Protests and Resilient Self-Care

Consider the BLM movement, Standing Rock, the ongoing fight for LGBTQ+ rights, #MeToo, and the historic Women’s Marches. Clearly, we’re in an age of resilience actively working to uplift the unheard. As there are so many intersectional identities facing discrimination on multiple fronts, it’s not uncommon for therapists to have clients who want to engage in direct forms of social advocacy.

Protests, rallies, candlelight vigils, mural paintings, and charity walks are common in activist circles, yet they're not always tame, as counter-protesters and hate groups often target such events. Add systemic racism and police brutality into the mix, and the physical and psychological risks increase exponentially, especially for people of color. Let’s talk about how to support clients who decide to protest.

Source: Used with permission. Instagram: @varietyfootage

Every protester answers the call-to-action for a myriad of personal and sociopolitical reasons. To help clarify behavioral drive, therapists often differentiate between surviving and thriving. But when you’re directly oppressed by systemic racism, sexism, homophobia, or transphobia, thriving begins to sound like a privilege. Even Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs can seem classist, as marginalized people often have to attain love, esteem, and self-actualization sans safety or security.¹

This is not to say these concepts are without merit, and in the right circumstance, they're actually very useful. But when a client is getting ready to protest, this survive vs. thrive dichotomy may not fit the occasion. If anything, the pursuit of equality is often a muddled union of both.

When minority stress compounds, a radically self-affirmative approach may be needed to uplift community, family, and self. Let that sink in for a second. For those at the heart of their movement, protests can be a direct expression of community preservation and individual self-care.

Self-care is not always soothing. Sometimes it's loud and defiant, demanding dignity after an age of abuse and neglect. When this is the case, social advocacy provides an opportunity to shore up psychological resilience, which is where therapists can really make a difference.

To be clear, resilience isn’t a tough-as-nails attitude bouncing back from hardship—that’s just endurance and fortitude. Resilience is the part of us that not only copes with discrimination but also processes our feelings in its wake to secure our personal self-worth, self-acceptance, and accountability.^1,2,3 We demonstrate resilience when we problem-solve difficult situations, maintain an autonomous sense of identity, cultivate conscientious social awareness, and live in line with our sense of purpose.⁴ In longitudinal studies, resilience is one of the greatest predictors of lifelong success. ^5,6,7 Of course we’re not born with it, as we learn resilience in the crucible, and 2020 is most certainly a crucible.

If a client feels the call to protest, a therapist's role is not to talk them in or out of attendance, but to help them navigate their options by taking an inventory of their needs.

For some, the healthiest and most resilient thing they can do to dismantle the internalized racism, sexism, or heterosexism within themselves is to literally dismantle its external source. On a therapeutic level, peaceful nonviolent protests are a powerful way to channel pain into justice, passion, and conviction.

For others—especially those still working through prior trauma—it may be more important to prioritize their own physical and psychological safety at home. Cognitive dissonance may crop up if they want to participate in a movement, but feel too taxed or too vulnerable to do so. If this is the case, therapists can help them research how to support their chosen cause without directly being on the front line.

So what if a client is gearing up to join the front line of a rally in what can only be described as a hot zone?

Watching the frightening footage of police brutality, it’s only natural for therapists to be concerned for their client’s well-being. Just remember that it’s not the nonviolent protests that are traumatizing, but the use of force in retaliation to them. Ethically, mental health practitioners would do well to advise their clients to take the safest route of action in the context of their circumstances. Even if a therapist, for whatever reason, feels like they cannot condone their client’s choices—they can still help their client develop a safety plan.

Since there's safety in numbers, do they have a larger crowd to march with? If there’s a buddy-system, who’s their backup? Do they have rendezvous points or safe zones to retreat to, if needed? Are they packed for the occasion? Do they have water, goggles, more than one face mask, an umbrella, hand sanitizer, long sleeves, long pants, med kit, leafblower, whole milk in a spray bottle, etc.? This is all helping to develop those active problem-solving skills. The point is not to teach them how to be a better protester or give them advice on the topic, but to front-load them about the risks involved so that they can make an informed decision.

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A session later and it’s time to unpack what happened. Clients may feel proud and elated, or rattled and angry, or scared and uncertain. There’s a lot of mixed feelings at the end of a protest, even if it turned out well. Deep personal issues pertaining to identity, dignity, safety, and sovereignty can boil up with all kinds of memories and insecurities. Solidarity is empowering, yet some may feel overwhelmed by empathy, especially if they have never experienced the sheer power of collective grief before. Some clients may struggle with patience or may need to validate their anger, especially if allies in the crowd overstepped their role or completely missed the core point of the movement.

If the protest was escalated or even sidetracked by a riot, it can be hard to decompress. Those who are directly assaulted may need to process trauma, just as those who witnessed violence may need to process vicarious trauma. Mindfulness exercises, self-regulating exercises, and self-soothing are invaluable at this juncture. Keep in mind that adrenaline crashes can leave people drained and deflated in the daunting shadow of ongoing bigotry. There are many multicultural issues to consider, and trauma-informed care must take into account the social and generational impact that oppression has on communal and family systems. Individual therapy can help activists address their deepest wounds, yet additional support groups and group therapy have the added benefit of peer-group solidarity.

To help clients decompress, validate effort over outcome by walking through the events, underlining moments of value-congruent behavior. When did they act out of passion, love, dignity, humor, alliance, respect, freedom, justice, or righteousness? Again, cognitive dissonance often occurs when people pit their short-term self-preservation values (surviving) against their long-term self-actualization values (thriving).¹ Both are needed in times of upheaval, as sometimes the scared have to take a stand and the brave have to run. This makes holistic self-acceptance a necessary part of cultivating psychological resilience.

If arrested, charges like disturbing the peace, unlawful assembly, attempting to incite a riot, or resisting arrest are often brought against protesters. These are classified differently depending on the state, so research the kinds of fines or jail time a client may face. While therapists cannot give legal counsel, clients may need to emotionally process the fallout of their arrest, or require assistance researching the legal resources available to them.

There’s a lot of raw emotional process surging through the country right now, and mental health counselors play a vital support role. Just as the sociopolitical impact of these respective protests will unfold over time, so too will their impact on the individual. Victories and traumas alike shape us in many ways, and in the end, it’s our resilience that is our saving grace.