Being all about the money

This picture gave me pause and reminded me of marijuana. I’ll explain. It reminded me of a drama therapy technique used by teens at a program I interned at in graduate school—one of the teens “became” marijuana and they utilized playback theater techniques to perform / provide psychodrama to the audience. Pretty cool, right?

But back to the illustration. There’s something immediately fake about this—we are not reducible to dollars, and it is also a paradox for money to lie down and spend itself on therapy—it’ll be counterproductive to be spending itself, perhaps risking literally melting like the Wicked Witch of the West?

The jarring thought I had based on that interpretation was of what it meant for the practitioner and how they saw their client. Was this person a dollar sign to them? Are they providing services that genuinely are in their best interests? The general public may not know there is a Code of Ethics, at least with social workers, that we must abide by. It describes the many ways we must serve in the best interest of the client. While this is a subjective matter, therapists and other healers will probably know if there is an impasse and there is a better way. Essentially, a professional judgment on whether someone is really in need of greater treatment, should be referred out, or remain so that it can be all about the money.

As financially dire as these times can be, these are equally dire choices that a conscientious, reliable and caring healer must make. As someone who has also spent a lot of time and money in the past on therapy (a lot of it unhelpful), is sitting on a bank of knowledge and experience, and just setting out my shingle, this is one commitment that reflects my values. Honesty is one of the things I value about myself and value in others, and it is critical for genuine success at all levels and in all ways.