Watch 1-hour interview about November 2016 election. This was Olympia FOR’s December 2016 TV program.
The Olympia FOR’s December 2016 TV program helps us understand the social and political trauma that has been hurting us – especially during the 2016 election campaign season. The 2016 election season has exposed much fear, anger and divisiveness that was already existing in American society. People who were already hurting in various ways have been further antagonized and traumatized.
This interview is not intended to support or oppose any political candidate or any political party. Rather, we want to explore and understand the human realities for people who live in the U.S. and for American society overall. We want to understand the underlying emotions and traumas that the campaign season exposed, so all of us can heal from them and help our society and our individual lives become healthier and more humane.
Four guests help us understand the problems for about the first 20 minutes. Then we spend the rest of the hour exploring remedies and solutions. How could we help individuals and our entire society use humane ways to heal and recover from political and social trauma and divisiveness? The notes below summarize what we said during the interview.
We conducted this interview on Thursday November 10, 2016, just two days after the election. Even if some further events might have occurred by the time you watch this interview, the insights we share will be useful long into the future.
Four guests help us understand what’s happening, why, and how to heal and make progress:
• Liv Monroe has long experience conducting workshops that deal with the kinds of emotions that we’ll discuss during this hour. Liv’s workshops help people develop wise, compassionate ways to cope with problems. She is especially skilled in using Marshall Rosenberg’s model of Nonviolent Communication, which we’ll discuss during this hour.
• Robert Lovitt works in several ways with senior citizens. He leads a Buddhist meditation group and will offer some insights from Buddhist perspectives to help us move beyond the binary, dualistic thinking that has trapped much of political thought in the U.S. I appreciate Robert’s compassion and his gentle wit.
• Keylee Marineau has lived in Olympia for 16 years. She has a Master’s Degree in Counseling Psycholo-gy and works for the excellent local social service agency Community Youth Services as their Director of Services for High Risk Youth. As a trained therapist she meets people where they are at – without judg-ment – and she is a skilled bridge-builder.
• Rev. Dr. John Van Eenwyk is a Ph.D. clinical psychologist and an Episcopal priest. He has solid experi-ence working with people who have suffered from political and physical violence in many parts of the world. He also founded the International Trauma Treatment Program, which this TV series has featured several times over the years.
