Day2KeynoteMakunguAkinyela

www.heartandsoulofchange.com June 18, 2010 Somebody’s Got to Testify! In Defense of Dignity Makungu M. Akinyela, Ph.D., LMFT The Family Center of South Dekalb, LLC (Decatur, Georgia) Georgia State University (Atlanta, Georgia) Testimony Therapy • A Discursive therapy related to Narrative, Solution focused, and Just therapy. • Grounded in the cultural, social, spiritual and oral traditions of the African American community. • Privileges the knowledge that the story teller has about his/her life over the assumed “expertise” of the therapist. • Assumes communitarian, relational psychology (I am because we are”) rather than individual, internal psychology (“I think therefore I am”) 1

www.heartandsoulofchange.com June 18, 2010 The Core of Client Directed Work in Testimony Therapy • The therapist’s respect for and responsibility to honor the dignity of the people who consult with us. • The belief that in a relational model of human community dignity is the corner stone of emotional and mental wellness. • Within a community each person hopes to know and be known by someone; to have a sense of meaning in relationship; a sense of influence and power; and to experience consistency in their relationship with others. This is the basis of experiencing dignity. A History of Indignation: Pathologizing Oppression • Drapetomania or “runaway slave disorder” • Dysaesthesia Aethiopis, a disorder in blacks that caused them to be disobedient, answer disrespectfully and refuse to work for slave masters. • Two mental disorders discovered by Dr. Samuel A. Cartwright of Louisiana in the 19th century. • Negritude, a rare congenital disease derived from leprosy, discovered by Dr. Benjamin Rush the “Father of American Psychiatry”. Sign of cure is that the skin turns white. 2

www.heartandsoulofchange.com June 18, 2010 Domination and Resistance Key Ideas • Domination based on practices of class, gender, ethnic, sexuality or other superiority destroys a persons dignity. Three key ideas to remember: • Dominant Discourse • Hidden Testimony • Infrapolitics Weapons of Resistance • Resistance to domination can take several different forms that are often defined by the powerful as pathology or dysfunction. • Resigned fatalism • Non-compliance • Oppositional logic • Compliance to the letter • Rehearsed challenge • Emotional detachment • Stiff necked independence • Inferred potential violence 3

www.heartandsoulofchange.com June 18, 2010 Testimony Therapy • To testify is to tell a story of how you came through adversity. • To have a testimony is to take ownership of a preferred story that defines your life's meaning to the community. • Testifying is a socially constructed discourse that requires a story teller (the client) and at least one witness (the therapist) interacting in a call and response dance. • A person’s testimony is always constructed in the context of community call and response. Testimony Therapy • The experience of the story teller is privileged over the expertise of the therapist. • While “what’s wrong” is attended to (doom and gloom), special attention is paid to “what’s right” (victorious moments) that challenge the doom and gloom experience. • The therapist is particularly curious about how the client overcomes problems in day to day “victorious moments”. 4

www.heartandsoulofchange.com June 18, 2010 Four Healing Questions • What happened to you • How does what happened to you effect you today? • What gives you the strength to carry on? • What do you need to heal? Broadening the Conversation • What experiences have you had that resonate with what we have discussed today? • What experiences have you had that seem different from what we have discussed today? • What role do you think your context (cultural, social, gender etc. plays in these similarities and differences? 5

Day2KeynoteMakunguAkinyela

by Barry Duncan on Jun 04, 2010

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Day2KeynoteMakunguAkinyela — Document Transcript