217 - Christine Leone - Refusing To Bypass What Is Broken
“What it takes to make these kinds of changes, it's really just shaking the foundation and letting it fall apart.” - Christine Leone
The thing about labels is they inevitably peel away. What’s underneath can surprise, delight, or disappoint. Christine Leone, LCSW, has experience shining a light on realities folks would rather leave in the dark. As a child, she and her family left liberal NYC for Portland, OR, the little-big city advertised as a cultural and political utopia. In actuality, life in that PNW paradise was anything but. A social worker and therapist since 2008, Christina has relocated to Chicago, where she recently left the rigors of community mental health care for the freedoms afforded in private practice. She focuses on balancing self-care and community support while providing healing spaces for others.
“From a very young age, I always had a sense that something was not right, and I think that may be in part because of my cultural identity,” Christine observes. “Being half white and half Latina, I had a foot in different worlds and a window to different experiences.” This duality has placed her close to privilege and the problems inherent with unchecked power. In moving to Portland so her mother could attend law school, Christine and her family discovered that the city’s progressive patina obscured a very different––and dangerous––reality. “Under the guise of liberalism, there's definite, blatant racism,” Christine says, adding, “but I've discovered also that that's kind of everywhere.”
Portland’s right-wing problems play out in obvious, newsworthy ways. But Christine argues that it’s the less blatant, passive-aggressive racism embedded in well-meaning care systems that takes a more insidious toll. “In nonprofits and community mental health, there's a whole lot of talk about systemic change, doing the right things,” Christine acknowledges. “The talk sounds good––DEI initiatives and all of that. But folks are really just unable and unwilling, I don't wanna say unable, but unwilling to apply those things to themselves.”
This podcast exists because I’m desperate for therapists to do their own work, to break the cycle of harm we perpetuate with clients and each other. Christine agrees. “There's nothing more dangerous than a therapist who is unwell.”
It’s beyond time we unpack the systemic racism hidden beneath all those shiny labels.
RECOMMENDED LISTENING:
CHW116 - Dr. Roberto Che Espinoza - Activist Theology and Dismantling Supremacy Culture
CWH099 - Rachel Alexandria - The Enneagram Episode
CWH022 - Anjuli Shah-Johnson - A Serious Child Becomes a Great Therapist
CWH019 - Sarah Suzuki - You’re Not a Damaged Product
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
NARM - NeuroAffected Relational Model
Resmaa Menakem: Embodied Anti-Racist Education
GUEST BIO
Christine Leone has been a social worker and therapist since 2008. She was born in New York City, lived in Portland, OR, and has been settled in the Chicago area for over 20 years. For the last several years, she has been focused on creating a sense of home after divorce and seeking balance between self-care and community care while providing healing spaces for others. She currently lives with her eight-year-old son and partner of five years.
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www.headheartbiztherapy.com/podcast
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