Collective Action

Being at the No Kings protest last week has got me thinking about the power of collective action. Coming together to make change. Where I was in NYC there was an estimated 350,000 people!! And about 8 million across the US. WOW!

I had never been at a march that massive before. There were times when I felt so dwarfed by the buildings and by the people. Other times when I felt like the whole sky was open. I felt free and purposeful. This has to be helping right?

Therapy is another kind of collective action, between the client and therapist, working together to make change in a person’s life. It can feel like a solitary individual process and some of it is, but mostly change happens in community even small communities of two.

There is a connection between change in therapy and change in the broader world. Aware and healed people go out and spread that way of being. We help others, we participate, we volunteer, we model, we love, we parent, we take care of.

There is so much individualized so-called solutions to push back on. We are sold a lie about optimization. Optimize the body, the mind, bio-hacking. You can purchase your way to liberation (a word capitalism stole). But the quick fixes don’t hold a candle to that deep lasting root-building change you get from being in community and collaboration.

I aim to take this spirit with me and share it with my clients as we continue to engage in therapy and resist!