Rehabilitation Counseling

During my graduate studies, I had to grapple with my own perspectives on work, being disabled, and the systems that demand our labor, our energy, and our lives. I still am reflecting on how to be critical of our economic and social systems, while ultimately being complicit and essentially conscripting people into being a part of them. I do not dream of labor and I wish for all of us soft, loving, and manageable lives. This is not the reality for many people in this world, however, and my hope is that within these systems and all the injustices and inequities they entail, some meaning can be made, some empowerment can be gained, and some community can be found. 

One of the most meaningful and essential pieces of literature I read during my time in grad school was Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. This text outlines the necessity of intersectionality, radical access, and the development of care networks in the disability community. Mutual aid and community relationships are an integral part of building a more disability just world, and it can be done from the your bed or your couch, during recovery or periods of high energy. Letter writing, calls to congress, meal prep, child care, laundry, driving a friend to an appointment. These are all actions that impact much larger movements. Remember, big things start small.