Bay College Instructor June Klees, Ph.D., shows guests different resources available to engage in more productive political conversations during the Civic Wellness: Your Patients, Your Practice discussion at Bay. (Escanaba Daily Press photo by Noah Johnson)

ESCANABA — Bay College hosted a group of health and wellness practitioners to discuss political toxicity and how it impacts the well-being of patients and their families recently.

The topic for the discussion was Civic Wellness: Your Patients, Your Practice.

The purpose of the event was to provide health and wellness providers with information, tips and resources to bring into their practices to help patients and clients experiencing health issues due to political toxicity in their lives.

Bay College instructor June Klees, Ph.D., led the discussion.

“Often the form that this comes in are rifts between family and friends,” Klees explained.

Klees introduced attendees to the U.S. Civic Wellness Movement, a nonpartisan effort aimed at reducing the harmful effects of political bullying and toxicity.

She said the average American is fed up with the political toxicity in the country, and they are now saying enough is enough.

“In reality, we actually are far more united on most things than we think, and it’s literally a trick of the mind. It’s a perception gap as the more in-common studies indicate,” Klees said.

She shaped the discussion around health and wellness professionals.

“I picked health and wellness providers because they’re on the front lines of this, dealing directly with clients,” she said.

Klees said political bullying and toxicity are not new concepts; they have been around for decades.

“The level of toxicity ebbs and flows throughout human history, throughout our history. I mean, we had a civil war. There’s nothing more toxic politically than that,” Klees said.

She compared the political toxins to a virus, saying it attacks and weakens individuals, requiring a combative response.

To help fight the “virus,” Klees pointed to a number of resources, including the Listen First Project, Braver Angels, Living Room Conversations, and RAFT, or Reuniting America by Fostering Trust.

Each organization provides tips and resources for individuals on how to participate in political conversations in a more productive manner.

RAFT, led by Team Democracy, is one Klees finds especially intriguing as the group pairs individuals who have different political beliefs and leanings to work together on a white water rafting trip. This is one example of how individuals are making an active choice not to entertain toxic or damaging conversations.

“It really comes down to all of us as individuals to make a choice,” Klees said.

One theme that stood out during the conversation involved social media and how it negatively impacts our mental health. Social media allows people to argue and bicker in a manner they perhaps would never do face to face.

Klees said she believes Americans have forgotten how to speak and listen to each other, even though we interact with people with different views and beliefs on a daily basis.

“In our everyday ordinary lives, we are coexisting and working and thriving, (and) volunteering, you know, with people of different political views all the time. We just kind of have amnesia a bit in this country at the moment about how to transfer some of those normal skills of getting along with each other and treating each other with respect,” Klees explained.

She said this conversation is about hope. It’s about believing in traditions in America that bring people together rather than traditions that tear us apart.

“You can look at our history, and you can examine the history division, but you can also very, very thoroughly examine the history of how people come together to facilitate constructive and positive change over time,” Klees said.

She reiterated that people in this country need to make the conscious choice to engage and connect with one another as Americans.

“It’s an individual choice that comes down to each of us and how we determine what our own level of civic engagement and whether we value community enough (to) really put these skills into practice where we live and with our own families,” Klees said.

She encourages those interested in developing a more productive political discourse to research organizations like the Listen First Project, Braver Angels, Living Room Conversations, and RAFT.

Klees plans on hosting more of this discussion with different practices, communities and organizations. She encourages anyone wanting to participate or host a discussion to reach out to her at Bay College.

Klees can be contacted via email at kleesj@baycollege.edu.