Colin Lago and Divine Charura 1

Praise for Black Identities and White Therapies

This book speaks of the profound need to address the shortcoming of racial
competency in therapeutic training and professional practice. It represents both
a call and an opportunity to challenge the profession on its lack of awareness and
inclusion. It offers contributions from Black, brown and people of colour, providing
a range of thinking on race and ensuring this remains a fundamental element of
professional practice. It offers us the opportunity to change, to progress, to recognise
the vast gaps in our knowledge and to become anti-racist and fit for purpose.
Integral to this book is a recognition of the role of intersectionality and how the lived
experience is reflected in complex identities. This insightful book will hold its value
and usefulness long after the first read, reminding us to challenge exclusion, reflect
on our practice and address our own positions of power and privilege.
Susan Cousins, author of Overcoming Everyday Racism

Divine Charura and Colin Lago have brought together many of the leading
thinkers and practitioners in multicultural counselling to review how we prepare
ourselves to work with racial difference. The truth is that for many of us, this is the
uncomfortable territory of power and privilege, of unsettling lack of knowledge
and experience. As counsellors, we may limit our authenticity through fear of
offending. As tutors, we may lack the sure-footedness to lead our students into this
difficult terrain. This must change.
Janet Tolan, counsellor/psychotherapist, supervisor, tutor and author

This impressive book makes a major contribution to theory and practice in an area
that has been ignored or neglected for far too long. It considers this systemic failure
as well as suggesting ways forward for the profession. A wealth of experience,
diverse trainings and experiences as counsellors/therapists and a multiplicity of
helpful perspectives are presented. It will encourage debate, critical review and
consideration of some long-held assumptions and contribute to ensuring that
Black lives do matter in counselling and training. The book is packed full of
information presented in a clear, accessible and informative manner. It should be
on the bookshelf of every training institution and counsellor.
Rachel Tribe is a chartered counselling and occupational psychologist and
professor of applied psychology at the University of East London and Queen
Mary, University of London

This book carries a bold message that revolves around one word, ‘change’. The
unique contribution of each author lies in the variety of practical, innovative,
experiential and imaginative ways they offer, based on their own research and
practice, to meet the varying needs of racially and ethnically different clients. The
authors invite therapists, trainers and supervisors alike to reflect and question
their practice critically, examine the roots of their values and beliefs and, most
importantly, learn and unlearn continually to change their way of working. This
exceptionally good book will be inspirational and beneficial to both new and
2 Black Identities and White Therapies

experienced practitioners in the field of psychotherapy, a useful guide for individual

therapists and a tremendous resource for trainers.
Shukla Dhingra, counsellor, supervisor and trainer

Black Identities + White Therapies speaks to the urgency of addressing the impact
of racism when training counsellors and psychotherapists. Those who are racially
marginalised are already over-represented as patients in the mental health system
but under-represented as clients in counselling and psychotherapy. Racially
marginalised communities have borne the brunt of the Covid pandemic. If the
profession is to have any hope of meeting the needs of those who are grieving and
suffering long-term illness, burn-out and severe economic stress, on top of the
psychological stress that results from living in a hostile atmosphere, we need to
knuckle down and do the work now. This book could not be more timely.
Rose Cameron, author of Working with Difference and Diversity in Counselling
and Psychotherapy

What an emotive and thought-provoking read! The authors are unapologetic in their
call for accountability, challenging colour-blindness, highlighting implications for
therapists, trainers/trainees, supervisors and therapy organisations. We agree with
the contributors that it would be grossly negligent for us not to critically explore
issues of identity, oppression and race in all therapeutic relationships. These
explorations call upon us to continually consider how we are with our own and
others’ identities, and what this means personally, interpersonally and structurally.
The authors give us guidance on how we might validate experiential realities as
we work towards inclusive models of practice. Their guidance is peppered with
examples and references that resonate on a personal and professional level while
attempting to de-colonise and dismantle hierarchies with the turn of each page.
The sensitive facilitation of these necessary conversations makes this book essential
reading for practitioners.
Kerese Collins, lecturer (counselling & psychotherapy), Keele University, and
co-host of ‘My Wife is a Therapist’ podcast; Sally Chisholm, lecturer (counselling
& psychotherapy), Keele University, and tutor, Metanoia Institute

Yet another splendid book jointly edited by Divine Charura and Colin Lago and
demanding not just a place on our bookshelves, but nothing less than the undivided
attention of the therapeutic community. This book is testimony to the harm caused
by the failure of therapeutic professions to adequately address the complexities
of encounter with diversity in more than theoretical terms. Particularly those
of us who are trainers have the option of jealously guarding our current mode
of teaching or hearing the call of this book to think more broadly and act more
creatively. Collectively, the contributors provide insight and encouragement to face
uncomfortable encounters and difficult conversations in order to traverse a bumpy
but promising terrain and also facilitate a more relevant training environment.
Andrea Uphoff, primary tutor, Metanoia Institute
 Colin Lago and Divine Charura i

Black
Identities +
White
Therapies
Race, respect + diversity

Edited by
Divine Charura
and Colin Lago
ii Black Identities and White Therapies

First published 2021

PCCS Books Ltd

Wyastone Business Park
Wyastone Leys
Monmouth
NP25 3SR

[email protected]
www.pccs-books.co.uk

This collection © Divine Charura and Colin Lago, 2021

The individual chapters © the contributors, 2021

All rights reserved.

Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or
review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication
may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or by any means, only with the
prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction,
in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.
Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.

The authors have asserted their right to be identified as the authors of this work in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Black Identities and White Therapies: Race, respect and diversity

British Library Cataloguing in Publication data: a catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library.

ISBNs Paperback 978 1 910919 89 7

ePub 978 1 910919 90 3

Cover design Jason Anscomb

 Colin Lago and Divine Charura iii

Contents

Preface ix
Colin Lago and Divine Charura

1 Race, culture and ethnicity: A systemic failure of attention in the 1

psychotherapy profession?
Colin Lago and Divine Charura
2 The cultural complexity of training counsellors abroad: The case of 18
Afghanistan
Lucia Berdondini, Ali Ahmad Kaveh and Sandra Grieve
3 Can you talk about race without going pink or feeling 27
uncomfortable?
Delroy Hall
4 Exploring the racial self in counselling training 38
Billie-Claire Wright
5 An anti-racist counselling training model 52
Courtland C. Lee
6 ‘Look in the mirror... and just below the surface’: Critical reflection, 65
personal stories and training implications
Valerie Watson
7 ‘Where are you from?’ The effects of racism and perceived 77
discrimination on people of colour
Priscilla Dass-Brailsford
8 Re-imagining the space and context for a therapeutic curriculum – 88
a sketch
Robert Downes and Foluke Taylor
9 Twin tribes: Exploring unconscious privilege and otherness in 98
counselling and psychotherapy
Dwight Turner
10 Lifting the white veil of therapy 107
Neelam Zahid
11 The legacy of colonial history and the ongoing challenge to 119
therapist training and practice
Vedia Maharaj
iv Black Identities and White Therapies

12 Towards the re-emergence of meaning: Existential contributions to 128

working with refugee clients
Benjamin Mark Butler
13 Who is transforming what? Ideas and reflections on training, 140
practice and supervision in radical mode
Carmen Joanne Ablack
14 Negotiating the Faustian pact: A psycho-social approach to 152
working with mixed-race people
Yvon Guest
15 Developing a diversity-sensitive psychoanalytic and 163
psychodynamic psychotherapy: Personal and professional
reflections
Lennox K. Thomas
16 Colour blindness as microaggression: Perspectives on race and 174
ethnicity in counselling and psychotherapy training and practice
Mark Williams
17 Towards a decolonised psychotherapy research and practice 185
Divine Charura and Colin Lago
18 Religion, therapy and mental health treatment in diverse 199
communities: Some critical reflections and radical propositions
Rachel-Rose Burrell
19 Race and cognitive dissonance: Could supervision be a way of 213
connecting tutors to students?
Fiona A. Beckford
Postscript 224
Divine Charura and Colin Lago
About the contributors 234
Name index 241
Subject index 248
 Colin Lago and Divine Charura v

Dedication
This book is dedicated to the memory of Lennox Thomas,
who sadly passed away while it was still in preparation.

Some months previously, Lennox had enthusiastically responded to our

invitation to contribute a chapter and, right on time, he delivered a first
draft, professional as ever.

As his chapter in the book demonstrates, from a young man onwards, he was
always deeply motivated and concerned that all psychotherapists – indeed,
all caring professionals – should pay great attention to their work with
people from all communities. He was one of the early pioneers in the UK to
stimulate thought, reflection and, subsequently, training in this arena.
He is sorely missed.
vi Black Identities and White Therapies
 Colin Lago and Divine Charura vii

Acknowledgements
Our thanks go to Catherine (Jackson, our commissioning editor), who has been an
enthusiastic and committed supporter of this book, to Pete and Maggie (Sanders,
of PCCS Books), who have long championed the publication of critical texts in
counselling and psychotherapy, and to all the PCCS Books team.
As you will have noticed on the Dedication page, we were deeply saddened
by the passing of one of our chapter writers as we were preparing the final text.
Lennox Thomas has been a distinctive voice in the professional field of counselling
and psychotherapy for more than four decades and we both deeply respected and
valued his continued commitment to effective and sensitive therapeutic practice
with clients of all diversities. He is sorely missed by his family, friends, immediate
colleagues and all those privileged to have been taught and known by him.
We are, of course, deeply grateful to all the colleagues who have contributed
their thoughts and experiences to this volume. While committing enthusiastically
to the project, some authors remarked on the anxiety and fear they experienced in
writing their critiques and developments. Growing beyond our inherited theoretical
models and daring to envisage and publish modified and radical developments
based on our own clinical and life experiences is a courageous and valuable act. We
thank you, the authors.

Colin writes: Working with Divine on this project has been such a source of
stimulation and joy. Since first meeting at a weekend training seminar in 2006,
we have co-operated on several training programmes, various writing projects
and even made an academic visit to Cambodia in 2019, where we lent support
to the first university-based, two-year counselling training programme there. At
the time of writing, Divine has recently been appointed to a Chair in Counselling
Psychology at York St. John University – a position that fully reflects and merits his
professional commitment and passion to the mental health and therapeutic needs
of others. I am deeply grateful for his friendship, support and enthusiasm. He is a
joy to be with and to work with. Thank you, Divine.
As always, I am continually grateful to my wife, Gill, who puts up with my
absence on many evenings while I am trying to write. To my immediate family –
James, Rebecca, Martin and grandson Luke – I am indebted for their support, love
and care.
In the preparation of this project, I have inevitably cast my mind back to the
early days of my career (the 1980s), in which I became involved with dear colleagues
like Jean Clark, Joyce Thompson, Roy Moodley, Josna Pankhania, Bill Hall, Shukla
Dhingra, Christine Rowe, Shantu Watt (and many more), in the Race and Culture
Sub-committee of what was then the British Association for Counselling. Since
then, I have enjoyed co-operations with many colleagues in the field committed to
diversity sensitivity. I hope they forgive me for not mentioning them all by name,
but their spirit, dedication and commitment continue to sustain me in this pursuit
of enhancing and improving our therapeutic activities across the wide range of
diversity within society.
viii Black Identities and White Therapies

Divine writes: There are so many people I need to express my gratitude to, but
space does not allow me to name them all individually. First, I would like to say
thank you to Colin, whose passion for diversity has taught me so much. Your work,
writing and commitment to equality, difference and human rights are a true gift to
our profession.
As always, a special dedication goes to my supportive and loving family: my
father, Alois, and mother, Letisia, who have lived through many revolutionary
movements, including experiencing apartheid. Their commitment to continue to
champion love, respect and equality for all in our community in Leeds and beyond
is exemplary.
I am deeply grateful to Helen, Elizabeth Rudo, Alois Rufaro, David, Tatenda,
Krisandra, Talent, Elizabeth, Enock, Naomi, Dawn, Hannah, Steve Paul and
Courtland Lee for their unending support and teaching me so much about the
importance of speaking and writing about identity, equality and diversity.
Last, I am thankful to my colleagues at York St. John University and the Tower
Clinic, whose values on social justice speak truth.
 Colin Lago and Divine Charura ix

Preface
Colin Lago and Divine Charura

During the 1980s when I tried to promote the work of Soweto artists in
Europe and the United States, a Belgian gallery owner bluntly told me to
advise the African artists not to paint people so often. I wondered how
it would be possible to redirect the motif of artists for whom the core of
existence was anchored in belonging?
Len Holdstock, Love: Carl Rogers, my wife and I (In review)

If we do not know how to meaningfully talk about racism, our actions will
move in misleading directions.
Angela Y. Davis, Freedom is a Constant Struggle (2016)

The genesis of this book is inevitably embedded in the lived experiences and personal
philosophies of the joint editors, of the publishers and of all the contributors.
Early and enthusiastic conversations with PCCS Books envisioning such a book
initially took place in the early summer of 2019, some time before (but perhaps, in
some way, anticipating) the worldwide uprisings of anger and disillusionment that
followed the murder of George Floyd (and, sadly, many others since in the US) and
the world-wide invigoration of the Black Lives Matter movement. We suspect that
historians in the future will note the momentous international shifts in awareness,
attitudes and actions that have taken place, and are continuing, following these
landmark events in the pursuit of equality and the eradication of discrimination
across many societies.
While the background to this book lies within this broader sociological reality
of gross social injustices over centuries to peoples of minority identity, its specific
focus is on the world of counselling and psychotherapy.
Our intention has been to include chapters written from a range of therapeutic
perspectives that critique current training and professional practice in the context
of diversity generally, and more specifically in relation to issues of ethnicity, culture
and race. As joint editors, we deliberately sought writers who, in the main, were
x Preface

of ethnic and culturally diverse heritage, living in the UK, and who, through
their personal and professional experiences, had come to consider and develop
critiques of how contemporary therapist activity and training were delivered.
We wanted to stimulate debate on the existing theories and practice of therapy
and how these are restrictive and discriminatory within the context of a multi-
cultural and multi-ethnic society. We wanted to invite writing about ideas and
pioneering developments in professional practice to inform training curricula that
more adequately prepare therapy students to respond sensitively and in culturally
appropriate ways to clients of diverse cultural and racial identities.
We chose these contributors because we knew and respected them and their
work and could see how the overarching aspects of their particular perspectives and
interests could link together in this volume. In some cases, they are colleagues with
whom we have co-operated over many years through writing, training and so on.
Others we met during their research programmes and/or their attendance at training
courses with which we were involved. Some colleagues, through their professional
contributions over decades, have demonstrated a life-long commitment to the overall
subject of this book. Some were recommended to us. Others impressed us through
their publications. With some, we shared commonalities professionally (student
counselling, university lecturing, supervision). With others, we were initially brought
together through our work with professional bodies, such as the United Kingdom
Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP), the British Association for Counselling and
Psychotherapy (BACP) and the British Psychological Society (BPS).
The spread of authors in this book ranges from colleagues relatively new to
writing through to those who have published extensively. All are deeply committed
to improving and enhancing the sensitivity and quality of therapy delivery
specifically within the arena of ethnic, race and cultural diversity. Hailing mainly
from ‘minority’ cultural/ethnic origins, they draw on their early life experiences
and combine these with their thoughts, ideas, visions and assertions that are both
appreciative and critical of what has been and innovative and radical in their
arguments for change, innovation and development.
A continuing theme throughout the book is the view that there is a general
lack of quality training in general and content in introductory and foundation
courses on diversity, culture and ethnicity. This is despite a generally supportive,
strong, verbal and ethical commitment to addressing issues of diversity within
such courses that is repeatedly declared by the various professional bodies. One
weekend – or indeed just one day – on ‘diversities’ across the board may be all
that students experience on courses of three years’ duration or more. Thus, current
and future professional practice is stagnating due to the neglect of issues pertinent
to increasing both the numbers of people from diverse backgrounds entering
and completing training and the numbers of clients of diverse backgrounds and
ethnicities using counselling and psychotherapy.
There is a parallel paucity of workshops and courses offered for continuing
professional development. This vacuum leaves practitioners of the future ill
equipped and insensitive to the multiplicity of relational dynamics and power issues
 Colin Lago and Divine Charura xi

potentially present in working with diverse clients. And yet we live in a society
where equality of opportunity has been fought for and legislated extensively – a
society rich in diversity. It is a contradiction in terms to claim that the helping
professions aspire to be helpful to all clients when we are, as a profession, apparently
systematically ignoring the needs of those from diverse communities. With such
a situation, the combined psychological helping professions could be accused of
serious philosophic, practice, moral and ethical negligence.
This book, then, constitutes a collation of chapters that are a call and challenge
to the profession to consider, discuss, debate and develop more inclusive models
of theory and practice; to move beyond the cultural zeitgeist in which the theories
first emerged and fully embrace and reflect the contemporary composition and
needs of society today, and to put what emerges into practice, both in our own
education and training and in our work. This book really does set out to decolonise
the profession from its roots and origins. Each chapter raises questions and
challenges for all therapeutic practitioners, whatever their specialist roles (trainers,
therapists, supervisors, researchers), to attend to and reflect on their personal and
professional attitudes and behaviours in relation to clients of all heritages and
origins. The overarching themes underpinning the book are related to issues of
race,1 ethnicity and heritage and aim to instigate enhanced therapist sensitivity,
knowledge, awareness and competence. We, the editors and authors, share a fear
of a perpetuation of discrimination, racism, oppression and other discriminatory
behaviours by counsellors and psychotherapists unwilling to address their relational
attitudes towards different ‘others’.
A review of the chapters reveals an emerging constellation of interconnected
themes. Not unlike the astronomer who studies a particular part of the night
sky, the deeper one looks, the more stars, planets, comets, asteroids and moons
are revealed. Implications and recommendations for the enhanced training of
therapists feature in many chapters (those by Delroy Hall, Billie Claire-Wright,
Courtland Lee, Val Watson, Dwight Turner, Neelam Zahid, Carmen Joanne
Ablack, Fiona Beckford and Mark Williams). These recommendations are
proposed in the context of the experience of discomfort with race as an extremely
challenging issue, particularly for white people, leading frequently to avoidance
or rationalisation of the issue in training settings. Courtland Lee’s chapter uses
an anti-racism training perspective that was briefly popular in the British context
in the early 1980s. British proponents of that training were deeply convinced
then that some of the conceptual ideas and training methods originally envisaged
by early writers such as Judy Katz (1978; Katz & Ivey, 1977) were both creative
and pertinent. Courtland’s chapter revives and updates this ‘anti-racist’ training
perspective.
Under the ‘umbrella’ of the training dimension, ideas are suggested, approaches
are offered, content is envisaged and context and relevance are discussed.

1. In referring to ‘race’, it is important to note that we do not regard it as a physiological entity, a fact, but
rather as a sociological construct.
xii Preface

Contextual congruence – that is, aligning, modifying and creating new theories of
practice that incorporate the multicultural, multi-identity nature of contemporary
society – is strongly advocated.
Professional practice is also discussed from a multiplicity of angles. Many
chapter authors reference their own autobiographical origins and experiences
and note their transitional movements of theoretical perspective during their
careers (Lennox Thomas, Mark Williams, Vedia Maharaj). Some use fictional
imagination (Robert Downes and Foluke Taylor). Poetry illuminates. Stories and
incident reflections are examined (Val Watson). Issues related to belief systems
and spirituality are brought forward (Benjamin Mark Butler, Rachel-Rose Burrell,
Delroy Hall). Supervision and therapy case examples are discussed (Carmen Joanne
Ablack). Concepts are drawn from world influences other than white, European,
colonialist ideas and philosophies (Vedia Maharaj, Neelam Zahid, Delroy Hall).
Val Watson’s compilation of the factors that clients have taught her they want
from therapy importantly draws our attention to the centrality of the client’s
experiencing. And all the contributors have offered poetry, quotes and extracts
they have found inspirational in their own personal and professional journeys.
These we have gathered together in the short postscript that closes the book.
Within this panoply of writings, a myriad of issues is discussed and explored.
They include unconscious privilege, ‘othering’, microaggressions, broaching,
racism, discrimination, the search for meaning, identity complexity, intersectional
understanding, heritage, biases and projections, trauma, intergenerational trauma,
introjections, projection and decolonisation of the curriculum.
Several chapters consider the context within which colleagues work. In the
international arena, Lucia Berdondini, Ali Kaveh and Sandra Grieve describe their
work in Afghanistan. What are the implications and considerations for conducting
training courses in other countries? Given that this context is often one of war, terror,
trauma and consequent psychological distress, yet also one of strong government
support for counselling training, important and thorny questions are raised for
Western trainers as to how they respond to such invitations, what they might teach
and how they can ensure the transmission of culturally appropriate curricula and
the maintenance of such trainings after they have left. Others look closer to home to
ask how one might positively benefit the mental health of particular communities
in their own context where they naturally assemble. Rachel-Rose Burrell gives
an account of her community activity work within the Black majority churches.
Benjamin Mark Butler focuses on the refugee community and the importance of
their search for meaning against the backdrop of the trauma of their journeys and
the continuing fear, insecurity and material deprivation of their lives now.
To conclude, we believe this is an urgent call to the profession to develop more
inclusive models of theory and practice – a call that extends to every counsellor,
psychotherapist and counselling psychologist to review their professional practice
to ensure a truly sound fit between the aspirations of our professional calling,
our theories and the contemporary needs of our multi-ethnic, multiracial and
multicultural society.
 Colin Lago and Divine Charura xiii

A note on terminology
We have used a range of descriptive terms in the following pages that, to some
extent, reflect the complexity of language usage over time. Various descriptors, such
as ‘Black, Asian and minority ethnic’, ‘minority groups’ and ‘diverse communities’
are used by the contributors to the book. We have not used the common acronym
‘BAME’ as we believe it collapses the wealth of diversity in the communities this
book addresses into an unhelpful shorthand and runs contrary to the celebration
of that wealth to which we hope this book contributes.
Over time, descriptions such as ‘cross-cultural counselling’, ‘multicultural
counselling’, ‘transcultural counselling’, ‘therapy across culture’, ‘diversity-sensitive
practice’ and ‘anti-discriminatory counselling practice’ have all been used in the
counselling and psychology literature. We have, where relevant, retained the
descriptions used by the originating theorists.
We have also variously used terms such as counselling, psychotherapy,
counselling psychology and therapy as descriptors of the professional activities we
are discussing. We are aware of the varied perspectives and attitudes practitioners
and theorists bring to the meaning of these terms but have deliberately chosen
to use them all as broad descriptors of the psychological therapeutic activity that
occurs between professional practitioner and their clients.
In all the above usages, we have tried to use the terminology sensitively,
appropriately and creatively, to avoid inappropriate repetition in the text.

Colin and Divine

References
Davis, A.Y. (2016). Freedom is a constant struggle: Ferguson, Palestine and the foundations of a
movement. Haymarket Books.
Holdstock, L. (Under review). Love: Carl Rogers, my wife and I: a biotherapy.
Katz, J.H. (1978). White awareness: Handbook for anti-racism training. University of Oklahoma
Press.
Katz, J.H. & Ivey, A.E. (1977). White awareness: The frontier of racism awareness training. Personnel
and Guidance Journal, 55(8), 485–488.)
 Colin Lago and Divine Charura 1

1 Race, culture and ethnicity: A systemic failure

of attention in the psychotherapy profession?
Colin Lago and Divine Charura

And so we lift our gazes not to what stands between us, but what stands
before us.
We close the divide because we know, to put our future first, we must first
put our differences aside.
(From ‘The Hill We Climb’ by Amanda Gorman, presented at the
inauguration of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the US)

I woke up this morning with the following words rattling round in my brain: ‘Rage
is the name, protest is the game.’ These were swiftly followed by memories of images
of protesters in Bristol, in the summer of 2020, pulling down the statue of the slave
trader Edward Colston in the Black Lives Matter protests that took place in more
than 260 towns and cities in the UK – ‘the largest anti-racism protests in Britain for
centuries’ (Mohdin & Storer, 2021).
Then I remembered yesterday’s news item on Holocaust Memorial Day, the UK’s
national day of commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. The TV
screen was filled with views of concentration camps and old film footage of Jewish
prisoners herded together. The interviews with survivors were heart-wrenching.
Such gross human atrocities are not just something that happened in the long-time
past. Almost a quarter of the Cambodian population were brutalised and murdered
between 1975 and 1979; an estimated 800,000 Tutsi people were massacred in the
Rwandan genocide in 1994; some 80,000 Muslim men and boys were slaughtered in
Bosnia in 1995; inestimable numbers died in Darfur in 2003, and more recently we
have witnessed the persecution and genocide of the Rohingya people in Myanmar in
2017, and so many other such acts of inhumanity besides.
Yesterday we were told that the number of deaths in the UK in the Covid-19
pandemic had exceeded 100,000. It is widely reported that the combination of
impoverished circumstances and ‘minority identity’ has had a discriminatory impact
on those who have caught the virus and died, including a disproportionate number of
NHS staff of Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds.
2 Race, culture and ethnicity

These words were written by Colin as we were finalising the chapters of this book
in early 2021. The history of institutionalised hate, oppression and discrimination
goes back throughout time and they continue, sadly, to live on today.
The above paragraphs graphically, though briefly, illustrate the social context
against which we put this book together. They sketch the stark backdrop of the
transmission of negative attitudes within society that have been systematised,
sanctioned and authorised over centuries. Such attitudes and behaviours have
perpetuated the projection of ‘othering’. They have ensured the dire consequences
of gross social injustices and violence.
The contrast between the opening positive lines from Amanda Gorman’s
poem and Colin’s waking thoughts encapsulate the spectrum of attitudes and
behaviour, of dreams and nightmares, of actions and consequences that are
embodied in the dynamics of society and in every one of us, as individuals – we are
all inextricably connected to cultural and ethnic groupings. And this book is born
from and all about the interactions of individuals. More precisely, the book aspires
to disseminate ideas and perspectives drawn from the combined experiencing
of all the chapter authors, all counsellors and psychotherapists, with the aim of
contributing to enhanced, humane, sensitive and respectful professional therapy
practice with all members of contemporary society.
The following chapters, many written by colleagues from diverse communities,
are testimony to the resilience, perseverance and sheer commitment of colleagues
in the professional field of counselling and psychotherapy who have undergone, in
recent decades, a variety of differing traditional trainings before becoming trainers
and therapists themselves. This book evidences, first, how the broad professional
sector of counselling, psychology and psychotherapy has frequently failed to
meaningfully incorporate multicultural diversity into its training, theory and practice
(Turner, 2021), and second, how ‘minority voices’ have, on their own, often outside
the mainstream, forged ahead and developed new perspectives and ideas.
In this chapter, we will briefly look at:
• the challenges to counselling and psychotherapy posed by issues of
race, ethnicity, diversity and difference
• the contradictions between ethical commitment and actual training
practice within the profession
• some early British contributions to the literature and training (1980–2010)
• the American influences on the UK as regards sensitivity to
multicultural diversity in therapy (from the 1970s onwards)
• more recent developments in ‘transcultural therapy’ emerging from
within the British cultural context
• the contributions made to practice and research by writers of Black,
Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds
• the more recent explosion of writings (2015 onwards) reflecting
various life issues faced by those in minority ethnic groups and the
 Colin Lago and Divine Charura 3

ongoing resistance from white people to fully acknowledging their

defensive reactions to these issues.
• the continued challenges within training in this arena and the
emergence of newer theoretical concepts.

Early ‘multicultural’ initiatives in the profession

You are not providing a service to anybody if you are not providing it to
everybody. (Williams, 2019)

The sole delegate of Asian heritage attending a national conference on counselling

in education in the late 1970s made an impassioned plea to her fellow participants
to make the field of counselling more open and accessible to all members of our
society. She was ‘sick of being the only one’ and criticised attitudes and stories in
the profession that were discriminatory, oppressive and hurtful. Familiar claims
of the universality of counselling approaches as applicable to all people held little
sway for her and did not reflect her own (and many others’) experiences.
This brave speaking out garnered the support of other participants, who joined
together with others similarly concerned to form what eventually became known
as the Race Awareness in Counselling Education (RACE) division of the British
Association for Counselling (now, with the addition of psychotherapy to its title,
BACP), which, incidentally, subsequently dedicated its 1979 annual conference
to the theme of ‘Counselling and Minority Groups’ (Clark, 2010). From these
various initiatives emerged cross-disciplinary discussions (with social work and
transcultural psychiatry) and several early articles and ideas about approaches to
training, including video-based training resources developed by Clark and Lago
(1984),Lago and Thompson (1994)and Dhillon-Stevens (2004a).
While space constrains any substantial exposition of this ‘history’, we want to
briefly acknowledge these early expressions of professional concern, creativity and
interest in the British ‘multicultural’ counselling arena. Parallel trajectories of special
interest groups within the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) and
the British Psychological Society (BPS) also occurred during this period.
This heightened awareness of need also translated into the formation of
dedicated organisations, including Nafsiyat in London, which was formed in 1983
to provide a specialist psychotherapy service to Black and other ethnic and cultural
minorities (Kareem & Littlewood, 1992, p.14).
It is interesting and desperately sad to us to note that all these working groups
in three of the main professional counselling and psychotherapy bodies in the UK
– BACP, UKCP and BPS – have long ago been discontinued. Of course, a more
precise, detailed exploration of the emergence and then ultimate disappearance
of these various groups might reveal specific and different factors that affected
their longevity. Nevertheless, as a parallel process of organisational emergence and
decline, we can only note this coincidence. And, as Jung noted, ‘there is no such
thing as coincidence’. It is also welcome news that all three have, at this time of
4 Race, culture and ethnicity

writing, initiated equality, diversity and inclusion working groups. We hope for
some positive steps forward here.
Contained within the apparently simple term of ‘difference and diversity’, there
lies a myriad social issues that are complex, have long histories and are substantiated
by attitude, perception, ‘othering’ and projection, all fuelled by social behaviour
that has been and is frequently judgemental, oppressive and discriminatory.
It is our contention that perhaps the demise of the several dedicated working
committees detailed above reflects the enormity of the challenge, discomfort and
pain that the subject raises upon deeper examination, particularly with reference to
matters of ethnicity, heritage and culture. While we recognise that the details and
complexities of each working group referenced above might be quite different, we
cannot help but surmise that their disestablishment was caused by the complexity
of addressing and achieving equality within organisations, the management of
power and the continued fact of discrimination in society. Robin DiAngelo’s term
‘white fragility’ (2016) offers us in retrospect a significant lens through which to
understand how some of the early focus on issues of race, ethnicity and culture in
these organisations proved too uncomfortable and challenging.
Significant changes in national and organisational policy towards the concepts
of ‘diversity and equality’ around the turn of the millennium served to shift
attention away from the ‘cross-cultural’ arena. We return to this aspect later.
The earliest moments of concern and action within the British ‘multicultural
therapy’ milieu, briefly described above, were substantially energised and informed
by ideas, research and publications emanating from the US. Our narrative therefore
switches there before returning to reflect on how those advances have and have not
influenced the UK context of multicultural training and practice.

Lost (or found) in cultural transition?

All counselling is multicultural. Each client comes to the session embodying
multiple voices from the past. (Pedersen et al., 1976)
Our mental health systems are not designed for women of colour like me.
That has to change. There is little or no recognition of the complexities of
life for a Muslim woman of colour. (Abu el Magd, 2019)

Impelled by the struggles and developments of the Civil Rights movement in the
US, dating right back to the 1920s, American colleagues commenced scholarly and
professional work into what initially became known in the 1970s and 1980s as
cross-cultural counselling.
Early among these luminaries was Clemmont E. Vontress, whose significant
contributions were later professionally recognised by the American Counseling
Association (ACA), which honoured him with two of their highest awards: the
Presidential Award and the ACA Fellow’s Award in 2010. These were granted in
recognition of his courage and conviction in ‘raising our field’s consciousness about
the role of culture and racism in the therapeutic relationship and in the counseling
 Colin Lago and Divine Charura 5

profession itself ’ (Moodley et al., 2012). Clemmont’s life was eventful, to say the
least. His great-grandfather had been killed by the Klu Klux Klan for having
taken as his common-law wife a former slave (Vontress, 2010). In the aftermath
of the Great Depression, his grandfather had to sell the family farm, so the family
were reduced to impoverished sharecroppers. Clemmont, with his family’s help,
managed to escape these origins in the deep American south and embark on study
at college.
Drafted into the army soon after commencing postgraduate studies in French
and English literature, he was stationed in Europe. This was an opportunity to
experience different cultures, countries and languages and ‘see the world in a
different light’ (Vontress, 2010, p.21). While stationed in Paris, Clemmont met Jean
Paul Sartre, whose existential philosophy made an enormous impact on him, and
he incorporated these ideas into his later work in cross-cultural counselling. His
publications spanned some 50 years, and Moodley has identified five main themes
in his writing: issues of self-hatred, cultural differences, existential counselling,
historical hostility and traditional healing (Moodley, 2010, p.43).
Clemmont argued that culture and race can be transcended in counselling
if the counsellor works on seeing each client’s humanity. This assertion that such
differences could be transcended is crucially evidenced in the later research
conducted by Robert Carter (1995). Carter took as his basic unit of research
outcomes from the ethnic identity development models (about which, more
later). Moodley (Moodley et al., 2012) reflects that Vontress ‘strived to deepen the
profession’s guiding theories by reminding us that good multicultural counselling
theories take account of the inequities of society; the suffering inherent in the
human condition; and the imperfections and limitations of the counsellor applying
those theories. His ideas were often bold and ahead of their time yet bore the quiet
humility of a scholar’.
While Vontress’s theoretical contributions were always significant, we suggest
they have since found increased resonance in current British trends concerning
existential therapy, reflections on transgenerational trauma and increased
consideration of traditional healing (all recommended, incidentally, in chapters in
this book.) Other American theorists whose work influenced British colleagues in
the last decades of the 20th century include Paul Pedersen, Janet Helms, Anthony
Marsella, Derald Wing Sue, Nancy Boyd-Franklin, Robert Carter, Peggy McIntosh
and Charles Ridley. Such a list is always going to be idiosyncratic and somewhat
limited; there were many other key theorists and practitioners active at that time.
Colin was fortunate to meet Paul Pedersen at an International Round Table
for the Advancement of Counselling (IRTAC) conference in 1982. After Pedersen’s
death in 2017, Patricia Arrendondo, a past president of the American Counseling
Association (and another contributor to the early canon of American texts
dedicated to multicultural professional practice) acknowledged that Paul was ‘key
in the development of multiculturalism and intersectionality’ (Ivey, 2017). In the
same obituary, Derald Wing Sue (more recently renowned for his extensive work
on ‘microaggressions’) wrote that ‘Paul was one of the few voices that challenged
6 Race, culture and ethnicity

the Eurocentric theories of counselling and psychotherapy, indicated how they

were culturally biased, chided mental health professionals for not understanding
the socio-political nature of their practice and warned that traditional approaches
to counselling and therapy could easily become forms of cultural oppression’.
Earlier in the same obituary, Alan Ivey (another significant ‘multicultural’
counselling psychologist) noted that Paul had developed a ‘triad’ training model,
which disrupted the more traditional dyadic interviewing model by bringing the
varying cultural perspectives into the counselling space. Billie-Claire Wright refers
to developments within this model in her chapter later in this book – a model
first demonstrated in the UK in the early 1990s by Courtland Lee, another of our
contributors.

The impact of writings from across the Atlantic

Racism is about a myriad of denial for both the recipients and the
perpetuators. (Bains, 2008)

Few British counsellors and psychotherapists had Colin’s good fortune to meet such
American luminaries in person. Most were only known in the UK through their
writing, in pioneering books such as Counseling Across Cultures (Pedersen et al.,
1976), Cross-Cultural Counseling and Psychotherapy (Marsella & Pedersen, 1981),
and the Handbook of Cross-Cultural Counseling and Therapy (Pedersen, 1985).
While various relevant articles were published in the UK from the late
1970s, the first British books published on the subject didn’t appear until those
by D’Ardenne and Mahtani (1989), Kareem and Littlewood (1992), Eleftheriadou
(1994), Lago and Thompson (1996) and Krause (1998), all of which referenced the
above classic American sources. At an academic level, the Americans preceded the
British by about a decade, more of which later.
Simply reviewing the contents lists of the above American texts reveals a wide
range of professional issues that continue to have relevance today in the UK with
regard to philosophic, ethical and practice-based developments. Key among these
are concerns about cultural inclusiveness, racial and ethnic barriers to therapy,
the therapist’s awareness of their own value systems, cultural identity, conducting
research, the implications of intersectionality, the challenges of training, and
much more. The therapeutic use of traditional support systems is also considered
and this subject is dynamically interlinked with the references in this book to
the incorporation of traditional healing. Theoretical implications of particular
approaches (behavioural and psychoanalytic) were also considered. Such classic
theoretical considerations have also, not unsurprisingly, become one facet of
later British contributions, as evidenced in the psychoanalytic sphere by Kareem
and Littlewood (1992), in anthropological perspectives (Krause, 1998), and with
reference to existential ideas (Eleftheriadou, 1994).
Inevitably, these early American texts also featured discussions on professional
issues relevant to the US that have not proved so applicable within the UK. These
include careers counselling, specific needs of and interventions with defined client
 Colin Lago and Divine Charura 7

populations specific to the US, and client evaluation and psychological testing.
However, these latter two areas are today increasingly used in clinical psychology,
employee assistance programmes and the NHS Improving Access to Psychological
Therapies (IAPT) counselling service.

America and the UK: Some comparisons and contrasts

You can’t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace
unless he has his freedom. (Malcolm X, 1965, Chapter 12)

While paying homage to these transatlantic inspirations, one has also to bear
in mind the considerable cultural differences between the US and the UK. Not
everything written about and researched there has equivalency here. Already
above, we have noted some elements of transcultural therapy practice that have
not transferred to the British milieu.
There is no doubt that the impact of racism and discrimination on minority
groups in the UK is frighteningly well evidenced. While some of these oppressive
dynamics may have cultural differences in their modes of expression between the US
and the UK, the core judgemental tendencies and discriminatory behaviours have
been repeatedly recorded in both British academic literature and UK government
reports in the last five decades. The evidence for these practices is spread right
across the fields of education, law, employment, health, mental health and policing.
(Search online, for example, for <Home Office Reports on Race and Racism> and
you will find a considerable resource of UK government reports exploring police
discrimination, institutional racism, race-hate attacks, human rights abuses, and so
on. Likewise, a search online for <NHS race and mental health> produces a massive
list of government policies and other reports of discriminatory practice that have
seemingly made little difference to people’s experiences on the ground.) In societal
terms (beyond the disciplines of counselling and psychotherapy), the murder of
George Floyd and others since (and many before) and the Black Lives Matter protests
have resonated worldwide, including in the UK. The adoption of ‘taking the knee’
by English football league players before every game is but one example of society
publicly recognising the parallel injustices and discrimination rife in the UK.

