My Position Statement on Content Posts

I penned a post recently that elicited quite a response and some very emotional opinions, and I'd like to address that because there are more of them coming! Please allow me to set the table first.

My Position Statement

I am a liberty-loving, true conservative. I have always believed that the preservation of our liberties, (primarily) through the political sphere, is what will enable me to pursue that which I am passionate about; the mental health of our clients.

I believe that those three areas of influence (Our Profession, Our Liberties, National and State Politics) on our lives are inextricably linked and should be included in these conversations where necessary to support or debunk an argument. (Try talking to another counselor about "mandates in your practice" and see how long it takes before your liberties and politics enter the conversation. It has to happen.) Without our liberties it will be difficult if not impossible to accomplish our professional objectives.

The PracticeMentors' Objective

If you're familiar with my story then you'll already know that my ultimate objective(s) with our content is to, "Protect, Equip, and Defend mental health counselors from any form of attack on them, their practice, and their families". Up until about 18 months ago that content directive was fairly simple to achieve.

Things have changed. Something is not right on a very large, national scale. One has only to listen to the radio to hear that large numbers of other people are feeling the same way.

Our mission has scaled itself up to include threats to our profession from sources not traditionally, or comfortably, within just the mental health community. Now our mission is to, "Protect, Equip, and Defend mental health counselors from any form of attack on them, their practice, and their families, including the erosion of God-given, personal liberties, impacting our ability to practice in an optimal manner".

Going forward I refuse to ignore the 800lb gorilla(s) in the room, whatever form it may take, simply because it hasn't been socially or professionally acceptable to do so in the past. That's the kind of thinking that provides cover for the erosion of our liberties through the political sphere, and I believe it is irresponsible of us not to openly discuss it.

Should I Be Writing "Political" Posts?

I am NOT interested in running a political blog. That's not the PracticeMentors mission and these are not "political posts". They are posts that look at a topic and consider it from several different angles, including how it affects our liberties, the prevalent political points-of-view, and how that might affect our profession.

Nor am I willing to allow any public pov that will erode my liberties and negatively impact my practice to go unchallenged. Frankly, I will not be bullied by any faction that attempts to shame me into, "staying in my lane", in order to silence my voice. If their motives and tactics are honorable they have nothing to worry about. If not, here we come.

Civility and Our Profession

I believe it was the a movie from the '60's with Paul Newman, "Cool Hand Luke", in which he expressed a symptomatic issue when he said, "What we have here is failure to communicate".

What we've apparently lost in our society is the ability to do that in a civil, fact-based manner. Views that are long-held are now met with triggered emotional responses or worse. Compound that with a growing national feeling of distrust towards previously relied upon information sources and you get confusion and then fear, and here we are. We can do better.

The Reader's Glasses

I write our content with an eye towards, "how does this affect my profession and how I deal with my clients". Sometimes that leads me to discuss eroded liberties and what's driving the politics behind it.

I invite your feedback, especially if it's different from mine! A lot of people read these posts each week and I'm not naive enough to think that everyone agrees with every point I make.

If, however, your position requires the erosion or elimination of my God-given liberties then, yes, we're going to have a spirited discussion. Let's discuss it like rational adults through the comment section of the post so that other readers might benefit from our engagement as well. I respectfully ask that you support your position with facts and links as best you can determine them in today's information environment. That's all I can do as well. If we both do that, we'll eventually get to the truth!

Summary

I'm not apologizing for bringing Liberties and Politics into the discussion. I'm explaining why I believe it's necessary. It directly affects my ability to practice!!

I want to be on the side of history that fought for an individual's rights and liberties; the side that did it in a professional, legal, responsible manner that promoted my chosen, loved profession.

Now that you know what drives our content focus, I look forward to talking with you in the Comments. On the vast majority of points I don't think most of us are that far apart. We have far more in common than not.

And now you know.

Plan Smart. Be Safe. Serve Others.

Kathleen Mills, LPC-S, CEAP