ABSTRACT
As I think back to the US presidential contests of my adulthood, it’s clear that I’ve placed too much importance on who gets elected. With many of my therapist friends, I’ve been on a bipolar ride between idealization and cynicism, sometimes reversing affectively within a given administration, and always hoping that the next election cycle will bring the great new leader. But as with any idealization, it’s a setup: these leaders will always disappoint because we expect them to do work that only we can do for ourselves. Too much is at stake these days for us to take refuge in our practices when things don’t go well in our communities and nation. It’s time to create a new professional role for ourselves: the citizen-therapist for the 21st century—an agent of change, not just a critic of what isn’t changing. Unfortunately, our training has done little to prepare us for this role.
