Join Psychotherapist Meg Curtin Rey-Bear, LMHC and guests as we explore the ideas, concepts and practices that foster emotional and social well-being in ourselves, for our communities and in daily practice.
We’re back with the third installment in our RANGE of Care miniseries on productive disagreements at an interpersonal level and a societal level through the lens of family therapy and restorative justice.
This began as a conversation about how to have productive disagreements and quickly became a discussion about how do we change our criminal legal system, and maybe on our way to that needing to change our entire society and how we relate to each other—a small order, right?
Meg and Luke are joined again by Inga Laurent, Professor of Law at Gonzaga who studies, theorizes and helps implement restorative justice practices in court systems and schools.
So how can we teach our kids and ourselves to have open-hearted discussions when society teaches us overwhelmingly to seek punishment? And how can we do restorative justice when the system wants retribution and society wants retribution? What would it look like to drastically reframe society towards support and dialogue?
Because reconciliation fundamentally can’t happen if we’re separate from each other, either literally when one of us is walled up behind bars or figuratively when family members have a disagreement politically and don’t talk anymore.
Inga and Meg talk about tools we can use in order to reconcile with one another and keep ourselves mentally safe. Don’t miss this one, it’s a little like free therapy.
We’re continuing our discussion of productive disagreements, and we’re joined by Inga Laurent, Professor of Law at Gonzaga who studies, theorizes and helps implement restorative justice practices in court systems and outside of judicial settings like schools.
We talk about a vision for a legal framework that works to heal and restore community, rather than just warehousing people when they do wrong. But what does that have to do with interpersonal disagreements?
Getting back to healthy discussions and even arguments…
On this episode of Range of Care, we’re talking about productive disagreements: why we need them, what they look like and how to have them.
It’s not whether or not we agree or disagree that is the issue, but how we do it and how we teach the next generations how they can disagree productively and empathetically.
Meg and Ingrid talk about some of our first experiences with disagreements from a developmental perspective: toddlers who disagree with their parents on eating their peas or going to bed, kids who disagree with their classmates that pink is the best when they really like yellow, and teenagers who disagree with their parents that 9 p.m. is a reasonable curfew.
What we learn at a developmental level at those ages– what our parents teach us on how much our voice matters and how to have empathy– shapes how we approach disagreements on much bigger issues when we’re older. It shapes if we feel safe disagreeing with others or if we feel safe going against the grain.
Disagreement is a fundamental part of our government and democracy. And our ability to disagree directly correlates with our ability to advocate.
To be clear: we’re not ever saying that people’s humanity is up for disagreement. Nor are we saying that people of marginalized communities and identities need to be doing this work or subject themselves to being the object of someone’s anger. It’s those in the dominant culture– white, cisgender folks– who’s responsibility it is to be leading this bigger change.Meg and Ingrid talk about a few ways to do this on a micro level. Here are a few, but be sure to listen to the episode to get the full picture:
Teach your children how to disagree safely and hold space for disagreements. Start monitoring your own physical and emotional reactions to things you disagree with. Start small, with people you already feel safe with. Take a pause if you start to recognize disregulation in your body.Unpacking from a Pandemic
How in the world do we unpack from a pandemic? It’s an important question during a profoundly important time as the world contemplates decisions that when made, will once again shift the ground beneath our feet. “We are tired of change. We are pandemic fatigued, we crave predictability, we want connection unfettered by mandates and limitations. We want to be done. But if the question is, how in the world is everyone at the same time unpack from a pandemic? Then the answer is they don’t,” says RANGE of Care host and psychotherapist Meg Curtin Rey-Bear. Meg and Ingrid gather again to chat through this endless pandemic, chronic trauma, how to build resiliency, and the journey back: what happens for all of us when the world starts lifting mandates and shifting from pandemic to endemic.Building resiliency in the face of burnout, uncertainty and flux.
On almost exactly the anniversary of our first mental health episode — where we talked about navigating the uncertainty of the holidays during the pandemic — Meg, Maggie and Ingrid return to discuss building resilience as we roll through our second pandemic holidays and a future that has replaced uncertainty with a near-constant state of flux. Not an easy topic, but there are a ton of good insights and a decent amount of hope. Check it out.Meg and Luke talk climate change and mental health with a cultural psychologist and a climate justice advocate and educator
This week we discuss the tremendous challenge of climate change and the impacts of that challenge on mental health — especially the mental health of young people, who will bear a disproportionate trauma and hardship from our collective inaction. Younger generations are suffering deeply from what feels like an overwhelming challenge, and need support. They are also incredibly resilient and are creating a kind of activism that feels completely different than the climate activism of the 90s and 2000s.We also talk — among many other things — about climate denial as an observable psychological response and discuss strategies to bring those folks in.
Three therapists talk about how kids and parents are coping with a second year of school during a pandemic.
Psychotherapist Meg Curtin Rey-Bear guest hosts a roundtable with fellow therapists Maggie Rowe, a clinical social worker and certified child life specialist, and Ingrid Price, a licensed mental health counselor and a child mental health specialist. It’s a tough, wide-ranging, but ultimately hopeful conversation about what kids and parents are going through.
CONTENT WARNING: includes frank discussions about self-harm and suicidal ideation among young people.
As the pandemic enters its eighth month, the nation is subsumed by the biggest wave of coronavirus yet and Washington State grapples with new restrictions, we spoke with Meg Curtin Rey-Bear, LMHC, co-owner of Wellness Therapies Spokane.
We are all trying to make our way through the many different and often moving layers that are all around us these days. And many of us are experiencing a lot of strong feelings to go along with this. Join me as we take a quick look at how some aspects of the history of mental health interplay with our assumptions about our feelings and why it is really, sometimes, OK to Not Be OK.
We’ve all heard and seen the comments parents are making as they struggle to navigate their new job as educators of their children. Are you worried that your are not doing enough? or that your child will fall behind? Join me as I talk with Child Life Expert and former Hospital Education Program Manager, Maggie Rowe, LICSW as we explore the logistical and emotional challenges of parenting and educating and just being “well” during a pandemic.