Resource Center: #MeToo, A Community Conversation,1/17

14 Jan Resource Center: #MeToo, A Community Conversation,1/17

The San Miguel Resource Center is the Telluride region’s only nonprofit dedicated to victims of interpersonal violence, offering prevention education and treatment services to the greater Telluride community.

On Thursday, January 17, 5:30 p.m., at its offices across the street from Smuggler’s, (205 E. Colorado Avenue), the Resource Center hosts a community discussion about the cultural and personal impact of sexual assault and harassment on our lives. The talk about sexual misconduct in the Telluride region and the #MeToo movement is facilitated by clinical psychologists Drs. Susannah Smith and Marshall Whiting, collectively with about 80 years in practice. Both were founders of the Resource Center. Read on for more on the program and the doctors.

Here is a link to a video story about sexual harassment in the fashion industry. It was produced by political strategist/model Cleo Abram, whose The Short Version, a blog about hot topics in the socio-political arena, appears regularly on Telluride Inside… and Out.

And here is where to buy tickets for the Resource Center’s upcoming Chocolate Lovers’ Fling, which takes place Saturday, February 10. 

The names on the celebrated list include Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Reagan, Bush (both), Clinton and Obama; Pope John Paul II and Ghandi; Queen Elizabeth and Mme Chiang Kai-Shek; Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Pope John Paul II.

In 2017, however, Time’s Person of the Year was a collective: the “Silence Breakers,” the women who spoke out against sexual harassment and sexual assault in the workplace.

The honor recognized the on-going #MeToo movement that started in earnest with the sexual misconduct allegations against Hollywood mega-producer Harvey Weinstein, which came to light in October 2017. But story also features other women—ex-Uber engineer Susan Fowler, for one—who came forward even before then to publicly call out how they’d been mistreated at work.

Time magazine says the women who shared stories about sexual harassment and abuse through the #metoo campaign — the “silence breakers” — are its Person of the Year. Courtesy Time.

“This moment is borne of a very real and potent sense of unrest,” Time reported. “Yet it doesn’t have a leader, or a single, unifying tenet,” continuing:

“…This reckoning appears to have sprung up overnight. But it has actually been simmering for years, decades, centuries. Women have had it with bosses and co-workers who not only cross boundaries but don’t even seem to know that boundaries exist. They’ve had it with the fear of retaliation, of being blackballed, of being fired from a job they can’t afford to lose. They’ve had it with the code of going along to get along. They’ve had it with men who use their power to take what they want from women. These silence breakers have started a revolution of refusal, gathering strength by the day, and in the past two months alone, their collective anger has spurred immediate and shocking results: nearly every day, CEOs have been fired, moguls toppled, icons disgraced. In some cases, criminal charges have been brought…”

But it is not just women. Men are coming forward too.

Female or male, these “Silence Breakers” have emboldened others to come forward with their stories of uncomfortable comments, touching, molest or rape.

Though many have chosen silence because remembering is so painful, Telluride’s San Miguel Resource Center invites all community members – female, male, other – to join in a discussion about the personal and cultural impact of sexual harassment and abuse.

At this community gathering, Drs. Susannah Smith and Marshall Whiting hope to hear from attendees about our community’s role in prevention and healing and what services everyone thinks would be most beneficial in righting sexually oriented wrongs.

More about Dr. Susannah Smith:

Dr. Susannah Smith has been practicing clinical psychology for over 40 years. She is licensed in five states and board-certified with the National Register of Healthcare Providers. 

Dr. Smith serves as an expert witness and treating expert in areas of domestic violence, sexual assault, parenting, and family systems. 

She has been practicing out of Telluride and Ridgway since 1992. 

Dr. Smith was also a co-founders of the San Miguel Resource Center and of the domestic violence shelter on the Mississippi gulf coast, facilitating the development of protocols for interfacing with mental health, law enforcement, social services, and the judiciary.

More about Dr. Marshall Whiting:

Dr. Marshall Whiting is a clinical psychologist practicing for in Telluride for 25 years. She is a founding member of the San Miguel Resource Center and currently serves on its Board of Directors.  

Dr. Whiting does psychotherapy with individuals and couples. Her areas of therapeutic specialty include self-esteem, depression, relationships, transitions, domestic violence, grief and loss and psycho-spiritual crises.

Dr. Whiting has been board member of Project Concern International, the Faraway Foundation, Colorado Rocky Mountain School, along with having had several turns on the Resource Cnter’s board.