Multicultural counselling competences

I felt I had three prejudices against me. My anxiety, which weakened me,
and the therapist’s perception of my culture and my colour. I had to fight to
retain the latter two. (Jenkin, 2004)

In the early 1990s, the leading American professional bodies for counselling and
psychotherapy combined to argue for recognition of multicultural counselling
as the ‘fourth force’ in counselling and psychotherapy (after psychoanalytic,
behavioural and humanistic). This (somewhat unique) combined professional-
organisational initiative argued that this ‘fourth force’, as an approach to therapy
8 Race, culture and ethnicity

practice, should underpin the three main theoretical perspectives. That is, attention
was drawn to the skilled and sensitive practice of counselling/psychotherapy with
clients of all diversities in society. In a landmark moment of great significance,
these same professional bodies also coordinated, across several counselling/
psychotherapy journals, the simultaneous publication of an agreed set of
‘multicultural competences’ for therapists (Sue et al., 1992). Later versions were
published by Sodowsky and colleagues (1994) and Moodley and Lubin (2008).
Inspired by these earlier systematic reflections on the desirable arenas of
knowledge, awareness and skills recommended for enhanced multicultural
sensitivity in counselling relationships, Lago (2010) published an initial roadmap
of what he considered to be desirable competences from a British perspective. More
recently, the Association for Multicultural Counseling and Development, a division
of the American Counseling Association, has published a set of Multicultural and
Social Justice Counseling Competencies (Ratts et al., 2015).
In an article critical of the competencies perspective, Patterson (2004) argued
that the world is now so complex and the diversity of identity so broad that the
notion of particular interventions for particular groups is too simplistic and not
workable. In support of his position, he quotes the American psychiatrist Harry
Stack Sullivan, who wrote: ‘We are all more basically human than otherwise’ (1947),
and Stephen Pinker (1997, p.32), who noted that ‘surveys of the ethnographic
literature show that peoples of the world share an astonishingly detailed universal
psychology’. Patterson argued that the common nature of all human beings
provides the basis for a solution to the challenge of multicultural counselling. In
his view, focusing on the centrality of the therapeutic relationship is paramount.
Suffice to say, these opposing points of view continue today. On the one
hand, we have witnessed dedicated, conscientious colleagues arguing strongly
from the latter, essentialist, relational position, and on the other, different
colleagues arguing equally strongly for a more detailed, nuanced approach that
is sensitive to and knowledgeable about cultural difference and diversity issues.
Between these two theoretical positions, when applied to the therapeutic dyad,
are found the biographies of the lived experiences of the client and therapist.
And it is within this ‘middle territory’ that the therapist may either manage to
meet and relate to the client in a manner beneficial to that client or behave and/
or respond in ways that prove dismissive or even harmful to them, leading, at
worst, to the early termination of the counselling process. It is this latter concern
that sits at the core of this book.

From race and ethnicity to difference and diversity

Diversity is not the enemy of quality, it is the realisation of it. Right now,
diversity is something that is said more than done: all talk and no action.
(Ramaswamy, 2019)
In the 1990s and 2000s (and in parallel with the US), there was a governmental
 Colin Lago and Divine Charura 9

– and subsequent organisational – policy trend in the UK towards embracing

the full panoply of human diversity within a single equality law. While this
new policy justly brought attention to the broad spectrum of diverse lives and
identities (age, race, gender, sexuality, disability, faith, ethnicity, class) that
have experienced discriminatory behaviours, this broad focus shifted attention
away from concerns directly related to race, culture and ethnicity, thus sidelining
the historical and everyday realities of racism, oppression and discrimination.
We contend that this governmental/organisational shift, while acknowledging
the broader impact of structural oppression, was a deliberate ploy to reduce the
financial cost and political discomfort of confronting and acting to address endemic
racism. This shift of focus has led to an oversimplified view that we are all different,
equal and diverse. While this respect for individual uniqueness is fundamental to
and completely embodied within the world of counselling and psychotherapy, it does
not take into account the structural and personal power and privilege differentials
manifest in society and how these are deeply embedded and expressed within the
identity, attitudes and behavioural responses of both therapist and client.
These potent differentials are recognised in, for example, a working definition
of difference and diversity produced in 2004 by BACP’s (short-lived) Equality
and Diversity Forum, which proposed two lists of those groups deemed to hold
power in society and those categorised as ‘diverse’ (Lago & Hirai, 2012, p.437). The
definition stated: ‘There are particular groups which are privileged in U.K. society.
These groups represent the often-unexamined norm from which “difference”
is defined.’ The ‘Advantaged/Norm’ groups included ‘white people, heterosexual
people, able-bodied people, men and people of working (income generating) age’;
the ‘Disadvantaged/Different’ groups were listed as ‘Black and minority ethnic
people, lesbian, gay and bisexual people, disabled people, women, young people/
older people/unemployed people’.
Reflecting these debates that were happening nationally at that time and
anticipating the BACP conceptualisations above, in 2003 Lago and Smith edited
a book devoted to exploring ‘anti-discriminatory’ practice and featuring separate
chapters across the above defined range of intersectional identities.
Two more recent books that also address this broader spectrum of diversity
and difference in relation to counselling and psychotherapy have caught our
attention. The first is by Rose Cameron (2020), who not only explores and offers
contemporary thinking on the complete range of diverse identities (race, ethnicity,
gender, sex, sexuality, disability, age and class) but also includes many reflective
exercises and case examples. The other is by Dwight Turner (whose chapter you
will find later in this book), who writes powerfully about intersectional difference,
the unconscious experience of privilege and how privilege plays a role in the
construction of ‘otherness’ (2021).

Theoretical conceptualisations related to transcultural work

Racist trauma crucially affects therapeutic trust. (Bains, 2008)
10 Race, culture and ethnicity

Despite the absence of the working groups dedicated to improved multicultural

therapy within the major counselling and psychotherapy professional bodies
and the policy shift towards the broader definition of diverse considerations,
important contributions to theory and practice have continued to be made within
the transcultural arena in the early decades of the new millennium. Proctor (2017)
has researched power and its manifestations within the therapeutic relationship.
Alleyne (2004, 2005) has developed her understanding of racial oppression in terms
of its creation of a complex internal dynamic in Black people. Conceptualised as the
‘internal oppressor’, it impacts self-esteem, attachment patterns and relationships
with white people. She also cites a list of values and principles underpinning good
practice with issues of difference and diversity (2011).
McKenzie-Mavinga has explored ‘Black issues in the therapeutic process’
(2009). She proposes an ‘emancipatory’ training approach for both Black and
white trainees in which the myriad concerns, problems, dynamics and experiences
in relation to ‘Black issues’ could be addressed. Tuckwell (2002) and Ryde (2019)
have both explored the challenges of white identity for therapists. Tribe (2007,
2011; Tribe & Raval, 2003) and Costa (2020) have contributed extensively to the
research on and therapeutic practice with non-English speaking clients. Moodley
and West (2005) have explored the integration of traditional healing practices into
counselling and psychotherapy.

An increase in students and therapists from diverse communities

From the early 1990s onwards, despite the considerable economic demands of
therapy training, an increasing number of trainees of diverse ethnic heritages began
to enrol on counselling/psychotherapy courses, particularly in the metropolitan
areas of the UK. Their presence inevitably raised awareness of (and discomfort in
relation to) issues of race and the exercise of power in therapy, as well as presenting
deeper questions about the unthinking blanket application of the mainstream
theories of psychotherapeutic engagement to all people, regardless of ethnicity and
culture. Some of these early students continued on to carry out doctoral research
programmes and produce publications that further explored and sought to explain
the experiences and complexities of living in a white-majority society for people
from minority ethnic communities.
For example, Valerie Watson (2004), who writes later in this book, conducted
her doctoral research programme on the impact of therapy training on students of
diverse identity. Sadly, the conclusions of her research revealed that such students
learned through their training experiences to either ‘put up or shut up’ in relation
to addressing racial difference and its impact within therapy. Dhillon-Stevens
(2004b) also explored counselling students’ experiences in training. Her research
revealed the considerable contrast between the white students and students from
ethnic minority groups: the latter almost always considered the nature of their
identity, while the former seldom addressed it. Based on her findings, Dhillon-
Stevens proposed a personal and professional integration of the anti-oppressive
 Colin Lago and Divine Charura 11

practice and multiple oppression models in psychotherapeutic education (2004c).

Sara Bains (2008) explored the traumatic effects of colour racism on the self and
how it impacts on self-concept and identity. Yair Maman (2008), Beverley Costa
(2012, 2020) and Rachel-Rose Burrell (2018) all approached the issue of race and
diversity in counselling from a developmental, community-based perspective.
Maman’s research focused on the involvement of local communities in therapist
training. Costa’s work looked at multilingualism in therapy and the need for skilled
interpreter services to open access to local minority ethnic communities. Burrell
discusses her work in her chapter later in this book.

The creation of professional home bases for therapists of

minority heritage
When people treat you differently to what you think you are, it is very
confusing. Communication is difficult if not just impossible: they are
always talking to someone else… it is the visibility to others of my supposed
‘foreignness’ that gives rise to the problem. The fact that the very seeing of
this difference is also unmentionable in polite society renders the problem
insoluble. (Adonis, 2004)

There is no doubt that there is very real pain and anger among Black therapists
relating to their experiences in training and the workplace and at their continued
exclusion from training and professional forums.
The Association for Black Counsellors (ABC) emerged in 1983, emanating
originally from the British Association for Counselling’s (as it then was) RACE
division, and became an important support community for its members for about a
decade. The Black, African and Asian Therapy Network (BAATN) formed in 2003
and organised its first conference in 2006. It is now the UK’s largest independent
organisation for people who specialise in working with clients who identify as
Black, African, South Asian and Caribbean, with the explicit aim ‘to give a voice to
a “Black empathic approach” in therapy and therapy education’ (BAATN, undated).
The Black and Asian Counselling Psychology Group (BACPG) is dedicated to
raising the profile of Black and Asian counselling psychologists in the UK. Its aims
include: influencing and shifting the dialogue on race, ethnicity and difference;
increasing the visibility of Black, Asian and minority ethnic practitioners in order
to improve access to appropriate resources for the Black, Asian and minority ethnic
community; promoting critical thinking and the invitation of different narratives
and consistently highlighting and eliminating silence around the experiences and
impact of racial and ethnic discrimination.
Both of the organisations described above have emerged to fill the vacuum
created by the failure of the major psychology, psychotherapy and counselling
organisations to provide a home for Black therapists. Symbolically, practically,
clinically and theoretically, these professional membership groups represent a
significant development in the therapeutic world.
12 Race, culture and ethnicity

A radical call to the profession

One thing remains constant about our humanity… that we must never stop
trying to tell stories of who we think we are. Equally, we must never stop
wanting to listen to each other’s stories. If we ever stopped, it would all be
over. (Behar, 2003, p.37)

Since 2015, there has been a considerable explosion of new literature by writers of
minority group heritage, some of which we list below. They are a call to us all to
persevere with seeking understanding, compassion, communication and resolution
to matters of difference. The topics featured in these new books cover a wide span
of subject matter, which we have broadly divided into two main categories: the
societal context and the therapeutic context. Inevitably, this is an oversimplified
separation as, in truth, events and issues occurring within society will obviously
have resonances with clients and therapists in the therapeutic environment.

The societal context

From within this broader context, there are texts illuminating an extensive Black
history (Fryer, 2018; Olusoga, 2016; Hondius et al., 2019); highlighting the shocking
statistics of discrimination and racism (Akala, 2019; Booth et al., 2018); dedicated
to the exploration of ethnic and national identity (Hirsch, 2018); searching for a
deeper sense of belonging (Pitts, 2019); recording the creeping and sinister increase
of ‘race science’ (Saini, 2019); addressing the visibility and invisibility of heritage
(Lennon, 2018); considering colour and language (Boakye, 2019); exploring the
challenges of white awareness (Bhopal, 2018; DiAngelo, 2016; Eddo-Lodge, 2017;
Wekker, 2016); relating contemporary political issues (Gentleman, 2020; Grant,
2020); on media bias (Unigwe, 2019); on stop-and-search police powers (Dodd,
2019); on the use of interpreters in therapy (Dillsworth, 2019), and many more.

The therapeutic context

Race within the therapeutic context has been addressed in professional journals
that have dedicated special issues to diversity in therapy. These include the October
issues of Therapy Today in 2018 and 2019; the December 2011 issue of the World
Journal of Person-Centred and Experiential Psychotherapy, and the January 2015
issue of The Psychotherapist.
Additionally, researchers, practitioners and writers in this field have
conceived and developed a range of valuable theoretical concepts that describe the
consequences of living within a discriminatory society for members of minority
ethnic groups. Many of these ideas, inevitably, are interconnected with each other.
These concepts include the ‘proxy self ’ – that part of the self that is considered
acceptable to be shown to the outside world (Thomas, 1995); the experience of
‘internalised oppression’ and resulting ‘identity wounding’ (Alleyne 2004, 2005);
suffering ‘continuous trauma’ (Straker, 2004); living a form of ‘existential crucifixion’
(Hall, 2009); experiencing an avoidance of issues related to minority identity from
 Colin Lago and Divine Charura 13

white therapists (Thompson & Jenal, 1994); the importance of developing a ‘Black
empathic approach’ (McKenzie-Mavinga, 2009), and experiencing the long-term
consequences of ‘transgenerational hatred’ and ‘transgenerational trauma’ (Apprey,
1998; Vontress & Epp, 1997).
More recently, there has been some noticeable theoretical attention paid to
microaggressions and their impact on personality and relationships (Sue, 2010);
the exploration of unconscious bias in therapists (Mohdin, 2019); the challenges of
intersectionality and privilege (Adames et al., 2018; Turner, 2021), and the debate
about cultural competences vs cultural humility (Tervalon & Murray-Garcia, 1998).
In later chapters in this book, reference is made to the ‘ethnic identity
development’ models emerging in the US. Building on their use as descriptors
for attitudinal movement in relation to identity (and thus providing valuable
self-reflective templates for therapists), Robert Carter has validated a direct
connection between therapist identity awareness and therapeutic success or failure
(1995). Therapeutic interventions following on from Carter’s work recognise the
importance of deeply accepting and respecting the identity of the client and the
therapist’s capacity to broach the topic in therapy (Day-Vines et al., 2020).

Concluding thoughts
Where is the consciousness of the training organisations and their
commitment to look at their own unconscious white fragility and
supremacy? (Raja-Helm & Kohli, 2019)

Anyone and everyone who has been involved, whether as a student, training
course participant or trainer, in training sessions dedicated to the exploration of
diversity is likely to have experienced varying levels of discomfort, defensiveness,
shame, guilt, denial and distress. This phenomenon is widely referred to in many
of the chapters that follow. What is very clear from these training experiences is
that a) the issue of personal identity, when raised for exploration and reflection,
is of deep importance and significance to each person; b) one’s attitudes towards
others of differing identities, once recognised and articulated, can become most
distressing and disturbing; c) this is most likely to happen through open dialogue.
The capacity to listen to others’ perspectives and personal histories can become
severely inhibited by one’s own reactions of anxiety, guilt and shame.
There is no shortage of harrowing personal stories and theoretical ideas in the
literature. Yet the wider dissemination, discussion and internalised reflection of them
has not really taken place in training and professional development activities. Billie-
Claire Wright and Delroy Hall both explore in their chapters how to move beyond
the anxiety by acknowledging, exploring and sitting with the discomfort, as opposed
to avoidance or camouflage. This is a major training challenge for the coming years.
As to the future, there is no doubt that the societal/political landscape will
influence lived relations and power differentials across and between different
ethnic groups. Inevitably, more concepts will emerge as a consequence of research
and evolution of practice. The language and terminology will evolve and change.
14 Race, culture and ethnicity

Crucially, however, the professional field must fully embrace these issues
ethically and morally and individual therapists of all theoretical perspectives must
work on themselves and their identities to maximise the potential for sensitive and
efficacious practice with all clients.

Humans can no more survive psychologically in a psychological milieu that

does not respond empathically to them than they can survive physically in
an atmosphere that contains no oxygen. (Heinz Kohut, 1977)

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18 The cultural complexity of training counsellors abroad

2 The cultural complexity of training

counsellors abroad: The case of Afghanistan
Lucia Berdondini, Ali Ahmad Kaveh and
Sandra Grieve

Over recent years, numerous studies and intervention programmes have been
developed in the Middle East to introduce counselling, psychosocial counselling
and counselling training, especially ones addressed to vulnerable groups like
refugees, young people and adults affected by severe trauma. These have highlighted
the importance of developing culturally adapted models (Gilbert, 2009; Halaj &
Huppert, 2017). One of the main aspects of intercultural awareness, often stressed
in previous studies, is that Western definitions of mental health and the possible
causes of mental illness do not necessarily coincide with Eastern ones, with the risk
of missing and misinterpreting how different communities perceive and respond
to psychological distress (Miller et al., 2006; Halaj & Huppert, 2017). Equally, the
possible emotional and psychological resources of diverse cultural realities are often
overlooked when designing psychosocial interventions and counselling training
(Gilbert, 2009). It has also often been argued that the expansion of counselling
and counselling services is inhibited in the Middle East by the stigma attached
to mental health issues, inducing a reluctance among individuals and families to
attend talking therapy (Ciftci et al., 2012; Halaj & Huppert, 2017).
Despite these points, mental health, especially in countries affected by long-
term conflicts such as Afghanistan, has now become one of the priorities of
humanitarian intervention by governments and donors. The levels of stress and
mental health issues in Afghanistan have been consistently reported as very high
in comparison with other international contexts (Miller &Rasmussen, 2010; Wildt
et al., 2017). Studies of the mental health of university students and lecturers have
revealed alarming results (Babury & Hayward, 2013; Panter-Brick et al., 2008).
In 2003, ‘Mental Health in Afghanistan’ became part of a basic package of health
services developed by its Ministry of Public Health, and psychosocial counselling
was incorporated in 2010 (National Mental Health Strategy, 2009–2014). Since
 Lucia Berdondini, Ali Ahmad Kaveh and Sandra Grieve 19

then, several intervention programmes have sought to develop mental health

training and service resources for the Afghan population (Sayed, 2011).
This chapter presents the authors’ experiences of introducing and implementing
humanistic counselling and counselling training in Higher Education Institutes
(HEIs) in Afghanistan, through a series of projects that started in 2010 and is
ongoing. The chapter will identify what we encountered as particularly challenging
in the process, what was a more natural integration of cultures and philosophies
and how these translated into counselling training and practice. We will reflect on
ethical aspects related to counselling training in Afghanistan and how we have been
working with them. We will also discuss the lessons learnt from this experience
and how they can help others to replicate similar projects in other contexts.

The INSPIRE project and its long-term development

The project described here started in 2010 with funding offered by the British
Council under its INSPIRE scheme for a four-year project, in a collaboration
between the University of Strathclyde (UK) and the University of Herat
(Afghanistan). The original project was focused on designing and developing an
intercultural counselling training based on a humanistic therapeutic approach for
Afghan practitioners such as doctors, nurses, lecturers and students (Berdondini
et al., 2014; 2019). Over time, the model was continually evaluated and modified
until its final version became the basis for the BA courses in counselling at the
universities of Herat and Kabul. This led to the setting up of the first student
counselling service at the University of Herat and the training of hundreds of
counsellors who now work for local NGOs, mental health centres, refugee camps,
schools and prisons across Afghanistan.
The project is still ongoing as we continue to assess and evaluate its impact on
clients and monitor what seems to work particularly well and what doesn’t.
The theoretical framework that we used as a basis for the therapeutic model
was humanistic. Humanistic theory and practice, and in particular the person-
centred (Rogers, 1961), Gestalt (Perls et al., 1951) and psychodrama (Moreno, 1953)
modalities, were considered the most appropriate for a pioneering intercultural
initiative where an effective therapeutic model needed to be co-constructed
between trainers and trainees, as it was the first of its kind in Afghanistan. The
trainers were both European (one British and one Italian) and neither had a
particular knowledge or experience of the Afghan culture. The trainees were, over
the four years of the project, a mixed-gender group of 20 individuals from different
parts of Afghanistan with varied social backgrounds and various professional roles
and experience.
The basic challenge of the original project was to create the right circumstances
for a meaningful and effective encounter between a variety of cultures where it was
possible for everybody to feel included, recognised and welcome to participate and
contribute. It was, first of all, important to establish a climate of inclusiveness and
creativity where ‘problem solving’ and group work could occur (the actual training
was yet to be designed and developed (Berdondini et al., 2014)). The humanistic,
20 The cultural complexity of training counsellors abroad

phenomenological-existential theoretical framework was considered the most

appropriate to establish that climate where a student-centred ethos was a priority and
bracketing personal assumptions and engaging with the ‘unknown’ were a necessity.
The contents of the course were negotiated between trainers and trainees
according to what the group thought were essential learning outcomes. The
delivery of the individual sessions was, most of the time, co-created, using what
was considered to be the most useful and meaningful methods in the moment.
The final course was structured as follows:

• lectures on the theory of person-centred counselling

• skills-practice sessions (in English and Dari)
• activities focused on developing self-awareness and reflexivity
• creative therapeutic techniques derived from approaches such as Gestalt
therapy and psychodrama in order to meet different cultural needs and values
• supervision sessions (also used as a form of assessment) using interpersonal
process recall (IPR) (Kagan & Kagan, 1997)
• regular revision of the training through feedback and evaluation forms, in
order to modify/adjust/amend the course according to the participants’
experience and learning needs across the four years
• follow-up/long-term Skype supervision sessions, individual and in groups, to
monitor, support and deepen counsellors’ practice and keep reflecting and
working on ethical dilemmas, challenging clients, intercultural clashes and
so on.

From the very beginning, trainees asked to work a lot with live demonstrations.
They preferred to watch trainers demonstrating how to address specific issues
in therapeutic sessions with individual participants in front of the group, rather
than to be told about it and then try it out themselves in skills practice. This was
also requested with the intent of exploring what local cultural resources could be
integrated into the therapeutic model so clients felt able to express themselves in a
familiar and comfortable way, which in turn enhanced the therapeutic relationship.
Gestalt and psychodrama offered the right tools to approach the development of
therapeutic interventions as they both include creative and projective practices,
such as role-play and using objects such as dolls, stones and scarves (Berdondini et
al., 2014, 2019). In the Afghan culture in general (in education, in health settings,
as a form of common expression of emotions), the use of poems is significant and
very common (Saghar, 2018), and so it felt natural to integrate use of poems and
arts in general (such as painting and drawing) to explore topics and as a medium for
therapeutic interventions. The use of metaphors and arts generally was particularly
important because most of the problems presented by the students were considered
‘taboo’ (such as being secretly in love with someone or experiencing family pressure
to take on certain social roles) and so could not be openly discussed in front of the
group (Berdondini et al., 2014).
 Lucia Berdondini, Ali Ahmad Kaveh and Sandra Grieve 21

A typical session of the training would be as follows:

1. Exploration of the topic of the training (for example, working with trauma or
with reluctant clients or ‘taboos’) in the group, either in a theoretical way or in
an action/psychodrama way, to encourage reflection and discussion on how
humanistic theories and Afghan cultural beliefs and values could explain and
make sense of it and how it might be possible to integrate different views.
2. Live demonstrations with volunteers to explore how this could be translated
into practice in a therapeutic way.
3. Feedback and discussion on the demonstrations.
4. Video-recorded skills practice in triads where trainees carry out real sessions
with each other (in Dari) on the same topic, applying the theories and practice
discussed during the day.
5. Feedback, watching the videos, live supervision, reflections.
6. Closure of the day.

The co-construction of the training programme with the trainees was its most
important and successful element. Co-construction allowed us to consider and
respect local cultural values. Involving and engaging the participants throughout
the process and valuing their inputs and ideas made the model very powerful and
of itself demonstrated experientially to the participants the core of the humanistic
approach. Another successful element introduced from the second year onwards
(for security reasons) was that the training was carried out in the form of a
residential course in New Delhi, India. Each group received a total of 120 hours’
training divided into two blocks of 60 hours each (Berdondini et al., 2014). The
residential structure allowed an intensity and depth that was not there during
the first year, where the training was run daily in Kabul, inside the compound of
the British Council. The fact of being ‘elsewhere’ (India, rather than Afghanistan)
and staying together in the same accommodation for the whole length of the
training allowed a fuller immersion and a greater level of connection between the
participants, which was invaluable.
An initial evaluation showed that the experience of the training was ‘life
changing’ for all the participants (Berdondini et al., 2014). Five years after the
conclusion of the training programmes, feedback collected from the participants
who were now working as counsellors in Afghanistan showed how the experience
of the training had influenced their capacity to relate to themselves and others in
a much more compassionate and non-judgemental way and had allowed them to
use the core conditions of person-centred therapy, and in particular empathy, to
establish mutual trust and collaboration with clients (Berdondini et al., 2019).

Integrating humanistic therapy with the Afghan culture

Integrating the humanistic philosophy with Afghan cultural beliefs and norms
has been challenging, for a number of reasons. A first point is that, in the Afghan
22 The cultural complexity of training counsellors abroad

culture, unlike in the West, the individual is seen as an integral part of their family
and their wider community. Meaning and value is derived from their community,
not from their ‘uniqueness’ (Farooqi, 1983; Iqbal, 1984; Moghaddam & Marsella,
2004; Rizvi, 1994). In this context, people’s specific roles within the community
and the expectations of them are very strongly defined, and one typical example is
gender. Although all cultures and societies associate different characteristics and
stereotypes with femininity and masculinity, Afghan cultural norms and values
are very strict in this regard. Women are often constrained by a weight of social
and cultural values and expectations that are far more limiting than those placed
on men (Saghar, 2018). At the same time, cultural norms allow women to express
their emotions, such as sorrow and grief, easily and publicly, but men are expected
to hold their emotions inside and not disclose them to the outside world, to
avoid humiliation and shame (Al-Krenawi, 2005). Additionally, the very concept
of counselling and the act of disclosing and sharing one’s feelings and griefs or
admitting to ‘mental issues’ present a cultural problem because of the stigma
associated with mental illness in the Afghan culture (Ciftci et al., 2012).
However, there is also some important common ground between humanistic/
existential philosophy and Afghan culture that offered us a key to integrating the
two perspectives in practice during the training. In the Islamic culture, human
beings are created by God, but they have also been given freedom of choice
and the responsibility for deciding whether they do good or evil (Farooqi,
2006). The Rogerian concept of ‘self-actualization’ (Rogers, 1961) has been said
to be comparable, if not equivalent, to the Islamic belief in human potential to
grow and evolve, with will and determination, towards perfection and divine
revelation (Farooqi, 2006; Afrasibi & Fattahi, 2017). From this perspective also,
the importance of empathy in the human relationship and its fundamental role in
fostering another’s growth and self-actualisation is shared between the Islamic and
the Western philosophies (Farooqi, 2006; Afrasibi & Fattahi, 2017).
Reflecting on these aspects, we can see how, during our experience of co-
creating and adjusting the training course in humanist counselling, an encounter
between our different cultures was actually possible and humanistic theories and
practices were meaningful to participants. The theoretical principles were very
naturally shared and discussed in class, and also challenged. For example, our
trainees reflected on the fact that the Rogerian core conditions, while necessary,
were not sufficient to implement an effective therapeutic process. They explained
that limiting the process to ‘talking about an issue’, without connecting the
discussion to experiential activities, was not enough for them to engage with it
fully. The use of Gestalt and psychodrama techniques, where internal conflicts were
brought to the here and now by acting a dialogue using the ‘hot chair’, or where
different parts of self were represented by using dolls, scarves or other members of
the group, allowed participants to cross the gap between ‘talking about’ an issue and
‘expressing it’ through other means, thereby overcoming the issue of explicitly and
verbally articulating certain topics. Moreover, these methods allowed the counsellor
to inhabit the space with the client in a much more creative and active way.
 Lucia Berdondini, Ali Ahmad Kaveh and Sandra Grieve 23

We also experienced consistently how being non-judgemental towards the

client and not offering advice or solutions are hard to apply in the context of
Afghanistan, where counsellors feel very strongly the cultural pressure and the
ethical value of trying to ‘fix’ the client and judge their attitude or behaviour by
the sociocultural norms and values. Again, the experiential nature of our training,
where live individual therapeutic sessions were carried out in the group, with
trainers in the role of therapists and trainees in the role of clients, was the powerful
key. Trainees were able to watch a demonstration and themselves experience the
power of empathy and of a dialogical and active therapeutic process where the
counsellor ‘facilitates’ the client’s process without offering any advice or solution
(Ginger, 2007; Berdondini et al., 2014, 2019).

Ethical issues and considerations

Several ethical considerations have emerged since the beginning of this initiative.
There is no national social security system or social services in Afghanistan.
Afghan citizens rely heavily on their immediate and extended families rather than
on mental health professionals. This is also largely based on the collectivistic way of
living. However, while families can be a source of support, there are also instances
where they can be repressive and create barriers to an individual’s treatment and
progress. This can be due to stigma, limited knowledge of mental health, not
believing in efficacy of psychotherapy/counselling, and strong reliance on faith-
based practices (praying and seeking the guidance of pastors/mullahs) (Ciftci et
al., 2012). As such, ethical issues may arise due to family involvement, secrecy and
a limited system of checks and balances to follow up concerns with the relevant
safeguarding authorities. The creation of counselling training and courses in
Afghanistan required that we create an ethical framework that, at the moment, is
in the form of a ‘counselling protocol’, and this has been under constant revision
and progression. This protocol is mainly based on the American Psychological
Association ethical principles and code of conduct (APA, 2017) and, at the time of
writing, has not been finalised or approved by a legal body such as the Ministry of
Public Health, which is responsible for developing and approving similar standards
and frameworks. (Berdondini et al., 2014, 2019; Bragin & Akesson, 2018).
Another ethical concern that emerged almost immediately after the conclusion
of the INSPIRE project was the realisation that we were introducing the role of
counsellor in Afghanistan without also creating a training for and professional role
of clinical supervisor. This was a huge problem for the wellbeing of both clients
and counsellors, as highlighted in the long-term study (Berdondini et al., 2019).
So far, this issue has been addressed by creating peer supervision groups among
those graduating from the training and offering individual and group supervision
by videolink from the UK. However, this is not sustainable in the long term and we
are searching for further funding to establish and develop theoretically consistent
intercultural training in humanistic supervision so that experienced Afghan
counsellors can be professionally prepared to provide this.
24 The cultural complexity of training counsellors abroad

Cultural challenge and creative collaboration

We approached the project from a place of not-knowing and trust in the students’
ability to learn what was useful for them. We offered a non-hierarchical relationship
in a culture where vertical power relationships are the norm. We had a framework
and timescale, but no fixed curriculum; rather, we began each day with the question,
implicit or explicit, ‘What do you want to learn and how do you want to learn it?’ In
particular, we attended to the nature of learning in the person-centred approach.
Essentially there are two strands to this: cognitive/intellectual learning and pre-
reflective learning. The former involves ideas, thoughts and opinions, while the
latter can be described as an unstructured, non-discriminatory, holistic, non-
rational, direct experience of reality (Natiello, 2001). We were being congruent.
We were being accepting and empathic with the students and their culture while
being transparent about our own. In those early days of the project, the focus was
on pre-reflective learning while we stayed in that often uncomfortable place of
not-knowing. One of the students who was very fluent in English articulated the
challenge of the skills practice sessions, saying, ‘I can think in English, but I feel
in Dari.’ Our response was to conduct the skills practice in Dari and to work with
the group to offer feedback when viewing the recordings. We spoke no Dari, but
we could still observe what was going on between counsellor and client and we
could listen for tone. The students provided any translation we required. It was a
powerful learning experience for us.
Sharing what goes on in the family with someone outside of the family is a
cultural taboo in Afghanistan. In response to this, we focused on working with
metaphors, stories and imagery. We offered theory, learning opportunities and
creativity, and when cultural empathy grew, we were able to understand and
accept each other. Any adaptations to what we offered were made by the students
themselves. In between training sessions, they were out in placements and so
were able to report back on what had been helpful and what was less helpful. Each
morning we had a check-in and each evening a review of the day. The course was
very organic and we learned to dance to its various tunes.
Recent feedback from students who participated has been positive and
consistent. Several have indicated that the self-exploration parts of the course were
powerful and really helped them focus on themselves and understand themselves
and one another more fully (Berdondini et al., 2019). They all continue to use the
core conditions in their counselling and remain clear that the core conditions alone
are not sufficient. They have fed back that, in the Afghan culture and social context,
individuals are seen and exist not merely for themselves but as part of a bigger
circle of the family or the wider community. When working with clients, they are
conscious of the sociometry and sometimes other family members are present in
sessions. One of them works in a mental health hospital and is sceptical about
humanistic counselling being at all useful with uneducated Afghan people who
have serious problems. He finds CBT very useful and that is his preferred modality.
We all met each new challenge in a spirit of openness, and this spirit guided
the whole project. Not all challenges were resolved, but often ways forward were
 Lucia Berdondini, Ali Ahmad Kaveh and Sandra Grieve 25

found because we were creative in our thinking and ways of being, and were not
bound by any expectations of the outcomes.

Conclusions
The experience we have described in this chapter allowed us to learn a lot about
intercultural counselling training and counselling training in general.
Being culturally aware is paramount for almost any therapeutic modality to be
effective and this includes existential and humanistic psychotherapy. A review of the
data on the efficacy of this project may prove useful, given it has been implemented
in Afghanistan for a number of years now. A further learning point was the power
of experiential learning and how the whole process of a student-centred approach
with a consistent and radical co-construction of content and methods of delivery
can be the key to the integration of different cultural epistemologies and practices.
Particularly effective were the live demonstrations of authentic therapeutic sessions
in front of the group (which, in Gestalt and psychodrama courses, is very common
practice), the residential training (Quattrini, 2013) and harnessing the power of
the group itself as a pedagogical platform for the experiential learning.
One crucial aim for the creation and implementation of counselling training
in a country like Afghanistan is to make sure that the project is sustainable over
the long term. This needs to take into consideration several issues, including the
involvement of Higher Education Institutions (Babury & Hayward, 2013) and the
government and its ministries, and a robust and meticulous series of assessments,
evaluations and adjustments over time (Berdondini et al., 2019). It also needs to
include ‘training for trainers’ and ‘training for supervisors’ courses, as the clinical
supervisor is a crucial element of any system of mental health provision.

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 Delroy Hall 27

3 Can you talk about race without going pink

or feeling uncomfortable?
Delroy Hall

Black people and White people are having two conversations which never
meet. The White person will talk about policies and the abstract and
their agreement of equality, but the Black person’s starting position is not
abstract, but located in the reality of their experience. They too believe
in the policy, but their lived experience dictates to them the harshness of
injustice. (Bell, 2009)

In this advanced age of technology, artificial intelligence, driverless cars, drones,

same-sex marriages, diverse sexualities and other immense complexities, racial
matters remain a difficult conversation for most people.
To define Black is problematic. It is more than skin colour and has significant
political implications. Cornel West, philosopher and social critic, states:

The notion that black people are human beings is a relatively new discovery
in the modern West. The idea of black equality in beauty, culture, and
intellectual capacity remains problematic and controversial within prestigious
halls of learning and sophisticated intellectual circles. (West, 1982, p.47).

West’s comment is not only evidenced in privileged domains but is felt throughout
society.
In this chapter, I will describe my grounding in psychodynamic counselling.
I will comment on my departure from my psychoanalytical moorings into
solution-focused therapy and pastoral studies as I reflect on my various sources
of inspiration. Turning to racial matters in counselling training, I will emphasise a
listening leadership and the inner work tutors must do in order to become effective
facilitators in an increasingly complex environment.
I will suggest ways to make the teaching and the counselling learning
experience more compelling, exciting, provocative and meaningful for the students
so they are better prepared for an increasingly diverse world outside the classroom.
28 Can you talk about race without going pink or feeling uncomfortable?

Therapeutic approach
My counselling foundation was psychodynamic, which I found insightful, but the
turning point for leaving psychodynamic counselling was based on three reasons.
First, studying at Master’s level in psychodynamic psychotherapy was far too
abstract for my practical proclivities. Instead, I went on to study pastoral theology:
‘the branch of Christian theology dealing with the office and function of the pastor’
(Oden, 1983, p.x). An alternative perspective is offered by Emmanuel Lartey, a
Ghanaian pastoral theologian. He argues that pastoral theology is ‘reflection on
the caring activities of God and human communities’ (Lartey, 2006, p.14). He goes
on to state:

Pastoral theology in the twenty-first century has to lie beyond the confines
of the geographical boundaries of Europe, the United Kingdom and the
United States. The scope has to be what is now described as the ‘global
village’. (Lartey, 2006, p.29)

Second, the final straw for leaving psychodynamic counselling occurred when I
dared to ask a question about race during my training. Thirty years on, I cannot
recall my exact question, but the response, interpreted as an unconscious conflict,
disillusioned me from pursuing psychodynamic studies any further because
it failed to take into account those who experience racism as their lived reality.
To quote Jafar Kareem and Roland Littlewood (1992), in Intercultural Therapy:
Themes, interpretations and practice:

Psychotherapy is about human beings and therefore must be about

humanity. A psychotherapeutic process that does not take into account the
person’s whole life experience, or that denies consideration of their race,
gender, culture or social values, can only fragment that person. (p.16)

Building on Kareem and Littlewood’s observation, I wanted to develop as a holistic

practitioner; I wanted to understand how the world impinges on people and how
suffering people can be helped. I found a home in pastoral studies/theology, which
respected and drew insights from humanity’s rich resources while offering further
understanding through a theological lens.
Although I considered psychodynamic theory to be weak in some areas, it
remains an invaluable diagnostic tool in therapy’s initial stages.
Third was my attraction to solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT). Apart
from its practical and empowering nature, I found that SFBT helped clients to see
themselves not as victims but as human beings with strengths and the ability to live
autonomous lives (Winbolt, 2011, p.47).

Sources of inspiration
My route to counselling came from an innate desire to care for people and through
the church I attended. As a youth leader in the local church, you were automatically
 Delroy Hall 29

made a counsellor at our annual national youth camp. After occupying the role, I
recognised how ‘counselling’, despite the church’s laissez faire attitude back in the
1980s, was a serious endeavour.
Writing specifically about Christianity in the West at present is not easy as people
tend to view you in a particular light. Christianity tends to be labelled as irrelevant or
having little to say of relevance to people today. Nevertheless, it is the Christian faith
that has shaped and inspired me. Other inspirational sources are the many human
beings who have dared to bare their souls and have trusted me with their apparent
insurmountable life distresses. My clients have not known that I am an ordained
minister. They do not need to know. However, I know some clients have looked me
up on social media, and it is now almost impossible to hide such information.
Understanding human beings as Imago Dei, created in the image of God,
helps me in my work, whether clients subscribe to a faith or not. What matters is
that I accept them and how the therapeutic alliance is developed. In the university
setting, I do not see clients as ‘customers’ vying for an academic product, important
as a degree may be. I do not see humans as a bundle of cells living life as an awful
experiment. We are far too complex a species to be described in such reductionist
terms. I see all clients as human beings on a spiritual path, known or unknown,
struggling to live, or at least trying to find out how to live.
A book that has been acutely inspirational for me is Parker Palmer’s Let Your
Life Speak: Listening for the voice of vocation (2000). Palmer understands life as
being much more than material accumulation and contends there is ‘a life within
us as human beings that is wanting to live through us’. He argues that it is ‘possible
to live a life that is not ours’, and he admits that seeking such a path, rather than
material acquisition, is ‘hard and demanding’. He believes in ‘letting your life speak’:

‘Let your life speak’ means something else to me, a meaning faithful to both
the ambiguity of those words and to the complexity of my own experience.
Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen to what it
intends to do with you. Before you tell your life what truths and values you
have decided to live up to, let your life tell you what truths you embody,
what values you represent. (Palmer, 2000, p.3)

The therapist’s role is to create a space for a client’s life to speak, but it comes at a
cost. I will now explore how leadership is important in developing how we address
race in counselling training in the UK.

Leadership – from above and from the roots

By leadership in the context of counselling/psychotherapy training, I mean those
who are in decision-making positions with regard to course design and content.
While there are drivers influencing courses, one cannot ignore student voices,
constantly changing demographics and market forces. Leadership needs to
transcend these drivers and have vision and courage to take action to make new
things happen.
30 Can you talk about race without going pink or feeling uncomfortable?

