289 - Tamila Gresham, Part 1 - Therapy is Political: Learning the Actions to Go With the Activation
“It's not just enough for us to be able to lead with our values. We have to have a clear strategy, a pragmatic approach, a trauma-informed way of doing that.” - Tamila Gresham
Some advice for therapists and those in adjacent healing professions: This (gestures wildly at everything) is not the time to close ranks. We’re being called to proceed with less ego and more accountability. Lately, however, anger (much of it warranted) and impatience have turned accountability into more of a cudgel than the intended call-in.
Tamila Gresham is here to reconnect us to core strategies that have always worked but may have gotten away from us in the current social climate (see: anger and impatience). Tamila is co-founder of Harmonize, a consulting firm that helps organizations bridge the gap between values, vision, and impact. She’s a lifelong educator with formal education in law, sociology, and philosophy. Tamila centers justice and heart-work in her efforts to change organizations and the world. She’s our people, and you’re gonna love her as much as I do.
“I have so much compassion for people because our hearts are in the right place, but we might not know the tactic,” Tamila concedes. “And, because we don't know the exact thing to do, that can expose us to criticism.” As a result, too many of us have shrunk back from participation––in community, activism, or social movements––because the language of accountability (and therapy!) has become weaponized against the people it’s meant to support.
“What we’re trying to communicate at Harmonize is that knowing the intervention to have and how to implement that intervention is a body of knowledge. That is a skillset. We have to create opportunities for people to learn that,” says Tamila. “But then we also have to give grace for people who haven't yet learned that body of knowledge.”
That’s the mic-drop moment. It’s also where accountability veers off course. We already “know” that anti-Blackness, misogyny, and bigotry are wrong. “Now, how do we teach, protect, and give people grace?” asks Tamila. “How do we create structures that will make people safer and increase their level of belonging? How are we actually going to share power together?”
In part two of our conversation, Tamila and I dig into these questions and explore how these struggles manifest in the therapist community.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Mia Mingus: Dreaming Accountability
GUEST CONTACT & BIO
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Tamila Gresham is a co-founder of Harmonize, a consulting firm helping organizations bridge the gap between values, vision, and impact. She's a life-long educator, with formal education in law, sociology, & philosophy. She centers justice and heart work in her efforts to change organizations to change the world.
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