live a SevaLife
Click on the image to be taken to the full Instagram post I'm taking a break from writing about the characteristics of white supremacy culture this week, and instead focusing on something a little lighter: white comic book fans saying that it's not racist to complain about Black actors being cast in traditionally white roles. …
Continue reading "“Not racist” isn’t good enough (it isn’t even a thing)"
Click on the image to be taken to the full Instagram post. For the past few weeks, I’ve been writing about the characteristics of white supremacy culture, as described by Tema Okun, and I have been focusing on how these characteristics cause us harm by distancing us from our values. This week, I will continue …
Continue reading "Therapy for white supremacy culture: Quantity over quality"
Click on the image to be taken to the full Instagram post. For the past few weeks, I’ve been writing about the characteristics of white supremacy culture, as presented by Tema Okun, and I’ve taken a closer look at fear and perfectionism specifically. Today I’ll continue that examination with a third major characteristic of white …
Continue reading "Therapy for white supremacy culture: Either/or thinking"
Click the image to be taken to the full Instagram post Last week I wrote about fear, the foundational characteristic of white supremacy culture, and how Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) can help us overcome the ways that fear prevents us from acting on our values and living a meaningful life. This week I will …
Continue reading "Therapy for white supremacy culture: Perfectionism"
Click the image to be taken to the full Instagram post. In today’s post, I will focus on the ways in which fear, which is the foundational characteristic of white supremacy culture, has made it harder for me to live a life informed by my values, and how the principles of acceptance and commitment therapy …
Continue reading "Therapy for white supremacy culture: Fear"
Click the image to be taken to the full Instagram post. Last week, I wrote about four characteristics of white supremacy culture—fear, perfectionism, either/or thinking, and quantity over quality—and the need for cultural therapy. I believe it’s important to highlight (especially for white-identified people, or people who are skeptical about the relevance of white supremacy …
Continue reading "White supremacy & cultural therapy: change starts with you"
Click the image to be taken to the full Instagram post. Can white supremacy be "cured" by therapy? In the 1970s, an attempt was made by a group of Black psychiatrists to classify extreme racism as a mental disorder. The American Psychiatric Association refused to do this, stating as its reason that extreme bigotry is …
Continue reading "Therapy, white supremacy culture, and you"
Click the image to be taken to the full Instagram post. Every once in a while, I can’t help but nerd out about linguistics and its relevance to everything. In this article, I will share two distinctions from theoretical linguistics that can help us avoid the trap of relying on surface generalizations in our thinking …
Continue reading "Surface generalizations: A grammar antifa warning"
Click the image to be taken to the full Instagram post. May is mental health awareness month, and last week I presented six guiding questions for increasing our understanding of the link between mental health and activism. In order to promote the adoption of a more sustainable form of activism for the 21st century, this …
Earlier this month I was interviewed by Jeannine Etter of KPFA’s UpFront for mental health awareness month to talk about the connection between mental health and activism. In thinking about how to talk about this connection, I was reminded of a moment from the first week of my graduate program in counseling psychology, when I …
Continue reading "6 guiding questions to understand the link between mental health and activism"