Solidarity with Autistics in Therapy-Mutual Accompaniment.

What is Mutual Accompaniment?

"To accompany someone is to go somewhere with him or her, to break bread together, to be present on a journey with a beginning and

an end. There's an element of mystery, of openness, of trust, in accompaniment. the companion, the accompagnateur, says: "I'll go with you and support you on your journey wherever it leads. I'll share your fate a while--and by 'a while', I don't mean a little while." Accompaniment is about sticking with a task until it's deemed completed--not by the accompagnateur, but by the person being accompanied."

-Paul farmer

Solidarity

"I don't believe in charity; I believe in solidarity. Charity is vertical, so it's humiliating. It goes from top to bottom. Solidarity is horizontal. It respects the other and learns from the other. I have a lot to learn from other people. Each day I'm learning. Soy un curioso. I'm a curious man." -Eduardo Galeano

Psychoanalysis

"Self-reflection is not a turn inward but a turn toward otherness" -Kelly Oliver

Liberation Psychology

"The choice is between accompanying or not accompanying the oppressed majorities....This is not a question of whether to abandon psychology; it is a question of whether psychological knowledge will be placed in the service of wretchedness of the many, where the fulfillment of some does not require that others are deprived, where the interests of the minority do not demand the dehumanization of all" --Ignacio Martin-Baro

I encourage you to read the works of the people quoted. And, these quotes were taken from my mentor's beautiful book, Mutual Accompaniment and the Creation of the Commons:

https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300236149/mutual-accompaniment-and-the-creation-of-the-commons/

Mutual accompaniment has been a powerful option for deep healing, connection, and support and is overall a healthy therapy for autistics and people with disabilities. There are stories and examples in Watkin's book.

mutual accompaniment includes nature, animals and the ecopsychological

Mutual accompaniment is horizontal, not vertical; it's true compassion and acceptance, it's commitment from the heart and a being with that produces a healing place of protection for both clinicians and clients to travel together.

Autistics need healing places like the ones mutual accompaniment can provide, where they are not "autistic", where they can sense themselves and the world without disruptions from an "expert", a behavioral treatment, a condescending or infantilizing tone or utterance, a pathological or allistic gaze, or the deprivation of responsibility from others that refuse to acknowledge the harm from these ways of being.

Mutual accompaniment is not new. I urge you to be a part of bringing mutual accompaniment back by learning more, it is deeply needed for autistics in therapy. And, it's deeply needed for clinicians themselves-it's humbling honesty and compassion-centric nature are medicine for all of us.

For mutual accompaniment therapy with me:

kristina-bravo@outlook.com

737-825-5005

Ecologies of Autism YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@KristinaBravoLMFT