The other facet of leadership is the tutor’s role in the classroom. Tutors are
more than information dispensers for students to obtain qualifications. Rather,
their role is a guiding and challenging presence for students as they encounter
significant life-changing moments during counselling training. However, before
that takes place, there is an important process that tutors must undergo, especially
when dealing with matters relating to race.

Tutors – creating a deeper level of availability

The major question is, what are the tutor’s feelings around race and diversity? Some
tutors, it seems, are more comfortable talking about diversities in sexualities; they
are ‘still uncomfortable talking about race over a sustained period’ (Turner, 2018).
There is often discomfort experienced by Black students too when talking about
race. It is more evident in many white folks via their body language and skin tone
– in the varying pink and red shades of their faces when they address difficult
subjects. This changing colouration may be due to the fact they do not want to
offend or get it wrong; nevertheless, the conversation must be had.
Gregory Ellison II, a Baptist minister, has developed a methodology called
‘Fearless Dialogues’. Ellison conceptualises the term fearless as a compound word
– (‘fear’ + ‘less’):

With a compound structure in mind, ‘less’ means ‘to a smaller extent’,

suggesting when fears are named, they have less of a stranglehold on hard
conversations. Further, ‘less’ evokes images of a disciplined posture of
lessness between conversation partners. Thus, as a compound word, ‘fear +
less’ dialogues offer greater possibilities for unlikely partners to engage in
challenging subjects together. (Ellison, 2017, p.8)

It is only by talking and reflecting that we learn to become more comfortable with
prickly subjects like race. There is no other way.
It is through having such ‘fear + less’ conversations within themselves at a
deeper level that tutors must develop the capacity to be the catalyst in the kind
of talking about race that is a significant part of the learning process for trainee
counsellors. A tutor is unable to lead the trainee any further than they have
explored their own interior – in this case, in exploring their own beliefs on race.
Only if we dare to walk within and carry out such an inner excavation to discover
what is contained within ourselves can we grow our ability to hold students safely
through their inner explorative journey, which can be very frightening for them
when you think about the dread many hold about discussing race issues.
The non-white tutor is not exempt from this monumental internal task of
exploring their inner world in relation to race. It is imperative they do, especially
when living in an increasingly nationalistic Western context where you are likely to
have internalised the negative portrayals of your non-white sensibility.
The necessity of doing such inner excavation work cannot be overestimated.
Highlighting introspection, Alyss Thomas states:
 Delroy Hall 31

Some of what is stressful about being a counselling trainer is the result of

the intense demands it makes on our inner resources, (Thomas, 2002, p.23)

The work required to develop one’s inner resources in dealing with race transcends
simply being self-aware. One can be self-aware, but the tutor must live this new self-
awareness in practical terms, if they are to be able to lead their students towards
becoming effective practitioners and better human beings. While implementing
such self-awareness is important, there remains a dearth in academic research
that focuses on the development of the inner life of the therapist. This point is
reinforced by the psychotherapist Tony Rousmaniere, when he states:

Precious little guidance has been provided on how therapists can develop
their intrapersonal (inner) skills and psychological capacity to use
these skills, particularly when helping clients whom the therapist finds
provocative or interpersonally challenging. (Rousmaniere, 2019, p.4)

We do not know what is within us until we begin to look. Whether the tutor is
Black or white or whatever way they describe themselves, it is often a difficult and
complex road to navigate. Such matters are further problematised if a trainer has
students from an ethnic background who are doing their utmost to ‘fit into’ a white
framework. Talking about race heightens their anxiety levels, affecting their ability
to learn, as do other anxieties. Similarly, anxiety and fear are experienced by white,
Asian or Black tutors who bristle at issues around race and ethnicity.
Hylda Taylor-Smith, a former university counsellor, writes about her
experience as a Black counselling trainee wanting to deepen self-understanding.
She comments:

I needed assurance that becoming a counsellor would expand what it meant

to be me – that I would experience a welcoming of diversity from the course
community. But it seemed that the behaviour of the tutors and students
changed whenever the black students raised issues around race and cultural
difference. I believed that their personal fears and anxieties around race
negatively affected their responses in discussions. (Taylor-Smith, 2004, p.27)

In a more recent personal conversation with me, she expressed her view that
awkward behaviour around race talk ultimately affects the courses’ content and
quality and the students’ learning experience (November 22, 2019).
Anecdotally, I recall a Caribbean male counselling trainee who, as part of his
counselling qualification, decided to talk about his experience of being Black and
male in the UK. He conveyed his anxiety to me as he had never been involved in
presenting such matters before and he wanted a level of assurance in how to go
about it. The presentation went well, but what happened later threw him totally. He
said that, after his presentation, some folks never spoke to him again throughout
the rest of the course.
32 Can you talk about race without going pink or feeling uncomfortable?

Self-other – the danger of self-dismissal for non-white students

Building on all of the above, it is easy to see why Black, Asian and minority ethnic
students might attend classes but withdraw from active participation or drop out
from the course altogether (Watson, 2004, 2005). All too often, one reads about
these students just ‘going through the motions’, doing what is needed to get their
qualification, which effectively requires them to ‘other’ their selves. This, according
to psychotherapist and lecturer Dwight Turner, is ‘particularly destructive’ (Turner,
2021). Referring to the contexts of war, violence and conflict, Slavenka Drakulić
writes:

I understand now that nothing but ‘otherness’ killed Jews, and it began
with naming them, by reducing them to the other. Then everything
became possible. Even the worst atrocities like concentration camps or the
slaughtering of civilians in Croatia or Bosnia. (Drakulić, 1993, p.144)

‘Othering’ is about who belongs and who does not. Ta-Nehesi Coates, in his
foreword to Toni Morrison’s book The Origins of Others, sums up ‘othering’ in stark
terms:

To lose one’s racialised rank is to lose one’s own value and enshrined
difference. (Coates, 2017, p.xiii).

To deny one’s self while desiring to be another is corrosively destructive to one’s self
and one’s entire existence.
Such complexity is deepened by white people who do not see themselves as
racist. Sometimes this is because they have never or seldom met non-white people
or have had minimal contact with people from different racial backgrounds, but it
can be the white, middle-class, liberal thing to say. Social scientist Robin DiAngelo
refers to this as ‘a social taboo against openly talking about race and white
solidarity’ (DiAngelo, 2019, pp.37–38). If the tutor is non-white, the white student
can feel they are being accused and identified as racist; if the tutor is white, such
matters can remain unexplored by the white student. However, if the white tutor
has carried out extensive introspection on their own racial understanding, not the
‘political correctness’ kind, they could be seen as challenging by white students.
Regardless, this turbulent racial landscape must be personally faced and traversed.
I was once challenged by my supervisor, an African Caribbean clinical
psychologist, who asked me if I intended to ‘continually escape or take flight into
books, or learn from experience?’ His comments left an indelible mark on my
being and practice. Through responding to the supervisor’s question, I discovered
journalling and self-reflection as indispensable resources for experiential learning.
The psychologist Joan Rosenberg offers insight into how allowing unpleasant
feelings can lead to gaining wisdom. Unpleasant feelings are experienced by all
human beings in life. Rather than use defences to avoid such difficult emotions,
she argues:
 Delroy Hall 33

If there has ever been a time in your life that you have said, I never want to
experience that again, it is probably some of those feelings you should move
towards and start to embrace. (Rosenberg, 2016).

This occurs when the white person does not dare to have the race conversation
(Ellis, 2021), regardless of their reasons or motives – it may simply be the fear of
‘saying the wrong thing’ or causing offence. Nevertheless, that troubling terrain has
to be crossed.

The student experience

Race issues are more than an abstract phenomenon; students must learn,
understand and be able to be honest about their feelings about race and ethnicity.
Possibly, many students are still in the closet when it comes to talking about race.
It will be helpful if a student admits to their personal views on race, but pledges to
commit to their self-development to learn how to accept the other.
Writing from outside the counselling world and furthering our argument, the
theologian James Perkinson states:

For white people to get a real sense of black experience they must encounter
a ‘reverse minoritisation’ in which they occupy the place of the racial ‘other’
without relief for an extended period. (Perkinson, 2004, p.46)

This could achieve a full initiation into a deeper racial experience and meaning.
Perkinson also reflects the growing trend to use terms such as ‘diverse’, ‘urban’ and
‘multicultural’ to neutralise the potency of Blackness when he writes:

... the attention on the black/white divide is still representing the most
fraught racial flashpoint for racial encounter historically in the country and
constituting the most difficult site for racial confrontation for white people,
both externally and internally. Part of coming to consciousness of oneself as
white, as I then argue, involves daring to look into black eyes and not deny
the reflection. (Perkinson, 2004, p.3)

Perkinson’s conceptualisation is demanding and calls for more than a couple of

experiential exercises. He goes on to say:

In my estimation, only a lifetime of unrelenting struggle against the ideology

of white supremacy and the materiality of white control… could ever qualify
one for embrace as an ally. (Perkinson, 2004, p.19; original italics)

Moving forwards – focused learning

To get an insight into race and its lived ramifications, students must participate
in multiple exercises where they engage and reflect on their feelings, thoughts,
images and other possible experiences that emerge for them. Such sessions have
34 Can you talk about race without going pink or feeling uncomfortable?

to be experiential as it is easy for people to hide behind philosophical debate and

conceptual ideas while learning little or nothing about the other, or themselves.
Learning will come from lectures and reading, but one must not neglect or ignore
the effectiveness of processing one’s feelings through reflective journals, peer
support, small group discussion and tutor input. In Carl Jung’s words:

Learn your theories as well as you can, but put them aside when you
confront the mystery of the living soul. (Jung, 1928)

The tutor must refrain from simply delivering a lecture, ‘death by PowerPoint’
style; they need to be more facilitative to help the student learn. There are various
useful learning mediums. American primary schoolteacher Jane Elliott’s classic
‘Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes’ experiment1 can be a good starting point for discussions
with new students. Videos, film excerpts, literature and vignettes can be used.
The film Get Out (Peele, 2017) offers a powerful critique of how white liberalism
seemingly espouses racial acceptance. Poetry can be very powerful in helping us
think through and work with difficult subjects. For example, Savanna Hartman, a
white American woman, wrote ‘My skin is my privilege’ in response to seeing Alton
Sterling, an African American, being murdered by the police (Itkowitz, 2016). A
method I have used to explore feelings and tease out different perspectives is to
devise a scenario, divide the student cohort into smaller groups, give each group
specific roles from the scenario, and ask each group to discuss the same questions.
The scenario comprises a person or group of people who are marginalised and
another group who hold the power. After the exercise, the whole group is brought
back together to share their findings. The results can be electrifying!
In the words of Craig Barnes, a theologian and poet, poetry enables one to
‘express the truth behind the reality’:

Poets see the despair and heartache as well as the beauty and miracle that lie
beneath the thin veneer of the ordinary, and they describe this in ways that
are recognised not only in the mind, but profoundly in the soul. (Barnes,
2009, p.17)

One thing is certain, the issues around race are not going to disappear anytime
soon and it cannot be taught in a single, one-off lecture. There is now a push for
universities to decolonise the curriculum. This requires an in-depth unpacking
to understand what is meant by the phrase and what it means in reality. What it
does not mean is simply adding a few Black theorists to a book list. It requires
tutors in general, and white tutors in particular, to use non-white theorists as
equal interlocutors in their training sessions. In other words, Black, Asian and
minority ethnic theorists must not be used as secondary or side-line conversation
partners. Moving forward, all training courses in the UK must have racial matters

1. See, for example, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebPoSMULI5U

 Delroy Hall 35

interwoven throughout the curriculum so they become integral to what is

considered normative.
The truth is that, for the majority of counselling trainees still, their experience
is that they will be taught by white tutors in a class that is at least 80–90% Caucasian
and female; their placements will expose them to very few non-white folks, and if
their therapist or supervisor is white, it is highly unlikely that racial matters will
be discussed in any meaningful way, other than a cursory mention in a session
looking at ‘diversity’.
The Johari’s Window exercise (Luft & Ingham, 1955) is another excellent
and personally challenging exercise that can usefully highlight areas for personal
development with regard to race. It can be used to explore our own blind spots
and what we hide from others and ourselves, either in groups with peers or
individually, by asking the question, ‘What is it I do not know about race that is
hindering an authentic interaction/relationship/understanding with the other?’ In
order to grow, our ‘blind spots’ and what is ‘hidden’ from ourselves and others
require acknowledging, but they also need acting on and embracing, as Rosenberg
(2016) says.

Conclusion
Counselling training in the UK has arrived at an interesting kairos moment. Kairos
(καιρός in the original ancient Greek) means ‘a time when conditions are right for
the accomplishment of a crucial action. The opportune and decisive moment’
(Merriam-Webster, undated). If we continue on the same trajectory as we have done
to date, we will get the same results: the vast majority of students who graduate will
be woefully unprepared to serve an increasingly diverse community. Black, Asian
and minority ethnic students will continue to leave themselves outside the training
room and continue to leave training courses where they do not feel they belong.
Diversity is included as a composite aspect of all training courses, but one may ask
whether issues around diversity are handled well. Certainly, matters around racial
potency and Blackness are still difficult to negotiate.
In considering the course design and content, effective leadership is key. It
requires a leadership with a sharp ear that is attuned to the changing political and
social environment and to the needs of our much more racially and ethnically
diverse communities and students requiring training in counselling. We should be
able to expect a willingness among both white and non-white tutors to engage in
a lifelong commitment to deal with race and ethnicity issues while acknowledging
and embracing their hidden biases that they have yet to confront and acknowledge.
Finally, there are considerable teaching materials available on which to draw
and use to develop counselling students’ capacities to work with the other. If steps
are taken to include matters relating to race and ethnicity in counselling courses
in a more robust and intentional way, it will begin to scuff the surface of the racist
ideological construct that has been entrenched within the British psyche for many
centuries.
36 Can you talk about race without going pink or feeling uncomfortable?

References
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started a difficult conversation. Washington Post. www.washingtonpost.com/news/inspired-life/
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difficult-conversation/
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to their experiences in training. In C. Lago (Ed.), Race, culture and counselling (2nd ed.). Open
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38 Exploring the racial self in counselling training

4 Exploring the racial self in counselling

training
Billie-Claire Wright

There is a growing body of literature and research exploring the effects of

lack of racial diversity in therapeutic training models. However, there is still
insufficient impetus to address the gaps, leaving clients from non-majority
race groups vulnerable to further harm or trauma from clinicians ill-equipped
to work with the racial self. But if we therapists are not secure enough in our
own racial identity, how can we appreciate difference and the rich tapestry of
our clients’ worlds to support them in moving forward from their difficulties,
whether or not they bring race-related issues, differ in racial identity or are of the
same race as our own? Without knowing where we stand racially, which must
be examined and constantly reviewed at a deep level, we are on uncomfortable
territory. If we are to work ethically as therapists, it is our duty to ensure we have
clear knowledge and understanding of our biases, prejudices, triggers and racial
stance to appreciate how our views might impact on those different from our
selves. This, of course, extends across the range of diversities (Turner, 2021), but
the area I would like to focus on, because of its relevance to my own growth as a
Black British therapist, is race.

Internalised racism
My own internalised racist tendencies were exposed within me several years ago,
when I was a student and undergoing therapy to support my studies. The term
‘appropriated racial oppression’ recognises the impact of oppression in causing
individuals to internalise dominant group values and ideology, while also providing
a rationale for why someone from a minority group might hold such tendencies.
When I first sought therapy while I was training, I was clear that I specifically
wanted to work with a white British psychotherapist. When the therapist asked me
why, I answered, ‘Because I don’t feel that a Black therapist would be up to the job.’
The silence that filled the space between us was palpable and I remember feeling
deep discomfort under his scrutiny. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he
responded: ‘So, I wonder how you feel about yourself?’
 Billie-Claire Wright 39

My therapist’s curiosity to try to understand my world view had the most

profound effect on me; I felt rage, shame and despair. I could no longer pretend to
be blind and numb to the daily hurts that I encountered because of the colour of
my skin. I struggled to remember a time when I had not thought in an internalised
racist way. Throughout my life, my parents had prepared my siblings and I, who are
first-generation Black British, to adapt and excel in a white-majority society. This
meant talking and behaving in certain ways and avoiding mixing with our own
race, because, in my mother’s words, ‘Black people will bring you down.’ Having
been thus primed to act out these presumptions of how Blackness was perceived
by society, I created a version of the me that I hoped would be more acceptable and
would allow me to do well in life. However, this version of me would restrict my
capacity to inhabit an authentic Black self.
I chose to develop a greater understanding of internalised racism by making
it a focus of research for my MA in counselling and psychotherapy. Studying
internalised racism in Blackness (Wright, 2019) has taken me on a non-linear
journey of self-discovery, accompanied by the wish to bring greater awareness of
race to the way we work therapeutically in the UK. The desire to create an open,
sensitively managed space where therapists are able to consider more closely racial
identity’s relevance in therapeutic practice has led me to look back at the writings
that inspired areas of understanding in my research and also allowed me to see a
glimmer of hope that integrating race in therapeutic training might be achievable.
Several pieces of writing and research that informed my study still continue to
resonate whenever a situation arises that forces me to consider what other dynamics
might be at play. For example, I have worked in situations where I have found
myself becoming hypervigilant in ensuring I arrived early and worked later than
required, while observing what appeared to be a far more laid-back approach in my
white peers. At times, in supervision with white supervisors, I have reflected on my
capacity for self-denigration, my tendency to subservience, to over-extend myself,
to never say ‘no’, to allow myself to be silenced and to adopt a lightness in tone
when requesting anything. Are these patterns of behaviour solely down to me? Is
this behaviour due to the normal pattern of hierarchy, regardless of race, or might
there be a subtle interchange between white privilege, white racial identity and a
colour-blind racial attitude from my white peers and superiors that changes my
way of being among white peers? Such questions, which might lead to meaningful
conversations, remained unexplored. Was it for me to raise them and my superiors
to acknowledge them, or some other form of intervention that might help facilitate
these discussions? So, here I am today, inviting you to join me in considering how
we as a profession might make a more concerted effort to address the shortcomings
of racial competency in therapeutic training.

Authenticity
Throughout the entirety of my foundation training and postgraduate diploma, the
subject of racial identity was barely explored, except for an informative, deeply
personal residential weekend towards the end of my second year in training. This
40 Exploring the racial self in counselling training

module had been tagged on at the end, yet the relevance of the subject had the
potential to effect profound change in our way of working, not only with difference
but also with same-race clients, whether Black, white or brown, who hold a different
outlook to our own.
The lead facilitator on this residential workshop was a white male. Throughout
my working career, almost every training in diversity that I attended had been led
by a white male facilitator. I remember the cynicism and ennui I experienced as
he spoke, doubtful that a member of a privileged group would have the capacity
to appreciate what it is to belong to a minority group. The facilitator was in fact
Colin Lago, co-editor of this book. He demonstrated great sensitivity to the subject
matter and was mindful of each word he spoke, as if they were living, breathing
things. But I was most struck by his co-facilitator, seated alongside him, who was
the same colour as me. As Colin spoke, I kept my eyes on her. She was compact in
her posture, appearing to be holding herself together, yet she filled the space with
her energy. Her gaze rested somewhere between the floor and our knees, but there
was a mischievous glint in her eyes and a gentle smile on her lips. I wondered why
she was not leading the group; after all, she embodied the subject matter of this
discourse.
One of the first activities was a role-play exercise addressing difference, in
which we worked in triads: client, therapist and observer (the role I volunteered
for). During feedback with my triad, the ‘client’ expressed feeling anxious and
stressed that the clues they were giving to their distress were not being picked up by
the ‘therapist’, causing disconnection in the therapeutic relationship. As ‘observer’,
I noted the therapist’s facial and physical tensions; they appeared to register what
was said, but did not seem to process this knowledge; they neither acknowledged
nor validated the client’s experiencing. If we exclude an obvious attribute such as
race when working with same- or different-race clients, we risk provoking a less
transparent response in our clients towards the therapist.
It was the final activity that day that proved the most challenging for me. We
were working in pairs, using sand trays, and I was shaken out of my safety net by
my white partner’s emotional responses to what she saw in my narrative. Although
I had not spoken of what the images fully represented for me, through her tears
I felt able to trust that I was safe enough to let go and that, in doing so, I would
finally connect with and acknowledge the painful racial experiences of what it is to
be Black in the UK. This acknowledgement was important in helping me expose
what lay beneath my protective layers and essential in enabling me to create a more
authentic Black self.
Until recently, I had little experience of working with clients of colour, and
those that I did work with, I approached in line with my training, using Westernised
ideas and thinking. However, two years ago, I attended a weekend workshop run
by Isha McKenzie-Mavinga with the Black African and Asian Therapeutic Network
(BAATN), which explored racial issues in therapeutic practice. There were around
20 participants from Black backgrounds, a few brown people and two who were
white. One of the white attendees did not return for the second day. It became clear
 Billie-Claire Wright 41

that she had struggled to engage openly but, given the focus of the training on
minority race, I could appreciate how difficult it might have been if you were not
from this group. The other white participant appeared reflective, thoughtful and
curious of her process in relation to minority groups. I wonder whether perhaps
the white participant who left the group felt a sense of alienation as we became
immersed in a race-specific model and the issues that might arise within that.
Perhaps her feelings mirrored those of many Black trainees in therapeutic training
where there appears to be lack of forethought and we are expected to assimilate to
a majority group way of being.
Isha’s workshop was my first professional experience of being in a group of
people belonging to the same race as me. I had mixed initial feelings about this:
partly discomfort – would they notice my Westernised presentation and judge me
unfavourably? Would I have enough theoretical knowledge on Blackness to stand
up with these women? Would I feel safe enough to reveal myself, and would they
and Isha be ‘up to the job’? These feelings quickly subsided and were replaced with
a feeling of unity and awe; I felt fully accepted and strangely complete as honest
feelings were shared and processed compassionately in that space. I returned home
emotionally exhausted from those two days; all I could do was collapse in front
of the TV and sleep, but on waking I felt alive, brimming with ideas and more
competent and capable of working with racial difference and issues that might be
thrown up from a client belonging to a minority group.

Silence
The same year, I was fortunate to work with my first Black client in private practice.
She was aged 25 and was having difficulties with her white partner that centred
around their racial difference. As I worked with her, a growing realisation dawned
on me that themes similar to this client’s difficulties happen in therapeutic training
spaces when racial difference and diversity are not acknowledged fully. Her partner
initially appeared empathic to her negative Black experiences but, over the months
of their relationship, became both deaf and mute to them, and eventually withdrew
from the relationship. They seemed to arrive at a tacit agreement that, if the
relationship was to last, there was no place in it for her racial experiencing.
I would argue that this is very much what happens not only in therapeutic
training but also in therapeutic practice. How often, on courses, do Black people
find an air of ennui in their white colleagues if they raise ‘the race issue’? We are
invited to attend, but only if we leave our racial difference outside the door. I
can recall over the years the many times I have denigrated my own race to other
Black and non-Black people, but have only once ever been called out on it. That
is all it takes to make a real and positive difference. By not allowing difficulties to
be voiced, the silence around racial difference creates a greater gap, with wide-
reaching implications, and this same unspoken tension may exist in therapeutic
spaces between client and therapist. If we as therapists do the necessary work on
exploring a racial self, an open space is created that facilitates a natural dialogue on
racial self. We are able to notice an invisibility or a part of self that is cut off.
42 Exploring the racial self in counselling training

White is a race too

Literature and research have explored the difficulties white therapists have in
viewing themselves as racial and the ‘othering’ of Blackness as a problem. Most
therapeutic curricula ensure that there is a stock workshop on difference (or
‘diversities’) thrown in but fall short on integrating race throughout the course
content. How might we progress if we were to shift the emphasis in training from
how to work with minority racial groups to acknowledging and engaging with
whiteness as a racial identity? Below are some of the challenges that emerge when
this is done.
A detailed experiential focused-group study explored the dyadic relationship
through the responses of white counsellor trainees in supervision (Utsey et al.,
2005). Using nine possible case scenarios, trainees were asked to share, through
discussion and commentary, their thoughts and feelings of the case material
presented. The study found white trainees ‘incomprehensible, rhetorical and
incoherent on discussions of racial/racism issues’, which suggested that masking
internal racism has become more of a psychological challenge since racism has
moved from the explicit to the implicit (p.470). The findings also demonstrated the
difficulty white trainees had in viewing themselves as racial beings, instead shifting
the emphasis onto ‘ethnicity’ or seeing race as ‘other’.
There appears to be little motivation or incentive for those born into white
privilege to explore or understand what it ‘means’ to be white, or the impact
of ‘whiteness’ on others. Instead, the tendency is to deny skin privilege and
consequently oneself as a racial being (Utsey et al., pp.470–471). So, while the ideas
thrown up in this study might generate rich material for deeper contemplation
and exploration, to begin rolling out training focused solely on personal responses
to case-study material would achieve very little in facilitating reflective practice
on racial experiencing. It would also require a facilitator who is not only astute
in addressing defensive posturing but also highly sensitive to the anxieties that
might be thrown up in such a training model. It might also be counterproductive
in influencing how trainees approach race in therapeutic practice.
A study by Strous and Eagle (2004) expands on Paul Pedersen’s triad model
(1979) for training in multicultural psychotherapy. Pedersen’s triad included a
counsellor, a client from a different racial or cultural background and an ‘anti-
counsellor’, whose purpose was to represent the client’s difficulties and intentionally
provoke the counsellor by providing ongoing feedback on the racial experiencing of
the unexpressed views and thoughts of the client and counsellor. In their extension
of this framework, Strous and Eagle aimed to highlight and examine conscious
and unconscious racism in the ‘thoughts, feelings and fantasies’ of white South
African therapists working with Black clients and gain a deeper understanding
of ‘counsellors’ self-talk in interracial counselling contexts’ (p.27). By the end of
the study, what became clear was the extent to which white therapists’ openness
and capacity to self-analyse uncomfortable feelings and responses impacted on the
treatment. A pro-client stance required the ability to acknowledge the privileges
enjoyed by the white race and its propensity to exploit this by discriminating
 Billie-Claire Wright 43

against Black racial groups or others, while also being mindful of the potential
impact their race might have on those unlike them.
Some time ago, a white work colleague who had become a valued friend
shared with me her despair at the challenges she had recently found in a new job,
working under the guidance of a young Black manager, who supervised her clinical
workload. She tentatively spoke to me of these challenges as being perhaps linked
to an as yet undefinable, unconscious resistance to the race of her new manager.
We tried to explore this together, and to me my friend’s defensiveness was clear,
even though she talked of wanting to make the relationship better. I found myself
instinctively drawn to support the young Black manager, who I knew very little
about, rather than my friend. My friend seemed to be saying what I have heard
from other white therapeutic practitioners in relation to Black people. But I sensed
that any input I might add in favour of the new manager might cause a rupture
to our friendship. How could I support her to reflect objectively on her situation
without causing defensive posturing?
This dilemma seemed to echo much of the research literature I had read
for my MA. Utsey and colleagues’ study (2005) examined such reactions closely,
finding that the desire to be seen as liberal and accepting led therapists to deny a
highly influential and important factor and inhibitor in authentic communication
between people of different races. But, by opting for a colour-blind stance, they
rendered the person of difference ‘raceless’. In their study, a colour-blind approach
resulted in unconscious negative attributes, misdiagnosis and failure on the part
of the client to connect with therapy and the therapeutic relationship. Reactions
such as anxiety, fear and guilt all stemmed from the projection of these feelings
and were heightened in white therapists due to an inability to view themselves as
racial beings.
Watts-Jones’ (2002) concept of a sanctuary for Black women is rich in a
historical context, and resonant of survival from slavery through storytelling and the
same-race community as a safe space. It centralises authenticity in self-expression
through the process of validating same-race similarities rather than presenting a
masked version of self, while also allowing shaming, painful ideas and experiences
to be shared and helping to dispel the taboo subject of internalised racism. I tried
to imagine how this might be applied in today’s training programmes, but here
lies a problem: it feels to me that only half the work is being done. It is providing
healing to Black people but does not engage those from the white majority group
who have contributed to many of these painful experiences, so does nothing to
prevent re-traumatisation. We still have to live in our Blackness within a majority
white society; there is no learning from our racially painful experiences by the
racial group responsible for them.
Additionally, something in such an approach felt quite threatening to me,
which is also something Watts-Jones speaks of in depth. The reaction from white
people when a group of Black people gather is often one of fear; a throwback to
slaves potentially plotting their master’s demise, perhaps. Such an approach would
not be appropriate to the mainstream training setting. Therefore I have filed away
44 Exploring the racial self in counselling training

Watts-Jones’ ideas against the time when we have been able to quell the fears,
anxieties and resistance of the white majority sufficiently for such an approach to
be enriched by the inclusion of the racial other.

Developing racial awareness in training

After reading Lowe’s book on racial and cultural psychotherapy (2013), I felt
encouraged by the accounts from white therapists who actively wished to contribute
to addressing the challenges they encountered when working with Black clients
through sharing honest accounts from their work. What stood out for me was
the transparency required of white therapists to acknowledge the personal racial
assumptions and biases that influence how they regard a client purely from the
colour of their skin. By their doing so, an authenticity between the racially different
dyadic relationship of client/therapist was enhanced, becoming the strongest
influencer in the success of the therapy. So, by their actively working with race, we
could see the therapists’ commitment to the client’s whole self.
Lowe’s book allowed me to think outside of creating a specific working model
that addressed race to look at the clinician as the main influencer of success or
obstacle to positive outcomes in racially different therapeutic dyads. Therefore, as
a Black therapist, I needed to be clear about the roots of my racial heritage, the
challenges faced and the person I have become through those challenges. Then
I began to look at the challenge itself: namely, the system and the people who
perpetuate this system – or, rather, the predominant race of the individuals who
perpetuate that system. And here lies the success of Lowe’s book. It draws together
the voices of white clinicians who are able to hold their hand up and say, ‘I’m trying,
it might not be perfect but I’m willing to give it a go and share with you how it went.
It’s okay to get it wrong; we recover and move on.’ White people who get it wrong
will recover, like many Black people continue to recover from the daily slights
they receive in the form of micro- and macroaggressions: being followed around
a store by security guards, and ignored, overlooked or marked out as aggressive
when asserting thoughts or feelings that may differ from those of the majority race. I
appreciate it may be a new and uncomfortable experience for many white people; it
requires giving up the position of dominance. But the world does keep turning and
we grow from this place of trying and failing and getting back up and trying again.
What Lowe’s book appears to reinforce through these therapists’ accounts,
however, is the view of me and the group to which I belong as racially ‘other’,
and as such problematising us. I wonder whether it would be more productive to
encourage and support white trainees to engage with and explore their feelings
about their own racial identity in training, rather than the racial ‘other’. In this
respect, I wish instead to focus on the source of racial tensions between Black and
white racial groups, which is predominantly the perceptions, long-held beliefs
and consequent ways of behaving towards Black people by those who belong to a
majority white racial group.
I am aware, even writing this, that it feels strange to write the words ‘white’ and
‘race’ together, because we are so used to thinking of every other colour but white as
 Billie-Claire Wright 45

being racial. In her book on Black and white racial identity, Helms (1990, p.3) sets
out some wonderful exercises to help us become more aware of the feelings that
words associated with Black and white elicit. She suggests that the list of negative
adjectives for the former will far outnumber those for the latter and contemplates
what might it be like if we removed words such as ‘darkness’ or ‘Blackness’ from our
vocabularies. She makes us realise how everyday conversations, verbal exchanges,
reporting and commentary are littered with words synonymous with negatives in
relation to Black.
As I see it, the primary challenge for those devising counselling and
psychotherapy training courses is how to get white trainees to engage as equals in
the racial conversation by considering themselves as racial beings and sharing their
own racial experiencing. What thoughts and feeling emerge, how is this shared or
processed, what is acknowledged or suppressed and how is supervision used to
address any discrepancies in their racial understanding?

A framework from which to safely explore race

A model that I feel has the most potential to bring about change in how we approach
and think of race therapeutically is to be found in Richard’s (1996) dynamic
exploration of racial identity, which uses character study analysis from film and
literature for counselling and psychology training. To me, this model might find
a way around this defence by offering a way to create a safe space for reflection
where both white and Black therapists can come together and think about the
development of racial identity without focusing on themselves.
I have a background in performance art and so I was particularly drawn to
Richard’s use of film and literature to offer trainees this more objective way of
discussing race. They are not the subject of the exploration, with all the threat and
exposure that implies. The exploration of racial experiencing in a fictitious character
provides opportunities to gain different perspectives and new understanding of
racial experiencing in a less threatening way.
Painful aspects of self in Blackness and self in whiteness become more readily
available through character analysis using Cross’s racial identity development
model for Black people (1978) (see Table 4.1) and Helms’ model (Table 4.2) for
white people (1990). The objective of the exercise is to gain ‘understanding of what
task race plays in our psychological make-up’ (Richard, 1996). It is important to
add that, while both these racial identity development models are presented in
stages, the individual may move through them in a non-linear way, shift back
and forth, or remain fixed in a particular stage for the entirety. Richard’s study
was undertaken with 38 American psychology students, 37 of whom were white
and one Black. Fifty-five per cent of the students used Cross’s model of Black
identity development and 45% used Helms’ model of white identity development.
Helms’ book (1990) explores the development of white identity in much the
same way that Cross’s nigrescence model allows us to understand Black racial
identity development, and thus enables the reader to appreciate the complexity
and challenges for those from a white majority race in accepting themselves as
46 Exploring the racial self in counselling training

racial and ethnic beings. Within the wider educational perspective, Anderson
(1992), Bolt (1976) and Boyatzis (1994) all extol the benefits and value in analysis
of film for training psychology students, although these studies do not cover
controversial issues. Richard’s study found that open analysis and critique were
facilitated through exploring certain statements and motives of the characters
that demonstrated how they were moving through these various stages of racial
development.

Table 4.1: Cross’s nigrescence model of Black racial identity development (1978)

Stages Characterisation Function

1. Pre-encounter Denigration of Blackness and race Assimilation to majority society in

order to achieve
Blindness to racism/racist
experiences
Idealisation and adoption of white
perspective and culture

2. Encounter An occurrence to make one question Reconciling conscious/unconscious

identity and way of being (this may inner turmoil, incongruence in self
happen many times before reaching and/or conflict in way of being in
tipping point) Blackness
Relinquishing a non-Black ego
identity
Questioning self-identity/past
experiences
Reorganise structure of racial
identity

3. Immersion- Re-assimilation of black identity to Search for authentic self in

emersion incorporate Black historical culture Blackness
and perspectives
Shunning white culture and outlook

4. Internalisation Appreciation of both Black and Pro-actively making a difference to

white perspectives raising Black or oppressed groups
Comfortable with being authentic in to positions of equality
Blackness within group and in white Inclusion
majority groups. Collectivism

For Richard’s study, the students were first introduced to the two racial identity
models, and then asked to choose a character from film or fiction and trace their
racial identity development, using either the Cross or Helms models, depending
on the person’s race. They were asked to complete a written assignment of some
four or five pages and give a short oral presentation to the whole class. For the final
stage, they were asked to complete a multiple-choice exam on theories of racial
identity development.
 Billie-Claire Wright 47

Table 4.2: Helms’ model of white identity development (1990)

Phase 1
Internalising racism
(Maintaining status quo)

Schemas Themes Self-protective strategies

Contact Naïve curiosity Denial

Timidity about other races Neutral stance
Colour blindness

Disintegration Confusion – consciously acknowledge Distorting reality

whiteness and racial privilege Blame victims of racism
Contend with imperfections and
contradictions of whiteness
Moral dilemma – uncontested
membership to politically, socially
and economical most powerful
racial group requires immoral
treatment of racial other

Reintegration Consciously white Displacement/scapegoating –

resolving inner turmoil by blaming
Considers white to be superior to all
racial other for one’s condition
other racial groups
rather than whites

Phase 2
Evolving non-racist identity
(Challenging some aspect of white racial socialisation norms)

Schemas Themes Self-protective strategies

Evolving Pseudo-independence Intellectualisation

non-racist
Liberal views Denial
identity
Positive view

Immersion- Effort to understand un-sanitised Sensitisation – seeks out

emersion version of white history in UK experiences of like-minded whites
that will help them understand
Active exploration of racism,
meaning of being white and grow
white culture and assimilation and
beyond racism
acculturation of white people
Assumes personal responsibility for
racism/realistic self-appraisal and
awareness of assets and deficits of
being white
Motivator – moral re-education of
whites
48 Exploring the racial self in counselling training

Autonomy Seeks within-race and cross-racial Confrontation

experiences to develop equalitarian/ Inclusion
humanitarian attitude
Collectivism
Feels safe and secure within oneself
when engaged in experiences
to nurture his/her whiteness as
personally defined

Students reported that the project had been ‘lively, memorable and objective’.
The results of the exam showed that they had learned more about racial identity
development than previous students who had taken the exam without first taking
the course on racial identity development. However, the evaluation, which was given
a week after presentation, showed only a moderate rating for their development in
understanding of a different race to their own. This might have been due to the white
students never having considered themselves as racial beings, so this was for them a
new experience. The greatest impact for the students was witnessing the character in
film/literature moving from one stage of development to another.
Richard concludes that removing personal, racial self-experiencing provided
a ‘non-threatening or self-incriminating’ (1996, p.160) opportunity for students
to think more critically about racial issues and how race defines our worldview
and subsequently our selves through its influence on our attitudes and behaviour
towards the racial other.

Challenging defensiveness
I was approached by an organisation that was actively working on bringing greater
racial awareness and understanding to staff. They asked if I would speak with a
team of clinical staff on race. An hour had been allocated for this activity, and I
knew it would have little meaningful impact if I were just to lecture them on racial
difference, so I decided to devise a brief workshop based on Richard’s study. The
team comprised 12 staff – managers, clinicians and administrators, 65% white and
35% Black and brown. None had previously undertaken any training in working
therapeutically with race. I used a scene from the film The Help (Taylor, 2011). The
story is set in 1960s Mississippi; a young white writer is commissioned to write about
Black women’s experiences of caring for white families. I gave each participant print-
outs of both racial identity development models, and briefed them to make notes on
where the two characters – Aibileen, a Black maid, and Hilly, a white socialite – were
positioned on the models in a particular scene in the film.
While the group were able to engage with the exercise and expressed curiosity,
I experienced a palpable tension and silence in the space that continued for some
time before I intervened. This silence seemed to be filled with apprehension about
saying the ‘right’ thing. As facilitator, I became aware of my own apprehension and
subsequent freeze response in witnessing the participants’ unease. I was mindful
of how little time we had: do I name it or continue with the exercise, to allow
participants to identify the stages of racial identity development?
 Billie-Claire Wright 49

Fakhry Davids (2011) describes this reaction as a type of political correctness

that leads to an incapacity to think. While I acknowledge that the participants had
little time to prepare and the scene was not particularly light viewing, I question
whether their responses would have been any different had the recommended
outline been followed, given how difficult the subject matter of race is to address.
Such reactions appear to be necessary in order to make progress in our own
understanding of where we sit racially. Indeed, seeking to avoid such responses
renders the training meaningless. It is by highlighting and naming unease,
defensive posturing or overly conciliatory positioning when they arise that we are
given opportunities to recognise and be faced with our own discomfort, which
creates room for meaningful self-exploration. Such training might prove to be the
breakthrough needed to bring race into therapeutic discourse and training.
What appears to have been critical to the success of Richard’s study in respect
to the learning experience is the removal of judgement from self by using external
source material to explore and gain greater understanding of racial experiencing.
In my condensed version with the small group of therapeutic professionals, it did
not prevent the difficult feelings arising, but I believe that, with time, this could
be worked through and incorporated as reflective practice alongside the character
study. I feel there is potential to build on this, by gradually sharing personal
experience through a written or presented account of an important event or
happening concerning a racial other that might be considered differently with an
understanding of racial identity development. To facilitate this type of exploration,
racial identity development would need to be integrated and threaded throughout
the full course of study.
The students involved in the Richard’s study felt it would have been more
beneficial to them if the topic had been introduced at an earlier point in the course.
I echo their sentiments. Had the residential workshop I attended on difference
and diversity during my postgraduate training been held in the first year and then
incorporated as a thread throughout the rest of my learning, it would have had
far greater meaning and relevance to my self-development and subsequent work.
It is easy to see how, with the study of racial identity development, it would be
possible to think more critically about race within the self and move beyond this
initial phase into exploring cause and effect, such as blind spots caused by personal
biases, prejudices and therapy-hindering statements.
Richard’s model could be used for both Black and white trainees, together
or separately. Once the module on specific racial identity development was
finished, the model could be incorporated into case studies involving the dyadic
client/therapist or therapist/supervisor relationship, each operating from, moving
through or flip-flopping through various stages of racial identity development.

