Implementing the new paradigm in the counseling profession requires transformation in our thinking about "helping" - Concrete strategies for dealing with the social-political crisis affecting our clients' live
Michael D'Andrea
Aloha:
One of the major changes I have noted in attending the last few ACA, ACES, and APA Conferences/Conventions is that the social justice counseling and advocacy paradigm has moved from the margins to the center of the mental health professions. This is a tribute to the many persons who have worked to foster the institutionalization of this new helping paradigm in these professions.
As the pioneers, emerging leaders, and other allies in this movement continue to institutionalize this phenomena in the counseling profession, we are mindful that the implementation of this new paradigm in the counseling profession requires transformation in our thinking about the "helping" process and identifying new, concrete, and transformative strategies for dealing with the social-political factors that adversely affect our clients' lives and simultaneously stimulate healthy human development. In doing so social justice counseling advocates will undoubtedly experience negative criticism by those persons who insist on perpetuating a myopic view of counseling - a view that will lead us to becoming increasing perceived as being irrelevant from the vantage point of many people whose mental health problems are intimately connected to social-political factors that are increasing being recognized as the source of many people's psychological distress. So be it....
Rather than spending time debating persons who are hostile to the principles upon which the social justice counseling and advocacy movement is grounded, I suggest that social justice advocates in the counseling profession direct their time and energy towards developing and implementing new helping strategies that will stretch the thinking of some colleagues and students and transform the thinking of others in the field.
With this in mind, I would recommend social justice allies to check out Michael Moore's new movie entitled, "Capitalism: A Love Story". I saw it yesterday and in addition to the facts presented in the movie, I was very impressed with the action strategies many people are taken around the country to counter the adverse economic, social, spiritual and psychological impact that unbridled free market capitalism is having on their lives. The positive and radical actions these persons are taking are similar to many of the "therapeutic" social justice counseling and advocacy interventions I implemented with other colleagues clients I worked with at the Meharry Community mental Health Center in Nashville, Tennessee when working with clients experiencing serious (undifferentiated schizophrenia) and chronic mental health problems.
I have copied and pasted 15 action strategies Michael Moore has posted on his website below. You can secure additional information related to Moore's interventions and movie by going to www.michaelmoore.com
In the continuing struggle for justice and peace,
Michael D'Andrea
2009-2010 CSJ President
October 22nd, 2009 5:51 AM
"Michael Moore's Action Plan: 15 Things Every American Can Do Right Now"
You've Seen the Movie -- Now It's Time to ACT!
Friends,
It's the #1 question I'm constantly asked after people see my movie: "OK -- so NOW what can I DO?!"
You want something to do? Well, you've come to the right place! 'Cause I got 15 things you and I can do right now to fight back and try to fix this very broken system.
Here they are:
FIVE THINGS WE DEMAND THE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS DO IMMEDIATELY:
1. Declare a moratorium on all home evictions. Not one more family should be thrown out of their home. The banks must adjust their monthly mortgage payments to be in line with what people's homes are now truly worth -- and what they can afford. Also, it must be stated by law: If you lose your job, you cannot be tossed out of your home.
2. Congress must join the civilized world and expand Medicare For All Americans. A single, nonprofit source must run a universal health care system that covers everyone. Medical bills are now the #1 cause of bankruptcies and evictions in this country. Medicare For All will end this misery. The bill to make this happen is H.R. 3200 -- but this bill is worthless without the amendment from Rep. Anthony Weiner that will bring us closer to the real bill that should be passed: H.R. 676. You must call AND write your members of Congress and demand that they support this amendment, no compromises allowed.
3. Demand publicly-funded elections and a prohibition on elected officials leaving office and becoming lobbyists. Yes, those very members of Congress who solicit and receive millions of dollars from wealthy interests must vote to remove ALL money from our electoral and legislative process. Tell your members of Congress they must support campaign finance bill H.R.1826.
