Exercise 6: Summary
Think about avoidance in the context of the common fear of the dentist. When you feel a pain in your tooth, the fear of a dental procedure may make you avoidant and skip routine appointment or fail to make one to get it fixed. Even if you have never had a dental procedure yourself, your fear may be caused by what you’ve heard from friends or family. Or perhaps you can’t afford to take time off work, don’t have dental insurance, or if you do you can’t afford the additional costs of a non-routine procedure. During this time, the pain is unlikely to subside, and you grow increasingly uncomfortable, and maybe you grow even more fearful of the additional shame or consequences that waiting has added onto your original problem. You know that going to a dentist’s appointment might relieve the pain, but your fear keeps you from doing it for days, sometimes weeks, and for some even months.
Going to court may feel like going to the dentist but might be even more challenging. You can make your own appointment at the dentist’s office, where courts most often schedule you. Your dentist’s office is probably in a location that makes sense for where you live or work. Further, even if temporarily uncomfortable, there is a reassurance that the dentist is likely to resolve the issue. However, the result of court appearances may be much less clear for a court user.
Building trust with your community cannot be done overnight or with a single change. Communication before, during, and after appearances is an important step to build trust with the individual user.