Concluding thoughts
To work successfully with the racial self demands that we bring our whole self to
the therapeutic space. Without a commitment to understanding our own personal
racial identity and its social and societal impact, the concept of racial awareness
50 Exploring the racial self in counselling training

remains an abstract idea, causing apathy, confusion and defensive posturing

and rendering the topic void of meaning and quickly forgotten. Watson (2006)
hypothesised that Black counsellors learn race-avoidant attitudes in training,
which are then reproduced through their work with both Black and white clients.
Creating an open forum with facilitators who are racially attuned and resilient
enough to manage students’ anxieties around racial issues might normalise anxiety
and defence as natural to the evolution of racial identity (Utsey et al., 2005).
There are clear gaps in racial awareness in therapy professionals’ training, and
many therapists are reluctant to engage with racial issues. However, by integrating
both Black and white theory on racial identity development throughout training,
we stand to improve racial competency in all practitioners. The creative use of film
in the Richard study above has the potential to create a meaningful vehicle through
which to safely explore our racial self and our responses to the racial other, creating
more availability, understanding and knowledge in ourselves as racial beings. By
doing so, we contribute to crossing the racial divide, bringing quality to racial
conversations and, although we are travelling from different directions, bridging
the gap between racial experiencing and therapeutic practice.
I argue that it is impossible to understand the full impact of racism and
develop working models to facilitate training professionals without white
therapists, supervisors and trainers exploring their own race in relation to self and
the racial other. Without an appreciation of all racial experiencing, the issue of race
and difference can be kept safely in the realms of academic research and theory, a
disembodied concept devoid of meaning or understanding in therapeutic spaces.

References
Anderson, D.D. (1992). Using feature films as tools for analysis in a psychology and law course.
Teaching of Psychology, 19(3), 155–158.
Bolt, M. (1976). Using films based on literature in teaching psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 3(4),
189–190.
Boyatzis, C.J. (1994). Using feature films to teach social development. Teaching of Psychology, 21(2),
99–101.
Cross, W.E. (1978). The Thomas and Cross models of psychological nigrescence: A review. Journal
of Black Psychology, 5(1), 13–31.
Davids, F. (2011). Internal racism: A psychoanalytic approach to race and difference. Red Globe Press.
Helms, J.E. (1990). Black and white racial identity: Theory, research and practice. Westport:
Greenwood Press.
Lowe, F. (2013). Thinking space: Promoting thinking about race, culture and diversity in psychotherapy
and beyond. Karnac Books.
 Billie-Claire Wright 51

Pedersen, P.B. (1979). Counselling clients from other cultures: two training designs. In M.K. Asante,
E. Newmark & C.A. Blake, Handbook of intercultural communication (pp. 405–419). Sage.
Richard, H.W. (1996). Filmed in black and white: The concept of racial identity at a predominantly
white university. Teaching of Psychology, 23(3), 159–161.
Strous, M. & Eagle, G. (2004). Anti-client and pro-client positions in interracial psychotherapy.
South African Journal of Psychology, 34(1), 25–54.
Taylor, T. (Dir.). (2011). The help. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
Turner, D. (2021). Intersections of privilege and otherness in counselling and psychotherapy:
Mockingbird. Routledge.
Utsey, S.O., Gernat, C.A. & Hammar, L. (2005). Examining white counselling trainees’ reactions to
racial issues and supervision dyads. The Counselling Psychologist, 33(4), 449–478.
Watson, V. (2006). Key issues for black counselling practitioners in the UK. In C. Lago (Ed.), Race,
culture and counselling: The ongoing challenge (2nd ed.) (pp187–197). Open University Press.
Watts-Jones, D. (2002). Healing internalized racism: the role of a within-group sanctuary among
people of African descent. Family Process, 41(4), 591–602.
Wright, B.-C. (2019). Internalized racism in blackness: How do therapists make sense of the
psychological injury of racism? Unpublished dissertation. University of East London.
52 An anti-racist counselling training model

5 An anti-racist counselling training model

Courtland C. Lee

Note from the editors: This chapter is about a course developed for counselling students
in the US and is therefore specific in its references and some details to the US context.
However, its principles and the overall content are applicable to a UK context. We
have provided a parallel reading list for the UK reader with the references at the
end, although that shouldn’t stop anyone exploring the US texts, if they are readily
available and affordable.

Racism as a construct can be defined as prejudice, discrimination or antagonism

directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own
race is superior (Essed, 1991). Significantly, racism can be perceived at both an
individual and an institutional level. At an individual level, it can be seen in the
beliefs, attitudes, and actions of individuals that support or perpetuate the ideas of
racial superiority, while institutionally it is prejudice and discrimination expressed
in the practices of social and political structures (Feagin, 2013).
For Black, Asian and other minority ethnic people, individual and institutional
racism has historically resulted in marginalisation and oppression (Feagin, 2013;
Goldberg, 1990). Importantly, racism continues to affect the wellbeing of Black,
Asian and minority ethnic people in contemporary society, as is evident in the
inequity of access to social services and opportunities such as education, health
care and employment.
While much has been written about the impact of racism on Black, Asian and
minority ethnic people, often overlooked is the fact that individual and institutional
racism can also have an impact on the wellbeing of those in the dominant racial/
ethnic group – white people (Hunt & Bowser, 1996; Spanierman et al., 2009). While
there is no comparison with the effects of racism on Black, Asian and minority
ethnic people, white people have also been negatively affected by racism. For
example, racism often fosters the development of a distorted perception of self and
others among white people. In particular, their dominant racial position in society
can often generate feelings of superiority among whites that perpetuate stereotypes
about and discriminatory actions against minority ethnic people (DiAngelo, 2018).
 Courtland C. Lee 53

Given the historical and contemporary impact of racism on the wellbeing of both
Black, Asian and minority ethnic people and whites, it is important for counsellors to
develop the competency to address the challenge of racism in their clinical work with
clients. The purpose of this chapter is to present an anti-racist counselling training
model to address the issues of both the victims and the perpetrators of racism. This
model is based on a course entitled ‘Racism and Trauma: Cross-cultural perspectives
on antiracist counseling and psychotherapy’, which was developed as part of the
curriculum of the Master’s programme in clinical mental health counselling at the
Washington DC campus of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. The
model offers perspectives on the awareness, knowledge, skills and actions required
of counsellors to confront the mental health challenges associated with individual
and structural racism. I will start with a discussion of the theoretical foundations
of the model. This is followed by an exploration of important components of the
training experience, including a description of the training, the learning outcomes,
an overview of the training curriculum and the assignments given, and suggested
training resources. The chapter concludes with an account of my own experience
with and insights on the impact of the model on student development.

Antiracist counselling training: the theoretical foundations

The theoretical foundation for this training experience is derived from psychological
and ideological perspectives on race. The model also rests on the concept of cross-
cultural counselling competency.

Racism: a trauma perspective

When racism is considered from a psychological perspective, it can be perceived
as trauma (Carter, 2007; Helms et al., 2010; Kirkinis et al., 2018). Trauma is a direct
personal experience of an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious
injury, threat to one’s physical integrity, witnessing an event that involves the above
experience or learning about unexpected or violent death, serious harm, threat of
death or injury experienced by a family member or close associate (Green, 1990).
Trauma can be caused by a wide variety of events, but there are a few common
aspects. There is frequently a violation of the person’s core assumptions about the
world and their human rights, putting them in a state of extreme confusion and
insecurity. This is often seen when institutions depended upon for survival violate,
humiliate, betray or cause major losses or separations (Green, 1990).
Within this context, racial trauma refers to the events of danger related to
real or perceived experience of racial discrimination, threats of harm and injury,
and humiliating and shaming events, in addition to witnessing harm to other
individuals because of real or perceived racism (Franklin et al., 2006; Carter, 2007;
Helms et al., 2010).

Racism: an ideological perspective

In his book Stamped from the Beginning: The definitive history of racist ideas in
54 An anti-racist counselling training model

America, the noted historian Ibram X. Kendi details the historical evolution of
racist ideology (Kendi, 2016). This ideology is grounded in beliefs that members
of a race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race that distinguish it
as inferior or superior to other races. Importantly, these philosophical ideas weave
their way through the intellectual history of white, Western, industrialised and
colonising nations from pre-colonial times to the present day. The foundational
concepts of racist thought have influenced a number of academic disciplines
including psychology, theology, anthropology, sociology, biology, and arts and
literature (Kendi, 2016).
In reviewing the evolution of racist ideas in white Western, colonialist nations,
they can be seen as falling into one of three schools of thought. The first of these can
be identified as segregationist. This school of thought places an emphasis on the idea
that Black people are responsible for the racial disparities that exist and that Black
oppression is caused by innate Black inferiority. This intellectual position can be seen
as forming the foundation for both individual and institutional racism (Kendi, 2016).
The second school of thought is labelled assimilationist. This ideological
position posits that Black people and racial discrimination are responsible for racial
disparities. Assimilationist thought acknowledges that societal factors contribute
to racial disparities. However, this position asserts that Black culture is inferior
to white culture and that racial disparities will ultimately be alleviated if Blacks
assimilate as much as possible into white society (Kendi, 2016).
The anti-racist school of thought is the third intellectual position. This position
is in direct opposition to the segregationist school of thought in that it states that
racial discrimination is responsible for racial disparities. This position refutes the
idea of Black inferiority. Rather than put the responsibility for racial disparity on the
supposed inferior biology or culture of Black people, anti-racist thought states that
individual and institutional racism causes racial disparity. Importantly, anti-racist
thought can be seen as the basis of true Black social and cultural empowerment (Kendi,
2016). An anti-racist perspective is crucial for counselling intervention because it
provides a modality for addressing the notions of white superiority that are often
implicit in the theory and practice of counselling. These inherent racist traditions
within the field have often had a negative impact on both people of colour and whites
(Sue et al., 2019). An anti-racist perspective, therefore, offers direction for healing the
psychosocial wounds inflicted by racism on both victims and perpetrators. Further,
an anti-racist perspective is underscored by cross-cultural counselling competency,
which has become a hallmark of contemporary professional counselling.

Cross-cultural counselling competency

Cross-cultural counselling competency is a concept that has received significant
attention in the counselling literature (Sue et al., 1992; Ratts et al., 2016). Cross-cultural
counselling competency identifies a set of attitudes and behaviours indicative of the
ability to establish, maintain and successfully conclude a counselling relationship
with clients from diverse cultural backgrounds (Lee, 2019). Counsellors who strive
for cultural competency in their work with clients exhibit attitudes and behaviours
 Courtland C. Lee 55

that indicate heightened self-awareness, an expanded cultural knowledge base and a

commitment to use helping skills in a culturally responsive manner.

The training course

The course I am describing here, ‘Racism and Trauma: Cross-cultural perspectives
on antiracist counseling and psychotherapy’, offers a cross-cultural perspective on
the competencies required of counsellors to confront the mental health challenges
associated with individual and structural racism. It explores the historical evolution
of racism and racist ideas in relation to their impact on mental health and wellbeing.
It also examines the impact of racism on both victims and perpetrators. In addition,
the course seeks to provide students with a culturally competent and anti-racist
perspective on counselling interventions to address the trauma associated with
racism at both the individual and structural level.
By the end of this course, students are expected to have a good understanding
of the evolution of racism and racist ideas, and to be able to critically assess the
impact of racism on their own lives and psychosocial development, delineate and
discuss racism as a mental health issue, assess how racism impacts both victims
and perpetrators of racism, and address the trauma of racism from an anti-racist
perspective by developing culturally competent mental health interventions for
people negatively impacted by racism.

The curriculum
Topic I: Introduction to racism
Students explore an operational definition of racism as prejudice, discrimination,
or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief
that one’s own race is superior. They consider both individual racism (i.e. the
beliefs, attitudes and actions of individuals that support or perpetuate racism) and
institutional racism (i.e. racist beliefs and attitudes expressed in the practices of
social and political institutions).
To provide context to the state of racism in contemporary American society,
students view a documentary titled Charlottesville: Race and terror (ViceNews,
2017). This chronicles the 2017 race riot in Charlottesville, Virginia that was
prompted by the proposed removal from a public park of a statue of the Confederate
general Robert E. Lee. Students then discuss their reactions and insights to the
issues of racism and inequality displayed in the documentary. They consider how
both individual and institutional racism are evident in the Charlottesville events
and their relevance to professional counsellors.
Students next explore the effects of racial power and privilege. They discuss
their perspectives on the concept of racial privilege by sharing reactions and
opinions to Peggy McIntosh’s (1989) article ‘White Privilege: Unpacking the
invisible knapsack’, which explores how she (and white people generally) ‘enjoy
unearned skin privilege and have been conditioned into oblivion about its
existence’, and sets about counting those privileges in her own life.
56 An anti-racist counselling training model

Topic II: Personal reflections on racism

In small groups, students share personal narratives on racism in response to the
following questions:

1. What was your earliest experience with racism?

2. Where did this happen?
3. What impact did this experience have on you at the time?
4. Does this experience still have an impact on you?
5. Will this experience have an impact on your work as a counsellor?

Topic III: The evolution of racist ideas

Students examine the evolution of racist ideas within the US with a synopsis of
Stamped from the Beginning: The definitive history of racist ideas in America (Kendi,
2016). Students deconstruct and discuss the three ideological perspectives on
racism: segregationist, assimilationist and anti-racist. The evolution of the academic
discipline of psychology is examined through these three ideological perspectives.

Topic IV: Racism as trauma – individual perspectives

Students are introduced to racism as a mental health issue. Two questions are
posed to begin the discussion:

• Has the US been collectively traumatised by racism?

• Is racism a health problem or a social problem?

Racism is then discussed from a trauma perspective. The following operational

definition is introduced:

Racial trauma refers to the events related to real or perceived experiences

of racial discrimination, threats of harm and injury, and humiliating and
shaming events, in addition to witnessing harm to other individuals because
of real or perceived racism. (Comas-Díaz, 2016)

Using a case study approach, students assess how racism contributes to trauma for
both victims and perpetrators of racism.

The impact of racism on the mental health of minority ethnic people

• Internalised devaluation: a sense of inferiority to other human beings resulting
from personal encounters and structural realities that question and attack one’s
full humanity because of one’s racial background (Crocker et al., 2001).
• Generalised anxiety disorder – racial battle fatigue: minority ethnic people
constantly worry, have trouble concentrating, become fatigued and develop
headaches when navigating personal and professional spaces that have
historically favoured white people (Smith et al., 2008).
 Courtland C. Lee 57

• Historical hostility: in their collective experience, Black people harbour

conscious and unconscious negative emotions produced by centuries of
brutality and frustrations that they and their forebears suffered at the hands of
white people (Vontress & Epp, 1997).
• Microaggressions: brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioural or
environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that
communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative cultural slights and insults (Sue
et al., 2007).
• Cultural dysthymia: after years of enslavement, oppression, prejudice and
discrimination, dysthymia is reflected in chronic low-grade sadness, anger,
hostility, aggression, self-hatred, hopelessness and self-destructive behaviours
among many minority ethnic people (Vontress et al., 2007).

The impact of racism on the mental health of white people

• White fragility: a state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress
becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves. These moves
include the outward display of emotions such as anger, fear and guilt, and
behaviours such as argumentation, silence and leaving the stress-inducing
situation. These behaviours, in turn, function to reinstate white racial
equilibrium (DiAngelo, 2018).
• Superiority complex: a sense of privilege and entitlement based on race; the
belief that white people are superior to people of other races and therefore
should be dominant over them (Bonilla-Silva, 2001).

Topic V: Racism as trauma – structural perspectives

Students are introduced to the concept of structural racism: the macro-level
systems, social forces, institutions, ideologies and processes that interact with
one another to generate and reinforce inequities among racial and ethnic groups
(Powell, 2008).
To begin the discussion of structural racism, students watch the television mini-
series When They See Us (DuVernay & DuVernay, 2019) and the documentary The
Central Park Five (Burns et al., 2012). These programmes deal with the infamous
1989 case in which five boys (four Black and one Latino), ages 14–16, were falsely
accused of a brutal attack on a young white woman in Central Park in New York
City. They would be found guilty and jailed for the crime. Eventually, they were
cleared of all charges, having served almost their full sentences.
After watching the programmes, students process their reactions to the events.
They explore the implicit structural racism in the case – specifically, how the
inherent racist forces in the criminal justice system conspired to wrongly accuse
five innocent boys of colour.
Students then explore and discuss aspects of structural racism in five social
systems: employment, education, housing, criminal justice and immigration. They
58 An anti-racist counselling training model

then engage in a discussion about how aspects of structural racism impact on the
mental health of both whites and minority ethnic people.

Topic VI: Anti-racist counselling interventions

Students are introduced to models for counselling from an anti-racist perspective
– one for whites and one for minority ethnic people.

Counselling whites: an anti-racist perspective

• Stage I: the counsellor exhibits cultural competency as evidenced by an
understanding of the multicultural and social justice counselling competencies
(MCSJCC) (Ratts et al., 2016).
• Stage II: the counsellor conceptualises the etiology of client’s racist ideas and
actions and their impact on the client’s worldview and wellbeing.
• Stage III: using broaching, the counsellor encourages the client to talk openly
and candidly about race.
• Stage IV: using an integrative psychoeducational narrative therapeutic
approach, the counsellor helps the client:
∙ assess and explore their stage of white racial identity development
(Helms, 1990)
∙ explore both their explicit and implicit racial biases
∙ explore and process the extent of their racial privilege
∙ explore and process aspects of their racial fragility – e.g. anger, fear and guilt
∙ explore and process the intersectionality of identity development, bias,
privilege and fragility
∙ conduct a personal racist attitude and behavior inventory
∙ identify cultural strengths that could be used to challenge personal racist
ideology
∙ explore their motivation for confronting and changing racist attitudes and
behaviours
∙ explore personal dimensions of anti-racist attitudes and behaviours.

Counselling minority ethnic people: an anti-racist perspective

• Stage I: The counsellor exhibits cultural competency as evidenced by
an understanding of the Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling
Competencies (MCSJCC) (Ratts et al., 2016)
• Stage II: The counsellor recognises the role of racism in the etiology of the
client’s concern/issue.
• Stage III: Using broaching, the counsellor encourages the clients to talk openly
and candidly about race.
• Stage IV: Using a trauma-informed racism-sensitive narrative therapeutic
 Courtland C. Lee 59

approach (Hardy, 2013; Malott & Schaefle, 2015), the counsellor helps the
client:
∙ explore personal dimensions of racial battle fatigue and/or cultural
dysthymia to assess the impact of individual and structural racism on the
aetiology of presenting issues/concerns
∙ explore the nature and extent of internal devaluation caused by individual
and structural racism
∙ identify cultural strengths and inner resources that contribute to resilience
and provide a defence against racism
∙ explore the nature of racial microaggressions that contribute to internal
devaluation and promote anger and/or self-defeating and self-destructive
behaviour
∙ explore ways to redirect anger that result in personal empowerment.

Students work with case studies to gain awareness of and competency with the two
anti-racist counselling models.

Course assignments
Assignment 1: Paper – personal reflections on racism
This paper is an opportunity for students to explore their own experience with
racism and how it has shaped them by answering the following questions:
1. What was your earliest experience with racism?
2. Where did this happen?
3. What impact did this experience have on you at the time?
4. Does this experience still have an impact on you?
5. Will this experience have an impact on your work as a counsellor?

Assignment 2: Final paper – Healing racial trauma: anti-racist mental

health interventions
This is a 15–20-page paper on racism and its effects on mental health and wellbeing.
The paper should reflect a cross-cultural perspective and include a discussion of
what students have learned about racism and mental health. It should explore how
counsellors can effectively address the trauma associated with racism at both the
client and societal levels and should include relevant literature on the topic of racism.

Assignment 3: Required readings

DiAngelo, R. (2018). White fragility: Why it’s so hard for white people to talk about
racism. Beacon Press.
Franklin, J. (2016). Racial microaggressions, racial battle fatigue, and racism-
related stress in higher education. Journal of Student Affairs at New York University,
12, 44.
60 An anti-racist counselling training model

Geller, A., Fagan, J., Tyler, T. & Link, B.G. (2014). Aggressive policing and the
mental health of young urban men. American Journal of Public Health, 104(12),
2321–2327.
Hemmings, C. & Evans, A.M. (2018). Identifying and treating race‐based trauma
in counseling. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 46(1), 20–39.
Kendi, I.X. (2016). Stamped from the beginning: The definitive history of racist ideas
in America. Nation Books.
Kendi, I.X. (2019). How to be an antiracist. One World.
Malott, K.M., & Schaefle, S. (2015). Addressing clients’ experiences of racism: A
model for clinical practice. Journal of Counseling & Development, 93(3), 361–369.
McIntosh, P. (1989). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack. Peace and
Freedom.
Mouzon, D.M., & McLean, J.S. (2017). Internalized racism and mental health
among African-Americans, US-born Caribbean Blacks, and foreign-born
Caribbean Blacks. Ethnicity & Health, 22(1), 36–48.
Nadal, K.L., Griffin, K.E., Wong, Y., Hamit, S. & Rasmus, M. (2014). The impact of
racial microaggressions on mental health: Counseling implications for clients of
color. Journal of Counseling & Development, 92(1), 57–66.
Oluo, I. (2018). So you want to talk about race. New York, NY: Seal Press.
Ratts, M.J., Singh, A.A., Nassar‐McMillan, S., Butler, S.K. & McCullough, J.R.
(2016). Multicultural and social justice counseling competencies: Guidelines for
the counseling profession. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development,
44(1), 28–48.
Turner, E.A., & Richardson, J. (2016, July 14). Racial trauma is real: The impact
of police shootings on African Americans. Psychological Benefits Society. https://
psychologybenefits.org/2016/07/14/racial-trauma-police-shootings-on-african-
americans/

A personal reflection
This course on anti-racist counselling for addressing racial trauma grew out of
an encounter that I had with Ibram X. Kendi at the 2018 National Book Festival
in Washington, DC. Dr Kendi was a discussant on a panel about race relations
as a way to promote his book (2016), Stamped from the Beginning: The definitive
history of racist ideas in America. I was so impressed with Kendi and his ideas that
I bought his book. As I read it, I saw its relevance for counsellors in their quest for
cultural competency. It provides a cogent exploration of how racism developed as
an ideology and impacted all academic disciplines, including psychology.
Kendi’s book provided the impetus for an idea I had been germinating for
several years – developing a training experience for counsellors on racism as a
mental health challenge. The training would focus on racism as a form of trauma
 Courtland C. Lee 61

and how counsellors could address it in a culturally competent manner. The

training experience would provide students with an understanding of the evolution
of racist ideology so they would understand that racist behavior and its impact on
both victim and perpetrator has its basis in ideas that emerged from a number of
academic disciplines across several centuries.
I taught this course for the first time in the summer of 2019. It was a study-
abroad course for 11 Master’s counselling students. The course explored the
historical evolution of racism and racist ideas in the US and South Africa in relation
to their impact on mental health and wellbeing. It provided the opportunity for
students to compare the dynamics of mental health challenges associated with
individual and structural racism in the US with those in South Africa through a
10-day cultural immersion experience in Cape Town.
This experience exploring racism from a mental health perspective
underscored several things for me as a counsellor educator. First, studying the
evolution of racist ideology provides students with a greater understanding of the
theories and models of multicultural counselling, cultural identity development
and social justice and advocacy. Second, as they contemplate the impact of racism
on their own lives, students better understand the impact of their own heritage,
attitudes, beliefs, understandings and acculturative experiences on their views of
others. Third, in exploring the aspects of power and privilege inherent in racism,
students better understand the effects of these constructs for counsellors and clients.
Finally, in being introduced to anti-racist counselling models for both victims and
perpetrators of racism, students can better employ strategies for identifying and
eliminating barriers, prejudices and processes of intentional and unintentional
oppression and discrimination.

References
Bonilla-Silva, E. (2001). White supremacy and racism in the post-civil rights era. Lynne Reiner.
Burns, K., Burns, S. & McMahon, D. (Dirs.). (2012). The Central Park five. Sundance Selects.
Carter, R.T. (2007). Racism and psychological and emotional injury: Recognizing and assessing
race-based traumatic stress. The Counseling Psychologist, 35(1), 13–105.
Comas-Díaz, L. (2016). Racial trauma recovery: A race-informed therapeutic approach to racial
wounds. In A.N. Alvarez, C.T.H. Liang & H.A. Neville (Eds.), Cultural, racial, and ethnic psychology
book series. The cost of racism for people of color: Contextualizing experiences of discrimination
(pp.249–272). American Psychological Association.
Crocker, J., Major, B., Steele, C. & Quinn, D.M. (2001). Psychological consequences of devalued
identities. In G. Brown & S. Gaertner. Blackwell handbook of social psychology: Intergroup processes
(pp.238–257). Blackwell Publishing.
62 An anti-racist counselling training model

DiAngelo, R. (2018). White fragility: Why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism. Beacon
Press.
DuVernay, A. (Prod.) & DuVernay, A. (Dir.). (2019) When they see us. Netflix.
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Feagin, J. (2013). Systemic racism: A theory of oppression. Routledge.
Franklin, A.J., Boyd-Franklin, N. & Kelly, S. (2006). Racism and invisibility: Race-related stress,
emotional abuse and psychological trauma for people of color. Journal of Emotional Abuse, 6(2–3),
9–30.
Goldberg, D.T. (1990). Anatomy of racism. University of Minnesota Press.
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Applied Social Psychology, 20(20), 1632–1642.
Hardy, K.V. (2013). Healing the hidden wounds of racial trauma. Reclaiming Children and Youth,
22(1), 24–28.
Helms, J.E. (1990). Black and white racial identity: Theory, research and practice. Greenwood Press.
Helms, J.E., Nicolas, G. & Green, C.E. (2010). Racism and ethnoviolence as trauma: Enhancing
professional training. Traumatology, 16(4), 53–62.
Hunt, R.G., & Bowser, B. (Eds.). (1996). Impacts of racism on white Americans (2nd Ed.). Sage
Publications.
Kendi, I.X. (2016). Stamped from the beginning: The definitive history of racist ideas in America.
Nation Books.
Kirkinis, K., Pieterse, A.L., Martin, C., Agiliga, A. & Brownell, A. (2018). Racism, racial
discrimination, and trauma: systematic review of the social science literature. Ethnicity & Health,
1–21.
Lee, C.C. (2019). Multicultural competency: A conceptual framework for counseling across
cultures. In C.C. Lee (Ed.), Multicultural issues in counseling: New approaches to diversity (5th ed.)
(pp.3–13). American Counseling Association.
Malott, K.M., & Schaefle, S. (2015). Addressing clients’ experiences of racism: A model for clinical
practice. Journal of Counseling & Development, 93(3), 361–369.
McIntosh, P. (1989). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack. Peace and Freedom.
Powell J.A. (2008). Structural racism: Building upon the insights of John Calmore. North Carolina
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Ratts, M.J., Singh, A.A., Nassar‐McMillan, S., Butler, S.K., & McCullough, J.R. (2016). Multicultural
and social justice counseling competencies: Guidelines for the counseling profession. Journal of
Multicultural Counseling and Development, 44(1), 28–48.
Smith, L., Constantine, M.G., Graham, S.V. & Dize, C.B. (2008). The territory ahead for multicultural
competence: The ‘spinning’ of racism. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 39(3), 337–
345. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7028.39.3.337
Spanierman, L.B., Todd, N.R. & Anderson, C.J. (2009). Psychosocial costs of racism to whites:
Understanding patterns among university students. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 56(2), 239–252.
Sue, D.W., Arredondo, P. & McDavis, R.J. (1992). Multicultural counseling competencies and
standards: A call to the profession. Journal of Counseling & Development, 70, 477–486.
Sue, D.W., Capodilupo, C.M., Torino, G.C., Bucceri, J.M., Holder, A., Nadal, K.L. & Esquilin,
M. (2007). Racial microaggressions in everyday life: Implications for clinical practice. American
Psychologist, 62(4), 271–286.
 Courtland C. Lee 63

Sue, D.W., Sue, D., Neville, H.A. & Smith, L. (2019). Counseling the culturally diverse: Theory and
practice. John Wiley & Sons.
ViceNews. (2017). Charlottesville: Race and terror. Vice News.
Vontress, C.E. & Epp, L.R. (1997). Historical hostility in the African American client: Implications
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Suggested supplementary UK resources for use with the training ideas in this chapter
Andrew, K. (2018). Back to Black: Retelling Black radicalism for the 21st Century. Zed Books.
Bogues, A. (2003). Black heretics, black prophets. Routledge.
Carter, R. (1995). The influence of race and racial identity in psychotherapy: Towards a racially
inclusive model. John Wiley & Sons.
Casse, P. (1981) Training for the cross-cultural mind. Society for Intercultural Education, Training
and Research.
Cousins, S. (2019). Overcoming everyday racism: Building resilience in the face of discrimination and
micro-aggressions. Jessica Kingsley.
Dabiri, E. (2019.) Don’t touch my hair. Allen Lane.
DiAngelo, R. (2016). What does it mean to be white? Developing white racial literacy. Peter Lang.
Dyer, R. (1997). White. Routledge.
Eddo-Lodge, R. (2017). Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race. Bloomsbury Circus.
Ellis E. (2021). The race conversation. Confer Books.
Galbraith, J.K. (2016). Inequality: What everyone needs to know. Oxford University Press.
Katz, J.H. (1978). White awareness: Handbook for anti-racism training. University of Oklahoma Press.
Helms, J. (1995). An update of Helm’s white and people of color racial identity models. In J.G.
Ponterotto, J.M. Casas, L. Suzuki & C. Alexander (Eds.), Handbook of multicultural counseling
(pp.181–198). Sage Publications.
Hirsch, A. (2018). Brit(ish): On race, identity and belonging. Vintage.
Kareem, J. & Littlewood, R. (2000). Intercultural therapy. Blackwell Science.
Lago, C. (2006) Race, culture and counselling: The ongoing challenge (2nd ed.). McGraw Hill/Open
University.
Lago, C. (2007). Counselling across difference and diversity. In M. Cooper, M. O’Hara, P.F. Schmid
& G. Wyatt (Eds.), The handbook of person-centred psychotherapy and counselling (pp.251–265).
Palgrave Macmillan.
Lago, C. (2010). On developing our empathic capacities to work inter-culturally and inter-
ethnically: Attempting a map for personal and professional development. Psychotherapy and Politics
International 8(1), 73–85.
Lago, C. (Ed.) (2011). The handbook of transcultural counselling and psychotherapy. Open University
Press/McGraw-Hill. (See Chapters 3 (Valerie Watson), 4 (Isha Mackenzie-Mavinga) and 5 (Yair
Maman and Simon du Plock) – all focused on issues of training for multicultural therapy.
Lago, C. & Barty, A. (2003). Working with international students: A cross-cultural training manual.
United Kingdom Council for International Student Affairs.
64 An anti-racist counselling training model

Lago, C. & Haugh, S. (2006). White counsellor racial identity: The unacknowledged, unknown,
unaware aspect of self in relationship. In G. Proctor, M. Cooper, P. Sanders & B. Malcom (Eds.),
Politicizing the person-centred approach (pp.198–214). PCCS Books.
Lago, C. & Smith, B. (2003). Anti-discriminatory counselling practice. Sage.
Moodley, R., Lago, C. & Talhite, A. (Eds.). (2004). Carl Rogers counsels a black client: Race and
culture in person-centred counselling. PCCS Books.
Palmer, S. (Ed.). (2002). Multicultural counselling: A reader. Sage.
Patel, N., Bennett, E., Dennis, M., Dosanjh, N., Mahtani, A., Miller, A. & Nadirshaw, Z. (Eds.).
(2000). Clinical psychology, ‘race’ and culture: A training manual. British Psychological Society.
Pitts, J. (2019). Afropean: Notes from Black Europe. Allen Lane.
Ryde, J. (2019). White privilege unmasked: How to be part of the solution. Jessica Kingsley.
Tuckwell, G. (2002). Racial identity, white counsellors and therapists. Open University Press.
Wekker, G. (2016). White innocence: Paradoxes of colonialism and race. Duke University Press.
Wilkinson, R. & Pickett, K. (2010). The spirit level: Why more equal societies almost always do better.
Penguin Books.
Wilkinson, R. & Pickett, K. (2019). The inner level: How more equal societies reduce stress, restore
sanity and improve everyone’s well-being. Penguin Books.
 Valerie Watson 65

6 ‘Look in the mirror... and just below the

surface’: Critical reflection, personal stories
and training implications
Valerie Watson

Setting the scene – growth, anxiety, change and action

I attended a management training event in which participants were encouraged
to ‘look in the mirror’, not out of the window. This exercise generated personal
growth, fulfilling its metaphorical purpose of encouraging self-assessment and
reflexivity before criticism of others. I was, and am, inspired to return to this
task as a counsellor: to go deeper, daily confessing that it is not a challenge that I
always feel capable of or ready to tackle. For those with insight, this invitation, if
taken seriously, holistically and pedantically, is one of my ‘radical’ propositions,
encouraging what Halmos (1965) refers to as a state of alertness (p.47). I believe it
is when we truly and daily ‘look in the mirror’ as counsellors, noting the familiar
and unfamiliar, tracking the scars, changes and developments in ourselves, that
we potentiate our abilities to understand, learn to love and appreciate difference
in others. A second radical proposition I make is a call to return to the study of
anxiety in relation to difference through the various theoretical lenses I will refer
to in this chapter.
Change and action are implicit in the definition of radical; without the
interplay of these factors, theorising or literary effort lacks substance or validity.
A robust study and critique of critical race theory (CRT) provides a foundation
for radical thinking and possibility for change and action. A study that explores
the potential for the use of traditional healing methods and critiques concepts of
white privilege, microaggression, internalised oppression, social constructionism
and allyship (The Anti-Oppression Network, n.d.) needs to be followed up with
a list of accountable actions that can be evidenced in the practice and records of
individual counselling practitioners and organisations. Only then will it go some
way towards achieving visible change; towards saying a sustained and influential
‘no’ to the damage caused by everyday racism.
66 ‘Look in the mirror... and just below the surface’

In our life experiences and work as counsellors, we are often confronted with
anxiety, threats and fears. Anxiety about facing the realities of racism is the one
we seem to want to avoid most. We know and experience the consequences of
this avoidance through the maintenance and perpetuation of anxiety leading to
defensive and hostile behaviour, which includes ignoring, distraction, denial,
dissociation and displacement. We need to examine daily how we can unlock the
fears of difference. The thing about facing anxiety is that, once we are able to do it
and feel safe enough to do so, we feel better – everybody wins. We are also open to
discover the joy, creativity, synergy and beauty in savouring difference.
Perhaps we should begin each counselling training by asking trainees to give
us a list of all the things they fear on a personal, societal and global level, and then
attempt to provide a safe enough environment for those issues to be addressed in
their training. In this way we would model and they might learn how to safely and
respectfully explore these anxieties with their clients.

Revisiting and updating the roots and purposes of counselling

Central to counsellor training in the UK is the provision of a confidential, safe,
non-judgemental space in which to listen, hear and respond to clients’ stories. At
its best, counselling is an educative, reparative and political act, ideally engaged in
to be of universal benefit. Regardless of level or duration, any counselling training
that does not explicitly address identity issues, race, power, power relationships
and what it means to be deemed ‘other’ is ineffective. Without this, there is the
danger of counsellors perpetuating the pain of clients not being fully heard.
Developing a working knowledge and understanding of the context of the
client is crucial. So too is being prepared to learn, unlearn and re-learn what we
think we know. To promote trust and the potential for healing, counsellors need
to demonstrate a willingness to understand and openly acknowledge the socio-
political context of Black clients’ stories. In my view, this is a counsellor’s obligation
and a position to be held irrespective of the content or nature of the counselling and
client material. Being empathic and open to continual learning does not necessarily
mean learning only from clients in the counselling room, and sometimes it may not
be enough. Such in-session learning can be experienced by the client as a form of
cultural exploitation or appropriation. It is incumbent on counsellors to delve into
the wealth of accessible learning and training opportunities that exist outside of
the counselling room and training environment in their effort to understand what
it means to be ‘Black’, to be seen as ‘other’, and use this knowledge to sensitively
inform their practice. This chapter will reflect on my experience, insights and belief
in the power of learning through stories, arguing for the inclusion of critical race
theory in counselling training. I will use six stories from outside the counselling
room to invite discussion and learning of their possible meanings inside the
counselling room. I offer personal and biased views.
The context of my analysis, responses and meaning-making is centred on
my being a Black counsellor who was born, educated and has lived and worked
solely in the UK, alongside other identities I claim. These include female, feminist,
 Valerie Watson 67

political, heterosexual, adoptive parent, in my seventh decade, with experience of

most of the losses and gains that come with living.

