A letter to activists* from a therapist who’s been there
Dear Activist —
Maybe activist isn’t your preferred word. Sometimes it’s not mine either. Changemakers, visionaries, community-weavers, bridge-builders? It’s hard to find the perfect name for people who care deeply about the world, and who are working hard to change it in their own unique way. Regardless of what word we use: as a therapist (and fellow activist), I have a passion for supporting folks like you.
Now, you might be a systems thinker who is (rightly!) skeptical of how individual therapy fits in to the bigger picture of our world. You might (rightly!) be pretty over all the talk about “self-care” and more oriented towards community care. I’m 100% with you — and, I’d like to share three reasons why engaging in therapy can be a powerful choice.
Doing activist work can, all by itself, be traumatizing. There’s acute trauma, like experiencing racist police violence at a protest or in daily life. There’s more subtle long-term trauma, like advocating for unaccompanied children at the border or reporting daily about the climate crisis. Engaging in activist work means facing what so many people in our society don’t want to face — and this can have an impact on our well-being. Therapy offers a place to process and unpack these experiences, and to build your toolkit for personal resilience.
Folks who are drawn to world-healing work are often deeply sensitive, and may be carrying their own childhood experiences of hurt and harm. Maybe you’ve heard about the concept of the “wounded healer”? If we get enough support for the wounds we carry, those wounds can actually help us be a powerful force for good. Therapy helps you understand where your “stuff” ends and your activist work begins — so you can take action from a place of balance, wholeness, and deep self-knowledge.
Activists are natural givers — often taking care of everyone else before they finally get around to themselves. What if we transformed this dynamic and treated ourselves with the same care that we want to show the planet and all living beings? In therapy, you will be deeply seen and supported so that you can support others without burning out.
In order to build the more beautiful world we know is possible, we need profound systemic change. It’s my privilege to support the human beings like you who are bringing that change about … so you can stay in it for the long haul.
With much love and respect,
Ellen