Traumemetized
This meme made me feel so ashamed of the therapy profession as a whole, like one of the top 3 most shame-saturated moments I’ve experienced in being witness to the experiences of harm that we have historically caused.
Sure, it’s a joke. Memes are jokes—but I feel it’s intentionally obtuse to deny they’re not “just” jokes. They’re representations of some inner experience, of human feelings/thoughts, a funny kind of sometimes simultaneously risk-free and high-risk storytelling.
What makes a joke or meme funny? What kind of jokes/memes reach you the most quickly, deeply, accurately? What makes you laugh about a story, and why?
Why is it a joke that a therapist, after celebrating a person’s therapy “graduation” (and ostensibly their progress/healing/increased well-being) and finding themselves unable to collect their last session fee, would retaliate by intentionally trying to cause emotional harm to the person?
Why is money such an emotionally fraught and sensitive topic among therapists? Why do we experience such weirdly extreme polarization about money, versus knowing this is an intricately nuanced subject with so many important considerations? And that these nuances affect not only ourselves, but other people?
“We have to make a living too!” Yes, absolutely true. AND we also have to act humanely, which is not optional depending on how we feel.
“We shouldn’t be expected to be martyrs!” Yes, that’s also absolutely true. AND our ethical responsibilities to others also never change.
How, if we are being handed the immeasurable amount of trust to hold and share someone’s deepest emotional experiences based only on the *idea* that we will somehow be capable of helping them, can they not also deserve the most basic respect and trust from us?