A way of working and thinking: Experience, environment

and time
My therapeutic approach is grounded in the principles of person-centred (UK)
counselling as presented by Rogers (1951, 1967, 1978, 1980), and enhanced
through study of the work of contemporary person-centred theorists, including
Lago (2006), Lago and Charura (2016), Lietaer (2016), Warner (2016), Schmid
(2002), Prouty and colleagues (2002), Tudor and Worrall (2006), Natiello (2001)
and others. These works have helped to shape my understanding and development
of person-centred practice in ways that are intended to be facilitative for all clients
and especially those from Black or non-white heritage. Of particular relevance
is Rogers’ holistic theory of personality and behaviour change, with its emphasis
on social interdependence and acknowledgement of how the environment or
context affects the behaviour and responses of the organism. An increasingly
stronger influence in my practice is the foundational theory of African-centred
psychology, as described by Nwoye (2015), and the work of Marimba Ani (1994),
which critiques Eurocentrism. With its emphasis on holism, spiritual and physical
wellbeing, respect for nature, interdependence, relationship and respect for all
identities, African-centred psychology has parallels with the person-centred
approach, extending into an emancipatory and political world view I embrace.
Aside from studying theory, my greatest influences have been practice,
observation and reflection. Clients have taught me that what they want from
therapy is to have honest communication and a consistent relationship with
someone who has their interests at the centre and is striving to enable them to
be heard, understood and empathised with; to be reassured that their experience
is ‘normal’; to be recognised and treasured as human; to be held or kept in mind;
to be seen as more than their problem; to be helped to repair themselves and
their relationships; in some cases, to be re-parented, nurtured, loved; to be free
to say the unsayable without judgement; to ask and examine questions about
their life and relationships; to have a safe space where fears are acknowledged
and not compounded; to be journeyed with compassionately; to explore spiritual
understanding and meanings; to be assured that they are not completely mad, bad,
hopeless, ugly and wrong; to be offered hope; to be treated as trustworthy; to reflect
on what has happened or is happening, and to explore options or find ways to
manage the lack of existing options.
My practitioner world view is affected and enriched by being raised in a
staunchly proud, Jamaican, working-class, single-parent, Christianity-observing
household, whose food, music, codes of behaviour, language, dress and decor
choice were often in contrast or conflict with the content of the formal education I
have received and the neighbourhoods I have lived in.
Crenshaw (1989) defines intersectionality as the injurious effect of
experiencing multiple oppressions simultaneously due to combined and
68 ‘Look in the mirror... and just below the surface’

overlapping social and political identities. The intersection of race, gender and class
oppressions have affected my life chances, access to education and self-perception.
It has also stimulated my actions, sense of mission in my work and relationships.
Much of this experience was not easily translatable to my understanding of person-
centred theory or safe for me to disclose in my training, which tended to focus on the
potential to transcend difficulties through individual effort and self-actualisation,
avoiding challenges faced by social, economic and political realities and obstacles.
Other sources of learning and training have been instrumental in support
of my practice, which has mostly been in the higher education sector. I agree
with Moodley and West (2005), who advocate for the inclusion and integration
of traditional healing methods into mainstream counselling and psychotherapy.
Study and knowledge of these methods in counselling training would be of great
value and further support to Black clients. Movement towards the integration of
traditional healing methods is happening in small ways (for example, mindfulness
and forest bathing). However, this seems to be subject to the approval of such
adaptations by white therapists and scholars of counselling. Readings of Clemmont
Vontress’ conceptualisation and recommended practice from an existential Black
perspective is one of the exceptions to this (Moodley & Walcott, 2010).
Knowledge and understanding of the US and UK paradigms and theoretical
concepts relating to social constructionism (Gergen, 2015), critical race theory
(Rollock & Gillborn, 2011), racism (The Equality Act, 2010), white privilege
(McIntosh, 1988; Ryde, 2019), white fragility (DiAngelo, 2019), cultural
appropriation, microaggression, internalised oppression and double-empathy
theory as related to autism (Milton, 2012) feature in my analysis of everyday
life incidents and, in varying degrees, have an impact on my relationships and
counselling practice, particularly with Black clients.
The contemporary definition of trauma includes the effects of separation,
bullying and loss, affirming its impact on the body and the brain, with its potential
for damage to the hippocampus, manifesting as a prolonged fear and anxiety
response. Cozolino (2002, p.255) suggests that impairment of the hippocampus
may negatively affect clients’ ability to make best use of counselling. This
understanding of anxiety and the impact of slavery, coupled with knowledge of the
described psychological effects of intergenerational and transgenerational trauma
and post-slavery syndrome as outlined by DeGruy (2005), is an informative and,
in most cases, essential part of training for working with all clients, including those
who are Black and those who have, through choice, civil disturbance or disruption,
sought refuge in the UK. Such encounters call for empathy and an understanding
of power relations and internalised racism.
While waiting for a friend on a typical busy Saturday morning in London, I
witnessed an angry dispute between two motorists (one Black, one white) when
their car bumpers accidentally touched. No apparent injury or damage was
caused, but in the verbal clash the white driver ‘kissed their teeth’ at the other.
This provoked an accusation of cultural appropriation from the Black driver who
insisted: ‘Only Black people kiss their teeth.’ The white driver complained that
 Valerie Watson 69

‘bringing colour’ into the situation was offensive and irrelevant. I noted my fear of
the situation escalating into physical violence and worry for the Black driver if it
did. This brief ‘accidental’ interchange confirmed my suspicion and recognition of
the potential to bring ‘race’ into any dispute. ‘Race’ is just below the surface and is
everywhere, as are our histories of unresolved hurt, anger and distress; it is all the
stuff of counselling.
Stories are brought to the counselling room by clients as symbols, expressions
or metaphors of disorientation, discomfort or distress. Observation of the inequity
of power in Black-white relations has alerted me to the variety of possible meanings
that might be derived from incidents such as the one above, should the protagonists
and observers choose to reflect on the story from their frames of reference in the
counselling room.
Will these recollections be ignored or overlooked by counsellor and client
as just an everyday story, a distraction from finding solutions to their diagnosed
or presenting problem? Or might there be a starting point for further deeper
exploration? Will there be identification and acknowledgement of the effects of
microaggression, white privilege and white fragility? I believe direct or indirect
referencing to these are important signifiers of true empathy, but I know that
others may strongly disagree.
Black clients who are continuously on the receiving end of the cumulative
effects of oppression can and do experience intense levels of distress and trauma,
characterised or expressed as a combination of anger, fear, powerlessness, weariness
and defensiveness that might be interpreted and experienced by a white person, a
white therapist, as ‘coming from nowhere’, ‘coming from nothing’ and ‘undeserved’.
Such a response typifies many of the defensive, offensive, incredulous ‘white
privilege’, ‘white fragility’ responses defined and described by McIntosh (1988),
Ryde (2019) and DiAngelo (2019). These authors articulate and identify some of
the essential personal work and training to be done and insights to be gained by
all, and especially white therapists, if they are to truly become informed about the
impact of racism.
In her prose poem, Rankine (2014, p.18) asks us to imagine the feelings of the
Black client attending their first appointment with their white counsellor, a trauma
specialist, who shouts and tries to shun them, mistaking them for an uninvited
caller at their back door.

Know your place and stay in your lane

The social constructionist stance advocated by Gergen (2015) and others respects
the ways in which knowledge affects use and abuse of power, rejects acting on
assumptions and encourages reflexivity and learning through relationship and
community. These principles underpin the proponents of CRT, such as Rollock
and Gillborn (2011), who assert that the concept of ‘race’ is socially constructed
and that racism is normalised in all aspects of Western society and perpetuated by
an ‘accepted’ notion of white privilege that exists to retain structural and political
power. Although this approach to social analysis is not without its detractors, I
70 ‘Look in the mirror... and just below the surface’

have found the premise of CRT supportive: its emphasis on using ‘lived experience’
as evidence and the different perspectives it offers that are affirming and validating
when confronted or blocked by apparent hegemonic ‘truths’ presented by white
scholars and commentators. By its nature and history, counselling theory and
beliefs about its practice are controlled by white scholars, mostly men, and white
frameworks. Study and debate of counselling practice through the lens of CRT
and exploration of Black narratives available to us are an important addition to
counselling training.
For example, what do we understand and how do we respond if presented
with Sylvia Arthur’s (2017, p.56–57) story, which illustrates the effects of racism,
transgenerational trauma and white privilege in her complaint that she is merely
seen as a ‘Black body’, a slave, and that her race, class and gender are negatively
linked in the minds of her supermarket co-workers who describe her as being ‘big
and strong’, despite contradictory visible evidence of being smaller and lighter.
The ubiquity of Black faces now in UK media, television, advertisements
and hoardings, drama, news and magazine covers showing Black people doing
ordinary things like eating a meal, walking the dog, buying furniture and so on,
compared with less than 10 years ago, could be seen as evidence of the growing
visibility and acceptance that Black people exist and are consumers. However,
Black visibility is often based on a skewed and inaccurate portrayal of Blackness,
in part manufactured to mimic white middle-class culture, and could be seen as
a form of ethnic and socio-economic oppression. Like Hirsch (2018), I note the
preference for ‘mixed-race’ images as the ‘most palatable and marketable version
of Black’ (p.180).
Published data and reports show a rise in overt and covert racism, racist attacks
and discrimination, both recent and historic (Home Office, 2019; Institute of Race
Relations, 2018). This evidence supports the reality of life in the UK today for Black
people (House of Lords Library, 2018), of living in a ‘hostile environment’ in which
the dominant white culture continues to be a reluctant ‘host’, attacking those whose
are visibly different. Against this background, Black clients accessing counselling
might express a sense of powerlessness and despair when invited to explore the
potential for empowerment with their Black or white counsellor. Reference to the
paradigm of CRT in the counselling room could help to re-balance and explain
the contradictions, offering a more realistic picture of what the client may be
experiencing in their everyday life.
Contemporary UK-based, Black scholars, writers and political commentators,
such as Akala (2018), Eddo-Lodge (2016), Hirsch (2018), Olusoga (2016)
and Shukla (2016), tell us what is known: that an increase in visibility does not
necessarily mean equal treatment and can lead to the reverse – an increase in
hostility and vulnerability to attack. The authors show that little has changed. Black
people are still being oppressed, punished and hurt in subtle and overt ways. This
observation and analysis applies in the US and other Western continents. Using the
symbols, language and metaphors associated with the slave trade, Christina Sharpe
(2016) demonstrates how oppression and injustice affect Blacks in America.
 Valerie Watson 71

Akala (2018) recalls how one of his teachers condoned the murderous acts of
the Ku Klux Klan (p.237), arguing that it reduced Black crime, and resisted Akala’s
challenge to the contrary. Similarly, in an exploration of the complexity of Black
and British identities, Hirsch (2018) wonders how the right-wing English Defence
League rationalises their attacks against British Muslim communities.

Getting to work – sense of mission

‘I get angry about things, and then go on and work.’ (Toni Morrison in an
interview with Zia Jaffrey (1998))

I am aged 13; it is break time. A physical education teacher has asked to speak to
me in the changing rooms. On arrival, I see six friends and sports teammates. Our
normally self-assured teacher is looking uncomfortable. She explains that teaching
staff have noticed that we are gathering together at break times. Our teachers, she
says, are ‘worried’ about us. ‘You are all so talented and could do so well,’ she says.
The message is clear. We are ruining our chances of success by coming together.
Streamed according to academic ability, we are from a range of tutor groups. We
have all represented the school in sports teams. These gatherings, and no others,
are acceptable. We look at each other, speechless. It becomes clearer – the problem
is, we are all Black. We have broken an implicit rule that does not apply to our white
peers. Our break-time gathering is seen as a threat. Our teachers have exerted their
power and privilege to control us. Later, we are angry. It was, I realise now, events
like these that led to my wish to protest and educate myself to understand why and,
where possible, to ‘get to work’, as Toni Morrison says – to resist.
The repeated depiction of the ‘angry Black woman’ stereotype in literature and
in the media offers a distorted image, presenting Black women as figures of threat.
The portrayal does little to explain the reason(s) behind the anger or that these
shows of anger are often justified, presumed and over in moments. I mostly agree
with Morrison’s assertion in her work that anger is harmful, wastes energy and
resources and indicates a lack of control (Morrison, 2020). In her case, energy saved
was channelled into her work. Anecdotally, I have heard from Black clients, peers
and family members who have chosen to rise above the provocations of racism and
oppression in favour of active resistance and achievements that expose the illegitimacy
of these accusations and defy racism. I was fortunate to discover this strategy at an
early age, inspired by the work of Black writers, artists, musicians and mentors in my
extended family. However, there are disadvantages. The following stories illustrate the
risks of believing in or seeking white acceptance at the cost of authenticity.
In anticipation of negative stereotyping, Shani, a successful and diligent
academic with a reputation for excellence and rigour amongst her peers, worked
hard to avoid accusations of being an angry Black woman. She learned that the
behaviour of white colleagues who expressed anger and acted in a deliberately
intimidating way was rationalised or condoned. Shani diluted her presence and
natural ebullience and muted a tendency for directness and robust exchanges.
72 ‘Look in the mirror... and just below the surface’

She toned down her enthusiasm for work, to avoid upsetting colleagues. For years,
she enacted codes of behaviour and tone of language and expression deemed
acceptable to her white colleagues in the UK, including a capacity for hard work.
This strategy was successful until a new, junior, white colleague accused Shani of
intimidation, but offered no supporting evidence. Shani, who rarely received praise,
was reprimanded by her boss and excluded from a major project she was leading, to
protect her junior white colleague. Her sense of injustice, confusion and traumatic
injury was acknowledged to her secretly and separately by a few colleagues.
I am sitting with a colleague in a café frequented by employees at my place of
work. All are chattering intently at tables in small groups. All except us are white.
We are approached by a colleague who greets us, asking, ‘So, what are you two
ladies plotting?’ There is a moment of recognition for all three of us. Nothing is
said. The enquiring colleague, conscious of her mistake, apologises and corrects
herself, saying: ‘Well I am sure that it will be something great,’ as she leaves, waving.
I acknowledge my shock and allow the moment to pass without comment. We
recognise this microaggression for what it is, knowing that racism hurts everyone.
No further comment is necessary. We are battle weary and do not want to spend
precious time together in outrage.
These two stories are illustrative of expressions of white privilege, white frailty,
fear of the other, fear of insurrection and fear of groups. I am reminded that being
Black is bad, but excelling in what we do and being Black can be worse. Black
visibility (and invisibility) is a complex issue: we are seen as an enigma, exotic and
a threat. Success and leadership positions in institutions can accentuate this.
The social constructionist position I adopt allows for challenging assumed
truths, translating and co-creating ways of working that openly acknowledge the
context, history and socio-political situations in which we (Black client and Black
counsellor) might find ourselves.
Some clients find sitting still and talking in the counselling room limits and
prohibits expression of feeling and experience. My positive experience of receiving
counselling supervision outdoors extends to enabling an outdoor therapeutic
experience to clients where possible and practical. I believe that taking counselling
out of the therapy room, where possible, helps clients to link their understanding
to their everyday life and environment. The longer-term positive impact is that
clients do not associate coming for counselling as a sign of ‘illness’ but as a sign
of growth and development. For some Black clients, it can also be an affirmation
and recognition of the inappropriateness of Western counselling hegemony as a
universal language of cure.
As a means of building connectedness and psychological contact in and
beyond the counselling room, I encourage clients to make regular and deliberate
use of their preferred ways of meaning-making and communicating. This might
include creative media, singing and exploration of films, novels, drama, traditional
stories, poetry, spiritual practices, traditional healing and topical, historical and
popular cultural references relating to food, clothing, idioms, music and songs to
maximise the opportunity for clients to find their voice.
 Valerie Watson 73

I contend that finding ways to respect theories of our counselling orientations

while prioritising contextual congruence is a major theme for counselling training
and continuing development in this field. Looking through the lens of CRT study and
exploration of African psychology theory, with its inclusive philosophy, promotes
sensitivity and invites trust from Black and non-white clients, strengthening
opportunities to contribute to knowledge and practice.

‘If you’re white you’re all right. If you’re Black, get to the back’
Ged, a Black lecturer, told me how he was confronted by his own internal oppressor
through the action of three Black students. Rather than sitting where they usually
sat, with the other Black students at the back of the lecture hall, these three students
moved together to sit in the front row. Puzzled by their action, Ged wondered if
their action was a prank, a personal attack or an act of defiance or aggression. Days
of distress and inward searching led Ged to the shocking insight of internalised
racism. He resolved to make changes. In subsequent lectures, Ged moved the
focus of his attention to other Black students at the back of the hall, engaging them
in discussions and questions. After a few weeks of hesitation and suspicion, the
Black students began to participate in the discourse and lecture activity. No longer
ignored, erased or shamed, they became active, moved around the lecture hall and
participated in the additional curricular activity of the cohort. For the first time,
one Black student stood for the position of subject representative.

Which way now?

Juno described her attendance on a training course offered specifically for
experienced practitioners, which took place on a counselling service premises.
Halfway through the day, the course was interrupted by a Black person who walked
into the classroom and announced to the group of 40 that they were depressed, felt
neglected, ignored and misunderstood and needed help. No one responded, no one
moved. The facilitator continued with their sentence; the Black person went away.
The four Black training participants who attempted to discuss the incident and the
training group’s lack of response were reminded that this was not the theme of the
day’s training event.
Counselling training and practice should include the study of contemporary
politics, the use of the arts and our combined global knowledge of science, history,
natural sciences and folklore, all of which carry metaphors and symbols that can
facilitate reparative dialogue. What better way to understand the impact of class
politics on clients in the counselling relationship than to become familiar with
political and sociological debate through learning from lived experiences? For
example, Laura Waddell (2017, p.27) provides a forceful description of the politics
of food for those on a low income. Her essay outlines the ways in which the diet
of the poor is a source of comedy, shame and bullying that starts in childhood, the
effect of which lingers long into adulthood. It is understanding of this kind that
counsellors need in their work and practice.
74 ‘Look in the mirror... and just below the surface’

Experiential learning in counselling training, especially within the person-centred

approach, can highlight some weaknesses when addressing issues relating to
oppression, power relations, ethnicity and their sensitivities are concerned. The
concept and anti-oppressive principles of ‘allyship’ in the training and practice
environment can be of benefit.
Allyship acknowledges commonality and connectedness, placing the
responsibility for learning and action on those in privileged and powerful positions.
Allyship:

… is not an identity – it is a lifelong process of building relationships based

on trust, consistency, and accountability with marginalized individuals and/
or groups of people. (The Anti-Oppression Network, n.d.)

If such accountability is accepted in every training arena, the minimisation or

avoidance of issues perceived as difficult, like working with Black clients, will be
reduced.

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 Priscilla Dass-Brailsford 77

7 ‘Where are you from?’ The effects of

racism and perceived discrimination on
people of colour
Priscilla Dass-Brailsford

Note from the editors: This chapter relates primarily to a US context, but the statistics
can be regarded as broadly representative in many cases, and the content is all too
relevant to UK readers.

The first time I was asked, ‘Where are you from?’, it was unexpected. Yes, I had
travelled more than 8,000 miles from South Africa to attend graduate school in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, so I had indeed come from somewhere. Nevertheless,
I looked myself up and down wondering what it was that gave me away. My
clothing? Basic college student garb – jeans and a sweater. The garb I had seen
most people around campus wearing. My hairstyle? I did not think so because
I had seen many other young women with a similar Farah Fawcett hairstyle –
flouncy curls that swung on my shoulders. It was the rage in the late 1980s. Did I
sound different? Of course I did. I had a South African accent with an English lilt,
since I was born and grew up in a predominantly English-speaking part of South
Africa. My hometown was along the East Coast in the province of Natal (it has
since been renamed Kwazulu-Natal). It is often viewed as the last outpost of British
colonialism – a province in which cucumber sandwiches, scones and clotted cream
were served at high tea in hotel lounges, which people like me longingly watched
from a distance. But that is another story. In any case, I liked my accent, despite it
making me ‘different’ in the US.
People would later confirm that it was my accent that indicated I was from
somewhere else. But I now know that the unnamed ‘elephant in the room’ was
the fact that I was not white but a person of colour. It explains why so many of my
second-generation friends of colour, friends who were born here, as were their
parents, and who sound very American, are also asked the same question, ‘Where
are you from?’ or ‘You know what I mean, where are you really from?’ The question
often comes from a white person and the responsibility always falls on the person
of colour to figure out what is really being asked and to respond in a way that
satisfies the listener. This is modern racism! I soon realised that growing up in
78 ‘Where are you from?’

apartheid-ruled South Africa did not adequately prepare me for the subtlety of
modern racism that I would experience in the US, or maybe it had more than
adequately prepared me so that I was always alert to the possibility of racism in my
new environment? I would later learn that statutory ways regarding racism in the
US had changed, but folkways were still lagging far behind.
The US Civil Rights Act (Public Law 88–352, 78 Stat. 241), which was enacted
on 2 July 1964, legally outlawed discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex or
national origin. Although the legal act reduced racial discrimination, it did not end
it. However, for the first time, ethnic minorities had a legal path towards resolving
racial infractions. The election in 2008 of Barack Obama as the first Black president
fuelled a perception that issues of racism were finally over in the US and that a
colour-blind society would emerge. However, events of the past decade, frequent
shootings of African Americans by law enforcement officials and the proliferation
of racist attacks on college campuses have challenged this perception. Moreover,
research studies suggest that racial discrimination continues to be a common
experience for many people of colour in the US (Carter et al., 2017; Shams, 2015).
Comments such as, ‘Where are you from?’ are deemed to fall into the category of
microaggressions, but why are they always experienced by the victim as a macro-
aggression? Naming it certainly does not sweeten the pill.

Microaggression
The term microaggression, coined by Pierce in 1970, was initially conceptualised as
encompassing negative comments, non-verbal exchanges and automatic comments
that are experienced by recipients as insults and put-downs (Pierce, 1970). Sue
(2010) similarly defined microaggressions as beliefs and verbal, behavioural
and environmental exchanges that are derogatory, negative and based on racial,
gender, sexual orientation and religious differences. Sadly, individuals who commit
microaggressions often do not realise they have done anything ‘wrong’.
Microaggressions are often unconsciously delivered in subtle looks, gestures
and statements. These exchanges are so pervasive in regular interactions that they
are often not noticed by white people. But microaggressions are harmful to people
of colour because they have negative and detrimental psychological consequences,
such as increasing feelings of anger, frustration, emotional turmoil and decreasing
self-confidence, self-esteem and trust.
Microaggressions do not always involve negative verbal statements or overt
interactions; they can be observed in the climate of the workplace. For example,
company directors may be unaware that there is not a single manager of colour
in the company until it is pointed out to them. In contrast, people of colour in the
company are usually aware of this racial inequity and may experience the work
climate as invalidating, since there is no one who looks like them ‘at the top’.
Perceived discrimination occurs when individuals negatively view events,
situations or experiences and attribute the cause of the event to their racial/ethnic
background (Knight, 2013). Perceived racism is generated from the perspective
of individuals who are the target of racist acts. Targeted individuals are more
 Priscilla Dass-Brailsford 79

vulnerable when the perpetrator is in a position of power and has hierarchical

superiority and the ‘victim’, or target of discrimination, is in a subordinate position.
Because of their subordinate status, such individuals may have less power, fewer
social resources and limited opportunities to seek protective sanctions. The lack
of these resources and opportunities, in addition to the act of discrimination,
increases their sense of marginalisation. Perceived racism can threaten the overall
health and wellbeing of people of colour.

Racial discrimination
Minority stress theory, developed in the US, reviews the many ways that
discrimination operates at the structural, interpersonal and individual levels to
increase the exposure of people of colour to race-based stress, paving the way for
the development of negative physical and mental health issues (Paradies at al.,
2015). Racism that occurs at these three levels can be conscious and deliberate,
with the intention to harm, disadvantage or discriminate against individuals
who are racially different. However, it can also operate unconsciously, occurring
without much thought, but reflective of how a white or dominant-culture person
may actually feel about people of colour. For example, white teachers may display
preferential treatment for white students by providing them with more help and
support than they do Black students. At the other end of the continuum are
extreme acts of overt racism and hate crimes. An example is the violent killing in
1998 of James Byrd, Jr., an African American man, who was chained, beaten and
dragged naked behind a pick-up truck before being beheaded by a group of white
men.
Institutional or systematic racism can be found in an examination of the
policies, practices, procedures and structures of businesses or institutions that
favour whites and disadvantage people of colour. These policies and practices
are not always clearly apparent. On the surface, they may appear to apply equally
to everyone, but a closer examination may reveal policies and practices that
disadvantage certain groups. An example is recruiting practices that may have
unfair consequences on people of colour such as lower starting salaries and
challenges in attaining promotion. Unfortunately, this type of institutional racism
has many long-term effects that shape the upward social and economic mobility of
affected individuals.
Cultural racism is perhaps the most pervasive and insidious type of racism
because it serves as an overarching umbrella under which individual and
institutional racism thrives. Cultural racism is defined as the individual and
institutional expression of superiority of one group’s cultural heritage (history,
traditions, language and values) over that of another. As an example, when Latinx1
people do not feel encouraged to speak to a Latinx peer in Spanish during a break,
the inherent assumption is that English is a superior language.

1. Latinx is a term currently used in the US to refer to a person of Latin American origin or descent, as a
gender-neutral or non-binary alternative to Latino or Latina.
80 ‘Where are you from?’

The concept of the US as a ‘melting pot’ for everyone, regardless of their race or
country of origin, has been largely debunked because it only melts some groups –
for example, Irish immigrants who are assumed to be white Americans despite only
having arrived in the country recently. Disallowing people of colour from practising
cultural rituals (e.g. taking a day’s holiday for a particular religious or cultural
celebration) and assuming that all group members are Christian are other examples
of cultural racism. Cultural racism is also apparent when certain music or manners of
dress are favoured above others, or seen as less desirable because they are associated
with a particular racial group (e.g. Kente cloth and dashikis worn by Africans).
Although there has been a decline in acts of overt racial discrimination, such
as banks turning down loan applications from people of colour, there has been a
tremendous increase in acts of subtle racism. Many researchers in the field of race
studies concede that racism has evolved from direct acts of discrimination to become
invisible, subtle and indirect, often operating below conscious awareness (Bonilla-
Silva, 2014; Nadal et al., 2014). Nevertheless, the effects of unconscious racism
continue to threaten the wellbeing of many people of colour in the US (Shams, 2015).
Dovidio and Gaertner (2004) posit that most whites experience themselves
as good and moral people who do not intentionally discriminate against others
on the basis of race. However, it is difficult for any white person born and raised
in the US to be immune from holding racial biases and stereotypes. Many whites
who are classified as well-educated and liberal believe they are not prejudiced, hold
egalitarian values, and do not discriminate, but nevertheless harbour unconscious
biased attitudes that result in discriminatory actions (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2004).
This type of racism may result in more qualified Blacks or other people of colour
being ‘passed over’ for higher level positions based on preconceived notions of
fitting in or concern about how others may perceive them.
Racial trauma describes the physical and psychological reactions that people
of colour experience after exposure to experiences of racism (Bryant-Davis
& Ocampo, 2006; Comas-Díaz, 2016). Similar to survivors of other traumas
(e.g. sexual assault, domestic violence), people of colour may experience fear,
hypervigilance, headaches, insomnia, body aches, memory difficulty, self-blame,
confusion, shame, and guilt after being exposed to racism (Helms et al., 2012).

Reactions to perceived racism

Whether experiences of racism are overt or subtle, they produce significant
psychological and physiological consequences. For example, in studies with Black
samples, perceived racism was found to negatively correlate with physical health
and cardiovascular disease (Goosby et al., 2015), psychological wellbeing (Barnes
& Lightsey, 2005) and self-esteem (Utsey et al., 2000), and positively correlate with
hostility, somatic complaints (Steffen et al., 2003), anxiety and depression (O’Keefe
et al., 2015; Paradies et al., 2015).
In the short term, individuals affected by trauma often experience emotional,
cognitive, behavioural, physical and spiritual reactions. While most people recover
within a short period of time, some continue to have problems for much longer. It is
 Priscilla Dass-Brailsford 81

also common for reactions to vary in intensity. Some people may not experience any
significant reactions initially, but will have delayed reactions months or years after
the trauma. Others may recover but relapse when again faced with a similar stressor.
Frequent triggers that remind individuals of the event and/or their losses (e.g.
constantly experiencing insults in the workplace), past trauma history and the
number of prior experiences of racism can intensify current reactions.
The areas of functioning impaired by trauma (Dass-Brailsford, 2007) are
outlined below:

Emotional response: frequently observed emotional responses to stress or trauma

include shock, numbness, anxiety, panic, fear, feelings of aloneness, hopelessness,
helplessness, uncertainty, horror, irritability, depression, grief and guilt.

Cognitive response: impaired concentration, confusion, disorientation, difficulty in

making a decision, and a shortened attention span are common cognitive reactions
that trauma survivors often display. These can negatively impair work performance.
Those affected by trauma also report an increased sense of vulnerability, more
frequent blaming of self and others, lowered self-efficacy, sense of loss of control
and a heightened state of hypervigilance. ‘Perseveration’, or internally recounting
and replaying the event multiple times, is a symptom often experienced in the
aftermath of a traumatic event.

Behavioural responses: traumatic exposure may manifest behaviourally in

withdrawal, non-communication, erratic or repetitive movements (i.e. pacing,
impulsivity, an exaggerated startle response, irritability, a sense of aimlessness, and
an increase in anti-social and high-risk behaviours).

Physical responses: responses that may also be regarded as physiological reactions

include elevated heart rate and blood pressure, difficulty breathing, hyperventilation,
chest pains, muscle tension, fatigue, excessive perspiration, dizziness, headaches
and stomach aches.

People affected by trauma may experience some or several of these reactions. It

is not unusual for such a person to feel as if they are on a rollercoaster, with their
symptoms temporarily abating or suddenly increasing in intensity as they experience
different reactions. Traumatic experiences cause damaging long-term effects that
may have deleterious consequences for brain and body functioning.
In a large meta-analytic study focusing on the association between perceived
racism and mental health consequences specifically for African Americans, a
population that has experienced more incidents of racism than any other racial
minority group, Pieterse and colleagues (2012) found that perceived racism was
negatively associated with psychological wellbeing and positively associated with
psychological distress, anxiety and depression. These psychiatric symptoms had a
significantly stronger association with quality-of-life indicators, suggesting that the
mental health of African Americans is significantly affected by exposure to racism.
82 ‘Where are you from?’

Positive associations have been found between racial microaggressions and

psychopathology (Donovan et al., 2013), and suicide ideation (O’Keefe et al.,
2015). Men who experienced discrimination-related trauma reported more severe
symptoms of trauma and were at greater risk of contracting HIV (Bowleg et al.,
2014). Psychosocial stressors such as perceived racism contribute to the aetiology,
progression and prognosis of heart disease and hypertension, both of which account
for raised cardiovascular death rates among African Americans (Roger et al., 2012).
Research shows that racial discrimination takes a serious biological toll on
African Americans. Cumulative exposure to racial discrimination has been
associated with many negative physiological outcomes that include elevated
blood pressure, increased heart rate and raised risks for cardiovascular diseases
(Wagner et al., 2015). Racial discrimination is also linked to the dysregulation of
the hypothalamic pituitary-adrenal axis, which helps the body control reactions
to stress and regulates key physiological functions such as the immune system,
emotions and digestion (Pfefferbaum et al., 2015).
Trauma affects both the body and the mind over the long term. In addition
to the physiological effects described above, trauma survivors are also more
susceptible to physical diseases. Ultimately, physiological and psychological
responses to trauma can cause early death. Two major diseases that are the result
of perceived racism are hypertension and cardiovascular disease.
Repeated or chronic stress negatively affects the body’s allostatic load, which
regulates the physiological consequences of chronic exposure to fluctuating or
heightened neural or neuroendocrine response. Racial discrimination triggers
the fight-or-flight response, which may linger long after the incident has
ended. Prolonged fight-or-flight responses to stressful events in turn lead to the
development of disease and premature death. Several researchers have posited
that African-Americans’ elevated nocturnal blood pressure levels and poor sleep
quality in comparison with other racial groups are linked to chronic and heightened
vigilance towards threats of discrimination (Brondolo, 2015; Goosby et al., 2015;
Hill et al., 2015; Pieterse et al., 2012; Wagner et al., 2015). Further, research has
found that racism-related vigilance is associated with more sleep difficulty for
Black than for white adults (Durrence & Lichstein, 2006).

Opposing perceived discrimination

Speaking up about perceived discrimination can have both positive and negative
effects. For some ethnic populations, it may help restore their dignity and sense
of pride about their cultural identity. However, these positive effects depend on
being in a supportive environment that is open to criticism, including the voice of
white allies who are willing to face hidden racism in themselves and others. The
individual may initially feel stigmatised and labelled a trouble-maker, especially
by peers who may not have an understanding of subtle racism and its effects on
people of colour. Individuals who speak up may be ostracised by others, who may
avoid them out of fear of being accused of wrong-doing, shunned and excluded
by the larger group and not invited to social events and other activities. In many
 Priscilla Dass-Brailsford 83

ways, nothing would have changed except that speaking out would have attracted
additional negative attention to themselves.
The literature on the impacts of standing up to perceived racism is almost
non-existent, but one study found that people who ‘stood up’ suffered emotional
distress; severe depression or anxiety (84%); feelings of isolation or powerlessness
(84%); distrust of others (78%); declining physical health (69%); severe financial
decline (66%), and problems with family relations (53%) (Rothschild, 1999). These
numbers are extremely high and indicate that challenging racism can have severe
consequences across all domains.

Factors affecting recovery and coping

There are several important factors, extending from individual characteristics
to the person’s ecological environment and the appropriate social support and
resources within it, that can help people cope with racial trauma. The social support
environment often determines whether victims feel validated and understood, and
get the help they need from friends, family and co-workers/colleagues.
In order to promote resilience, individuals will need to take care of their
physical, mental and emotional health. Engaging in positive and health-promoting
activities alleviates many symptoms of stress. Regular exercise, eating healthy foods
and avoiding junk food and getting a good night’s sleep are some basic coping skills
that racial trauma will sometimes impede.
How individuals cope with perceived racism depends on their coping styles.
Two common coping styles are avoidance and problem-focused coping. Avoidance
coping is often a negative adaptation that can result in later problems. It is an
indirect and passive coping style. Avoiding dealing with issues by eating, smoking
or drinking more than usual are examples of avoidance coping. These strategies
may help in the short term but can have deleterious long-term effects. Avoidance
coping can increase depression and erode an individual’s self-worth and sense
of agency (Brooks et al., 2019). Problem-focused coping, in contrast, is an active
coping style that increases stress in the short term but has long-term benefits of
resolving issues. For example, attempting to resolve the problem in a strategic way
by reporting incidents of perceived racism to appropriate authorities and seeking
legal help is an active way of problem-solving. Besides being direct, problem-
focused coping restores an individual’s pride, self-confidence and self-worth.
Higher levels of problem-focused coping can buffer the effects of perceived
racism on depressive symptoms while supporting resiliency; higher levels of
avoidance coping can exacerbate negative symptoms (anxiety, depression) with
implications for increasing susceptibility to mental health issues (West et al., 2010).

Addressing race in the classroom

Teaching graduate courses to develop students’ skills in diversity and multicultural
competency has always been one of my passions, especially since it allows me to
use my own life as a canvas. I usually begin a class by asking students what they
84 ‘Where are you from?’

thought when I first entered the classroom. The hesitancy is sometimes tangible
but, with a little probing, their responses generally emerge: ‘We were concerned
about whether we would understand your accent’; ‘You look different, and we were
not sure you would understand us.’ And so the course is launched with what I
call cultural introductions. These require students to split into dyads, to increase
intimacy, and pair up with someone they do not know well but would like to get to
know better. I then have students engage in an exercise where they ask each other
the following questions:
1. Name/preferred name?
2. How do I identify: racially/ethnically/nationally?
3. What is my cultural background?
4. What is my social background?
5. What is my historical background?
6. Any other important cultural variables?
7. How does my cultural identity help me in the counselling field?
8. How does my cultural identity hinder me in the counselling field?

From many years of experience, I find it is usually helpful if I am the first to

culturally introduce myself to the whole class. I find that this sets the tone and
provides a model for students in identifying the limits to self-disclosure. Be
warned, this exercise can take up a good part of the first class, but it is time well
spent and is invaluable in generating challenging discussions around racism and
discrimination.

Conclusion
Ethnic populations made up about one third of the US population in 2015 – a
proportion that is expected to rapidly rise in future years. We can expect that, by
2050, people of colour will be a majority group (US Census Bureau, 2015). Among
children, the change in ratio of ethnic populations from minority to majority
status is predicted to happen much sooner, in the next few years (Hemmings &
Evans, 2018). Clearly, the US is rapidly growing into a diverse and multicultural/
multi-ethnic nation, yet it still remains a country that struggles with issues of
racism, discrimination and prejudice that victimise citizens of colour. Acts of
overt racial discrimination continue to occur and are capable of causing significant
harm. However, the impact of racial threat from well-intentioned people who
commit unconscious acts of discrimination against people of colour cannot be
underestimated. Socialisation exposes all people to a process of conditioning
that often results in prejudices, stereotypes and beliefs that lie outside the level of
personal awareness (Sue, 2010).
Although, on a conscious level, white people may endorse the belief that all
people are equal, on an unconscious level, they may harbour the opposite feelings,
which inevitably influence the way they behave towards people of colour. The
 Priscilla Dass-Brailsford 85

indirect nature of modern racism makes it more difficult to hold perpetrators

accountable, yet the effects are similar to direct acts of discrimination. These
common experiences of discrimination, such as asking, ‘Where are you from?’,
provoke anger and frustration and decrease self-esteem among people of colour,
largely and precisely because, unlike overt forms of racism, they are not easy to
identify, challenge and confront. Moreover, because of the subtle nature of modern
racism, perpetrators are often unaware of the psychological stress they cause
people of colour.
The classroom is a place where we can begin to address this important
social issue.

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88 Re-imagining the space and context for a therapeutic curriculum

8 Re-imagining the space and context for a

therapeutic curriculum – a sketch
Robert Downes and Foluke Taylor

Introduction
We ‘breathe’ with Claudia Rankine into the racial imaginary,1 the space that she
invited artists into to respond to the ways lives are influenced by our understanding
and misunderstanding of race. Rankine speaks of how, as we are born into race,
racism and white supremacy, our imaginations are not entirely our own, so we
join in the imagining as therapeutic practitioners and thinkers. In this chapter,
we bring our haunted and compromised imaginations to the task of re-imagining
a therapeutic training – one that disrupts the centrality of whiteness and works
to decolonise a curriculum using learning and teaching practices that recognise
multiple voices, learning styles, needs and therapeutic traditions.
‘Western’ psychology is among the characters in this re-imagined story,
but is shaken loose from the position of lone protagonist or hero. This re-
imagining insists on the presence of many stories. Neither the re-visioning nor
the replacement of the accepted ‘heroes’ of psychotherapeutic thought were
sufficient and both possibilities felt suffocating to this project. In the company of
speculative fiction as a radical practice (texts that engage the reader to imagine
and speculate the possibilities of understandings and makings of the world beyond
the white supremacist patriarchal neoliberal order), and with a mind to Ursula Le
Guin’s carrier bag theory of fiction (1989) (Le Guin speaks of the first tool asbeing
a container2), we were able to breathe and play – to gather rather than classify,
stratify or order a narrative. We have not imposed temporal structures and limits.
This is not a beginning or an ending, but rather a sample telling of a training that
might disrupt the usual state of affairs; one that understands the power of what bell
hooks calls ‘imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy’ (1987) and remains
open to whatever possibilities of Blackening and queering therapeutic practice

1. https://theracialimaginary.org
2. In this text, Le Guin suggests that the container rather than the arrow is our most significant ‘tool’.
 Robert Downes and Foluke Taylor 89

and thought are revealed. This is not a hero-shaped narrative – starting here and
going straight to there – but a carrier bag filled with stories: stories of being, being
undone and unravelling from structures that have harmed us all.
Our method was simple; we wrote to each other over a period of seven days
from the perspective of two students – a Black woman and a white man. For the
purposes of this text, we know these students as Cece and Niall. How they came
together was a long thing and the subject of another chapter. Hence, this is a glimpse
into an incompleteness. As they write to one another about their experience of
the training, the nature of the learning environment and its study practices are
revealed. We encounter a curriculum that is informed by various branches of
critical theory and related practices that embrace and recognise Black and brown
subjectivities while decommissioning whiteness.

Dear Cece,
Today we were introduced to the curriculum, and to some of the approaches to
learning and teaching employed on this course. There are videos to watch, books
and chapters to read, talks and podcasts to listen to, art to consider, field trips, and
playlists to listen to and make. According to the handbook, the curriculum is an
‘alive body’; you can choose your format for offering accounts of your learning
and integration. Essays are one option. We saw examples of slide shows, videos,
scrap books and drawings. It feels like therapy school meets art school – Winnicott
might have liked it. I am moved to play here, although this is serious play. After
curriculum introductions, we began with an experiential work and study group
called ‘complicating the white therapist’. Drawing from philosopher George Yancy’s
work on ‘complicating the white self ’ (2008), the group will meet to study the
construction of whiteness as the un-raced norm and to explore anti-racist clinical
thought, practice and activism – a political psychology.
The tutor (Bobi – preferred pronoun, they) said that starting here was
necessary as a practice of ‘doing less harm’ – how, in the past, the curriculum and
therapeutic institutions hadn’t fully addressed the legacies of slavery, colonialism
and racism. Diversity training sidestepped the study of racialised object relations
and left trainees under-resourced when it came to addressing the trauma of racism
and the lies of whiteness in the consulting room. Someone renamed the seminar
‘de-commissioning whiteness’.