4. Each of the 50 states must create a state-owned public bank like they have in North Dakota. Then congress MUST reinstate all the strict pre-Reagan regulations on all commercial banks, investment firms, insurance companies -- and all the other industries that have been savaged by deregulation: Airlines, the food industry, pharmaceutical companies -- you name it. If a company's primary motive to exist is to make a profit, then it needs a set of stringent rules to live by -- and the first rule is "Do no harm." The second rule: The question must always be asked -- "Is this for the common good?" (Click here for some info about the state-owned Bank of North Dakota.)
5. Save this fragile planet and declare that all the energy resources above and beneath the ground are owned collectively by all of us. Just like they do it in Sarah Palin's socialist Alaska. We only have a few decades of oil left. The public must be the owners and landlords of the natural resources and energy that exists within our borders or we will descend further into corporate anarchy. And when it comes to burning fossil fuels to transport ourselves, we must cease using the internal combustion engine and instruct our auto/transportation companies to rehire our skilled workforce and build mass transit (clean buses, light rail, subways, bullet trains, etc.) and new cars that don't contribute to climate change. (For more on this, here's a proposal I wrote in December.) Demand that General Motors' de facto chairman, Barack Obama, issue a JFK man-on-the-moon-style challenge to turn our country into a nation of trains and buses and subways. For Pete's sake, people, we were the ones who invented (or perfected) these damn things in the first place!!
FIVE THINGS WE CAN DO TO MAKE CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT LISTEN TO US:
1. Each of us must get into the daily habit of taking 5 minutes to make four brief calls: One to the President (202-456-1414
), one to your Congressperson (
202-224-3121
) and one to each of your two Senators (
202-224-3121
). To find out who represents you, click here.
Take just one minute on each of these calls to let them know how you
expect them to vote on a particular issue. Let them know you will have
no hesitation voting for a primary opponent -- or even a candidate from
another party -- if they don't do our bidding. Trust me, they will
listen. If you have another five minutes, click here to send them each an email. And if you really want to drop an anvil on them, send them a snail mail letter!
2. Take over your local Democratic Party. Remember how much fun you had with all those friends and neighbors working together to get Barack Obama elected? YOU DID THE IMPOSSIBLE. It's time to re-up! Get everyone back together and go to the monthly meeting of your town or county Democratic Party -- and become the majority that runs it! There will not be many in attendance and they will either be happy or in shock that you and the Obama Revolution have entered the room looking like you mean business. President Obama's agenda will never happen without mass grass roots action -- and he won't feel encouraged to do the right thing if no one has his back, whether it's to stand with him, or push him in the right direction. When you all become the local Democratic Party, send me a photo of the group and I'll post it on my website.
3. Recruit someone to run for office who can win in your local elections next year -- or, better yet, consider running for office yourself! You don't have to settle for the incumbent who always expects to win. You can be our next representative! Don't believe it can happen? Check out these examples of regular citizens who got elected: State Senator Deb Simpson, California State Assemblyman Isadore Hall, Tempe, Arizona City Councilman Corey Woods, Wisconsin State Assemblyman Chris Danou, and Washington State Representative Larry Seaquist. The list goes on and on -- and you should be on it!
4. Show up. Picket the local branch of a big bank that took the bailout money. Hold vigils and marches. Consider civil disobedience. Those town hall meetings are open to you, too (and there's more of us than there are of them!). Make some noise, have some fun, get on the local news. Place "Capitalism Did This" signs on empty foreclosed homes, closed down businesses, crumbling schools and infrastructure. (You can download them from my website.)
5. Start your own media. You. Just you (or you and a couple friends). The mainstream media is owned by corporate America and, with few exceptions, it will never tell the whole truth -- so you have to do it! Start a blog! Start a website of real local news (here's an example: The Michigan Messenger). Tweet your friends and use Facebook to let them know what they need to do politically. The daily papers are dying. If you don't fill that void, who will?
FIVE THINGS WE SHOULD DO TO PROTECT OURSELVES AND OUR LOVED ONES UNTIL WE GET THROUGH THIS MESS:
1. Take your money out of your bank if it took bailout money and place it in a locally-owned bank or, preferably, a credit union.
