Journal article
Decentering the Use of Police: An Abolitionist Approach to Safety Planning in Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy (Chicago, Ill.), Vol.60(1), pp.51-62
2023
DOI: 10.1037/pst0000422
PMID: 35007101
Abstract
The dominant narrative in much of the world, but especially the West, is that public safety and security are provided by policing. Psychotherapy invests in this dominant narrative via its reliance on emergency services provided by the state, such as 911 and police, to pursue the safety of clients and the larger society. However, the long-documented history of oppressive systems of policing suggest that these dominant narratives operate to protect powerful groups while surveilling and policing marginalized people, but particularly Black and Brown communities. As such, critical and abolitionist movements have rejected the idea that policing provides safety and have sought out alternative methods for ensuring community wellness and safety. Although the field of psychology has broadly expressed interest in growing its critical lens and interrupting systems of power, very little has directly addressed how carceral logics influence psychotherapy practice, and how this influences the client's sense of safety in therapy. This manuscript argues for an abolitionist approach to informed consent and safety planning in psychotherapy to address the disparate ways that clients, and especially marginalized clients such as Black and Brown people, experience psychotherapy's traditional use of systems of policing and state authority. Clinical illustrations are provided and future directions are discussed.
Clinical Impact Statement Question: This article addresses whether there are alternatives to the way that psychotherapy traditionally centers police and 911 services during informed consent and safety planning. Findings: Clinicians can use the recommendations offered in this article to restructure their informed consent and safety planning procedures to address the disparate experiences of authorities that clients, especially marginalized clients, may have. Meaning: This article offers a new approach to informed consent and safety planning that utilizes abolitionist ideologies and builds a network of personal and community support systems. Next Steps : Future research should empirically investigate this approach as well as seek out other abolitionist approaches to psychotherapy.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Decentering the Use of Police: An Abolitionist Approach to Safety Planning in Psychotherapy
- Creators
- David Drustrup - Univ Iowa, Dept Psychol & Quantitat Foundat, 361 Lindquist Ctr, Iowa City, IA 52242 USAD. Martin Kivlighan - University of IowaSaba Rasheed Ali - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Psychotherapy (Chicago, Ill.), Vol.60(1), pp.51-62
- DOI
- 10.1037/pst0000422
- PMID
- 35007101
- NLM abbreviation
- Psychotherapy (Chic)
- ISSN
- 0033-3204
- eISSN
- 1939-1536
- Publisher
- Educational Publishing Foundation-American Psychological Assoc
- Number of pages
- 13
- Language
- English
- Electronic publication date
- 01/10/2022
- Date published
- 2023
- Academic Unit
- Psychiatry; Education Administration; Psychological and Quantitative Foundations; Internal Medicine
- Record Identifier
- 9984359780702771
Metrics
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