Dear Niall,
‘Doing less harm’ sounds good, but I’m not about to drop my guard. However radical
they say this course is, in my experience, to maintain a healthy suspicion is to stay
alive and on track. My aim is to make it through the course, learn what I can and
collect the paper on the way out. Whiteness can feel pretty basic in how it blocks
access and stops us getting through, so I guess complicating it might be a good idea.
Still, I’m staying fugitive. Put another way, in a private space in my mind, there is
a collection of strategies and practices of escape and survival bequeathed to me by
my ancestors. I will use them as necessary. They are what Toni Morrison speaks of
90 Re-imagining the space and context for a therapeutic curriculum

as ‘a knowing so deep it’s like a secret’ (1985). I’m used to living with secrets, so
I was genuinely surprised when the tutor today spoke about these knowings and
practices directly, using the terms ‘Afropessimism’ (Wilderson, 2008) and ‘fugitivity’
(Campt, 2014). It was interesting to feel how naming a thing helped me to be with
them differently and to stay curious. The handbook says curiosity is encouraged,
which sounds legit, but I stay on my fugitive toes just the same.
The afternoon seminar was called ‘History in the Room’. A quote from poet
Dionne Brand had been projected onto the ceiling:

One enters a room and history follows; one enters a room and history
precedes. History is already seated in the chair in the empty room when one
arrives. (Brand, 2002)

We lay on the floor like stargazers and reflected – sometimes internally and
sometimes out loud – on the personal, intergenerational and transgenerational
histories that were in the room with us. Someone spoke of the beauty and cultural
value of the building that we were in. It was built, apparently, in the early 19th
century, and therefore ‘historical’. It seemed like this person was proud (happy?)
about this, but all I could think of was the labour extracted from my enslaved
African ancestors that most probably funded it. I felt no pride or pleasure. In fact,
I might have told her to fuck right off, if I didn’t think it would jeopardise my place
on the course. Also, I didn’t want to feel like I was being unkind. So I was relieved
when one of the teachers quoted James Baldwin (1955). When Baldwin was living
in Switzerland, he wrote about what he felt about the architecture there. They were
similar feelings to mine, but expressed with language that was more poetic – and
acceptable – than mine. So we all got to think about a thing without getting too
street about it. I guess I’ll be back next week.

Dear Cece,
I like the sound of ‘teachings from the ceiling’ and ‘knowing so deep’. They
speak to what we are being guided towards. We began the day reflecting on the
psychological and material harm caused by what bell hooks calls the ‘imperialist
white supremacist capitalist patriarchy’ (1987). The tutor said that we were not
going to start with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, but
rather go straight to the source of our chronic dis-ease and suffering.
We also lay down to name and listen to the personal and collective histories
that were in the room and would need tending to over the next while. This was
introduced as a practice of ‘more than one teaching voice in class’. The voices
include those of the tutors, those we watch and listen to on screen, those we read
and our own.
In our ‘bring a sentence in and share it’ practice today, what stayed with me
were the words that one of the group read from Christina Sharpe’s book, In the
Wake: On Blackness and being (2016). Sharpe states that ‘to be in the wake is to
occupy and to be occupied by the continuous and changing present of slavery’s as
yet unresolved unfolding’. We were asked to write/create/make personally reflective
 Robert Downes and Foluke Taylor 91

pieces on how we see or don’t see this ‘unresolved unfolding’, and then encouraged
to develop our understanding of auto-ethnographic approaches to this task. I am
glad of the freedom from grade chasing. The fact that this homework was set by a
fellow student was even more interesting – we get to do this to deepen our knowing
and recognition of one another.

Dear Niall,
The ‘lies of whiteness’ is also on our curriculum. I’m a bit interested to find out more
about what this means and also a bit wary of finding out that it is exactly what I have
already had to live with and know my whole life already. Whiteness takes up a whole
heap of time and space. I don’t know if this is a radical idea or not, but what about
what there is to learn from/about/with Blackness and the therapeutic project? Thanks
for the heads up on Christina Sharpe’s wake work. I’ve started reading and I’ve got to
tell you, the idea that we need to practise ‘undiscipline’ got me really excited.

Dear Cece,
The tutor spoke to your point today about whiteness being a tricky area of study.
He quoted Richard Dyer (1997): ‘The point of looking at whiteness is to dislodge
it from its centrality and authority, not to re-instate it.’ I think this is why we will
sometimes separate into two groups so that we can work out some of this stuff
without doing more harm to our Black and brown peers. My friend Wynter called
it the white remedial class. I got her point when we watched a clip of James Baldwin
asking white people ‘How much time do you want for your progress?’3 We have
colonised time too in our taking of all the time.
I thought of your reference to ‘undiscipline’ today when one of my peers said
she wasn’t going to read one more book by a white man for the whole year. Another
student was bothered by this, and she told him she was sure she could manage,
why couldn’t he? The tutors thought this was a valid and interesting opportunity.
Someone suggested an old white male psychoanalysts’ history month. We’ve got
jokes among all of this.
We then separated into two groups – one for white people and one for Black/
brown/people of colour – to look at the concept and practice of metalisation. In
our group, the tutor extended the title of the class to ‘mentalisation while white’.
We unpacked this together until we grasped that we were being asked to imagine
thinking about whiteness while being in the world and in our therapeutic practice.
Some didn’t understand why we needed to separate to explore this topic. The
tutor said this was exactly why we needed this class, that we were unpractised
in recognising the white psyche and how it operates to shore up whiteness, and
particularly a good whiteness. The tutor was patient with all of our defensive
manoeuvres to avoid hearing how problematic whiteness is – manoeuvres that he
said Robin DiAngelo describes as white fragility (2018) that we need to get intimate
with. To be honest, this fragility looked rather dense at times, unthinking at others

3. From the 1989 documentary James Baldwin: The price of the ticket (American Masters).
92 Re-imagining the space and context for a therapeutic curriculum

– like one great big refusal to think. Apparently, we are riddled with it and do not
want to take this reality in because it will make us bad, and we are so desperate to
be good whites that we can’t think while white. The tutor suggested that we were
going to practise critical thinking while white and explained that this might take
a while to grasp. While waiting, he said, we could map out every which way that
our minds find whiteness and defend against being seen as racist. We did this via
a repeating question: ‘Tell me a way your psyche is white.’ We had to answer this
for an agonising 20 minutes each, without discussion. I thought I was a good white
– an anti-racist white – until the tutor welcomed what I said as an opportunity
to explore Sara Ahmed’s work (2004) on non-performative declarations of anti-
racism.4 I have to prepare a seminar on it now, so I walked into that. Another
practice here – what you walk into, you study and share.
We were shown a video clip of Toni Morrison describing whiteness as a lie
– a compelling one that has been handed over to each generation as a norm. This
led to another exercise: a circle of revelation where, in turn, we spoke out a lie of
whiteness and kept going until we began to run out. One of the group said that this
was excruciating, and the tutor said she would be worried if it weren’t. Another
asked when would it end, and we were told that it doesn’t. Welcome to the other
side of whiteness – a waking up to how things are. Our homework was to reflect on
how an unexamined whiteness is problematic for the therapist and the people we
might work with. We have a lot of homework (a.k.a. catching up) to do.

Dear Niall,
I enjoyed our Black/brown/of colour group this week. We made a playlist to
celebrate. Solange was on our playlist – seeing and imagining and declaring
things ‘for us’.5 Some people did express doubts about the relevance of this to a
therapeutic curriculum, but our teachers have encouraged us to engage with a
range of media and not to be afraid to look outside of academic texts and literature
for our learning opportunities. I find myself wanting to talk about what happened
in our group – because it was rich, and I want to celebrate that – but also not
wanting to talk about it because it was rich, and I want to protect that. Sometimes
being too open with Black experience leaves it vulnerable to being trashed or
stolen. Fortunately – like a lot of us – I am well practised at deciding what to say
and what not to say in white spaces. We also thought about mentalisation (do you
realise you wrote ‘metalisation’?) and the ‘refusal to think’ of whiteness. So often
this is like an unexploded bomb. Most of us have experienced some surprising
detonations in our lives – often at times when we dare to speak of experiences
of racism. Sometimes the explosions happen underground (red faces, shifting in
seats, momentary wobbliness), but often they go nuclear. One of my peers – who
we call Aunty, because she’s taken more breaths on this earth than the rest of us –
gave an example from a previous course. She said it was a tutor who went nuclear –

4. www.kent.ac.uk/clgs/documents/pdfs/Ahmed_sarah_clgscolloq25-09-04.pdf
5. Solange. (2016) F.U.B.U. From the album A Seat at the Table, where she sings ‘This one’s for us’.
 Robert Downes and Foluke Taylor 93

who got red-faced and started crying and carrying on about how she wasn’t racist.
She accused the Black students of being difficult and divisive because they were
complaining about racism but not also offering solutions. Aunty was sad that she
hadn’t been able to complete this course, but reflected that prioritising her mental
health had been the right decision. Teachers who haven’t done the work – who
have to ‘metalise’ around Blackness, whiteness and racism because they don’t yet
have the capacity to ‘mentalise’ – should perhaps carry a health warning for Black
students. Until then, though, I guess we will continue to ‘watch and see’ – that is, to
hold onto what we know until the metalisation/mentalisation landscape becomes
clear enough for us to know what we might be called on to share/teach, and what
level of risk we will have to manage if we choose to do so.

Dear Cece,
Solange showed up here too. When we got back together after our complicating
whiteness group, I asked Wynter what they had done in her group. She said it was
a Solange moment (the song, F.U.B.U.). I guess I’d stepped out of my lane. After
that, we went for coffee. She said that, although they were taking a break from
whiteness, it had followed them there too.

Dear Niall,
Wynter is right. Whiteness is hard to get a break from. Although the relief of not
having to be so vigilant and not having to hold on to what we know did mean
that our discussion was quite passionate and loud and full. It was also punctuated
with Lauryn Hill and Burning Spear. Someone made a joke about what the other
group might be making of all of this, and how we were playing into all the Black
stereotypes. They were only a little way down the corridor, so probably heard us
laughing about this. I did wonder though, if anyone else also felt frustrated and sad
to be reminded of how this ‘double consciousness’ (I was thinking of W.E.B. Du
Bois (1994) here) plays out, even when we are not in a white space. I hate that we
end up talking about and reacting to whiteness even when it’s not visibly present. I
shared some of these frustrations in our closing round. The facilitating tutor shared
links to resources for further reflection – including the work of Du Bois and Frantz
Fanon – and offered some of her own insights about Black interiority and the Black
psyche’s absorption and adaptation to a world formed around and embedded in
white supremacist ideas. She encouraged us to reflect on our ‘introjects’ and the
psychic processes that contribute to internalised oppression. She must have seen
that some of our faces were a bit screwed up here because she turned up the music
and left us to it for a while. Then she offered the example of hierarchies within art –
the way that we might think of certain art forms and genres as being above others.
We considered the words ‘classic’ and ‘classical’ and how they are applied to denote
value, for instance in architecture, literature and music. What ideas, she wondered,
had we internalised about the place, purpose, and philosophical value of Black
music? Had we ever considered citing Burning Spear in our written assignments
and essays? If not, why not? It was deep and to be honest, quite hard to think about
94 Re-imagining the space and context for a therapeutic curriculum

in the moment. An unspecified ache spread up from my throat and my jaw and
throat. Grief took all my words. The tutor flagged up Paul Gilroy’s Black Atlantic
(1993) as a place to think more about this, when we were ready.

Dear Cece,
The word ‘metalisation’ was a slip and interestingly enough points to the
impenetrable dense metal of whiteness that isn’t really that fragile. We continued
with our white fragility studies today, and were introduced to re-workings
of psychological concepts: whiteness as attachment disorder, as disorganised
embodiment, as psychosis, and as a really bad object trying to be a good object
that can never be a good object or even subject. It was grim but I was relieved to
have this thing more deeply explained. I am saddened that whole Black lifetimes
have been spent describing a whiteness that refuses to see itself.
We are doing the work that George Yancy (2014) describes as un-suturing
the wound of whiteness – opening ourselves up to the irreality of whiteness and
the inevitable collapse into a narcissistic emptiness as we let go of the delusion of
white innocence and goodness. I think this is the depressive position of whiteness.
I wonder how to make this an aspirational journey since it feels so bad. At the same
time, there is relief because I get to see what is true – no matter how grim. I wonder
if there will ever be enough white people invested in doing this work, given the
currents that operate against waking up. I notice that hope comes and goes.
I wondered if – faced with this un-suturing – we would have enough energy
for the afternoon’s field trip. The handbook outlines an expectation that we
students organise for ourselves certain field trips that will inform practice and
understanding of human experience as well as considered interventions. Someone
suggested we visit ‘Fons Americanus’ – a 13-metre-tall working fountain installed
in Tate Modern by artist Kara Walker. The installation is inspired by the Victoria
Memorial outside Buckingham Palace and represents Britain’s brutal history of
empire and enslavement. We took the first chapter of Christina Sharpe’s In The
Wake with us. We read it aloud while sitting in a circle around the fountain itself.
We then shared the chapters with other visitors.6

Dear Niall,
I want to wade in the water
where we don’t have to talk about whiteness
or not talk about whiteness
or not talk about whiteness by talking about it
but whiteness, whiteness everywhere
and no water to drink
no one drop
no time to drop

6. The first chapter of In the Wake: On blackness and being is available free on the publisher’s website: www.
dukeupress.edu/Assets/PubMaterials/978-0-8223-6294-4_601.pdf
 Robert Downes and Foluke Taylor 95

I thought I was writing this poem in my head, but it turns out (this keeps
happening) that I was actually speaking out loud. So one of the tutors offered us the
opportunity to wade in the water of Blackness, which in this case meant me and the
other Black and brown folk who fancied it again transferring to a room down the
corridor. We were told that we could make it our own and spend the day working
on our own curriculum. Kwame-John (who told us that he wanted to ditch his
‘slave name’ altogether but compromised because he didn’t want to disrespect his
parents) was first to arrive in the new room. He pointed to the whiteboards on each
of the four walls and joked that our escape from whiteness had only been partial.
The tutor said the boards could be used to map out what we imagined a ‘taking-
a-break-from-whiteness’ curriculum might look like. Before we could get to that,
we found we needed to speak about the few brown folk who had decided to stay
with the (now) predominantly white group. Kwame-John framed it with Malcolm
X’s house- negro/field-negro dichotomy – as the split between who was going to
step back and watch the master’s house burn down and who was going to stay and
help fetch water. I think he was talking about Dolores in particular, who keeps
referencing her white ancestors and saying that there is good and bad in everyone.
I have found her a bit annoying, but I also started thinking about what it might be
that she is saving herself from by holding on to these things? Perhaps her attempts
to point to shared territory are something like my suspicion and fugitivity – ways
of navigating risk and keeping safe?
The discussion of our Black curriculum was harder than I anticipated. It didn’t
really flow and in the absence of flow Kwame-John talked even more than usual. He
thought our curriculum should focus on creating therapies and therapists who could
build the Black family. The tutor suggested that we explore what the term ‘Black
family’ meant to us individually. It turns out that it means lots of different, sometimes
contradictory, things. It became clear that, even if we felt some affiliation with
Malcolm’s field negroes who were ready to escape, we were a long way from reaching
consensus on which direction we should run. The tutor flagged up the work of Jamaican
scholar Sylvia Wynter – warning us that she wasn’t the easiest thinker to understand
but that she had a lot to say that was relevant to the discussion. For example, should we
strive to inherit the categories that we’d been barred from (man, woman, human, for
example) and aim for respectability via patriarchal, heteronormative, nuclear family
structures? Or might we aim for a different sociality? We explored these questions
via imaginative free writing – a practice that was introduced to us at the beginning of
this course. I found myself writing about Dolores, or, as I soon realised, about parts
of Dolores that I recognised in me. We shared our writing and someone scribed
emerging questions onto the whiteboards. There were questions about what physical,
material, psychological and spiritual realities were being transmitted through us and
in our therapeutic relationships. There were questions about the intergenerational,
transgenerational, and ancestral nature of these transmissions. It was the start of our
curriculum. Our curriculum is long.
My peers liked that I brought in the wake. We got to think about memory
and remembering, trauma and haunting, and the past-that-is-not-past. We got
96 Re-imagining the space and context for a therapeutic curriculum

to think about violence on the Black body (Coates, 2015), child development and
parenting. We got to think about projections, splitting and how identification with
the aggressor can detach us from our own pain. I’m not sure that we actually got
time off from whiteness, but we did get enough of a break to be able to think about
some of the depths of Black experience.

Outroduction
Our curiosity about Cece and Niall extends beyond this chapter, both backwards
and forwards in time. We are curious about what has brought them here and
also about where – and to what – they might now be heading. They – and the
trainings in which they are engaged – are imagined, but also, through that act of
imagination, made real. Consider, by way of example, ‘race’ itself – an idea with no
biological basis in reality but imagined with such commitment and force that it has
become a very real ‘technology’ (Phillips, 2015), with real, devastating, and deadly
consequences. adrienne maree brown says this (2017):

We are living in the ancestral imagination of others, with their longing for
safety and abundance, a longing that didn’t include us, or included us as
enemy, fright, other.

We invite you to play; to add your own imagination to the mix and consider the
ways in which you do, or do not, recognise Niall and Cece’s journeys. What hopes,
fears and offerings do you have for them? If you were to join them, what would
you write?
What would you add to the curriculum? What can you imagine into being for
the therapists who are coming? What kind of ancestor7 are you going to be?

References
Ahmed, S. (2004). Declarations of whiteness: The non-performativity of anti-racism. Borderlands,
3(2).
Baldwin, J. (1955). Stranger in the village. In Baldwin, J., Notes of a native son. Beacon Press.
Brand, D. (2002). A map to the door of no return: Notes to belonging. Vintage.
brown a.m. (2017). Emergent strategy: Shaping change, changing worlds. AK Press.
Campt, T. (2014, October 7). Black feminist futures and the practice of fugitivity. Helen Pond
McIntyre ’48 Lecture, Barnard College. http://bcrw.barnard.edu/blog/black-feminist-futures-and-
the-practice-of-fugitivity.

7. http://laylafsaad.com/good-ancestor-podcast
 Robert Downes and Foluke Taylor 97

Coates, T. (2015). Between the world and me. Text Publishing Company.
DiAngelo, R. (2018). White fragility: Why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism. Beacon
Press.
Du Bois, W.E.B. (1994). The souls of black folk. Gramercy Books.
Dyer, R. (1997). White: essays on race and culture. Routledge.
Gilroy, P. (1993). The black Atlantic: modernity and double consciousness. Verso Books.
hooks, b. (1987). Ain’t I a woman. Pluto Press.
Le Guin, U. (1989). The carrier bag theory of fiction. In Le Guin, U., Dancing at the edge of the world:
Thoughts on words, women, places (pp.165–170). Grove Press.
Morrison, T.A. (1985). A knowing so deep. Essence Magazine, 5, 230.
Phillips R. (Ed.). (2015). Black quantum futurism: Theory & practice, volume 1. AfroFuturist Affair.
Sharpe, C. (2016). In the wake: On blackness and being. Duke University Press.
Wilderson, F. (2008). Incognegro: A memoir of exile and apartheid. South End Press.
Yancy, G. ( 2008 ). Black bodies, white gazes: The continuing significance of race in America. Rowman
& Littlefield.
Yancy, G. (Ed.). (2014). White self-criticality beyond anti-racism: How does it feel to be a white
problem? Lexington Books.
98 Twin tribes

9 Twin tribes: Exploring unconscious privilege

and otherness in counselling and
psychotherapy
Dwight Turner

One of the most common comments I get from students of colour on training
courses is they feel they will not be understood by white therapists. They feel
uncomfortable talking about aspects of their cultural identity, they are fearful that
they will be stereotyped accordingly, and they struggle with the power dynamics.
A student counsellor of colour I once worked with, who I will call Nini, typifies
this experience. During our time working together, Nini told me a story about
an experience with her previous therapist. The therapist was a white, possibly
middle-class, middle-aged woman. In one session, Nini was discussing the fact
that she was struggling to find a partner who would stay with her as she wanted
to start a family. The therapist questioned the cultural background of the men she
liked, and Nini expressed a preference for men of colour, preferably from a Black
British background. The therapist suggested that Nini would be better with a white,
English man, as they were more likely to want to stay in the relationship, especially
given there were so many single mothers of colour around. Nini, although shocked,
found herself unable to say anything about this to the therapist, and took the
comment home with her. It took some days for her to recognise how upset she was
about this. Nini never went back to the counsellor.
This experience is problematic from a number of angles. First, it is obvious that the
psychotherapist’s training was insufficient, given her unconscious prejudice against
her client’s culture. Second, the privileging by the psychotherapist of her culture meant
her client was being encouraged to reject her own cultural background. Astonishingly,
even today, these types of experiences are not uncommon. Despite numerous books
and articles exploring the inadequacy of counselling and psychotherapy approaches
when it comes to working with unconscious difference, the profession remains
nested in a collective collusive safety created by the marginalisation of explorations
of otherness in our trainings. There is, at best, a tokenistic approach to the topics; at
worst, it is not considered at all.
 Dwight Turner 99

What this tokenistic approach to working with difference and diversity in

counselling and psychotherapy trainings has done, though, is to mirror the same
marginalisation and tokenism of minorities in wider society (Hall, 1996). This has
led to some of the accusations of the institutionalised racism, homophobia, sexism
and other isms and phobias that reside within our organisations (Holdaway &
O’Neill, 2007). Yet, what is most important for this paper is the failure of counselling
and psychotherapy trainings to properly explore the unconscious experience and
meaning of aspects like otherness and privilege in order to equip our students and
practitioners to work with the varying intersectional identities our clients will
inevitably hold, be they of privilege or of otherness.

Background
When Sigmund Freud fled to the UK towards the end of his life, he had already
established psychotherapy as an important force in understanding the psychological,
thereby placing it alongside the medical models of the day (Jacobs, 2003). Yet,
personally, Freud also had to struggle with his ‘outsiderness’, both culturally in the
Austrian Nazi Anschluss, heading towards war and genocide, and here in the UK
as a cultural outsider. That he did so at all is testimony to the strength of his will. I
have a personal sadness, though, that he was unable to do more research into the
impact of his difference on the psychology of those seen to be the other, as his push
to have psychotherapy included in mainstream medicine inevitably left him open
to accusations of marginalisation and prejudice (Said, 2003).
Although there is an often-cited argument that this separation of others was
of its time, the impact of this reinforced privileging of Western patriarchal views
about psychology has understandably had a detrimental influence on counselling
and psychotherapy. There have, though, been attempts to redress this from time
to time. For example, attempts to understand the experience and the role of the
other is a seam well worked within counselling and psychotherapy by authors as
diverse as Laing (1969), Frosh (2002), Dalal (2012), McKenzie-Mavinga (2009),
and others. The importance of their work, while bringing into view the idea of
otherness, often failed to recognise the fact that otherness does not exist without
sameness, and that sameness often appears in the form of privilege and supremacy,
an aspect of this dyadic relationship highlighted by Fanon (1959) through the lens
of the colonised and their co-created relationship with the colonisers.
Conversely, although there are numerous papers on otherness and issues
of diversity, actual trainings around diversity have often struggled to find their
grounding within the worlds of counselling and psychotherapy training. They are
often tagged onto the end of trainings – a day, even just half a day here or there
– meaning that those who identified as other often have felt their own unique
experiences were not heard or acknowledged. While there are many reasons for
this, one of the most important is the privileging of a white, heteronormative,
patriarchal narrative in the majority of trainings.
Definitions of privilege vary, but for the purpose of this chapter they are
anything from patriarchal privilege to the privilege of living in the global North,
100 Twin tribes

the privilege of whiteness, ‘ableist’ privilege and the privilege of heteronormativity

(Branscombe et al., 2007; DiAngelo, 2006; Goodley, 2014; Logie & Rwigema,
2014). Yet, these are only some of the ways privilege appears. In Western cultures,
the privilege of youth is a driving factor in our urgency to resist the ageing process;
living in a major city such as London can be seen as a privilege over those who live
in the countryside, while some of the best examples are emerging from children
who form groups not on any political categorisation of difference and similarity,
but sometimes almost arbitrarily – just the fact that a child is smaller can mean
they become marginalised, so the taller ones are privileged, or the girl who has
darker skin and different hair is seen as dirty or unkempt by peers who privilege
their own looks accordingly.
The fact that there are so many forms of privilege suggests that privilege
is more than just societally constructed. Privilege, when observed under a
psychotherapeutic lens, is actually archetypal; it is an aspect of life; it is a quality, a
skill, a task that has to be owned or overcome, dependent upon the individual or
the group environment.

Intersectional theory
Understanding both conscious and unconscious privilege within the world of
counselling and psychotherapy is therefore essential to any exploration of difference
and diversity. The most important means of understanding privilege is through
the lens of intersectional theory. The background to intersectional theory is that
identity is multi-faceted, and that we experience different types of oppression and
privilege based on the different identities that we embody. For example, although
I identify as Black, middle-aged, and the son of migrant parents, all of which mark
me out as an outsider, I am also an academic, heterosexual, and live and work in
Western Europe, which gives me a certain amount of privilege.
Intersectional theory emerged out of feminism’s second wave, where the need
for an intersectional method of exploring difference arose out of the privileging
of the perspectives of white women in the fight for equality (Wright & Wright,
2017). This generalising of the experience of women through a purely white, and
often heteronormative, lens led to an ‘othering’ of the experiences of women of
difference, a point made by Lorde (1984), and it could be argued it is still seen in
feminist discourse today in the debate about the trans community.
This exploration of the varying layers of privilege and otherness was brought
further into the academic and political mainstream by Professor Kimberle
Crenshaw, who used it to explore the premise that women of colour would
experience oppression based not only on their gender but also because of their race
(Cho et al., 2013). Mohammed (2009), exploring how intersectional theory has
been used in research in the Caribbean, considered privilege in the operation of
caste, a system of difference that has been in situ for generations in many cultures.
Its closest comparison here in the UK is the class system.
Building on this narrative, Pieterse and colleagues (2013) discuss how identity
is influenced by this delicate interplay of privilege and otherness, positing that it is
 Dwight Turner 101

important that counsellors are aware of how and where they position themselves
in these respects, for their own development as practitioners as much as for their
work with clients from the many disparate groups we all encounter.
Although Crenshaw also recognised that we simultaneously hold varying
aspects of privilege in our identity, if there is a criticism that I have of her work
from a counselling and psychotherapy perspective, it is that she does not explore
the importance of these varying intersectional privileges and how they might re-
empower those who have constantly felt marginalised. Another of the resistances
against working with difference and diversity in a more nuanced way is that we are
actually working with unconscious material, which when stirred has the potential
to challenge the egoic structure of that which sees itself as privileged. From a
psychological perspective, this is what DiAngelo (2018) considers with reference to
the difficulties in discussing the issue of race. The term she uses is ‘white fragility’,
where certain emotions, such as guilt and shame, are provoked in any discussion
of racial difference, and are then immediately defended against by the subject.
On the whole I agree with her assessment, but I would expand this in two ways:
first, any discussion of difference, no matter the difference, and also the conjoined
oppression of the other by the subject, brings with it this sense of guilt, so it is not
just through the lens of racial difference, even if in varying forms; and second, the
understanding and experience of difference should be handled delicately because
its exploration immediately challenges the ego identity of the subject. It is a bit like
showing the subject, or our client, their shadow; they are of course going to defend
against it, or reject it, sometimes quite aggressively.

Training for and working with the dyad in counselling

and psychotherapy
Benjamin (1998) considered the role that narcissism plays in both the other and the
subject, with this connection being symptomatic of the difficulty in working with
otherness. This chapter expands this exploration in several ways. First, I argue that
the link is actually between privilege and otherness. This is important, as seeing the
lead position as being that of a subject denies the potential personal importance of
said subject, or its privilege.
Second, where Benjamin is right is that narcissism is present in both presentations;
it presents in different ways, and it is important to notice this. For those of privilege,
the clinging to power could be seen as an attempt to psychologically defend against
the shame of their privilege. This is important when working with this dyad, in
that any work, any training, needs to be aware of how touching on this privilege
pushes against the narcissistic container of specialness that can encircle the ego
identity formation in certain students, practitioners or clients. For the other, though,
narcissism is connected to the denial of the pain of its otherness, its separation from
the collective; its grandiose defence can be a protector against the intense feelings of
isolation, loneliness and sadness that can arise.
The lack of an intersectional approach fails to spot that the multifaceted means
of identity formation leads to this complicated mixture of privilege and otherness.
102 Twin tribes

Where psychotherapy theory then becomes important is that, for each of us, or
for every group or culture, there is always a splitting of these two positions: a split
forced upon the individual or the group by self, family or culture and so forth
(Mitchell, 1986). One of the difficulties training organisations have emerges from
this intersectional, and therefore multifaceted, aspect of identity formation. When
explored on most trainings, what happens is that we engage in a singular exploration
of a particular identity, so participants have to repress any other identity aspects for
that particular workshop or exercise.

Exploring the relativity of privilege and otherness in practice

In my work with Nini, I asked her to undertake a privilege exercise (Thomas & Jha,
2018). The exercise involved answering approximately 50 wide-ranging questions,
such as, ‘Have you ever had to come out?’ ; ‘Has a stranger ever asked to touch your
hair?’, and ‘Do you work in a salaried job?’ Individuals take the test in order to
explore the perceived level of privilege and outsiderness they hold at any one time.
The importance of the questions is that they explore the intersectional nature of
identity, recognising that, as individuals we hold many facets that make up who we
are. It also highlights that, while we are all impacted by societal, cultural, familial
and other scripts that tell us which aspects of identity are appropriate and which
are not, we all have different ways of mitigating these influences, meaning that,
while we are externally othered or other ourselves, how this occurs is specific to the
individual. The exercise assists participants to recognise not only their own sense
of otherness but also, with a closer analysis, which forms of privilege they hold.
Another variation of this exercise is called the Privilege Walk. This involves
students standing in a line and being asked the same set of questions, and either
taking one step forward for a positive answer to a question or one step back for a
negative answer. Again, students get to explore their own experiences of privilege
and otherness, but here they do so in a group setting. The reasoning for this is that
it challenges the capacity of certain students to confront their fragility when faced
with the very privileges or experiences of otherness of their peers. So, while some
students might wish to deny their privilege and hide within their own preconceived
sense of otherness, or vice versa, the challenge of seeing a truer representation of
their cultural positioning is important for the recognition of which twin has been
unconsciously suppressed.
Taking this further, the suppression of privilege therefore involves the narcissistic
distancing oneself from one’s own sense of shame that can be triggered where there
is a focus only on one of the political categorisations of difference within training
settings or the therapy room. The shame of the privileged is also held within the
container of the training session, as it is this that, if not held appropriately, triggers
an unconscious reactivity with those who are consciously unaware of their privilege.
Conversely, the doubling down into one’s own otherness can also be a defence against
the power and privilege within one’s own identity. In order for the other to maintain
this, though, there has to be a projection of the power and authenticity onto the
other, and then a reaction of righteousness against that power.
 Dwight Turner 103

Bringing privilege into the room also allows students to connect with their
own sense of humility in a held, contained way. The group holds the sense of shame
or privilege; the group also holds the collective sense of shame at their otherness.
These conjoined factors are therefore not unconsciously disconnected from where
one aspect will rise to the surface suddenly, just as we are discussing the other. They
emerge into the training space together, hand in hand, to be witnessed and felt, like
the co-dependent couple they truly are.
Although these exercises were designed by sociologists and psychologists,
their importance to the world of counselling and psychotherapy should not be
understated. Whereas previously working with otherness involved the splitting of
the twin tribes of privilege and otherness, these exercises recognise and respect
their conscious and unconscious mutual attraction. Therefore, any attempts to
work with one arena and not the other risks splitting students, or clients, while
either reinforcing their position as the other or forcing into the unconscious their
underlying privilege and power. So, while this acting out of those students of
privilege against the difference held in the room might be useful to undergo, in
my experience this bubble of unconscious material is rarely held competently on
trainings. Therefore, working at depth with privilege helps also to balance out the
reactivity of students when issues of difference emerge into the training space.

Intersectional privilege for students, therapists and our clients

The conjoined nature of privilege and otherness was a facet of relationality
recognised in Fanon’s (1959) work, where he saw the colonised as being identified
by the coloniser, and therefore vice versa. The main difference in the positions,
though, was one of power and responsibility. While the dyadic nature as presented
by Fanon was held purely within a postcolonial framework, when seen through an
intersectional lens, this multiplies the coloniser and colonised narrative in a way
perhaps only approached by de la Boetie (2015), who recognised the multi-layered
nature of this experience in a less binary fashion, perhaps, than Fanon.
Re-approaching this exploration from a more psychotherapeutic angle, Buber
(2010) recognised the importance of the tension of the opposites, seeing the struggle
between the subject and the other as being part of the road to reintegrating aspects
of the self that have had to be excluded in order to comply with societal, familial and
religious wishes. This is a point echoed by von Franz (1980), who stipulated that the
other, be they an individual or a group, is actually the shadow for the majority.
So, working with privilege in these fashions also helps students to consider
their own unconscious narratives around power and otherness. As previously
discussed, while many philosophers have explored the conjoined external
relationship between the pair, here they are seen as an intra-psychic dyad. This
means that the over-identification with one aspect leads to the suppression, or the
forcing into the unconscious, of its twin. So, for student practitioners who may be
Black, Asian or of another ethnic minority, or LGBTQIA, its recovery can lead to
a growing re-empowerment of the self, encouraging a greater sense of authenticity
and individuation.
104 Twin tribes

For example, on any training course, there is an importance placed on the

personal development of the trainee practitioner. From having to be in one’s
own personal therapy to experiential workshops often being an integral aspect
of trainings, the recognition and therefore the reintegration of personal shadow
material forms a cornerstone in the transition from being one of the collective
to becoming a more individuated psychotherapist. Working with the twinship of
privilege and otherness should therefore form an integral part of this process of
transformation. This encounter with the projected privilege, or with one’s own
repressed sense of otherness – aspects that may have been forced into the shadow –
while not always easy, needs to happen in order for practitioners to become aware
of which aspects they have attributed to their client.
So, returning to the case example at the start of this chapter, had the therapist
Nini was working with been at all aware of her own projected sense of cultural
privilege, then it is more likely that she would have resisted the urge to culturally
shame her client. In situations like these, for the client there is an enforced over-
identification with their own sense of otherness. They are made to be the outsider,
and the white therapist is the one they must conform to in order to maintain
a sense of safety. Both people are sitting in a space of inauthenticity, a space of
collusion where nothing can change, nothing can progress, and, in this case, where
the therapy ruptured without any possibility of repair.
This is an essential aspect of exploring privilege and otherness with our
clients. As a therapist of colour, I regularly receive requests from clients of colour
to work with me because of my perceived cultural similarity. One of the other
experiences they often present with is a sense of their feeling uncomfortable while
working with white therapists. When this happens, I have found it increasingly
important to explore the cultural difference they encountered and what it was
that they felt they either could not bring to the therapy room or were not allowed
to. This exploration is not about criticising the other therapist. It is to understand
the unconscious powerlessness that left my new client unable to bring something
from their cultural background, from their own space of difference, and present
it to their therapist. Simultaneously, I also have to explore the collusive nature
of our shared otherness. While I might be of colour, and therefore appear to
be a safer type of therapist for certain clients, the fact that I am a man, that I
am heterosexual, or that I am an academic, all serve to change, or challenge,
the dynamic of cultural similarity that brought the client of colour into my
consulting room.
So, when the unconscious privilege we all hold is not worked through, what
happens is that we create a psychological barrier between our self and the client,
thereby meaning we deny them the chance for personal growth. Understanding
the projections, the times when we stereotype, and how we other the other are
essential factors in recognising the clues of the unconscious on the road towards
individuation. When difference is in the therapy room, it is essential to create a
space for it in the therapy, lest we leave the client split and in a space of deference
to our role as the therapist.
 Dwight Turner 105

So, returning to the example of Nini, in our review of the work she had done
with her previous therapist, the areas we explored included the following. First,
I asked Nini if the cultural difference in the room had ever been explored by the
therapist. This question surprised Nini, her reply being that, even though she
thought it was an issue, it was never discussed. During our work, we also looked
at the issue of power, as this had obviously crept into the therapy space around
the need for the therapist to express her own opinion about the cultural choice of
partner for her client. Last, what most upset Nini was the privileging by the white
therapist of her own culture over that of her client, something she recognised was
extremely prejudiced, and, given the aforementioned power dynamic, it was no
surprise this led to the fracture in the therapeutic relationship.
Nini, though, said that working with privilege in our therapy helped her to
see the unconscious relationship between herself and clients from her own cultural
background or gender, where the sense of sameness might obscure any or all types
of privilege. It also helped her to recognise in her own countertransference how,
when working with clients who were, say, white men or who had originated in the
West, what was triggered within her was a symptom of the unconscious privileges
being projected outwards by her into the room – privileges she then started to
reintegrate and finally own.

References
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Branscombe, N.R., Schmitt, M.T. & Schiffhauer, K. (2007). Racial attitudes in response to thoughts
of white privilege. European Journal of Social Psychology, 37(2), 203–215. https://doi.org/10.1002/
ejsp.348
Buber, M. (2010). I and thou. Martino Publishing Limited.
Cho, S., Crenshaw, K.W.,& Mccall, L. (2013). Toward a field of intersectionality studies: Theory,
applications, and praxis. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 38(4), 785–810.
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de la Boetie, E. (2015). The politics of obedience: The discourse of voluntary servitude. Mises Institute.
DiAngelo, R. (2018). White fragility: Why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism. Beacon
Press.
DiAngelo, R.J. (2006). My class didn’t trump my race: Using oppression to face privilege.
Multciulrural Perspectives, 8(1), 51–56.
Fanon, F. (1959). A dying colonialism. Penguin Books.
Frosh, S. (2002). The Other. American Imago, 59(4), 389–407. https://doi.org/10.1353/aim.2002.0025
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Hall, S. (1996). Critical dialogues in cultural studies. Routledge.

Holdaway, S. & O’Neill, M. (2007). Where has all the racism gone? Views of racism within
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Jacobs, M. (2003). Sigmund Freud: Key figures in counselling and psychotherapy (2nd ed.). Sage
Publications.
Laing, R.D. (1969). Self and others. Penguin Books.
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Lorde, A. (1984). Age, race, class and sex: Women redefining difference. In A. Lorde, Sister, outsider.
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McKenzie-Mavinga, I. (2009). Black issues in the therapeutic process. Palgrave.
Mitchell, J. (1986). The selected Melanie Klein. Penguin Books.
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Criticism, 13(2), 57–71.
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Said, E. (2003). Freud and the non-Europeans. Verso Books
Thomas, S.M., & Jha, R. (2018). How privileged are you? Buzzfeed. www.buzzfeed.com/soniathomas/
how-privileged-are-you?utm_term=.uvnR9DNmn#.fs6xXKadj
von Franz, M.-L. (1980). Projection and re-collection in Jungian psychology. Open Court Publications.
Wright, T. & Wright, K. (2017). The arts in psychotherapy: Exploring the benefits of intersectional
feminist social justice approaches in art psychotherapy. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 54, 7–14. https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2017.02.008
 Neelam Zahid 107

10 Lifting the white veil of therapy

Neelam Zahid

When I was first asked to write this chapter, I experienced a visceral feeling of
excitement and joy. However, as I thought about what I might write, the feelings
of not being good enough crept in. I thought, ‘I’ve got nothing to write, I don’t
work any differently to anyone else. If I expose how I work, then I will be found
out to be a bad therapist.’ As I reflected on this, I realised that this process was
familiar for me, living in a white world. I have often felt criticised for doing things
differently and for making my personality, background and culture visible. I do not
attribute all of this process to growing up as the ‘other’ in a racist society, but I am
conscious of the huge impact of oppression, discrimination and unconscious bias
on my internal and external world. Part of my journey as a therapist has been to
reclaim my power as a British Pakistani Muslim woman, and as I write this chapter,
I continue to break the chains of institutional racism and inequality.

