What's Your Problem, Anyway?
Recently, I met up with a friend of mine from MSASS and had an incredible four hour lunch where we caught up on our lives and talked about what's teaching us these days. Near the end of our time together, my friend was talking about how she sometimes falls into this "therapist" role with people to help them "solve their problems." And I smiled at her and said, "Let me throw this at you and see how it sticks: what if, instead of the problem-solution model, you used Asset Based Community Development? What if instead of deficits, you thought about strengths?" My friend grinned at me because she knows my affinity for ABCD, so she indulged me as I explained: "I think in my own life, I've struggled a lot with this idea that I should 'get over stuff.' That there's a pressure to 'get over' a relationship or a traumatic event or really anything. What does that even mean, 'get over it'? Who does that language benefit? ...