During my 25 years as a therapist, I found that couples spoke in code. Nicknames, for example, often radiated unspoken layers of intimacy. When couples referred to each other by nicknames, they were reaching out their hands, a code for reconnecting. At other times in the course of a treatment, couples used code phrases to highlight their struggles. For instance, some said “I’m listening,” or “I hear you,” or “I want to understand” — and then their eyes glazed with a subtle film of distance as they emotionally checked out. For those folks, their phrases were codes for “I’m dismissing you.”
Throughout Donald Trump’s reign, I watched a parallel process emerge with mass shootings. A massacre would take place leaving people dead, wounded, traumatized. And what happened next? “Thoughts and prayers” — peppered through speeches, all over social media. “Thoughts-and-prayers” became a code phrase with the rough translation: “Let them pitch a fit, then they’ll lose momentum, then we can go back to ignoring the issue.”
I’m a strong supporter of thoughts and prayers. The capacity to think is a human gift. Prayers reflect belief systems which guide folks through this baffling world. However, the phrase “thoughts and prayers” has become the opposite of genuine thoughts and prayers. Those words have devolved into a brush off. Every time students are murdered in school, every time a bomb explodes in a public place, every time a mosque or a church or a synagogue is attacked, every time Black people are treated as though their lives don’t matter, every time racism is the underlying motivation for a violent crime, every time a person on the LGBTQ+ spectrum is assaulted, every time someone opens fire — all are followed by hailstorms of “thoughts and prayers” — which are then followed by nothing. “Thoughts-and-prayers” has emerged as our country’s newest code phrase for “I’m dismissing you.”
In my sessions as a therapist, I found that each couple had a unique code. When we cracked their specific code, then our work reached a new level. Going forward, I called a time out when those dismissive phrases were used. As we continued, couples learned to recognize the signs of disconnecting, and they called their own time outs. As their therapy progressed, they developed a healthy intolerance for being brushed off, and their dismissive code phrases tapered. They worked together, as a team, to set up a healthier set of emotional constructs. They felt stronger and safer, committed to repeating their mistakes Never Again.
Now our country needs to do the same. Donald Trump is no longer our president, but the mindset persists. #NeverAgain can make school shootings happen Never Again only when gun control becomes an issue of basic safety, not partisan politics. I write for the day when our country reinstates true thoughts and prayers — combined with integrity, laced with justice, founded on common sense.
#NeverAgain
Amy Kaufman Burk's Blog 