Speaker A: Welcome to the Therapist burnout podcast, episode 45. Hey therapist, I’m talking with you today about election week and how to survive it and maybe even how to thrive. I was reflecting on this election cycle. I really honestly have not thought a lot about the election because I’m not a therapist anymore. That is the honest truth. So I don’t have 7 of people talking to me about their politics. And you know, furthermore, why is being a therapist so weird that in any other situation it would be totally socially inappropriate to talk with anybody, except for maybe our spouse about the in depth leanings of us, like how we think about ourselves politically and perhaps like really just messed up comments about what we think about the world. We don’t share this with anybody else other than our therapist apparently, because I was front row seat to all of that. So I wanted to give you guys some tips. I have some resources from a couple articles. I’m not gonna like get on there a whole bunch and read you guys much of statistics because I could do that. But I find that more of what you want is how should I approach this? How can I think about it differently? What did you experience as a therapist? And I know that some of the therapists on here are new therapists, so maybe perhaps they haven’t had any experience in an election cycle. So all of this is brand new. So I’m also speaking to those therapists as well because I know you probably need some support. I’m going to go back in the way back machine. Let’s go back to 2020. We’re doing it. And I’m thinking about me as a therapist in 2020, approaching the election cycle. I had lost two clients that year and I was really resentful, really, really resentful about some clients who would talk to me about their political leanings that did not jive with mine. And for the record, there were clients who would talk to me about candidates that I voted for. But I, it was easier for me to hear, but I just didn’t want to hear it so much in the therapy room. And so part of me felt like I should just sit here and let them talk about it because that’s what therapists do. We don’t insert our own opinions into therapy. And I really reflected on the regret that I had during 2020 as a therapist, especially during the Racial reckoning and Black Lives Matter. I had some clients who made some racist statements in the therapy room and I didn’t challenge them back and I regret that. And I think the quote unquote, challenge could have been asking more questions about. I wonder what you might think I would say about that or. That’s some pretty strong language. Can you tell me what’s coming up for you or. Wow, that’s really hard for me to hear, actually. And perhaps I could have referred clients out sooner. I think that some of the barriers to that for me was being in really a crisis situation, a prolonged crisis situation in Covid for. I don’t know, I think most of 2020 we felt like we were in an immediate crisis with COVID and most of us felt like there weren’t referrals to send other clients to. Some of my clients identified at that. I identified at that time as a Christian psychologist. I still have faith belief, although it’s changed somewhat if I’m being honest. Like my relationship with my faith and how I walk that out and what that looks like now is different, I think based on some of my experiences as a therapist from being a trauma therapist. Yeah, I was just thinking about, oh, resentment and regret. And part of me wishes that I could have maybe been more present and thought about those things, about challenging use, maybe using more immediacy, using my own emotions and reactions to help that client see maybe how they’re affecting other people with those beliefs or how other people perceive them rather. But I did not have space for that. And so I hold that part of me that was really burnt out, that felt really vulnerable, that felt like I was falling apart with a lot of tenderness. I also feel like I could have done some things differently. You know, we weren’t trained to be a therapist in a pandemic. We weren’t trained to be therapists with increasing political anxiety. And that going back to the APA article, I’ll just kind of read a couple statistics. So the American Psychological association put out a blog or article on navigating the authority topics in therapy. And they quoted that politics, especially in the past five years, have been so polarizing and so emotionally triggering for people. Furthermore, political self disclosures may be more common than people think. In a pair of surveys of 268 therapists and 604 patients conducted after the 2016 election, about 2/3 of each group reported political discussions and self disclosures. When political views were aligned, these disclosures were linked to a stronger therapeutic alliance. So, you know, I think certainly that we can take that and, and know that if we do choose to self disclose that perhaps we’ll have a stronger alliance with our client. Which was great information from the study. I’ll put that article in the show notes somewhere. I cannot find it at the moment, so I’ll put that all in the show notes. What they were saying is some of the data showed that almost 50% of patients were worried about the political climate and would have liked to speak about politics more. And they posed this dilemma for providers. Should they engage in conversations and if so, to what extent? If a patient endorses a view that is hateful or discriminatory, is it more ethical to stay silent or to speak up? So they are also saying there’s no standard on inner ethical code that directly addresses this. So we are kind of left to figure that all out. I think one point they make is that you should reflect on your views, either on your own or in supervision. Reflect where you stand on the current events that might creep into therapy. I found that very helpful because I think what I didn’t do was reflect on my views. I think about my previous self going into therapy and just my typical orientation towards politics has been one that I think I even used to tell people. I am politically awkward. I don’t like to talk about politics. I’m a therapist. People tell me their politics all the time, but I don’t like to talk about it, probably because people tell me all their politics in the therapy space and I’m done. At the end of the day, I don’t want to talk about it. I don’t want to hear about it. Really experiencing this election cycle as really neutral and like, no one’s talking to me about their politics. It was weird because I’m so used to it. But I think it’s interesting that we don’t take time to reflect on our views. I think a lot of us tend to hold space for other people, so we don’t think about. Actually, what do I think about that issue? My husband actually brought up to me about my recent posting about the therapist strike in California