Hey Ian, about the mixed metaphors- bring it!
lovely reflection, and speaks to the important connections in our work. You have informed much of my analysis since our connection, and I have a deeper understanding of some of the histories of these ideas for knowing your important work.
Really appreciate you taking the time to listen and respond. in solidarity vik

lovely Italo, so many points of connection in solidarity with our work that happens in such different context but with shared ethics of justice-doing, respect vik

hey Shelley, this is late, but heartfelt
your solidarity
and the threads of connection that hold our work up are so important to me
gratitude for your reflection vik

Hey Paul, so sorry I didn’t see your response until now..well said and a social poetic, in solidarity vik

Thanks so much for your response Anny, it is so important to know the work resonates, because that is what feeds my hope and solidarity
peace vik

I was so excited tripping over myself (obviously my typing is much slower than how the words/thoughts were popping into my heads!). I wanted to share that two things really struck me. One, the idea that mental health or people’s experiences have been neatly squeezed in a box by mental health diagnosis; and the other, about selfcare being a collective care. Thank you so much for this.

Your other self-care idea as the breakdown of our resilience, as it’s not just a personal responsibility of not being able to take care of ourselves, so hence burnout. I love what you said “Burnout denies that it’s social structures of inequity and social injustice that harm all of us.” Butting our heads against discourses, norms… I was falling off my chair laughing so hard when you said you drank water and did yoga, but doing those have not built one housing unit in your city 🙂

I’d write more, but these are the two that I thought I’d share with you. Hearing you, have firmed up my belief in doing more of what I have been doing, to connect more deeply with the people who come to see me, to get to know their stories, their actions of fighting against injustices and norms that have caused harm to them. To continue doing those “immeasurable outcomes” because they do matter.

I wonder about the difference it might make for
clients to know that they change us too. I believe
that clients contribute to our lives, whether we
acknowledge them or not. We are transformed in the
work, and that’s not just acceptable, it is desirable,
as it fosters our collective sustainability. We need to
continually find ways to accountably tell clients that
these relationships matter to us, and that they
change us!

Celebrating Imperfect Solidarity,
Shelly Bonnah

Thanks very much for your presentation. I am very moved, despite is not at all the first time I’m in touch with your work, with these ideas of justice, solidarity and practice.

But I’m not just moved, I’m inspired, I’m drawn into, I’m again thinking how much we have to do to make these ideas and theory available for practitioners for them (us) be able to translated them into practice.

I think I got moved by these cos here in Latin America, specially in Chile were I live, there is a great need to justice and to me our therapeutic work (that’s my realm of work) should be informed be different ideas from the dominant ones. That’s why I work through stories and narrative practice, but I reckon it should be more discussion around this themes involving justice and their implications for work.

I’m not sharing to much here this time, but found very important to say: “thanks, this work is impacting my practice, and hope my practice is impacting people’s lives… I’m trying to try my best”.

In solidarity,
Ítalo

I also really liked the fact you made use of the notions of ‘revolutionary love’ & ‘the social divine’, & that you noted how little these are talked of in therapy & social justice work. I thought the story of how you rang the detox worker Julie to tell her that she had helped keep Joe alive seemed to me to show this ‘revolutionary love’ in action. Making these events & experiences visible is important I think. I wonder if using more often a language that included notions such as ‘revolutionary love’ & the ‘social divine’ could be useful counterweights / resistance to the awful & impoverished language of ‘outcome measures’, ‘risk assessment’, ‘quantifiable metrics’ & so on? Maybe such ways of speaking can make visible aspects of practice / interaction / connection otherwise buried or lost, & can perhaps wrongfoot & disrupt dominant ‘individualising’ assumptions? Thanks, Ian (apologies for all the mixed metaphors!)