Side by Side: The Great Clubhouse Dynamic

Yaniz, Mairi

Working side by side is a central aspect of the Clubhouse model that unwinds people’s internal stigma about mental illness. The author Andy Wilson describes his experience from when he first started working as a staff for a Clubhouse to when he realized the importance of his supervisor’s advice to be a part of the Work Ordered Day and build relationships. Andy quickly learned that no amount of academic or work experience could prepare him for the unique environment of the Clubhouse, where members and staff work as colleagues. There is no playbook or training on how to build relationships with members, nor is it something intentional or that can be rushed. As Wilson put it, “you just get to know each other.” When people work together over time they build relationships.
Andy relates, “so this occurred to me, is why we work at the Clubhouse. Instead of talking about, and thinking about, and journaling about, and meditating about how we get better from our illness: we just are better. We contribute, we share our skills, we are needed, we are thanked; and it changes the way we think about ourselves.  I didn’t have to do anything- just work side by side the people.”
 

Yaniz Experience

This article resonates with my experience of starting out at the Clubhouse where my academic and work experience could not have prepared me for how the Work Ordered Day and relationship with members would change me. Before starting work at the Clubhouse, I experienced a lot of self doubt where I felt underqualified for such an important position. I was worried about whether I would be able to make meaningful contributions to the unit and create genuine relationships with members, while coping with my own mental health conditions and personal biases about mental illnesses. I expressed these feelings to my supervisor and they shocked me with their answer: You don’t have anything to prove that you’re competent for the position, just focus on building genuine relationships.
As a young, fresh faced, inexperienced college graduate I was faced with the challenge of not only learning about the Clubhouse model, but becoming one with the Clubhouse model. Once I started working side by side with members, I soon realized how relationships and community are at the core of everything we do at the Clubhouse. I didn’t have to worry about constantly producing outcomes and proving myself to be competent, I just had to be myself.
Working at the Clubhouse has helped me grow as a person and as a facilitator and members give me purpose by making my work valuable and meaningful each day, as we work side by side.
 

Mairi Experience

I joined soon after Yaniz started working at the Clubhouse. I was surprised by the Work Ordered Day and the idea of working side by side with staff. I had always had to prove I was improving and meet staff expectations of what I was supposed to be getting done at other programs. Here at the Clubhouse, I was treated like an equal. There were no expectations or pressure, I just had to come as myself to the clubhouse.
I started building relationships with staff and members alike, as I worked side by side with them. It came naturally. I didn’t just form a colleague relationship, I formed a friendship with Yaniz.  At one point I was going through a tough time. I was able to open up to her and get the support I needed to be able to continue to participate in the Work Ordered Day.
The side by side relationship has helped me with my self confidence, self esteem, and has empowered me to take lead in Clubhouse activities.
 

Conclusion

We would like to conclude the blog post with some profound quotes from Andy Wilson’s article:
“Members and staff working side by side with people build a real community of hope and opportunity.”
“The core of the Clubhouse model is that people with and without mental illness can work together to build a different kind of community; a community in which we don’t fix each other or even provide ‘services’ for each other. A community in which there is real hope, real dignity, real need, real opportunity; and in this kind of community people get better.”
“The side by side nature of the Clubhouse; the mutual need, shared responsibility, genuine respect- this is what makes relationships transcend the mundane and become the fertile ground for this kind of community.”
And this is the Clubhouse way: side by side.

Clubhouse Community

Mairi, Yaniz

Clubhouses are based on a strong sense of community. But what makes a clubhouse a community? Robby Vorspan of Fountain House, the original clubhouse in New York City, wrote an article about this.
Vorspan recalled one of the first executive directors, John Beard, who wanted the clubhouse to be based on acceptance, inclusion, and appreciation of what each member could do. A community is where everyone is involved in the work ordered day. There were not meant to be “insiders” or “outsiders”. A community is where everyone is equal.
Vorspan gives some examples of destructive practices such as setting hierarchies, committees, power structures, and exclusive policies delineating who has greater power than someone else. Some examples include voting on who is allowed to join based on the personal criteria of the members, committees deciding who gets to participate in TE opportunities, and disciplinary policies designating acceptable and unacceptable behaviors. These structures and organizations may work for big companies, the government, and even churches, but for the clubhouse it is destructive in nature.
“When some members are placed in power and authority to make critical decisions over others, it automatically casts other members as the ones who are being judged and assessed as worthy enough or not.”
“Creating any kind of formalized system in the clubhouse that asks members to pass judgements upon one another eats away at the roots of one of the most fundamental values of the clubhouse community.”
The Standards tells us that anyone with a mental health illness should be welcome in the clubhouse. An open and welcoming environment for those with mental health illnesses embodies Beard’s vision of a clubhouse where its members gain a sense of belonging and value. Creating an inclusive community is not an option, it is a central mission of the clubhouse. Unconditional acceptance is a basic tenet of clubhouse membership.
To create and sustain a restorative community a clubhouse needs to be vigilant about this equality.
It is up to us, as a clubhouse and people, to build communities that invite, welcome, and heal, and not clubhouses that assess, judge, and exclude. If we fail to do so, none of the opportunities we offer, offer any real opportunities at all.
Reference:
What makes a Clubhouse Communities True Clubhouse Communities?
By Robby Vorspan, ICCD
13IS Plenary Session 

http://clubhouse-intl.org/documents/vorspan_eng.pdf 

Un-Labeling Emotions as ‘Good’ or ‘Bad’

Yaniz, Mairi, Becky
 

The emotions we label as negative are actually neither good nor bad; they are a part of life and being a human with a full range of emotions. According to Tracy Kennedy:
“We need to provide a space to allow that life is going to be difficult, challenging and incredibly hard sometimes, which leads to uncomfortable or negative emotions. We need to learn to acknowledge, embrace, and understand what those emotions are trying to tell us. We need to learn the power and value of these emotions.”
What we consider as negative emotions is typically those emotions that make us feel badly or uncomfortable. Negative emotions are a part of a spectrum of feelings such as those found in the wheel of emotions created by Dr. Plutchik. 

The wheel shows degrees and relationships among these emotions.

While negative emotions feel bad, there are reasons why they are not all that bad because they help us realize when we need to make changes in our lives. Tracy Kennedy describes 7 reasons why negative emotions aren’t all that negative:

Negative emotions are a natural and unavoidable part of life as they help us cope with many everyday situations and challenges. Negative emotions act as a warning sign that something is not working for us and they help us identify areas in our life that need improvement.
“Negative emotions create a fire in your belly- they motivate you to be productive, solve problems, stand up for what you believe in, gain back your personal power and make changes that propel you- or maybe even society- in a different direction.”

For humans to live wholeheartedly we have to express our full range of emotions. Hiding or ignoring our emotions can lead to physical and emotional consequences whereas feeling our emotions allows us to release the feeling and move forward.
 

When we allow the feelings to arise and persist, they will pass. Grasping, clinging and pushing them down will always lead to unhappiness. By allowing yourself to feel everything you need to feel, you learn how to cope and build your toolbox of coping strategies. Learning effective coping skills allows you to feel stronger and more capable to deal with emotions in the future.
Experiencing some level of negative emotions is normal but when they become ongoing or excessive these emotions can be a signal that something much deeper needs to be addressed. We must feel the emotions. Listen to them. Acknowledge, honor, accept them. Seek to understand what they are trying to tell us, so we can harness them to live our best lives.

References:
Kennedy T. (2021). Why Negative Emotions Aren’t Bad (And How to Handle Them). Life Hack. https://www.lifehack.org/articles/communication/how-handle-negative-emotions.html