Thank you for writing this. We face the same challenges in the UK, which is why I have just resigned from my professional membership body, the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. I'm working on an essay about my reasons right now.
But staying and fighting and publicly shaming them? 100x better. You'd be a hero, you or anyone else who publicly decides to fight, like Naomi, rather than leaving. Tell THEM that THEY need to resign and leave. YOU'RE the one in the right.
What can they do? Kick you out? You were going to leave anyway.
I entirely understand, and I have thought long and hard about this. As an organisation degenerates, though, and no amount of complaining makes a difference, it is very hard to stay. The organisation can also make your life incredibly hard without kicking you out – disciplinary panels, professional audits etc. In this case, the vast majority of people cannot kick back because employment depends on membership. I am fortunate to be of an age and stage where I have some freedom. Eventually I found that, by virtue of being a member, I was in fact signed up to ways of working which run directly contrary to my own training, and established ethics. As psychologist and social commentator Rob Henderson wrote, a couple of years ago, in a review of a book about decline in institutions, "when exit is not available (tyrannical state), voice doesn't matter" (his brackets). That is where I felt I was. Thank you again for your thoughts, though – my essay will be posted soon.
Thank you for writing this. We face the same challenges in the UK, which is why I have just resigned from my professional membership body, the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. I'm working on an essay about my reasons right now.
Leaving is understandable.
But staying and fighting and publicly shaming them? 100x better. You'd be a hero, you or anyone else who publicly decides to fight, like Naomi, rather than leaving. Tell THEM that THEY need to resign and leave. YOU'RE the one in the right.
What can they do? Kick you out? You were going to leave anyway.
I entirely understand, and I have thought long and hard about this. As an organisation degenerates, though, and no amount of complaining makes a difference, it is very hard to stay. The organisation can also make your life incredibly hard without kicking you out – disciplinary panels, professional audits etc. In this case, the vast majority of people cannot kick back because employment depends on membership. I am fortunate to be of an age and stage where I have some freedom. Eventually I found that, by virtue of being a member, I was in fact signed up to ways of working which run directly contrary to my own training, and established ethics. As psychologist and social commentator Rob Henderson wrote, a couple of years ago, in a review of a book about decline in institutions, "when exit is not available (tyrannical state), voice doesn't matter" (his brackets). That is where I felt I was. Thank you again for your thoughts, though – my essay will be posted soon.