A facilitated space for discussing social change
Fee: Free. Optional donation to EBTC can be made here. Donations help cover essential supplies, maintain EBTC website, and tend to the overall upkeep of this nurturing space.
As healers, we are social change agents on a primarily individual and family level. It has become infinitely more clear that our clients' (and our own!) ability to stay mentally, emotionally and physically healthy is being seriously challenged by current events transpiring in the social, political, and environmental realms.
In this troubled time, we are needed outside of the therapy office. We have the therapeutic knowledge and skills that includes a systems approach, a deep understanding of human nature, and care and concern for people and the more-than-human world, that can help turn the tide towards freedom, justice, and well-being for all.
We all give so much in the therapy room, but if you've been wondering what more you can or should do, Gwynne is here to support that inquiry. She has been active since 2017 as a member, and then a co-leader, of a large Indivisible group in Contra Costa County, and her process of evolution around that identity informs a workshop she has developed for other therapists to explore their own path towards activism.
Please join us in person at the East Bay Therapist Community space in Lafayette. This workshop is designed to support therapists who are interested, but hesitant, about becoming more active, or are unsure where they want to start. If you are already actively engaged in social change efforts, you are welcome to join, but be aware that the focus is on exploration for folks who are at a more preliminary stage of action.
For more information, please visit Gwynne’s workshop page: https://gwynnegilson.com/therapists-for-social-change/
Gwynne Gilson, LMFT, has a private practice specializing in trauma healing using traditional talk therapy integrated with a somatic (body-based) lens. She helps people understand the implicit and explicit conditions inside and out that inhibit the freedom of their mind and body.
Since 2017, Gwynne has become significantly politically active and have been deeply thoughtful about merging activism with her professional identity as a therapist. The main outlet for her social and political work is as a co-leader a local Indivisible group of several thousand members, with a guiding ethos of standing up for inclusive democracy.
Gwynne sees a connection between rising mental health challenges and authoritarianism characterized by the abuse of power, especially as it relates to climate denialism, cult mindsets, high-control religions, and attacks on diverse identities as part of the long-term project of White Christian nationalism, supported by the greed of corporations and billionaires. She is interested in facilitating conversations that contribute to imagining and achieving the individual and collective freedoms that have been lost, or never experienced, due to oppression, capitalism and anti-democratic forces currently and throughout history.