Season 3 Ep 2: Finding Our Place in the Lineage of Therapeutic Practice
Since the last episode’s conversation with hannah baer about the Jewishness of therapy, I’ve been thinking a lot about lineage.
When I first decided to do an episode on the topic, I was primarily motivated by wanting a deep sense of admiration for the Jewish pioneers of the field. Their contributions, which, like any minority group, tend to get erased as they are absorbed into the dominant culture, are invaluable and deserve explicit recognition.
But our conversation and hannah’s original article also helped me connect to something more than claiming therapy’s Jewish roots and contributions to global culture.
The American myth of being self-made or self-determined tends to alienate us from our lineages, but we are part of them whether we consciously engage with them or not. The history and context of our field matter, even when those histories are messy, ugly, and problematic. Contending with therapy’s history opens a dialogue between ourselves and our forebears in ways that move the profession forward and bring us together in solidarity and kinship. And that is a project worth taking on.
Listen to the full episode to hear:
How the American fantasy of being self-made teaches us to ignore the lineages of our practice
The importance of pushing back against ahistoricism and divorcing concepts from their context
How we are in relationship with our lineages, whether we are conscious of it or not
Why critiquing and rejecting what you don’t like about the field’s lineage isn’t enough
How acknowledging our lineage opens the door to deeper camaraderie and kinship
Learn more about Riva Stoudt:
Instagram: @atherapistcantsaythat
About Riva
Riva Stoudt is a therapist based in Portland, Oregon. When she's not working with patients, she likes to talk about all the things a therapist isn't "supposed" to talk about.