On becoming a therapist
My counselling and psychotherapy training was theoretically integrative and,
initially, I predominantly worked psychodynamically, with a focus on exploring
past and present relationships and re-emerging patterns. I focused on making the
unconscious conscious and used transference to reflect on clients’ experience of
being in the world and countertransference to enable the client to look at how they
were experienced by others. However, clients often described feeling stuck and
unable to change the re-emerging patterns in their life. I also noticed that many of
my Black, brown and minority ethnic clients found it difficult to fully explore and
speak critically about their families and primary caregivers.
I soon became aware that clients needed something else to shift their way
of thinking and behaviour. Through this learning, I started incorporating other
approaches into my work, such as the empty chair technique (Gestalt), the Karpman
Drama triangle (transactional analysis), and some CBT, which all seemed to work
well. However, what I noticed with all my clients was that the person-centred and
relational approach yielded the best results. As I started to work more relationally,
108 Lifting the white veil of therapy

I noticed feeling inadequate addressing the issues of race and culture within the
room, and I became more aware of a gap in my initial training; I did not feel it had
equipped me to sufficiently address these themes. Race, culture and ethnicity were
only discussed during my training when they were raised by a student of colour,
and they were generally explained by tutors through interpretation – the issues of
inequality, unconscious bias and racism were not directly addressed. I did not have
the opportunity to explore how my cultural difference impacted on my training,
my relationship with my peers and the therapeutic relationship. Therefore, when
I was confronted with difference in the therapy room, I felt silenced, just as I had
been silenced in my training.
Through personal therapy and by attending CPD on diversity, I started to break
the silence of my discriminatory experience and work better with cultural difference.
Over time, I incorporated creative ways to work cross-culturally, which have now
become part of my core theoretical approach.

Transitioning to transcultural therapy

Multicultural therapy embraces an understanding and reflection of diverse
and intercultural experiences. In this approach, consideration is given
to origins and belief systems that mirror and influence identity, personal
experience, and the social impact of oppressions, within the therapeutic
relationship. (McKenzie-Mavinga, 2011, p.30)

This definition is a good starting point from which to understand how to work
transculturally. However, transcultural therapy is not about a ‘type’ of therapy
for the Black and minority ethnic community. It is about bridging a connection
between two or more cultures within the therapy room, and how we might choose
to do this varies from one relationship to another. However, one consistent variable
within transcultural therapy is the quality of the therapeutic relationship, which, as
most research has shown, is the key to healing:

The quality of the relationship we build becomes the heart of everything else
that happens in the therapy… It is not the techniques that heal; techniques
enhance the therapy, but they are not the essence of psychotherapy. It is the
contactful therapeutic relationship that heals our clients’ relational wounds.
(Erskine & Criswell, n.d.)

Another consistent variable in my clinical work is intuition or firasah, an Islamic

concept that means intuition, insight or gut feeling in Arabic. Ibn ul-Qayyim al-
Jawziyyah says:1

The firasah is a light which Allah, subhanahu wa ta`ala,2 deposits in the

1. Ibn ul-Qayyim al-Jawziyyah. The station of firasah. In Madarij-us-Salikeen. Dar Ibn Hazm Print. www.
kalamullah.com/Books/Madarij-us-Salikeen.pdf
2. Translated from Arabic, this means ‘The most glorified, the most high’.
 Neelam Zahid 109

heart of His servant. By this light, His servant distinguishes between truth
and falsehood and between right and wrong.

He goes on to say:

Firasah is linked to three human organs: the eye, ear, and heart. His eye
examines the look and the signs, his ear examines the speech, the overt
expressions, oblique inferences and hints, content, logic and tone of voice.
And his heart analyzes both what is seen and heard to perceive hidden
thoughts of others. His analysis and examination of the interior compared
to the exterior is like one who examines currency to see if it is counterfeit
after examining the outside.

This firasah (my intuition) is a way of feeling connected and attuned to the client. It
guides me through the process of therapy so that I can meet the client where they
are: this can be compared to early childhood developmental attunement. It helps
me connect with the client and gives me insight into what the client needs from me
in that moment; it is not a digression from sound clinical judgement. Information
about my clients’ functioning and understanding what the client needs from
therapy are essential throughout the whole process. Therefore, my intuitive process
is grounded in a thorough knowledge of myself and the conscious/unconscious
processes of my clients.
This kind of intuition is documented well in Western theory of integrative
psychotherapy, and therapists such as Jarreau, Bion and Jung have all stated the
importance of intuition in the therapy room. Moursund and Erskine (2004) say:

Probably the most important set of guidelines, though, comes from our
own intuitive, emotional response to the client’s behavior… We are often
able to pick up tiny cues, cues for which we are consciously unaware, from
the nonverbal behavior of our clients; such cues can aggregate out of our
awareness and make themselves known as a general hunch about how to
respond most effectively. (p.105)

Rogers also recognised the role of intuition in the clinical process, saying:

When I am at my best, as a group facilitator or as a therapist, I discover

another characteristic. I find that when I am closest to my inner, intuitive self,
when I am somehow in touch with the unknown in me, when perhaps I am
in a slightly altered state of consciousness, then whatever I do seems to be full
of healing… I may behave in strange and impulsive ways in the relationship,
ways which I cannot justify rationally, which have nothing to do with my
thought processes. But these strange behaviours turn out to be right, in some
odd way. (1980, cited in Arnd-Caddigan & Stickle, 2017, p.85)

Rogers refers to being in touch with an ‘unknown’ part of himself, which sounds
110 Lifting the white veil of therapy

almost transcendental. This overlaps with Islamic psychology. In Sufi Islamic

psychology, we are believed to have three different parts of the self: the Nafs (self,
ego or psyche), the Qalb (heart) and the Ruh (spirit). The Nafs are seen as the lower
part of the self and can refer to negative traits and tendencies that are controlled
by emotions, desires and their gratification. The Qalb refers to the spiritual heart,
which carries a deeper intelligence and wisdom. The Ruh is in direct connection
with the Divine, even if we are unconscious of that connection.
I have noticed that when I am more connected to my Qalb or Ruh in my
daily life, I am more able to connect with the client and feel more attuned to them.
When I feel disconnected or fragmented in life, I find it difficult to connect with
the client and will often miss what the client needs. I have also found that when I
am struggling with something in my personal life that has the potential to help me
grow emotionally and spiritually, the client will inevitably present with something
very similar: the therapeutic relationship strangely becomes a spiritual relationship
in which we both mirror one another. It is as though we are connected by a source
beyond and bigger than both of us.
This connection, attunement and intuition is central throughout the counselling
process and guides me on how and when to introduce the following cornerstone
therapeutic principles into my clinical work. These principles are:
• broaching and the Black empathic approach
• transference, countertransference, and pre-transference
• self-disclosure.

But before I go on to discuss these principles in more detail, I need to start with the
initial contact with the client – the assessment.

The assessment
The assessment process starts when the client contacts me, or when a third party
contacts me on behalf of a client. Many of the counselling enquiries I receive are
from the Black, brown and ethnic minority communities, and many are made by
clients’ families or friends. When this happens, I explain the process of counselling,
confidentiality and boundaries and how it is important for the person wanting
counselling to contact me themselves. Not everyone will understand the boundaries
of counselling, and therefore it is important to provide some psychoeducation at the
pre-assessment stage to family members and friends, and even clients themselves.
Later, in therapy, it often becomes apparent whether this initial contact by a
third party reflects internal family dynamics or legitimate practical reasons. For
example, one of my older Asian clients made contact with me via her son because
she could not speak English; once I spoke to her son and we established that I could
communicate in Urdu/Punjabi with his mother, I was able to communicate directly
with her without any further issues.
During the assessment, I like to understand the client’s history, why the client
has come to counselling, and what they would like to gain from therapy. I also
 Neelam Zahid 111

like to understand what the client’s assumptions are of what therapy entails. Many
clients from Black, brown and minority ethnic backgrounds who have not been in
therapy before will ask me questions about how I work and what is expected from
them in the sessions. Eleftheriadou (2010, p.134) observes, ‘Many of our clients will
find it difficult to engage with a purely explorative therapeutic space’, and therefore,
although I may explore these questions with the client in the psychodynamic sense,
I also answer them as honestly as I can.
When I conduct sessions with a client in Urdu/Punjabi, I sometimes use the
‘wheel of emotional words’ adapted by Geoffrey Roberts3 from Dr Gloria Willcox’s
work. I have translated this wheel into Urdu to make it easier for clients to identify
and explore their emotions. The inner circle contains seven core emotions:
sad, disgusted, angry, fearful, bad, surprised and happy, which branch out to a
middle and then an outer circle of many different emotions. With each widening
circle of emotions on the wheel, the feelings become more specific and distinct.
Clients have reported that it has been helpful to have the feelings mapped out like
this in Urdu. One client told me that she did not realise until we did the exercise
that she was fearful because she was feeling exposed.
I also like to keep in mind the following six cross-cultural components that
Grieger and Ponterotto (1995) suggest when assessing a Black or brown client or
one from another ethnic minority group. I am often guided by my intuition as to
how many questions to ask in the assessment in relation to these components. It is
important to get the right balance between listening to the client so that they feel
heard and asking questions to gather information.

1. Client’s type of psychological mindedness (individual)

Eleftheriadou (2010) rightly points out that referring to a ‘type’ of psychological
mindedness, rather than a level, is more apt. Clients from a particular cultural
background may have a distinct way of conceptualising emotions, and this is very
different to having a ‘higher’ or ‘lower’ level of psychological mindedness.
The type of psychological mindedness may refer to:
• how a client assesses their own emotional state
• whether they have a choice and an understanding of the referral
• if they think their issue is physical or psychological
• whether they manifest their distress physically or verbally.

2. Family type of psychological mindedness

The second point refers to the family’s type of psychological mindedness. When
the client and family have different notions of distress, it can increase conflict.

3. https://imgur.com/gallery/tCWChf6
112 Lifting the white veil of therapy

3. Client and family attitude to counselling

This factor will influence the therapy, especially if the family or community does
not believe in verbally expressing unhappiness or sadness. One of my older Muslim
clients told me that she believed that expressing her unhappiness about the death
of her husband would imply that she was being ungrateful for the many happy
years of marriage she had been given by God.

4. Client’s level of acculturation

How much the client has incorporated the dominant culture into their lives can
be assessed through their engagement with different/same cultures in their social/
romantic relationships. Therefore, the client’s relationship with her own culture
can be an indication of how she will engage with a therapist of a similar or different
culture to herself. One of my young Asian clients told me that she was comfortable
seeing me, an Asian therapist, because she saw me as a ‘modern’ Muslim, just like
herself. This gave us the opportunity to explore her struggles within her family,
culture and religion and also with ‘English’ culture.
Names are also a good indication of the client’s level of acculturation.
Anglicised names (even through pronunciation) can give us some information
about how connected the client is with their own culture, as well as the culture
they are living in. One of my Indian clients pronounced her name in an anglicised
way, and I pronounced it in the ‘traditional’ way. This opened up a discussion about
what she felt about my pronunciation and her connection to her culture.

5. Family’s level of acculturation

The family’s level of acculturation is a good indication for individual relationships.
The language spoken at home can be a good indicator of how accultured a client’s
family is. What language they speak with parents, siblings, aunts/uncles, cousins
and extended family is all useful information, as clients may speak different
languages with each of them. I once had a client whose mother did not want her to
speak her native language at home. When exploring this issue, it became apparent
that the client was very split from her own culture, just like her mother.
Another indication of the level of acculturation within the family are the views
about cross-cultural friendships or relationships. With some of my clients’ families,
it is very clear that cross-cultural relationships are discouraged; in other families,
they are positively encouraged.

6. Family’s attitude to acculturation

Last, the family’s attitude to acculturation can have an impact on the client’s cultural
identity. If the client and family have different attitudes to acculturation, this can
often create issues that might be brought to counselling. For example, a client’s
mother explained that she wanted her daughter to see me because I knew what was
acceptable in our shared culture. On seeing the client it very quickly became evident
that how she wanted to live her life was seen as unacceptable in her family’s culture.
 Neelam Zahid 113

The therapeutic process

Broaching and the Black empathic approach
When I bring the issues of race and culture into the therapy room, I break the cycle
of oppression and racism. Silence perpetuates the abusive cycle, as does handing
the client sole responsibility for introducing the issues of race and culture into the
therapy room.
I use broaching to bring culture and ethnicity into the therapy room. Day-
Vines and colleagues (2007) define broaching as:

… the practice of directly addressing racial and cultural factors within

the counselling relationship to explore how these factors might be related
to the client’s concerns, as well as to acknowledge how they can affect the
counsellor and client dynamic.

When I have broached the topic of culture and ethnicity with clients, they have told
me that they have felt validated by this. Broaching has helped build rapport and
trust with clients who can comfortably discuss their experience through their lens of
cultural identity (Day-Vines et al., 2007). By not broaching the subject of culture and
ethnicity, I collude with the idea that colour is not significant and support the colour-
blind approach. Not verbalising what I see in the room is a separating off of a part of
the client that may have become ‘other’ and labelled ‘bad’ through their experiences
of racism, oppression and abuse. This does not empower the client to reclaim their
Blackness and fragments them even further. This illustrates the Kleinian concept
of splitting, which can also be seen ‘operating in certain cultural prejudices about
different others’ (Eleftheriadou, 2010, p.197).
The Black empathic approach can be seen as an extension of broaching
and is defined as paying ‘particular attention to the cultural influence of racism’
(McKenzie-Mavinga, 2009, p.57). This approach encourages the therapist to take
responsibility for recognising their own defences related to the hurt of racism
and to be aware of the client’s defences. I can provide a Black empathic approach
for clients by having the capacity to hold a safe space for them to explore their
hurt around racism because I have already explored my own and continue to do
so. I can also make it explicit that the therapeutic space is a space where racism
can be explored. The dynamic between me and the client will generate a unique
unconscious racial charge, which I need to be open to exploring with the client and
in supervision. So, as well as sensitively broaching the client’s ethnicity and racial
experiences as they express them, I need to see them as a part of the client’s identity
and personal psychology. This means specifically paying attention to the hurt of
racism, even if it is not spoken about directly, and then actively working with these
issues as a therapeutic tool to facilitate the client’s healing.
Incorporating the following points into therapy work, as advocated by
McKenzie-Mavinga (2009), also enables me to uphold the Black empathic
approach:
114 Lifting the white veil of therapy

• I acknowledge diversity, using appropriate disclosure. For example, I may say:

‘I am aware that I am from a similar/different cultural/racial background to
you – what’s that like for you?’
• I begin the therapy with a multicultural approach. For example, I ask if a client
has made a conscious choice to work with me because I am an Asian therapist
and explore why they made this choice.
• If appropriate, I name racism and oppression. I tell clients about my awareness
of how discrimination and abuse has affected people of colour.
• I constantly monitor my responses and take these to supervision – for example,
are they avoiding the hurt of racism? Am I taking on the role of the rescuer?
What am I avoiding with the client?

Transference, countertransference and pre-transference

I actively work with transference, countertransference and pre-transference in my
clinical work. Although therapists are fairly familiar with the concepts of transference
and countertransference, the pre-transference can get overlooked. Curry (1964)
describes pre-transference as fantasies and values ascribed by white and Black
therapists towards other races. This can also be applied to therapists and clients
who hold certain stereotypes of people from different cultures.
When a white English client came to me for counselling for a bereavement,
she told me that her dog had also died, and that this had tipped her grief over the
edge. She went on to say that she knew that ‘my people’ did not think too highly
of animals and therefore would not understand what she was going through. In
subsequent sessions with this client, I was able to carefully challenge her pre-
transference and the stereotypes she held, using my intuition to know when and
how to introduce this into the therapy.
For a Black or brown therapist, sitting with a white English client can be a
powerful experience where different layers of process take place. It is important
to pay attention to the transferential relationship as well as the ‘real’ relationship.
Dhillon-Stevens (2011) distinguishes between them:

The black therapist needs to hold two processes simultaneously: to be

therapeutically available to the client and the client’s material, while being
aware of her own process and the reality of her experiences as a black
woman, which are reinforced and triggered by the client. This is a difficult
tension to hold in the real relationship. (p.107)

An example of this is when a white English client came to see me after being released
from prison. He explained that, when he started his sentence, he was regularly
assaulted by gangs of Black prisoners. The only way he could stay safe was to join
a gang of white British prisoners – after this, he was never attacked again. I was
aware that I felt afraid of this client, and I broached our racial difference soon after
 Neelam Zahid 115

the therapy started. After this, he did not return. It was difficult for me to hold my
fear while being attuned to what the client needed but my broaching the difference
between us at that point was too powerful for him. It probably made the client feel
attacked in the therapeutic relationship, just as he did in prison.
An illustration of my countertransference around race and difference was when
I first started my own private practice. As new clients contacted me, I went through
a process called recognition trauma. This is defined as ‘the awakening of hurtful
experiences related to racism’ (McKenzie-Mavinga, 2009). I could not understand
why clients from a white English background would come to see me for counselling.
When I explored this further in my own therapy and supervision, I realised that
I believed my ‘otherness’ made me inferior to white clients, and this belief was
influencing my interventions with clients. For example, I challenged white English
clients less than Black and brown clients. I had connected to my internal oppressor,
which Alleyne (2010) describes thus:

… the process of absorbing negative values and beliefs of the oppressor. This
process invariably leads to self-hate, low self-esteem, the disowning of one’s
group and other complex defensive behaviours and attitudes. (p.204)

This was a pivotal point in my journey as a transcultural therapist because I realised

that my experience of being the oppressed frequently silenced me in the therapy
room. It was only when I worked through this aspect of my countertransference
that I could work more congruently with all my clients.
When transference, countertransference and pre-transference are played out
in the room, it can be highly charged, but can be very useful for healing when
used therapeutically. Therefore, it is essential for therapists to have worked on
themselves enough so that they do not become entangled with themselves and thus
unable to practise effectively. Not only are these concepts a template for the client’s
past relationships; they are also ‘highly charged with racial and cultural history
dynamics’ (Akhtar, 2006).

Self-disclosure
Self-disclosure in therapy can be a contentious issue. However, by the very nature
of my skin colour, I self-disclose something about my ethnicity and cultural
background that I do not have the privilege to hide. If I am counselling a client in
their native Urdu or Punjabi, the dialect we use also discloses which part of Pakistan
we are from, and therefore I disclose something about my family background and
community. My ‘self ’ is no longer individual in the Western sense; I become part of
a collective society when I enter the therapy room. By default, then, the boundaries
of therapy become different, as does self-disclosure.
In my experience, first generation migrants tend to have a different
understanding of boundaries and the concept of self-disclosure than second and
third generation migrants. Often older first-generation Pakistani clients ask me
personal questions about where I live, where my parents live and what part of
116 Lifting the white veil of therapy

Pakistan my parents are from. How I reply is obviously of great import to them. I
tend to answer these questions briefly and then explore with my clients why they
have asked them. One client told me that my answers to these questions helped
her to understand me. I regard these questions as the client’s way of gaining trust,
strengthening the therapeutic alliance and understanding me in context of our
wider community.
Another aspect of self-disclosure that I have found helpful for Black, brown,
and other ethnic minority clients is my own connection to my cultural identity.
When exploring a Polish client’s cultural background and identity, she explained
that she saw me as ‘English’, just as she saw herself. As we discussed this, I disclosed
that I identified with being British Asian and not English. This opened up a
discussion about how and why she had rejected her own culture and ethnicity.
My client was dissociated from certain parts of herself, and my acceptance of my
cultural and ethnicity helped her to integrate these different parts of herself and
work through her many traumas.
My intuition tells me whether I am using self-disclosure therapeutically or
getting caught up in acting out my countertransference of being compliant. At my
core, when I feel attuned to the client, self-disclosure becomes a tool to deepen the
connection between the client and me so that healing can take place.

Moving forward with transcultural training

Perry (2016) describes the default human as white, middle-class and heterosexual:
‘the reference point from which all other values and cultures are judged’. Bakkar
(2019) says: ‘He [the default man] and what he represents is the backdrop against
which all other identities exist.’ The default therapist is a white, middle-class,
middle-aged woman and has similarly become the reference point for all therapy
practices, resulting in the ‘othering’ of Black and brown therapists
We should not underestimate how biased and racist our education system in
the West is. Every child should be taught about slavery, colonialism, discrimination
and unconscious bias in mainstream education. The education system needs to be
reformed, as does counselling training. Bolted-on diversity trainings alone are not
sufficient if we truly believe in a multicultural Britain; we need a much greater shift
if we are truly committed to creating change.
I believe it is the responsibility of all therapists, regardless of racial or cultural
background, to adopt a Black empathic approach and use anti-oppressive practice.
To this end, all qualified therapists should be knowledgeable and regularly assess and
update that knowledge in the following areas:

• awareness of our own culture, assumptions, prejudices and stereotypes

• the significance of the pre-transference
• diverse cultures and their histories
• how race and racism has impacted counselling and psychotherapy
• the history of slavery, colonialism and oppression
 Neelam Zahid 117

• the impact of oppression and race on the unconscious process

• the dynamics of cultural, racial and ethnic difference in the therapeutic
relationship.

Every qualified counsellor and trainee should regularly review their own practice
against a multicultural framework.
Transcultural training and working with difference should be an integral
part of training courses and ongoing CPD for all counselling and psychotherapy
professionals and should be provided by internal and external specialists. It is naïve
to assume that institutional racism will not penetrate training organisations and
influence in-house provision. Asking staff members who are part of the institution
to deliver diversity training is like putting a fox in charge of a hen house; the danger
is that uncomfortable feelings such as powerlessness, cultural shame, internalised
oppression, racism and identity formation will get missed, quashed or avoided. We
must remember Alleyne’s warning (2010, p.188) against a ‘culture of compliancy’
within our institutions.
If we are all committed to lifting the white veil of therapy, then white therapists
must be open to challenge and to feeling uncomfortable and vulnerable. The shadow
side of therapy and therapy training needs to be exposed so that white is seen as a
colour too.

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(Ed.), The handbook of transcultural counselling and psychotherapy. McGraw-Hill/ Open University
Press.
Moursund, J.P. & Erskine, R. (2004). Integrative psychotherapy: The art and science of relationship.
Thomson Brooks/Cole.
Perry, G. (2016). The descent of man. Penguin.
 Vedia Maharaj 119

11 The legacy of colonial history and the

ongoing challenge to therapist training
and practice
Vedia Maharaj

The future, silent, behind them.

(Merrie Joy Williams, 2019, cited in Linton & Walcott, 2018)

Today’s world map is shaped by the consequences of colonialism, in which borders

were marked out with little or no regard for local contexts and realities. With
their own aspirations, colonisers misconstrued the cultural, social, economic and
political conditions under which the colonised led their lives. They imposed new
identities that were neither appropriate for nor in line with existing communities.
This debilitated self-esteem, self-agency and community and national development.
The global borders of colonialism symbolise the markings of historical pain and
oppression.

Indenture and colonial tales

Bahadur (2013) records how the ending of slavery resulted in a different kind of
slave: the ‘indentured’ worker, still widely found today.

… after the enslaved were emancipated in the 1830s, Britain began to rustle
up replacement workers for plantations worldwide… Ultimately, over the
course of eight decades, they ferried more than a million ‘coolies’ to more
than a dozen colonies across the globe, including British Guiana, Trinidad,
Jamaica, Suriname, Mauritius and Fiji. These were the first group of Indians
abroad in any significant numbers. (p.xx)

Indians were recruited under the system of indenture. This was a system of bonded
labour for a fixed period of time, commonly five years, with the option to renew the
bond or return to India with free passage. The ‘bonded’ aspect meant Indians were
legally contracted to the ownership of their employer for the period of the bond.
120 The legacy of colonial history and the ongoing challenge to therapist training and practice

Some entered this system by choice, based on what they believed they were being
offered, and some entered by enticement and force. The purpose of indenture was
to maintain the production of Britain’s economic wealth across its colonies.

A British official in Guyana summarized the status of indentured labourers

as follows: ‘Practically an immigrant is in the hands of the employer to
whom he is bound. He cannot leave him; he cannot live without work; he
can only get such work and on such terms as the employer chooses to set
him; and all these necessities were enforced, not only by the inevitable
influence of his isolated and dependent position, but by the terrors of
imprisonment. (Carter & Torabully, 2002, p.51)

Researching our paternal lineage in Trinidad, my cousin, Suresh, tells me what he

knows of our forefathers’ experience:

The journey was gruelling. They thought they were coming to a land of
paradise, but were whipped and things. Really, we came as slaves toiling the
fields, humiliated and tormented in all forms and fashions. Whether you
want to call we slaves or labourers or under servitude, we was slaves.

My maternal aunt, Indira, talks of how her great grandfather’s indenture contract
was cut short.

They return him early. He was a rebel protesting pay and how they did treat
we. The owners didn’t want rebel.

Indira spoke with pride that her great grandfather was a rebel. He had a son, whose
name was Arjun Singh, whom he left in Trinidad. Arjun Singh married twice.
Indira relates:

He had nine children from both marriages. Them born after indenture
finish. Arjun Singh purchase a plot of land. It eh fit for growth but this eh
matter. It was a chance for the future.

It is an interesting colonial economic move of power that Indians could only

purchase unfit land.

The Indian in the colonies was quietly buying himself out of contract
and establishing himself on marginal lands in his new guise of gardener
and small planter… All of the abandoned lands, whether they are in arid
districts or in regions generally believed unsuitable for cane cultivation, are,
today in the hands of Indians. (Carter & Torabully, (2002, p.56)

Yet another maternal aunt denies that we were indentured: ‘Them things didn’t
happen to we. We not indentured. We paid we passage.’ The force of her denial is a
 Vedia Maharaj 121

measure of the shame and pain it expresses.

… I became interested in the notion of the mother wound, which is the

generational trauma carried by women and passed down to their daughters
and granddaughters in patriarchal society. (Djeli, 2018, p.8)

Under the brutality and trauma of imperial conditions and rule, Djeli’s words speak
for my aunt. For her, it is unspeakable, but it is there. Both men and women were
maltreated under the indenture system. Slavery did not end. It simply changed its
political and policy format. Indenture supposedly ended in 1917. However, the
change of law and culture did not change racialised concepts or the mind-set of
white supremacy.

Movement of people
The British economy, short of labour, needed these willing hands. The doors
were open. (Fryer, 2018, p.378)

After the Second World War, the UK was short of labour and invited British subjects
in its Caribbean colonies to come to these shores and work in its public services.
These British subjects were the previously enslaved and indentured.
The British Nationality Act 1948 gave the people in its colonies the same
nationality rights of those born and living in the UK. This Act fitted the political
and economic climate of Britain at that time. Britain needed workers. This was a
contentious action for Britain’s white population. It was also a topic of political
debate, with the Conservative party actively against it, on grounds that it would
lead to mass migration into the UK.
Commenting on how West Indians landing in the UK were perceived by
Britain’s white population, Fryer writes:

They saw them as uncivilized, backward people, inherently inferior to

Europeans, living in primitive mud huts ‘in the bush’, wearing few clothes,
eating strange foods, and suffering from unpleasant diseases. They saw them
as ignorant and illiterate, speaking strange languages and lacking proper
education. (Fryer, 2018, p.380)

Here we get a view of how the majority of the population viewed non-white British
subjects. It is inaccurate to state that all white people held the same views. Some
had been administrators and settlers in the colonies, conducting themselves within
the parameters of imperial power and now returning at the same time as those who
had been colonised. Some had not left the UK and held varying levels of interest in
and information about the activities of the Empire overseas. In the British national
context, whiteness was a relatively understated identification, not needing to be
explicit when nearly everyone looked the same (Schwarz, 2011, p.11). Therefore,
concepts of ‘the motherland’ and white supremacy are drawn from a number of
122 The legacy of colonial history and the ongoing challenge to therapist training and practice

differing positions, while being navigated through politics and structural systems
grounded in whiteness and historical experience of vast colonial power.
Fourteen years later came The Commonwealth Immigrants Act 1962, which
restricted migration from colonised territories in Africa, the Caribbean and Asia – a
political move favouring whiteness and a white Britain.
The important point to note is that people of colour have historically been
pawns in political and economic structures, without regard for their socio-economic
or psychological welfare. They have throughout been considered when service has
been needed, be that through slavery, indenture or as employees building modern
Britain. The lens of the coloniser has simply shifted its angle and shifted it again
and again, maintaining structural whiteness in the centre of its focus.

Common motherland encounters

My father, an Indian Trinidadian, arrived in the UK in 1964. Born and raised in
the Empire, he was legally a British subject of the United Kingdom and Colonies.
In Trinidad, he had worked in a solicitor’s office as a legal clerk. He intended to
complete a degree in law there. He instead decided to come to the UK as my mother,
then his girlfriend, had applied for and got a position to train as a nurse in Preston,
Lancashire. On arrival, with his three A-levels and legal clerk experience, he applied
for clerical officer posts. These required just two A-levels. In interviews he would be
asked, ‘Why don’t you go back and work in your own country?’ and told to ‘apply for
the clerical assistant post’, even though he was over-qualified for that. This he spoke of
with a tone of wounded anger. He talked of how hard it was to find accommodation
as both an Indian and a Caribbean, and more so after I was born. Property owners
placed signs in their windows: ‘No Blacks, no children’, ‘No Coloureds, keep our
community white’. This, coupled with practices such as child minders not wanting to
touch the nappies of ‘coloured’ children, resulted in me being returned to Trinidad,
at the age of two, to live with my maternal grandmother. This type of experience is,
unfortunately, common for children of Caribbean parents.

Colonial past present

Moving our focus from the end of post-colonial rule to the present day, we see the
systemic inequality resulting in race riots and protests, such as the Notting Hill riots
in 1958, the Bristol bus boycott in 1963, the Grunwick workers’ protest in 1976/78,
the birth of the Southall Youth Movement in 1976, the Brixton riots in 1981, and
more. In today’s Britain, there is a call-out for the decolonising of structures that
continue within the heart of British institutions and political systems. To have
decolonised from the majority of its colonies does not mean white Britain has
magically and automatically decolonised its institutional structures. This has not
been the central focus. Attention has instead focused on multiculturalism, equality
of opportunity, integration, assimilation, inclusion and the like. However, equal
access and opportunity is not possible when our institutional structures obstruct
equality.
 Vedia Maharaj 123

… the state tried to assimilate the ‘immigrants’. The policies in this phase
were explicitly racist, involving ‘diluting’ the population of South Asian
(and African-Caribbean) people and assimilating them into British ways by
erasing their culture and language. (Wilson, 2006, p.74)

The policies Wilson refers to are of Thatcherite times, 1979 to 1990, tackling
multiculturalism. Essentially they are concerned with social conditioning and
control by assimilation to British ways. Again, a colonial way forward. This was
a form of the past in the present with whiteness leading the way. It’s a different
presentation with comparable ambition.
In the present, as regards natural predisposition and racial bias, our current
prime minister Boris Johnson has referred to Muslim women who wear burqas as
resembling ‘letterboxes’ and ‘bank robbers’. He has famously referred to Black people
as ‘piccaninnies’, and as having ‘watermelon smiles’. He has refused to comment on
his views regarding the intelligence of Black people and eugenics following a string
of comments made by his No. 10 adviser Andrew Sabisky (Buchan, 2020). It is
a challenge to believe that his political decisions will work toward declaring and
decolonising the country’s imperial structures. It is equally irrational to assert that
equal access and opportunity justly exist and are structurally open and accessible.
Today’s border controls, detention centres, rise in hate and race crime, profiling
of Muslims as terrorists, police arrests, prison and mental health incarceration
of Black and Asian men and women, blaming and shaming of immigrants and
refugees, lack of equal pay and the need for ethnic-blind recruitment, the call-out
across the media industry for minority TV and film roles and awards and so on
are all caused by maintaining racist structural and political systems of oppression.
The Mental Health Foundation (n.d.), reviewing findings related to Black,
Asian and minority ethnic communities, reports:

BAME communities… are more likely to experience poverty, have poorer

educational outcomes, higher unemployment, and contact with the criminal
justice system, and may face challenges accessing or receiving appropriate
professional services.

Its website cites statistics from a range of sources:

• Among 16- to 24-year-olds, unemployment rates are highest for people from
a Black background (26%) and from a Pakistani or Bangladeshi background
(23%) in comparison with their White counterparts (11%)…
• Even when employed, men and women from some ethnic groups are paid
less on average than those from other groups with similar qualifications and
experience…
• Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities consistently have high rates of
poverty, as do Black, Chinese and Other ethnic communities…
124 The legacy of colonial history and the ongoing challenge to therapist training and practice

• Homelessness is a key issue among minority ethnic groups, with 37% of

statutory homeless households from a BME background in 2013.

This snippet of statistics demonstrates structural racial inequality and oppression,

evidencing post-colonial imperialist structures in present-day Britain. These types
of statistics are often turned on their head and used against these groups to blame
them rather than raising challenging questions about Britain’s political systems.

Internalising oppression
Racial oppression is learned from structural inequality and neglect. Its messages
are internalised, becoming a part of who we are. These experiences are not only
found in large-scale statistical surveys and socio-political and economic policies.
They occur in everyday experiences. For example, when a person with an
Indian accent is told they should learn to speak English properly, we effectively
invalidate them, implying they have failed and are less than. Contrast this with
telling a French person their accent is attractive, with the effect being that they
feel desirable and valued. For both the Indian and the French person, on grounds
of their accent alone, power or oppression is imposed and internalised. For both
there are bodily felt experiences, conditions of worth and a shift away from their
organismic self.
Acts of Parliament and behavioural acts that allow one person to be racist,
so oppressing another, sit inside structural Britain. Such structures, for example,
invite one child to believe they are more likeable than another child. The structures
themselves bind people into roles they did not necessarily choose and then, before
comprehension emerges, they’ve unconsciously internalised racial bias and used
that as racial banter. Such processes create great anxiety among people of colour.
Some experience a desire to not be like their peer and social group; they try to
somehow hide their own colour while being it, or they victimise their own culture
while breathing it, effectively internalising learned structural bias and oppression.
This results in being one’s own oppressor; we are left with both the external and
internalised battles of racism.
I cannot be personally present without being Indo-Caribbean, Trinidadian,
British Asian and ancestrally indentured from colonial India. These aspects of
myself sit within me as comfortable but complex layers. Such origins lead people
of colour to engage in ancestor enquiry that facilitates insights into both the
internal and external journeys of immediate elders and beyond. These enquiries
bring home past suffering and hardship that preceded any form of contextual and
perceived benefit. They also bring to light present day connections of suffering
through microaggressions and intergenerational trauma.
I have observed the psychological strength, shame and pride held within
the bodies of elder family members as I listened to tales of indenture, colonised
Trinidad and early life in Britain. I have reflected on the collective unconscious of
colonisers and the colonised. Notably from discussions, my core being and beliefs
have been both nourished and haunted. I have looked inwardly to understand
 Vedia Maharaj 125

the ways in which my mother embodies the oppression of her mother and I the
oppressions of my mother, both born under colonial rule. I have questioned the
layers of my cultural inheritance within and outside family contexts. Like many,
I have battled with the term ‘British Asian’, as it erases histories. It leaves people
of Asia, the indentured and white people, with no sense of the magnitude of our
collective and divided shared histories. No sense of inflicted wounds or shared
wounds. No sense that the stories we are told hold an infinite number of hidden
stories, across centuries. No capacity to be acquainted with the roots of current
structural and collective racial oppressions that continue to cause trauma. No
context to comprehend that wounds to sections of society are wounds to all society.
For example, where people of colour internalise the impact of racism, white people
internalise denial, shame and guilt – guilt in many guises, such as internalised
racial bias, historical power and greed, existing post-colonial benefit and more.

The profession
In teaching and learning of academic psychology, there is generally the
assumption that this body of knowledge is culture-free and has universal
applicability. It is also assumed in teaching and learning of clinical
applications of psychological theory that these are sufficient to address
people’s problems, irrespective of their culture. (Patel et al., 2000, p.36)

A thought for contemplation is that psychotherapy academics explored and

defined their theoretical concepts during colonial rule – Freud, Jung, Rogers,
Bowlby… It is tricky to believe that they were not prejudiced by global politics
and constructs. This raises the question of how this is addressed in contemporary
counselling and psychotherapy training. Our profession’s grand theorists inevitably
reflected their whiteness and therefore speak to whiteness. It is not surprising
that British and European theorists would exclude concepts from the traditions
and science of Europe’s and the Empire’s natives, slaves and indentured people.
This sits contentedly within structural racist contexts. Subsequently, this requires
minority therapists to fit in or take a risk by raising difference. Such risks inevitably
evoke a range of responses from white students characterised as manifestations
of ‘white fragility, denial and guilt’ (DiAngelo, 2016.) Such training discussions,
often poorly directed by tutors, frequently hinder open dialogue. To fit in means
allowing oneself to be owned by the structural status quo. It requires not only white
complicity but also Black complicity and silence.
Why is ‘Black and minority ethnic’ seen as the problem when raised? What if
the problem was seen as whiteness and its denial of racism? What if that is what is
explored and not race as difference? What if the counselling profession viewed it
that way? What if white people reflected on their racial difference?
If, as a profession, we ignore racism and its psychological, physical and
emotional impact throughout history, can we begin to see, feel and experience
its place in modern psychological thought and conditions? Is there a way to
126 The legacy of colonial history and the ongoing challenge to therapist training and practice

seriously consider the blind spots of the profession, rather than turning a blind
eye? Is there a way to examine training course structures, enhance tutor ability,
and avoid systematically churning out counsellors who are ill-equipped to work
in contemporary society? How would it be if training acknowledges both white
fragility and white complicity, recognising that, due to fragility, complicity takes
place not just out there but on training courses and in therapy rooms?
Change can only be implemented when whiteness stops looking to Blackness
for the answers or for diversity training but instead looks inwardly so that, when
faced with students of colour who commonly want to explore their difference, they
are not frozen and halted by ‘Are you calling me racist?’ and other white fragility
and complicity reactions.
There is a lot of shame and pride in disowning one’s racism. As therapists,
our fear and shame around how to explore race and racist thought, language and
behaviour without moral judgement stand in the way, unowned and unexplored.
White people are able to repress, disavow or escape their racist thoughts, language
and behaviours, but then it is internalised as guilt and shame, resulting in blame
and wounding. Without looking inwardly and without addressing their own
internalised colonial wounds and current fragility, white people will always blame
people of colour for their responses and reactions, with no accountability.
The larger question is how can we as therapists engage with free thinking and
language when training curricula and larger political structures and historical
systems are shutting us down? Can white people allow themselves to be racially
oppressed, silenced or attacked so that this can be explored productively? How do
we understand our institutional spaces both within and in the external? How are
colonialism and capitalism enacted daily, and embodied and organised within us?
Perhaps our collective psyche has invested so much in systems and structures
that to question, change or challenge would be experienced as an immense loss. It
is rather like losing the word ‘United’ from the United Kingdom, even though we
are not united, or like saying ‘We want our country back’ as if we have lost it, when
it is here, still, needing us to deal with the impact of the past in the present.

