Flipping the switch
It feels like a switch just flipped over the last few weeks where the question shifted from how much worse can this get to I can’t let this go on.
Normally I start a summer dolefully waiting for friends to call in with stories of silent restructuring and redundancies, and cautiously watching out for that 4pm-on-a-Friday email. As the exhausted public service amongst us sleep and union meetings are down to two blokes and a dog its busy-busy in business.
But this is no ordinary summer as we see self-organising and union membership growing across all sectors. Cheered by the humanizing impact of having actual facts about the cost of living crisis and the institutional failure behind it aired in the mainstream media. Delight from every interview with RMT leadership and the lost MPs wheeled out as ethical fodder to body block social change. Officially in love with whoever runs @RMTunion twitter feed. From Uber drivers, to communication workers, British Airways and barristers, it’s the first time in ages that having views about how things should be different is a distinct advantage in this summer of discontent we now find ourselves in.
In the often invisible world of counselling and therapy things have shifted in a way that even the most optimistic amongst us could not have anticipated. Building on the quiet steady years of organising within this unlikely sector our sense of what is possible has shifted up a significant gear. Responding to the denigration of therapeutic work in the public sector, low wages and working conditions in the booming Employee Assistance Programmes and online therapy platforms, it seems we’ve gone past the stage of pretending we’re fine thanks. The reality that most of the people carrying out this essential work don’t earn a living wage and 3% of counsellors access food banks (see our report for CTUK here) if nothing else this should make us all very very anxious.
At this year’s National Counsellors Day organised by one of the largest and most progressive networks Counsellors Together UK (to become a member click here) we talked about the politics of therapy and developing an organised response across the many and growing self-organised networks – including uACT, IAPT Workers’ Café, Other Ways to Care, PCSR, Alliance for Counselling & Psychotherapy, Psychologists for Social Change and our own trade union – the Psychotherapy & Counselling Union (PCU).
And now your chance.
If you are working as a counsellor or psychotherapist we need you to be part of building the Psychotherapy & Counselling Union. As part of a national organizing drive setting up regional structures, the first ever meeting of the South West and Wales Region Psychotherapy and Counselling Union will be held on Saturday 30th July 11.00- 13.00 on zoom.
We are delighted to be joined by ELIZABETH COTTON a writer and educator in mental health at work, founder of www.survivingwork.org and www.thefutureoftherapy.org. Elizabeth will help us to think about the issues and problems we face using the ‘survival surgeries’ model. She will also speak on The Uberization of Therapy: where is this going?
Also delighted to be joined by JULIET LYONS psychotherapist, and recent Chair of PCU. Juliet will speak about the history of the Union and the benefits of coming together in the Union.
The main focus of the meeting will be to meet each other, identify our concerns and consider what strategies we can engage.
Whether you are self-employed or work for an employer, whether you are a counsellor or a psychotherapist, all members are welcome
If you’re not already a member you can join the PCU HERE
To book your place email to ruthjpcu@gmail.com and you will be sent a link for the meeting.