and it is linked here<\/a>. \u00a0Turning our gaze to the Midwest, we come to William Doherty, \u00a0a remarkable man who I have known for years as one of America’s deans of marital therapy. \u00a0His classic\u00a0Take Back Your Marriage<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>is an oft-recommended book to my clients. \u00a0I recently came upon an effort by Doherty and others at University of Minnesota, where he has taught for years, to promote social responsibility and healing in the Citizen Professional Center<\/a>. \u00a0Their efforts are wide and inspiring (well, to\u00a0me<\/em>) and include Balance4Success which describes its mission as:\u00a0This initiative (started in 2005) involves parents in Apple Valley and nearby suburbs of Minneapolis\/St. Paul organizing with a mission to liberate their kids from out of control sports schedules and to change the culture of hyper-competitive childhood by replacing busyness with balance.\u00a0<\/em>Other efforts include: STORKS: Sisters Together \u00a0in Overachieving Raising Kids which describes itself as\u00a0targeting\u00a0at-risk urban single pregnant teens in North Minneapolis. Its mission is to promote healthy child development in children with teenage mothers and to provide community support for young single mothers<\/em> and Baby Boomers for Balanced Health Care which describes its mission as follows:\u00a0This group of citizen Baby Boomers believes that out-of-control health care spending will bankrupt our country unless we all take responsibility for changing how we think about and use health care.<\/em><\/p>\n

Doherty recently began a movement among mental health professionals to stand up to and speak out against the threat of Trumpism. \u00a0The Citizen Therapist site is here<\/a>. \u00a0it contains a manifesto which therapists throughout the country are invited to endorse. \u00a0It states quite clearly that Trumpism:<\/p>\n