BIPOC Clients
Bias and structural racism are embedded in the mental healthcare system and research.
We are doing our best to recognize this reality and respond to it in a way to ensure that your treatment is effective.
Our practice is committed to being an anti-racist practice that creates a space to explore therapy with a lens on race, gender, and class considering how power and privilege affect the everyday lives of people of color (POC).
You may have had thoughts like...
“Is the therapist going to make assumptions based on their bias?”
“Does my therapist work differently with BIPOC folks?”
“Does my therapist do their own anti-racism work?”
While bias is unavoidable, we are doing the work to minimize racist assumptions and micro-aggressions in the therapy room.
We actively work to understand how to apply the therapies we have learned using an anti-racist lens to dismantle and re-constitute how we do them.
Every therapist in this practice is doing their own anti-racism work personally and using this lens to examine our professional work.
All of us come from a perspective that includes historical knowledge and an understanding of the complexities of subtle racism.
“Being anti-racist means committing to identifying how racism manifests in social and cultural norms and how to address racism at the individual and structural levels.” Renee Smith-Maddox
"It is the shift into 'subtle' and 'institutional' forms that is a major challenge for therapists (and sufferers) to address in the consulting room.
The impact of racism, whether experienced as a one-off encounter, or an ongoing experience, can prove debilitating and even damaging to the well-being of an individual. But something that is all too often overlooked and under-appreciated is the importance of the capacity for resilience in the face of racism. So, in addition to holding on to the theme of resilience, therapists faced with the challenge of addressing racism need to be equipped with full working knowledge of the following key themes: racism as cultural trauma or 'the grinding down experience'; racism as undermining identity, or 'black identity wounding'; racism threatening relationships and leading to isolation or 'cultural shame'; and racism leading to an unhealthy attachment that allows transgenerational trauma to be kept alive, or 'the internal oppressor'". Alleyne, A. (2009). Working therapeutically with hidden dimensions of racism. Mental health in a multi-ethnic society: A multidisciplinary handbook.