2. Get rid of all your credit cards but one -- the kind where you have to pay up at the end of the month or you lose your card.
3. Do not invest in the stock market. If you have any extra cash, put it away in a savings account or, if you can, pay down on your mortgage so you can own your home as soon as possible. You can also buy very safe government savings bonds or T-bills. Or just buy your mother some flowers.
4. Unionize your workplace so that you and your coworkers have a say in how your business is run. Here's how to do it (more info here). Nothing is more American than democracy, and democracy shouldn't be checked at the door when you enter your workplace. Another way to Americanize your workplace is to turn your business into a worker-owned cooperative. You are not a wage slave. You are a free person, and you giving up eight hours of your life every day to someone else is to be properly compensated and respected.
5. Take care of yourself and your family. Sorry to go all Oprah on you, but she's right: Find a place of peace in your life and make the choice to be around people who are not full of negativity and cynicism. Look for those who nurture and love. Turn off the TV and the Blackberry and go for a 30-minute walk every day. Eat fruits and vegetables and cut down on anything that has sugar, high fructose corn syrup, white flour or too much sodium (salt) in it (and, as Michael Pollan says, "Eat (real) food, not too much, mostly plants"). Get seven hours of sleep each night and take the time to read a book a month. I know this sounds like I've turned into your grandma, but, dammit, take a good hard look at Granny -- she's fit, she's rested and she knows the names of both of her U.S. Senators without having to Google them. We might do well to listen to her. If we don't put our own "oxygen mask" on first (as they say on the airplane), we will be of no use to the rest of the nation in enacting any of this action plan!
I'm sure there are many other ideas you can come up with on how we can build this movement. Get creative. Think outside the politics-as-usual box. BE SUBVERSIVE! Think of that local action no one else has tried. Behave as if your life depended on it. Be bold! Try doing something with reckless abandon. It may just liberate you and your community and your nation.
And when you act, send me your stories, your photos and your video -- and be sure to post your ideas in the comments beneath this letter on my site so they can be shared with millions.
C'mon people -- we can do this! I expect nothing less of all of you, my true and trusted fellow travelers!
Yours,
Michael Moore
MMF...@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com
UPDATE: My position that a single-payer system is the only solution to the health care crisis remains the same. I do not support H.R. 3200 unless it includes Rep. Anthony Weiner's amendment, which would essentially gut H.R. 3200 and replace it with Rep. John Conyers Jr.'s H.R. 676. In July, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised Rep. Weiner an up or down vote on his amendment before the end of the year. At that moment this became our best chance for a single-payer, universal health care plan for all. In the heat of the health care debate, strategies change from day to day, but as it stands right now, Rep. Weiner's amendment to H.R. 3200 is the best chance we have at achieving a single-payer system in the U.S. This is the same position held by the foremost activist groups for a single-payer health care plan: Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, and Healthcare-NOW! Let's ride his Trojan horse out of this mess. Write your congressmembers to demand that they support Rep. Weiner’s amendment. One thing remains clear: No health care system will be safe until every for-profit insurance company has been removed from it.
--
Michael D'Andrea
University of Hawaii
Allen Ivey
UPDATE: My position that a single-payer system is the only solution to the health care crisis remains the same. I do not support H.R. 3200 unless it includes Rep. Anthony Weiner's amendment, which would essentially gut H.R. 3200 and replace it with Rep. John Conyers Jr.'s H.R. 676. In July, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi promised Rep. Weiner an up or down vote on his amendment before the end of the year. At that moment this became our best chance for a single-payer, universal health care plan for all. In the heat of the health care debate, strategies change from day to day, but as it stands right now, Rep. Weiner's amendment to H.R. 3200 is the best chance we have at achieving a single-payer system in the U.S. This is the same position held by the foremost activist groups for a single-payer health care plan: Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, andHealthcare-NOW! Let's ride his Trojan horse out of this mess. Write your congressmembers todemand that they support Rep. Weiner’s amendment. One thing remains clear: No health care system will be safe until every for-profit insurance company has been removed from it.