Beware those California Crazies!

I have to re-assess my clients twice a year. At that time they are given the opportunity to assess themselves and their own progress. They are given a questionnaire which they can fill out by themselves, or work through with my help. Some questions beg more interesting answers than others. A couple of my recent favourites to this question:

Is culture (heritage) an important part of your life?

(speaking to me)
-“Damn right!” (rolls up sleeve to show me tattoo of the Scottish flag)

(written answer returned to me)
-“Not really. You could be from California and still be mental.”

Pause for Thought

Check this out --> Feminist Activists Find Peace in Thailand

I wanted to link to this article for a couple of reasons.  For one, feminism and VAW (violence against women) work are very important to me.  My training background is actually in assaulted women’s counselling, not mental health, although the two have obvious intersections.  I love learning about what feminist activism looks like around the world.

The other reason is that I found as I read this, I was contrasting the “retreat” experience they describe with the professional trainings and workshops I attend here in Canada.  The focus on “self-love and self-worth as an essential part of their work in the world” sounds really in line with my philosophy, but not my practice.  I certainly haven’t had many experiences in my professional life where there is such an emphasis on this sort of thing.  The perks offered to us at trainings usually max out at a free lunch, and possibly getting to go home a bit early. 

I don’t know much about Thai society or the culture of social service work there, so I can’t really comment on whether the needs of these workers would be different than where I am, and what they might make of their retreat experience.  But as the writer says, seeing “15 women grown napping together on the floor of a conference room after a lively plenary” would be “odd” to see in the U.S. (and I’m considering the U.S. and Canada to be more or less the same in this respect). 

It sounds nice.  But would it work?  Would anyone go for it?  I can imagine the mixed reactions of my co-workers – divided between feeling uncomfortable, and griping about how they could be making phone calls or getting assessments done instead.

Is this because we really don’t value self-care?  We talk a lot about avoiding compassion fatigue, but the general consensus seems to often be that we are responsible for this on our own time. 

On the other hand, is it because sleeping or meditating would be considered a private activity, and we would be asked to let our guard down to such a degree in a very public and shared space?  A lot of what they describe would be strikingly different from our typical professional activities and behaviours, and would (I think) demand a lot of openness to the experience.  Would this cross my boundaries?

I don’t know.  But I’m curious.

Has anyone experienced something like this?

Assessment Answers

Is culture (heritage) an important part of your life?
No. Am Scottish, no kilt.

What Culture Do You Identify With?

One of my favourite blogs Sociological Images has recently made a number of posts about how we categorize race and culture. They reminded me of a conversation I had with some co-workers the other day.

On an assessment form we use for our clients, there is a question that states: what culture do you identify with? The client does not fill out this assessment themselves, so it is up to the worker to obtain this information at some point. You can leave it blank, but you cannot enter new categories, or select more than one. There are 116 designations provided.

What we were discussing is that the “categories” are really inconsistent. “Culture” in this question may reflect a number of things including race, nationality, ethnicity, region, skin colour, and even language. There were other things I noticed and just don’t understand. For example, why are some of them plural? Then of course there are the many varied uses of the word Indian. “Mixed” or “non-mixed” seems to matter. I was reminded that “White” and “Caucasian” are not one and the same. By “Gypsy” do they mean Romani? And seriously, Mongoloid? I thought this was widely acknowledged as an out of date and racist term?

Some of the designations I had never even heard of (I still can’t find a definition for “Hututu”). Some seem to be totally made up: the only meaning I can find for “Senoy” is this apparently satirical medieval reference to an angel.

Here is the list:

Abyssinians (Amharas)
African-American
Afro-Carribean
Afro-caucasian
Amerind
Arab
Armenians
Asian
Australian Aborigine
Austrian
Aztec
Bangladeshi
Basque
Bhutanese
Black
Black – other African country
Black – other Asian
Black Arab
Black Carribean
Black East African
Black Indian Sub-continent
Black North African
Black West Indian
Black, other, non-mixed origin
Brazilian Indians
Brunians
Bulgarian
Caucasian
Chinese
Congolese
Czech
Danish
Dutch
Egyptian
English
Estonian
European
Figian
Filipinos
Finnish
French
Gambians
Georgian
German
Ghanians
Greek
Gypsy
Hawaiians
Hungarian
Hututu
Icelandic
Inca
Indian (East Indian)
Indian (Hindi-speaking)
Indonesians
Irani
Iraqi
Italian
Japanese
Javanese
Kenyans
Kirghiz
Koreans
Lapps
Liberians
Madagascans
Malayans
Maori
Maya
Melanesians
Mexican Indians
Micronesians
Mixed Ethnic group
Mongoloid
Mozambiquans
New Zealand European
New Zealand Maori
Nigerians
Norwegian
Oceanic
Oriental
Other Asian ethnic group
Other ethnic non-mixed group
Other white British ethnic group
Pakistani
Polish
Polynesians
Portuguese
Russian
Samoan
Senegalese
Senoy
Serbia
Siamese
Slovakia
Somalis
South Asian
South East Asian
Spanish
Sudanese
Swedish
Swiss
Syrian
Taiwanese
Tamils
Tatars
Thais
Turks
Tutsi
Ugandans
Venezuelan Indian
Vietnamese
Welsh
West Africans
West Indian
White