for Kaiser, and he was like, you do have political views. You understand that, right? You just posted on. On LinkedIn and like, talked about it on your podcast about the strikes. And so you’re for. You’re for strikes, right? You’re for unions. And I was like, well, yeah, I mean, they’re therapists. But yes, I do have my own political beliefs, although some of them aren’t completely worked out. I believe in the dignity of people, for all people, no matter of color, religion. That is important to me. And I think most therapists have that value. And so, yes, identify black with black lives. Black lives matter. I agree with the movement. There are some things as therapists that we have to reckon with. If we reflect in our views. We have to realize that sometimes therapy is political. If we are saying we’re accepting of all people because not everybody is that way. And so inherent in that is for us to speak up around some of those issues so that we can have that value of being there for other people. And I think about how some clients would want to know our values. So for me, when I was practicing, when I first opened my practice, let’s Go Way back machine, in 2014, I started that practice as a Christian psychologist, and I identified as such, although I didn’t espouse any political values regarding that. I went to a Christian integration program in Christianity and psychology, and I didn’t know if I would practice as a quote, unquote, Christian psychologist or a psychologist who was Christian. But what I found was that people believed certain political values about me, given that was my orientation, and would tell me I won’t see a quote unquote secular therapist. That’s what they would call a therapist who did not have Christian values. They were secular. So interesting. And at the end of my practice, I took all of that stuff off of my website because it was too triggering for me because I had clients who would tell me racist things. That is not all of my clients, but it was just a way I could no longer practice. And it did change some of the way that I, you know, see my faith in spirituality now it just does. And I’m still working that out too. So I think we have to think about how we’re showing up in the room, what people can know about us from our materials, materials online. What does that mean about us? Do we choose to, for example, have a rainbow flag so we help another client feel welcomed into our space? I remember a time when I wanted someone who was at least religiously neutral or someone who had similar belief structures. I’ve seen a Jewish therapist before, but I guess someone around, like the Judeo Christian kind of background or comfortable with it. Right. Someone who wouldn’t necessarily repel my beliefs or think they were threatening in some way right at that time. And I remember going to this therapist with five Buddhas in their office, like in the waiting room. And that didn’t feel comfortable for me at the time. Now I don’t know, maybe. Maybe I’d be like, whatever, it’s all good. But I think about myself, like, would I have, like, five crosses or like Bibles everywhere at the time when I identified that way? No, because I’d want people to feel comfortable of all kind of orientations, upbringings, backgrounds. So that might be off putting to them, for example. So another point is to avoid unintentional disclosures. This is from that APA article. And they call this colorized language in terms that they hint a red or blue leaning political perspective. For example, the terms illegal immigrants or undocumented. Undocumented immigrants suggest different views on immigration policy. Other terms like systemic racism or reproductive freedom and cancel culture may provide hints about patients, about their practitioners, political and sociocultural orientation. So just think through that. Do using those words, what would they mean to clients and how would they respond? So they suggest that we should be aware of colorized language and take steps to avoid it. And I think that’s possible. I again, I think sometimes clients will want to know some of our values. I think of someone who might be in the LGBTQ community, which has been very triggered recently by different legislation, and what they want to know, do you support my identity? How do you feel about that? For I think for clients of color, what do you think about me? You know, how do you align in seeing me as a human? So I think sometimes we have to communicate those things to clients. I think the question they ask is the underlying concern for a client is, can you really help me? And even I think when I did practice as a Christian psychologist, I, from my training, which I value, the religious diversity training that I received, because I think the big part of that was the. From my training was imparting, never impose your values, even if you are seeing a client who you believe is from the same religious belief structure. Because what I know about Christians, let’s just say Christians, for example, they are very, very different. They’re very different group, very heterogeneous. So one group of Christians might be having a certain political leaning, One might have a certain level of spiritual belief, for example. Yeah, I just think of, like, the diversity in that. In that population alone. I’ve seen clients who are like, Eastern Orthodox, and it’s more of a racial identity versus a spiritual identity. And like, sometimes with Catholics, it can be that way. So others, it was like, inherent to who they were and they needed to know. I actually had someone ask me, can you please send me a statement of belief? And I was like, I don’t know if it’s a good fit, because I think they wanted really strong alignment to their own beliefs for their therapist. And their quote here is, if you have somebody for whom this is a big deal, chances are that’s part of why they’re in therapy. They may see the world in black and white terms and they may have alienated, alienated friends and family members who feel different from them. And that may or may not be the case. And it may. And sometimes it was the case in the therapy room for the clients I saw, sometimes it wasn’t. Sometimes that was just important to them and it was more of a non issue in the therapy room. Sometimes it was. I think their recommendation is to try to hang in there with clients, give them the benefit of the doubt and give them the right to withdra withdraw from therapy. They do mention opposing views are one thing, but what if a patient veers into rhetoric that is hateful or prejudiced towards other, like using a racial slur? I think that, you know, in one quote here, I have an important responsibility to not condone or appear to agree with comments like that. So silence does not seem like the right approach to me, said one lecturer. But a direct challenge may not always be the most productive