New Middlebury College Counseling Director Blames Mental Suffering on Whiteness, Heteronormativity

Are you ready for the mental health community to start diagnosing problems as symptoms of social justice? Because if history is any guide, this will eventually spill over into the real world.

The College Fix reports:

New Middlebury counseling director blames all psychic suffering on ‘whiteness, heteronormativity, patriarchal systems’The new student counseling director at Middlebury College has vowed to use “more inclusive” methods to treat student mental health, including a focus on white supremacy and social justice.Alberto Soto, who received his PhD. in counseling psychology from Brigham Young University, told the Middlebury Campus newspaper that counselors he worked with in the past often lacked “cultural competency.”“The body and mind cannot be healed solely by self-care and focusing on surviving,” Soto said. “At some point we must address and identify the source of all our psychic suffering, which is whiteness, heteronormativity, patriarchal systems, etc.”“To silo healing to a room and not consider the broader systemic dynamic is to ignore the oppression and injustices that impact our overall mental health,” Soto said.Soto declined numerous invitations by The College Fix to comment.Soto said his first steps will include, according to the paper, “increased and more inclusive outreach and mental health services for a diverse student population, as well as questioning Eurocentric ideas surrounding mental health.”He also said he “looks to challenge the historically-dominant whiteness in the Middlebury community in order to create a more open environment for students.”According to CollegeFactual.com, only about 3.8 percent of the 2,556 students at the Vermont liberal arts college are black. Around 10 percent of the students are Hispanic.Nearly 95 percent of the faculty at Middlebury is white.

Tags: College Insurrection, Middlebury College, Social Justice, Vermont

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