Dear Society for Humanistic Psychology Community,
Even though more than a month has passed, it feels as if we have just gathered as the afterglow of successful hosting and the inspiration of impressive collaboration remains in us, nourishing our souls and minds. In a busy and distanced world, for many of us the SHP annual midwinter conference, a gift of Dr. David Cain’s forward thinking in 2007, represents our most centralized opportunity to gather as humanistic psychologists with our colleagues and dear friends. And true to the deeply connective collective we are, we pick up with each other mid-sentence, continuing our unrestrained belly laughs, sharing nourishment at a table that never runs out of seats, and carrying each other through our communal and individual griefs.
And so, with that, I shared my deepest gratitude for you all as we embarked to Atlanta for our 18th Annual Society for Humanistic Psychology Midwinter Conference, Toward a Human(us)tic Psychology: Actualizing Hope and Healing through Liberation and Justice for All. The call to our community was big, purposeful, and timely—and was answered with passion and conviction. Whether on the ground, part of the preparation, or there in spirit, or looking down over us, your presence was integral in this event. The conference theme had been determined prior to the November political events which have shaped the future of our nation and yet remained even more prescient to these current times.
The conference is a great organizational undertaking, as it involves navigating both a full academic symposium and a multi-day social event. Together in Atlanta at the Georgia Institute of Technology, your impressive conference committee, chaired by doctoral candidate Courtney Cabell, coordinated with local representatives to actualize every hospitality detail and finishing touch, with months of tireless planning. Together, we wove technical aspects, academic, continuing education, hospitality, and collaboration into a fabric of hope and healing. I am immeasurably grateful to this group that has worked together for years in such synchrony that both the process and products of their investments are nearly mesmerizing to witness. The conference was home to students, faculty, staff, colleagues, friends, family, and interdisciplinary professionals who together took in existential, spiritual, artistic, movement, practice, philosophy, and theoretical humanistic presentations. We hosted our outgoing and incoming journal editors, Drs. Scott Churchill and Louis Hoffman, for a discussion of the history and future of SHP’s journal, The Humanistic Psychologist; reviewed the recently proposed updates to APA’s Clinical Practice Guidelines for PTSD with Dr. Andrew Bland, who leads the Task Force on Epistemological Diversity; learned how transformative dance promotes a pathway to liberation with Devon Kardell and Courtney Cabell; gained insights from rain ceremonies in coping with climate crisis with Dr. Richard Bargdill and Katie Leahy; and actualized hope and healing through African Indigenous archetypes with Akinke Lucas. Our keynotes shared their experiences and inspirations. Roya Hakkakian, an author, poet, scholar, and activist, told her story of living newly in America as a refugee from Iran. Dr. Johanna Buzolits, a human and animal rights activist, Jewish-American feminist, professor, supervisor, and psychologist, closed the conference evoking our care for ourSelves in the face of systematic cruelty. We integrated open spaces for processing grief, art, connection, and downtime, yoga movement spaces, and philo cafes, which are discussion circles under general topics. We gathered over hors d'oeuvres in the Center for Excellence which housed the research posters of Dr. Hadeed de Silva, Sidra Alam, Whitley Blake, and Victoria Richards, Grace E. Flanagan, and Nosa Obaseki among many more. Our conference rounded out with dinner, drinks, and dancing, and a never-lonely photo booth, where we were also able to honor and celebrate the winners of the Sidney M. Jourard Student Award, students Alam, Blake, and Richards. Lastly, in our commitment to hospitable reciprocity, we raised money from attendees (matched by the conference) for Gateway Center, whose “mission of making homelessness rare, brief, and non-recurring in the vibrant heart of Atlanta” spoke to SHP’s commitment to honoring the hosting community of our conference. The gratitude I have for our members during these events truly fills my heart and sustains me in a meaningful way.
And now, we gear up for the APA Convention August 7-9 in Denver, Colorado: Perspectives, Power, Possibilitiesopens in new window. SHP is hosting programming in the main convention, at both its own and interdivisional social events, and the time-honored hospitality suite in partnership with Rocky Mountain Humanistic Counseling and Psychological Association and University Professor’s Press. We hope to see you there for another community refueling, maintenance of our spirits, and recharge to continue our missions as humanistic psychologists.
It would be myopic of me to only celebrate our gatherings and restorations while we are existing in a time of great peril. Members of our own SHP community who intended to gather were suddenly unable to risk traveling due to citizenship, identities, differing abilities, and health statuses. We hear you, loud, quiet, protective, proactive, and every way in between. Humanistic psychology is dedicated to understanding and appreciating people holistically, phenomenologically, and systemically; as continually evolving; and as uniquely situated in their intersecting sociocultural and eco-psycho-spiritual contexts. We assume that optimally functioning people are consciously aware, responsibly free to make choices in accordance with their values, interdependent, goal-directed, meaning-making, and creative in relation to their experience. We are in a time where the very tenets of our existence are being actively challenged.
I’m growing tired of these creatively polite adjectives applied liberally as we all make sad eye contact and nod through our knowing collective exasperation. These are not interesting times, these are racist and xenophobic ones. They are not unique times, they are sexist ones. We are not just in challenging times, we are in ableist ones. The landscape is not gently and gracefully shifting like a tectonic plate, it is being eroded. These are not unprecedented times; they carry the same aggression and violence we have seen time and again throughout history across a broad expanse of cultures—and yet relegate our doom to repeat. The threats to diversity, equity, inclusion, freedom, and justice are reaching into the darkest parts of history and drawing them forward again. We are in danger at a living being, environmental, and psychospiritual level. What is happening now is in direct opposition to everything humanists and existentialists stand for, that psychology as a profession and moral responsibility harbors in.
It feels almost impossible to breathe through the onslaught of cruelty by design and systemic oppression humanity is facing, whether that be in wars abroad or battles on the home front. In the definition of bravery, these are terrifying times, and we can thrive, heal, and create through them even while scared. This is the time, more than ever, that we must maintain our collective presence, rally together our rejection of -isms with a strength in numbers—and pour into each other in smaller communities which overflow to our neighbors and their neighbors until we are all awash with fortitude, bravery, and compassion. What we are in are times for the history books, and our imperative is to determine now where we will be located in those stories written by ancestors and read by descendants, for whom we bear the responsibility of stewardship. Your leaders in Division 32 have been focusing our initiatives in action, accountability, and empowering the marginalized and oppressed as we foster community partnerships, establish strategies for mobilization, and connect with the greater psychological community in the service of society. We have supported actions that are centered in life-sustaining peace. We submit our voices to the professional dialogue to elevate the humanistic tenets of holistic compassion and empathy and collaborate with new learning and teaching models to benefit professional discourse. This month brings us to a collective celebration of humanity, a pride in and for our brethren, an allyship—accomplices to the crimes of empathy and justice. This is a community of resilience and bravery to amplify, exemplify, and honor. In the prism of such light, I implore us to continue to care for and about one another. Thank you for sharing in these reflections together.
With loving kindness, and in solidarity,
Roxanne Christensen, PsyD