Yes and no. I would suggest that the treatment is a multi step process, because you simply cannot go from fear/division to empathy/reconciliation. Step one is to be able to voice the fear, without someone jumping down your throat. Example: A person says, “I am afraid of people of color in my community.” OK, that sounds pretty racist, but calling out the racism does nothing to get to anything close to empathy or reconciliation. After voicing that fear and even giving it a name, the person needs to be able to rationally examine it for what created and continues to sustain that belief and how true these really are. Already you can see the challenge we face, because the media continue to feed misinformation to sustain that belief (among the many fear based beliefs that every person of every race, gender, creed, and economic status hold true).

Nonetheless, if we have any chance at all, people of all races and economic classes need to be able to give voice to their fears and feel heard. That does not mean we all agree with each other. Not at all. It just means acknowledging that we all have fear based beliefs, and that we have reasons that are valid to us. Only then can the question be posed, “How true is that belief, really?”