What Therapy Centers Can Learn from Jollibee

One of the fondest memories I have of growing up is that of my grandmother giving me a Jollibee cheeseburger served with hot chocolate after coming home from school. I was 6 years old then. My parents were working in Saudi Arabia, where they lived with my brothers. It was lonely at times when I was all by myself. But my grandma giving me snacks after school was a simple yet constant, sweet reminder that I was loved.

Fast forward to many years later, and Jollibee is stronger than what it was. It now has branches around the world. It also partnered with other popular food chains. Moreover, it remains profitable despite the pandemic.

Jollibee is strong because it gets two things right. First, it captures both the Filipino palate and psychology very well. Second, it stays out of politics. While other Filipino businesses have been tailoring their Facebook ads to support certain presidential candidates, Jollibee issued a statement that it won’t be endorsing anyone.

Therapy centers should do the same. We should focus on developing culturally sensitive rehabilitative services to be more effective. We shouldn’t waste our time trying to be woke.

The idea of therapy centers becoming politicized sounds ridiculous. But it’s not far-fetched at all. The move towards the occupational justice model, the growing influence of cancel culture, and the decline of freedom globally are making it fashionable to force everyone to conform to the woke ideology. Leaders are ramming wokeness down our throats no matter how deadly it is. Consider, for instance, its impact on therapy centers’ sustainability and on national security.

A Partially Hypothetical Scenario

Let’s pretend that I was a pediatric therapy center owner who has an extremely unbalanced view of climate change. During an election campaign, I mobilized the clinicians working for me to promote a candidate who pushes for renewable energy. I then used my therapy center’s FB page to vilify people who didn’t like my candidate. When that politician won, they shut down nuclear power plants and electric companies that use fossil fuel.

At first, I gloated over all the allegedly immoral people who voted for pro-fossil fuel candidates. But then my therapy center experiences power outages. Why? Because renewables like wind and sunlight can’t generate enough electricity. Despite that, my electric bill keeps increasing because green energy is expensive. The eco-friendly toys and equipment that I have to buy from local businesses are also pricier than those that were manufactured through fossil fuel.

So how does my favorite politician solve this energy crisis? They might import oil from Vladimir Putin. They will also import products that our trading partners manufactured through Putin’s oil. That would include the therapy toys that were made in China. Because so many countries are buying oil and natural gas from Putin, we’ve enriched and empowered him enough to attack Ukraine — which he is doing now.

So not only did I speed up my therapy clinic’s demise. I’ve also become a national security threat to Ukrainians and Russians. Meanwhile, do I have standardized tests that are based on Philippine norms? Do I have a culturally sensitive practice model that’s more appropriate for my Filipino patients? A resounding “no” to both, because I’m wasting my therapy center's human and financial resources on climate change alarmism.

Staying True to What We Are

As individuals, we therapists are free to make any political stance that we want as long as it’s not treasonous. But we shouldn’t confuse our personal political preferences with the therapy centers’ roles.

We know that an establishment is a restaurant when it serves food. A parlor is where one gets a haircut. An engineering company erects structures. If they are to succeed, their employees must focus on delivering those services to the best of their abilities during work hours. After all, does a company have a right to be an engineering firm if its buildings collapse easily despite its support for a moral candidate?

Likewise, therapy centers are facilities where therapists remediate their patients’ impairments and compensate for their activity limitations. They better stay that way. Or else, why should persons with disabilities avail of their services? If therapy clinic owners want to reduce health inequities, they must hire even politically incorrect workers as long as the latter are competent. Moreover, they should invest their resources in understanding their clients better to develop culturally relevant services. Jollibee did that. That’s why it remains a popular international Filipino brand.

Thank you for making us feel loved, Jollibee!