No Place for Politics in Therapy?
Therapy exists within a particular social, cultural, environmental, and political context.
Whatever personal narratives clients bring are wrapped up in and influenced by political contexts.
Therapists have an ethical obligation to keep our skills and knowledge up to date.
Some people claim that the psychotherapy room is no place for politics, but I disagree. At a macro level, therapy exists within a particular social, cultural, environmental, and, yes, political context. Decisions made "out there," by politicians in power, directly affect society and impact what happens "in here," in the therapy room—things like how much money the government assigns to mental health care and updates to legislation that determine whether and how we can practice certain types of therapy with certain types of people.
At a micro level, the stuff that clients bring to therapy is deeply embedded in wider social, cultural, environmental, and political contexts, too. Whatever personal narratives they share with us are wrapped up in and influenced by........