for the client because they have these views and they may not feel like they want your opinion on them. Right. So they recommend a question like, that’s pretty strong language. How do you feel about saying that in front of your son? For example, if it was like in a family therapy session, if it’s individual, you might say, when you use that expression, how are you thinking I might respond to it? So again, you’re trying to check in with them about like, hey, what do you really want me to say here to something like that? Also, I think pushing back on misinformation and conspiracy theories. I remember there were quite a few people in 2020 who were really, I think, subject to a lot of misinformation and conspiracy theories. So I think we don’t want to get into like a *** for tat for fact checking. But I think I’ve, I would talk with clients about like, okay, you, you know, when you’re scrolling social media, it feeds you information that you’ve seen before. So likely when you’re scrolling, it’s going to give you information about, you know, these types of views or these types of things that you already were on because they were saying like, oh, it’s all over the Internet. I’m like, oh, I haven’t seen anything like that. So I kind of provide them information about the algorithm and how it’s going to feed them information like that in their social feeds. So in rare cases, a therapist may conclude that they are not competent to treat a patient because of an extreme conflict or difference of opinion. And we do have A standard on that that we are able to refer out if we think we cannot be objective. So some ideas for support for you guys, especially for this week, really, before you set out to see clients do some self reflection, really think about your own awareness of your own political hot button topics and triggers. What if a client says X, Y and Z? How am I going to respond to that? Maybe I’m going to gently ask a question or maybe this week I’m going to take some more time off or I’m not going to schedule myself with clients who might be very triggering. Maybe I will choose to take that afternoon off, for example. Understand the underlying source. So explore the root cause of their countertransference reactions. What’s happening there? Always seek consultation and supervision. Taking some trainings. There’s some more trainings now out there about when you have clients who have differing beliefs in you. So there’s a lot out there that you can take. I saw, I think I saw one on clearly clinical, but I see some popping up in my feed all the time. Limit your exposure to politically charged news and social media to manage your own emotional responses. So that would be before and after the election. Try to get some distance from it and encourage your clients to do that. You know, encourage them to say like, hey, how are you taking walks and taking care of yourself when all this news is happening right now? Maintaining an empathetic stance, if we can. I think that was my struggle in 2020, is that it was really tough for me to maintain that empathetic stance and not have so much resentment that came up for me. So if that’s happening, even more reason for time off or taking more breaks or perhaps like scheduling clients a little more spaced out, that might be triggering for you. Focus on the therapeutic relationship. I think during that time I would talk with people about like, hey, you know, actually, how is this impacting your anxiety? How is this impacting your depression? Okay, let’s. Let’s really focus on how we can really tailor some things and support for you today to help with that. I think the biggest takeaway I would have you think about with regard to being a therapist during election week is really to be kind to yourself. How can this week be easy? I, I frequently talk with my clients about that. I think they’re so much hard and we also make things harder in our own brain. That’s just human brains, right? Human brains are thinking about the hardest part in our week. We don’t think about. Well, actually I probably have two clients who I might have some reactions to. So if I only have two clients who I might have reactions to this week, how can I think through that as a therapist? Can I get some space from that? Whether that’s rescheduling them for this week, whether that’s getting a peer supervision for that this week with someone you can talk about politics with in therapy, which. That’s a whole nother layer. Right. I think as therapists, we can commiserate with people telling us their politics, but not that, I think, introspective view of. These are my politics. These are the politics of this client. I am having so much happening for me with regard to countertransference reactions. How can I manage that? Can I be objective with this client? Is a question you might need to ask yourself. And I know we’re in election week, so you’re still with them, right? So it’s not like you’re going to refer them out this week. So it could be passing the buck till next week to give yourself a little bit more time. But I think through what is my body telling me as I’m going into this session, and if that’s a frequent reaction, that your body does not really want to be in session with a particular client, it is information for you. Your brain is giving you so much information, your body’s giving you so much information. And so, number one, we make it harder on ourselves. So I think of, like, the pain versus suffering. So of course we can’t. We can’t know what a client’s going to come in with every week. Right. They might come in with a level of pain or a level of distress that causes us pain. We can’t avoid that as therapists. What we can avoid is the mental suffering that we have around it and continue to have around it. Are we suffering through a relationship that we need to end? Go back to my termination podcast episodes where I talk about the importance of really taking that clinical inventory in a regular cadence. I would say quarterly, if at all possible, but if this is coming up for you time and time again, then do it more frequently and find somebody who you can talk to about it. I typically, back in 2020, would talk to my own therapist about it. So that’s just a sidebar. Okay. You don’t have to continue to see somebody just because you’re a therapist when you’re having all these reactions, I think you consult, you try to work through it. And at the end of the day, if you can’t, then referral is ethically appropriate. Drop the mic, John. So be easy, guys. It’s going to be a tough week and I’m holding space for you. Join my pen pal list. Send me a message. Tell me if this podcast episode resonates. Resonates. And what else you might need. Okay. I wish you all the best and I am thinking of you, especially this week during our election. And I’m just so thankful for therapists in the world. You guys are awesome.