References
Bahadur, G. (2013). Coolie woman: The odyssey of indenture. C. Hurst & Co.
Buchan, L. (2020, February 17). Andrew Sabisky: Controversial Boris Johnson aide who suggested
black people were mentally inferior resigns. The Independent. www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/
politics/andrew-sabisky-resigns-boris-johnson-tory-aide-government-a9341151.html
Carter, M. & Torabully, K. (2002). Coolitude: An anthology of the Indian labour diaspora. Wimbledon
Publishing Company.
 Vedia Maharaj 127

DiAngelo, R. (2016). What does it mean to be white? Developing white racial literacy. Peter Lang
Publishing.
Djeli G. (2018). Mother wounds. In D. Dabydeen, M. del Pilar Kaladeen & T.K. Ramnarine, We
mark your memory: Writings from the descendants of indenture (pp.8–24). School of Advanced
Study, University of London/Commonwealth Foundation.
Fryer, P. (2018). Staying power: The history of black people in Britain. Pluto Press.
Linton, S. & Walcott, R. (Eds.). (2018). The colour of madness: Exploring black, Asian and minority
ethnic mental health in the UK. Skiddaw.
Mental Health Foundation (n.d.). Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities (BAME). www.
mentalhealth.org.uk/a-to-z/b/black-asian-and-minority-ethnic-bame-communities
Patel, N., Bennett, E., Dennis, M., Dosanjh, N., Mahtani, A., Miller, A., Nadirshaw, Z. (Eds.). (2000).
Clinical psychology, ‘race’ and culture: A training manual. BPS Books.
Schwarz, B. (2011). Memories of empire, volume I: The white man’s world. Oxford Scholarship Online.
Williams, M.J. (2019). Disorderly thoughts. In M.J. Williams, Open windows. Waterloo Press.
Wilson, A. (2006). Dreams, questions, struggles: South Asian women in Britain. Pluto Press.
128 Towards the re-emergence of meaning

12 Towards the re-emergence of meaning:

Existential contributions to working with
refugee clients
Benjamin Mark Butler

Culturally, the trauma tag affirms suffering.

(Pupavac, 2008, p.272)

Long before I began working therapeutically with this demographic of clients – a

time in which I could scarcely entertain the consequences of being unwittingly
displaced from one’s birthland, family, culture and support structures – I always
associated refugees with violence and trauma. Deeply entrenched into the very
roots of my younger psyche there existed laden scenes of bombings and of bullets;
of bones and of blood; of cruelty and of cadavers; of fighting and of fleeing; of
dystopian cities, jungles or deserts in which helpless, feeble and frightened ‘others’
were subject to absolutism, suffering, exile, exodus or death. Overall, these anarchic
mental images represented a space in which life for refugees could not be, or
rather, would not be, survivable, least of all retain the potentiality for a meaningful
existence.
Although this may reflect some real dimensions of life for those besieged by
persecution, conflict or war, qualitatively there is so much more to their stories.
In retrospect, perhaps the in-roads to these associations were informed by the
context in which I was (and remain) framed. Growing up in a ‘visual culture’ (Wright,
2002, p.53), for instance, may indeed have contributed to these constructions. To
corroborate this assertion, a growing body of literature demonstrates that media
portrayals of Western societal attitudes towards refugees has generally oscillated
between dehumanisation and victimisation (Chouliaraki & Zaborowski, 2017;
Esses, et al., 2013; Ghazal, 2019; Haslam et al., 2008; Lodge, 1996; Smets et al.,
2017). As one such (in)famous example, Donald Trump Jr., son of the former
US president, once compared people displaced from Syria to poisonous sweets,
tweeting: ‘If I had a bowl of skittles and I told you just three would kill you, would
you take a handful? That’s our Syrian refugee problem’ (Malkin, 2016).
 Benjamin Mark Butler 129

It is beyond the purpose and scope of this chapter to challenge such projected
social-political attitudes and labels. Yet, their consequences frequently create a
misrepresentation of the totality of a refugee’s inner resources and capabilities,
neglecting how resilient, adaptable, tenacious, courageous and motivated they are
to establish or re-establish meaning in their lives, despite the uncertainty and chaos
they may have faced.
What follows in this chapter, therefore, are several radical propositions to
practitioners of counselling and psychotherapy when working with refugee clients.
In no order of importance, these are:

• that therapists might, understandably, limit the focus of their therapeutic

interventions to the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
before exploring how refugees experience their existence or how they generate
meaning in their lives.
• that existential meaning is a fundamental motivational system, and all human
beings have an innate proclivity to manifest this drive in the world. The
unfavourable social-political challenges that refugees frequently face therefore
present major obstacles to living in accordance with these inherent purposes.
• that existential-phenomenological approaches may help therapists better
understand how clients experience their world and what is of importance in
their lives.
• that psychological therapists must remain mindful to not add to the trauma
narrative by reducing refugees to clustered sets of symptoms when they
formulate their presenting problems.
• that, in sum, existential meaning is considered a pivotal part in helping
refugees establish a deeper sense of self, wellbeing and belonging following
forced migration.

To contextualise these perspectives, they will be explored through two fictionalised

case examples: Kristofer and Donkor. Although these are not real people, the
themes, experiences and therapeutic vignettes are nevertheless based on actual
counselling sessions.

Existential meaning in counselling and psychotherapy

But I know that on that day, in that hour, my new life started. Step for step I
progressed, until I again became a human being. (Frankl, 1959/2004, p.97)

In the closing remarks of his outstanding work Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor
Frankl (1959/2004) set the stage on which meaning-orientated therapy (logotherapy)
was to be born. For Frankl, human beings were meaning-seeking creatures,
compasses tilted towards finding meaning in their existence and towards doing
what was needed to attain a purposeful future, despite the inherent trials of life or
130 Towards the re-emergence of meaning

tragedies of their situation. Frankl, who bravely survived the torturous conditions
of the German Nazi concentration camps, arrived at the ultimate conclusion that
‘meaning is possible, even in spite of [human] suffering’ (1959/2004, p.117).
Other existentially inclined philosophers and theorist-practitioners share this
view, taking the stance that existence itself is the attempt to construct meaning;
that meaning-making is woven into the very fabric of one’s being. From this
ontological standpoint, meaning is not considered a by-product of behaviour, or
a consequence of other biological determinants that influence decision-making
processes. Rather, meaning is regarded as a fundamental motivational system
that guides behaviour, facilitates choice and orientates human beings in the world
(Cooper, 2015; Frankl, 1959/2004; Maslow, 1966; Spinelli, 2007; van Deurzen,
2002). If the drive to meaning therefore helps human beings navigate their way
through daily life, when existence is shrouded in doubt or uncertainty and the
individual is treated with indifference or apathy, some form of suffering is often
generated. Seen through existential lenses, this has empirically been viewed as
preoccupations with large and metaphysical questions with no predetermined
answers (Yalom, 1980); anxiety and depression (van Deurzen, 2012); risk-seeking
or self-destructive behaviours (Frankl, 2010), and, in extreme cases, thoughts
about suicide (Camus, 1942/2018). If, as Griffin and Tyrrell (2003) write,
‘movement and meaning are inextricably linked’ (p.5), enabling clients to remove
the obstacles that prevent them discovering more purposeful ways of living may
indeed be a psychotherapeutic endeavour.
Recent outcome reports on the existential therapies clearly demonstrate
their effectiveness in helping clients substitute feelings of personal emptiness with
fulfilment (Raynar & Vitali, 2014; Vos et al., 2015). Not only does this confirm
that existential therapy’s often-perceived esoteric body of theoretical works can
be translated into practice (Keshen, 2006); it may also suggest that meaning-
making is a ubiquitous human drive; a fundamental tenet of primary concern to
the individual. However, as existentialism is deeply rooted in indigenous European
philosophical thought, can it be said that these ontological assumptions cross over
to a shared cross-cultural understanding? That is to say, is the drive to meaning
hardwired into us all; is the direction of all human existence universally focused
on carving out meaning? Or, as aptly asked by Hoffman and colleagues (2009), are
we in danger of merely ascribing these Western existential ideas to a non-Western
context?
I share the views put forward by Vontress (1979) and Moodley and Walcott
(2010), who explain that the above questions transcend all national, ethnic
and cultural boundaries. These researchers argue that concerns of existential
meaninglessness are inevitably encountered by all people, and Basma and Gibbons
(2016) further suggest that questions of uncertainty, freedom and purpose are
endemic to the refugee population, as they are ‘thrown into crisis and attempt
to grapple with these anxieties on a daily basis’ (p.160). Based on my therapeutic
experiences with clients forced to migrate from their homes, coupled with the
complex losses, fears, terrors and social-cultural adjustments they encountered
 Benjamin Mark Butler 131

along the way (Cilia La Corte & Jalonen, 2018), it seems tenable to suggest that
these disassembling, even tyrannical events throw refugees towards stark questions
of meaning and existence itself.

Exploring existential meaning

You have to leave the island in order to see the island.

(Saramango, 1999, p.13)

Thus, as my cultural presupposition is that existential meaning is a human given and

prerequisite for healthier wellbeing, I have found phenomenological-existential
practices useful in establishing an interpersonally orientated context for the
therapeutic relationship. This both allows for all of the client’s subjective feelings,
fears, aspirations, values and deepest concerns to be accepted and explored, free
from cultural expectations (Kinzie, 1978), and can help create an egalitarian, safe
and trusting therapeutic relationship (Owen, 1994). Cooper (2003) proposes
that phenomenological-existential dimensions of therapeutic practices exist on
a spectrum. At one end, the attempt is to remain closely focused on a clients’
lived experiences; at the other, there is an understanding that clients are grappling
with life’s meaning, paradoxes or other concerns inherent in existence (see Figure
12.1).

Figure 12.1: The dimensions of phenomenological-existential therapeutic practice

Understanding ← → Explaining

Phenomenological Existential

Epoché (reduction) Paradoxes

Description Ultimate concerns
Verification Givens of existence

Before unbracketing these existential assumptions and exploring a client’s

relationship with meaning by inviting them into therapy, phenomenological
methods may help therapists enter a client’s lived world more accurately. These
include: the rules of epoché, working descriptively, and verification of what the
therapist senses and seeks to understand the client to be expressing (Cooper, 2003;
Spinelli, 2007). Epoché, as explained by Arnold-Baker and van Deurzen (2008),
is the therapist’s attempt to move beyond the objective-scientific approach by
bracketing or setting aside their own biases or presuppositions for how things are
perceived or theorised. It is by taking this stance, they argue, that therapists may
comprehend the primacy and depth of another’s phenomenologically lived world
‘as if it were new to you’ (p.58). During this period, the emphasis is therefore away
from any scientific or philosophical explanations and instead towards helping
clients express the thoughts, feelings, attitudes and beliefs that constitute their lived
experiences, free from judgement or expectation.
132 Towards the re-emergence of meaning

According to Spinelli (2007), this process can further be assisted by working

descriptively – namely, helping clients describe their immediate experiences as
they unfold within the therapeutic encounter, while verifying, or ‘checking back’
(Cooper, 2015, p.72) for the accuracy of their offered descriptions. Overall, these
methods and principles are believed to help therapists understand more deeply the
phenomenology of their client’s subjective lives, as well as how they generate their
sense of meaning.
Kristofer was born and raised in a minority faith-based religion within a majority
faith-based culture. As a young boy, he was devoted to his God, cherishing each
service that he attended where he could learn more about His teachings at the only
church of its kind in the neighbourhood. But, throughout childhood and adulthood,
Kristofer experienced great persecution by ethnic intolerance, as his rituals, routines,
name and skin colour were different to those of the other members of his larger
community. Consequently, he recalled often being treated like an ‘outsider’ and
experienced teasing and bullying for his beliefs and ‘different way of life.’ One day,
harassment escalated into violence, as Kristofer’s church was attacked, then set alight,
while he prayed there. He recounted that the perpetrators, their heads and faces
covered with cloth, told him to leave the country before the flames died out, unless
he was prepared to stay and withstand ‘the wrath of the rightful, one true God’.
Refugee clients frequently ask me what can be done to resolve their problems.
According to van der Veer (1998), this is not uncommon, as non-Western refugees
may be familiar with doctors or healers from their own culture suggesting ways
that problems should be treated or resolved. After three years of attempting to
claim asylum in the UK, Kristofer was now living in destitution, and asked me the
following questions in our second counselling session:

Kristofer: I don’t know what to do. What do you think is going to make me better?
Can you tell me what do I need to do to feel better? I need something to
happen to feel better.
Benjamin: So, it seems like you’re really uncertain of knowing what to do to feel
better, that you need something to take place to feel better. I’m really happy
to offer anything that I feel could be useful to you and could answer your
questions. But I think this asks another question of both of us that we may
need to face: if I say to you what I think may be important in helping make
things feel or be better for you, will this take away from what you feel or
consider to be important to make things better?
Kristofer: It’s very difficult to know, Benjamin. I’ve never asked myself what I need
to have to make things better.
Benjamin: Can you describe what your sense of not-knowing is, what it’s like to
experience not-knowing what can make things better or help you feel better?
Kristofer: Um… I look at other people, I come here to see you, I see people going
to the shops; they have children, homes, money to buy things; they have jobs
 Benjamin Mark Butler 133

and things to do. I have none of these things. I have no papers [leave to remain
documentation], which means I do not have these things.
Benjamin: So, you experience other people having things in their life: they have
children, homes, jobs and things to get on with. And it seems that you
experience yourself without these things, without the papers to have access
to these things.
Kristofer: Yes, I don’t have these things.
Benjamin: And what’s that like for you? What’s that like to experience others doing
things and having things?
Kristofer: I just have no purpose in life. The doors have been closed to my purpose
in life. This is not a meaningful life, this is what I think.
Benjamin: So, you’re thinking that you are standing behind closed doors to a life of
purpose, and behind these doors you are experiencing life as not meaningful.
Kristofer: Life is not meaningful when you are shut behind closed doors that have
been shut to you living a life with family and purpose. I have no legacy to pass
down to anyone. I can’t even pray to God. Can you tell me what I think I need?
Benjamin: Just to clarify how I think you are experiencing things: it’s more than
just not having things in your life now; it’s that it is not a meaningful life for
you when you feel shut behind closed doors, not able to pray to God or have a
legacy to pass down to others.
Kristofer: God and family are important to me, and I feel without them life is not
meaningful. What do you think?
Benjamin: Well, as I’m hearing you describe what’s important to you – that prayer,
God, family and having purposeful things in your life now and to pass on are
really important things without which life feels meaningless – this makes me
think about something. I agree with you that we all have certain needs, such
as needs for physical and practical safety, and the need to experience meaning
in our lives to make life feel worthwhile and purposeful.
Kristofer: I miss being able to pray.

This condensed demonstration of existential-phenomenological principles

illustrates how epoché (or bracketing), description and verification can help
inform the existential givens that are of greatest concern to the client and help
expand their worldview and meaning-making processes (Adams, 2013). In turn,
these principles may help the therapist learn how the client experiences their world
and what is of common or congruent existential importance in their lives. In the
context of my work with refugee clients, the application of these processes has
frequently led to deeper conversations around meaning and purpose, bringing the
existential dimension to my understanding of their concerns.
134 Towards the re-emergence of meaning

Arrested meaning and questions of self

At one point midway on our path in life, I came around and found myself
now searching through a dark wood, the right way blurred and lost.
(Dante, 1472/2013, p.3)

In the case of those awaiting the outcome of their asylum or who have had their
application rejected, the above quotation echoes a salient dimension of a refugee’s
experiences. Like Kristofer, many other refugee clients I have met have expressed
similar feelings: that their previous meaning structures have been destroyed by
forced migration, and their relationship with life here and now is experienced
as having been arrested. For instance, some clients have expressed experiencing
existence-as-between-two-worlds: living detained between painful memories of the
past and fears of an uncertain future, in a present that is devoid of both extrinsic
purpose and consequently intrinsic meaning.
Donkor was a politically active person who protested against his government
for their violations of human rights. He reflected that, when he was a young man,
God had ‘obligated me with intelligence, critical thinking and leadership skills’,
instilling in Donkor a ‘mission’ to stand against the bureaucratic regime. When
Donkor spearheaded an egalitarian campaign through magazines and social media
outlets, he was quickly captured by local government officials and sent to prison,
and there exposed to interrogation, beatings, neglect and torture for two months.
On his release, Donkor discovered that his home had been ambushed and his wife
and children subject to harassment, questioning and separation from each other.
He feared that he could no longer protect himself and his family from government
agents, so arranged for them all to be smuggled out of the country by a comrade to
his cause, hoping to find safety.
When he came to see me, three years after their flight, Donkor had been awaiting
the verdict of his asylum case for 13 months. In our third counselling session,
Donkor held out his hands as if he was binding something together, fingers tightly
interlocked, and trembling. When I asked if he could articulate what meaning he
attributed to this gesture, he described feeling trapped between his hands and that
his life for three years had been caged, surrounded by memories of loss and dread
of an unknown future. Standing between these two worlds, Donkor said that three
years of being held in this space was a significant amount of unlived life.
Cilia La Corte and Jalonen (2018) have eloquently described how this
phenomenon may be experienced during the asylum phase of hope and fear:

The asylum seeker remains in limbo… with the fear of being returned
to their home country, potentially to face persecution, as well as the
uncertainty of life in a new land. (p.29)

This vast reduction in experience, a holding space where the individual is deprived
of the freedom to further their existence, often raises deeper questions of
uncertainty about the self.
 Benjamin Mark Butler 135

Human beings require a range of external experiences for feedback in order

to reform, adapt, modify and solidify their unique place among others and stand
out in the world – a drive Becker describes as ‘the desire to stick out of nature with
a towering majesty’ (1973, p.26). The self ’s orientation towards meaning therefore
needs purposeful activities to create a comprehensible sense of who one is or wishes
to be or identify as. For any refugee person whose life and meaning structures
consequently are arrested, the only data that may be fed back to their sense of
identity is the label of ‘refugee’ itself – a label symbolising the self as inhuman
or victim. As van der Kolk (2014) argues, suffering people often suffer more and
are alienated from their inner sense of self when defined by labels, as they are
considered a ‘patient rather than a participant in [their] healing process’ (p.38).
In our next counselling session, I asked Kristofer what he associated with the
term ‘refugee’, to which he replied: ‘Weak and damaged, but everything that the
media tells you I am, I am not. But I have nothing apart from my name now, and
all I know is refugee. I am not sure what to believe anymore.’
What was happening to Kristofer seemed to me a descent into uncertainty,
which can often be understood from the psychological perspective as a dissociative
reaction to past traumas or current external stressors. In such circumstances, the
medical-model approach to refugee therapeutic care can often assign to these
clients the diagnosis of PTSD – a trauma identity signifying suffering beyond the
victimhood label. Yet, from an existential perspective, it can be legitimately argued
that confusion about one’s sense of self is a normal response to limitations around
freedom of choice in fundamental areas (employment, education, housing and
funding), as barriers between identifying meaningful activities and subsequently
engaging with them are indeed apparent. The existential-phenomenologically
orientated therapist is thus able to comprehend this dimension of a refugee’s
experience beyond psychologists, whose motivation is to devise a more technical
therapy based on psychological theories of the self (van Kaam, 1969). This is
because they are interested in suspending psychological theory and aim instead to
situate the therapeutic process within the personal life of the client. As the social-
cultural environment evidently contributed towards how Kristofer organised his
understanding of self, psychology must remain mindful not to add to the trauma
narrative by only assigning Kristofer, and his fellow refugees, to clustered sets of
symptoms in its formulations and treatment approaches.

Towards the re-emergence of meaning

Leave death nothing but a burned-out castle.

(Kazantzakis, 1952, p.87)

Some Western existentialists historically perceive that human beings need to assert
their own meaning in life when thrown into an existence not of their own choosing
or design (Sweep, 2016). However, using the aforementioned phenomenological
principles, I have often found that non-Western refugees regard religion as
136 Towards the re-emergence of meaning

fundamental to their belief systems and meaning structures, considering God to

be the creator of the world and their religion as providing their ethics and guide
to purpose in life and the activities worth pursuing. When life and its inherent
meaning become arrested, and in turn self-identity is called into question, the task
of the therapist may be to become more active in therapy, in order to consider the
ways in which a more enlarged sense of self and meaning may re-emerge.
Understanding Donkor’s circumstances of his forced displacement to find
safety allowed me to further appreciate how he felt robbed of intrinsic meaning in
his life. Specifically, he described that he could not participate in political events,
demonstrations or activities on behalf of other people’s rights. These activities were
so crucial to his existence that, in the fifth counselling session, he began expressing
their existential significance. For Donkor, actualising God’s purpose for him,
standing alongside his comrades, was meaningful and he wanted nothing more
than to prepare physically and mentally to continue in these causes:

Donkor: I wish I was strong enough to go back and fight for my people’s rights.
God gave me these attributes to serve and protect them, so it’s very important
for me to be ready again to do this, to stand by my brothers and go back to
this mission.
Benjamin: So, it sounds really important for you to use the skills and gifts God
gave you to support your brothers and people back home. But home is now
dangerous for you to return to under the current government structure?
Donkor: Yes, it isn’t safe for me there, but I just cannot do anything.
Benjamin: I’m actually thinking – well, wondering – what consequences you feel
there have been for you doing these important things?
Donkor: I have been shot at and sent to prison, and my mind is not strong like it
used to be. I feel like I’m constantly on waves where I feel ready to go then
suddenly come crashing down again. I’m always tired, as I can’t sleep, and my
body often is in pain.
Benjamin: I’m hearing how courageous you have been and how much resilience
you have got to endure these painful consequences. And you have given so
much of yourself to doing what is important and meaningful to you, even
one hundred times of yourself doing what is really significant in your life. I
just wonder if there are other ways that you can still apply your God-given
attributes and contribute without such sacrifices to your mind and body?

Arguably, a therapist’s place may not be to dismantle a client’s systems of meaning

and beliefs, but instead to respect any differences in these areas and harness those
of the client in order to help them re-emerge. Frankl (1959/2004), for example,
asserted that a therapist has ‘no objections to making use of the therapeutic effect of
his [client’s] religious convictions and thereby drawing upon his spiritual resources’
 Benjamin Mark Butler 137

(p.122). In the next sessions, Donkor reported that he had again begun writing
and having social discussions at his local church with peers, which he reported
was a reprieve from his sense of boredom and meaninglessness. Furthermore, he
also said that he was beginning to feel capable of doing something, as opposed
to reducing himself to the narrative, ‘I cannot do anything’. This small attitudinal
shift towards his circumstances suggested a radical shift in his sense of self; he was
recommencing to see himself as someone who was able to withstand hardship and
continue to contribute, despite his existence eclipsed by uncertainty.
Similarly, when Kristopher spoke of the importance of God and prayers in his
life, we looked together for a church community in his local area. He was thus once
more about to find a worthwhile activity that added meaning to his life that met his
needs for a sense of community and belonging too.

Conclusion
This chapter has proposed that existential-phenomenological approaches to working
with refugee clients can help the therapist develop a broader understanding of
important issues beyond victim and trauma narratives, and that the re-emergence
of meaning may be a contributing factor to safeguarding against uncertainty about
self-identity. Although trauma cannot be dismissed, existential meaning is here
considered to be a pivotal factor in helping refugees establish a deeper sense of self,
wellbeing and belonging. In conclusion, I would argue that healthcare professionals
should acknowledge the importance of the existential dimensions of meaning and
purpose when working with refugee clients.

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140 Who is transforming what?

13 Who is transforming what? Ideas and

reflections on training, practice and
supervision in radical mode
Carmen Joanne Ablack

An increasingly obvious known is the depth and complexity that arises when
exploring relational, power and authority dynamics in the therapy room, in therapy
and allied professional trainings and in supervision. Continuous reflective study is
necessary in order to be working towards recurrently developing good practice
and better emotional and psychological health. A question is begged in this: who is
responsible for transforming what, exactly?
In this chapter, using experience and learning from more than 30 years of
practice, supervising and teaching, I unearth my current ideas and reflections
on training, practice and supervision, in a radical mode. Supporting this digging
and examining with vignettes and with reference to some of the literature, I try to
answer, at least in part, this question. Any answers, like our work, are open-ended
and subject to development through experiencing, reflecting and renewing our
practice, be it as therapists, trainers, supervisors, researchers in the field or those
responsible for leadership of the professions. All non-autobiographical vignettes
are based deliberately on snippets of conversations and related examples and are
developed from my supervision and training experiences. None presented here
arise from work with a specific individual’s story.
We are all responsible for the ongoing transforming needed. Perhaps it is
in the form of depth of acceptance and coming to terms with doing something
about limitations in our thinking and practice; perhaps it is in creating
sounder structures that invite, embrace and support the challenging of insular
and unaware ‘sacred cows’. I suggest we are all responsible for ensuring both,
demanding nothing less from ourselves, each other and, vitally, from our various
institutions and practice settings. If not, the ‘serious (philosophic, practice, moral
and ethical) negligence’ referred to by Lago and Charura (2019), in their letter
of invitation to contributors to this book, not only remains but also becomes
increasingly and dangerously further embedded.
 Carmen Joanne Ablack 141

McKenzie-Mavinga (2016), citing a Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health review

from 2002, reminds us of an absence when it comes to ‘accounting for the historical
and sociocultural context of situations’ in relation to Black clients, service users
and others. My experience is that this is equally true in training, CPD, supervision,
conference and workshop situations for Black-identified professionals, trainees
and clients, and also for others who are seen as ‘not the majority’. (This ‘majority/
minority’ question comes up later in the autobiographical vignette.)
Equally, I think leaps of understanding are needed in order to appreciate the
‘multidimensional oppressions such as homophobia, sexism, ableism, and cultural
taboos’ in the ‘development of intersecting identities’ (McKenzie-Mavinga, 2016,
p.50). This integration of understanding allows a working through of the challenges
and obstacles of racism and, by implication, a working through the challenges of all
other oppressive dynamics and practices in relation to the multiplicity of identities
that apply in specific situations and contexts. The first vignette, Claudine’s story,
below is a start to the exploration offered in this chapter.

Claudine
Claudine had been seeing a white, straight, woman counsellor for a couple of years
after the break-up of her marriage. At age 40, Claudine felt that she needed to look
again at who she was and how she would approach the rest of her life. Claudine had
good established friendships in her community. A tall, dark-skinned, Black British
woman, she had questioned her sexuality and come to realise she was not sure
about it, or even about her gender identity. When she found the courage to disclose
these thoughts for the first time, her counsellor responded, ‘I’ve never heard of a
Black woman your age doing this.’ She paused and then added, ‘How do you think
your community will react?’
Claudine more or less shut down at this point, said she didn’t really know
and then said she needed to leave early and would see her counsellor next week.
Claudine got up and left the session and did not go back.
This example helps us to explore several things that are vital in good therapeutic
work:

• to appreciate and acknowledge how complex one communication from a

client can be
• to recognise and develop the ability to not use generalisations in our work
• to recognise and practise the ability to not ask questions but rather encourage
exploration, especially when faced with an area that we are uncomfortable and
/or unfamiliar with
• to develop the capacity to simply state when we are in territory that is new for
us and to be transparent about this, with and in the interest of the client.

In terms of good practice, Claudine’s disclosure required a sensitive and nuanced

response from the counsellor; one that stayed with the client’s experience in the
142 Who is transforming what?

moment of telling her counsellor something new about herself. The first words in
response to Claudine were what the counsellor had heard of, or not heard of – this
is a common reactive mistake by practitioners, as well as trainee therapists, when
faced with something out of their experience: to speak from their experience or
from their lack of experience. In making the focus their own experience or their
limitation of experience, they are not staying with the moment for the client,
even when they ‘know’ to do otherwise. Practitioners can, through good reflective
practice and supervision, come to realise how often what we ‘know’ and what we
‘do’ are not the same.
I am aware of what is taught about staying with the client’s experience across
different modality approaches. However, the vignette is an accurate reflection
of what can often come into my practice room from the work of trainees and
supervisees, where reactive responses, sometimes masked in the language of
therapy or the therapist’s position, are substituted for actual being with what is
happening in the room, in the moment.
We can speculate that the counsellor had become comfortable with seeing
Claudine, maybe thinking she already knew the client’s issues after a couple of
years of working with her. The disclosure may have been a surprise or may have
been something she had, somehow, out of awareness, not welcomed in the room.
When the counsellor says ‘… a Black woman, your age, doing this…’, this is both
a generalisation about Black women and also a change of focus from the client’s
‘personal experience’ of questioning herself to a blander comment to the client
about ‘Black women her age’. The client becomes much less visible in this exchange.
From a supervision viewpoint, some key words for me in starting to explore
what happened and what can be learned would be ‘I’ve never heard of…’ By
encouraging the supervisee to notice they started with what they have heard/not
heard of, it can allow them to recognise, take ownership of and make meaning
out of their ‘delegitimising’ of the client’s experiencing of herself. It also draws
attention to where the therapist puts their focus. This can often become an
unconscious and unexplored power and authority issue between the therapist
and their client.
In choosing ‘I’ve never heard of…’ as my invitation to the therapist to explore
in supervision with me, I am attempting to model staying with the supervisee’s
actions, thought processes and behaviours. I am not giving a reactive response that
brings the attention to me.
Some questions and thoughts I might offer as part of the reflecting on the
processes at play are:

• What does the therapist get from doing this, in this way?

• What is deflected or avoided in the response and the quickness of the response?

• How does the therapist understand their reaction? Not in the context of their
own story – although this may have relevance; rather, in the context of how
this has impacted the therapeutic space between therapist and client.
 Carmen Joanne Ablack 143

• What is the nature of the power dynamics underlying how the counsellor
‘holds’ the therapy space?

Reflection on the therapist’s understanding in relation to their own story might

also be called for. However the key point here is the client’s experience with the
therapist as the exchange happens and the consequent impact on their relationship.
What the above leads me to is a question I believe is vital for us all as
practitioners: Are we willing to deconstruct ourselves and thus make the possibility of
ongoing repeated reconstruction a way of working in future?
In the vignette, ‘I’ve never heard of…’ becomes an out-of-awareness benchmark
of ‘normality’ in the exchange, implying somehow that what the client says is less
valid simply because the counsellor (psychotherapist, psychologist, psychiatrist,
trainer, service manager, trustee) has ‘not heard of it’.
There is an important reality to add here that is perhaps more difficult to
face: the experience of people from ‘different’ groups of being made less visible
also occurs for the ‘different’ therapist, supervisor, manager and trustee. It happens
when the client, supervisee, trainee, staff member, other trustees and so forth seem
unaware of acting and speaking from their place of privilege. Earlier, I stated,
‘This can often become an unconscious and unexplored power and authority issue
between the therapist and their client.’ I have had British-born and/or British-
raised supervisees tell me of incidents where a client (usually white and educated)
‘corrected’ their pronunciation of a word or offered a ‘class’-based test, such as
‘Well, as you know…’ followed by some quote in Latin, or exclaimed, ‘You haven’t
read/seen/…?!’ They take a normative that relates more readily to their background
and apply it ‘as if ’ all should know or have experienced the same. This sub-textual
‘putting in place’ happens also between therapists and other professionals on email
listings and in other forums.

Hogarth, who he?

A couple of decades ago, at a meeting of psychotherapists, therapist A publicly
humiliated therapist B by drawing attention to a perceived lack of knowledge
about the arts. B had just admitted that they did not who Hogarth was; they did
not get the analogy that A had made to Hogarth’s work, and said this, seeking an
explanation and also learning. However, therapist A instead glanced around the
room and, with a shake of the head, said ‘Unbelievable’.
This was a deeply humiliating experience for therapist B. The other aspect
relevant to our understanding here is that no one else named what had happened,
in the moment or afterwards with B. There seemed to be no understanding that
Hogarth was not a figure that all cultural groups would use as a reference point;
no appreciation that not everyone is educated in such a way as to know a specific
cultural art-history reference. The same observation can apply equally to words
or quotations, or languages themselves (assumptions that everyone has learned/
speaks/reads a second language, for example). By culture here, I could be talking
about class, education, heritage group and so forth. The humiliation experienced
144 Who is transforming what?

by B and the failure by the rest of the participants in the meeting to tune into the
potential class and cultural humiliation is an example of microaggression through
absence of awareness and action. This absence of reflective practice and reparative
action is another way in which oppression becomes a sub-textual behaviour and
effect. In essence, it silences through humiliation and emphasis on difference as
wrong, making one way of being, knowing and experiencing as somehow more
superior to another. By the way, I know who Hogarth is now!

Some lessons from sitting in my dad’s office

I remember, I was about 16 years old, sitting in my dad’s office after school.
My dad responded to a question from me after one of his junior staff members
mispronounced the word ‘archipelago’ when speaking with him in front of me.
Once the person had left the room, I checked what I thought was the correct
pronunciation. I think I was worried I had it wrong!
My Dad said, ‘You know what his using that word and saying it not quite
correctly tells me? It tells me he is probably taking time to read and learn new
ideas and words. Perhaps he has never had a chance to learn how to say it correctly
because he has not heard it said out loud.’ Then he added, ‘I’ll tell him when it is
just the two of us, and I can ask him about what he has been reading and we’ll have
a discussion.’
I have never forgotten the lessons and thoughtfulness behind my dad’s words.
It also taught me the importance of being interested in those you have some
responsibility for, and not assuming you know. As I reminisce on this incident,
recalling the walls of the room, the sheen and polish of the furniture, I also
remember the smile of support my dad gave this member of staff and then my
dad’s clarity as he made his points to me. What I take today from this is my dad’s
attention to the specific situation and context of the individual in question (Wollants,
2012), and also how he handled my question, speaking in such a way as to help me
understand, and so, in a sense, his attention to my context as a 16-year-old.
This brings me to the importance of why we adjust what we do to meet the
client. It also reminds me why I know taking the ‘same’ approach and frame to
everyone is so unhelpful. My dad was giving thought to what would support the
other person. This one small incident shows us how important support for meaning
and understanding from the experience of the other, in their terms, matters. We
cannot ‘formulate’ what this needs to be. As I think about my younger self and how
this experience with my dad stays with me today, with a deepened, newer meaning
for me, I am clear it was and remains an embodied-relational exchange (Totton,
2015). The past in the present always has new meaning; it is so much more than
thinking and behaviour adaptation.

Some thoughts on intellectual shaming

Thinking about all the different examples above, it is clear we as practitioners are
not immune to ‘intellectual’ shaming. It happens far more often than is
 Carmen Joanne Ablack 145

acknowledged. These kinds of exchanges are not confined to the therapy room alone;
they are relevant for training, supervision and organisational contexts, where
reactive mistakes are also commonly made. This ‘delegitimising’ of experience,
this implied hierarchy, happens at all levels and in all sectors and contexts in our
professions and is something we each have a responsibility to understand, explore
and regularly look for in our work.
I want to acknowledge how important this is when considering another
aspect of difference and identity processes: namely, working with neurodiverse
clients and those with intellectual disability. Corbett (2015), in his chapter on ‘The
politics of intelligence: Working with intellectual disability’, helps us to understand
something about ourselves as therapists and the tendency to ‘avoid engaging with
patients with disabilities’ (p.23). His discourse helpfully focuses on the therapist
and patient, on contexts and situations and the considerations, challenges and
learning that are needed by us.
Having thought about Corbett’s chapter for a few years, I am these days paying
attention to trainees who wish to have their neurodiversity acknowledged and
understood as an equally valid part of the learning community. Corbett brings to the
fore our lack of training to bring an open, systemic and existential understanding
to our work across client groups. For brevity of space, I simply reiterate that his
observations and ideas are equally applicable to all contexts in our profession, not
just the client-therapist context.
The taking of our own world viewpoints/experiences and applying them to
the context and situation of the client as if they apply is the mistake to be learned
from Claudine’s experience, and this is also emphasised in Corbett’s (2015) chapter.
This is, in my opinion, an abuse of power in the moment, albeit unintentional; the
intentionality does not change the effect it has on the client and on the therapy
process. With Claudine, we see the impact of this in her shutting down and leaving.
We also see in her leaving that good-enough trust has not been established in the
relationship. Trust is an active process and is not a ‘thing’ that gets established and
then can be assumed to be in place. Trust processes in the relationship also must be
available for deconstruction and reconstruction as an ongoing process in the work
with the client.
We must explore these difficult passages in our communications with clients,
colleagues, students, supervisees and members of the public in great detail in
our therapy, supervision, conferences and other discussion spaces. We have to
become willing ‘deconstructors/reconstructors’ as a matter of course in our work,
deconstructing what we ‘know’, what we ‘think we know’ and ‘what we do’ in order
to self-support our personal professional development in the moment and beyond
the moment.
A leap of understanding comes in embracing and digesting the vital role
that differences between the client and the therapist have on the very fabric of the
relationship. Beyond digestion is a willingness to explore our own deconstruction
and that of the relationship with the client in such a way that the client is able to
see our vulnerability, without our guilt or self-pity thrown into the mix. This is hard
146 Who is transforming what?

and sometimes emotionally painful. I am calling for a more radical approach to

understanding and actioning in the room and in the relationship overall. It is a
willingness to embrace and understand the client’s experience of us and to not shy
away from owning and exploring when we have diminished or made more invisible
the other person(s).
In doing this we do not use theory to ‘explain’ or to hide behind. If anything,
it requires us to acknowledge that theoretical frames, as taught and practised, are
often inadequate to hold the actuality of the client’s experience in the room and in life.
While we can and must acknowledge the two-dimensional nature of theory as
useful in exploring and understanding, we also need to acknowledge that theory
is not more legitimate or effective than the actual unfolding of understanding that
emerges from the person-to-person exchanges experienced in the room and reflected
on together and afterwards.

Revisiting Claudine’s session

This time, I imagine a different and longer exchange. I offer it as a possibility for
differentiated experiencing and meaning-making. The words used below are not
meant to tell the reader ‘This is how you say it’. The ideas and intentions behind the
words, the attention to the moments, are what is important in the re-imagining.
Here, I am looking to show reflectively informed interventions and concepts. In
this re-imagining, I attempt to show how a more reflective response, and one that
is not attached to the therapist’s own experience, could have a very different effect.
What is offered below hopefully simply encourages you to think about what you
would say in similar circumstance and how else you might respond to your client
and your client’s disclosures.

Claudine’s story – version two

When Claudine found the courage to disclose these thoughts for the first time to
her (straight) counsellor, the counsellor (after breathing and taking in the client
and herself in the moment as she spoke) responded:

Therapist: You are not sure about your sexuality, and you are not sure about your
sexual identity (breath)… Notice how it is for you to say this to me here,
today…
Claudine: Um… It’s strange… I have not told anybody else this… I mean, I haven’t
been sure I could tell you…
Therapist: You weren’t sure you could tell me? Say more… if you want…
Claudine: I… look, we haven’t talked much about you… about how you are
different to me… like I said, it’s strange…
Therapist (after breathing and settling in own body): Well, what you have just said is
my experience also (offers gap for client response, then continues)… We have
 Carmen Joanne Ablack 147

not talked here about how I am different to you… (offers gap for client response,
then goes on). I am realising I have never asked you directly what it is like for
you to have me as your counsellor… It sounds like it has had an effect on you
(pauses)… and has somehow stopped you telling more about what goes on for
you… (Therapist maintains some eye contact for moments while saying the
above, and again allows the client space to take in her words. She does not ask
questions of the client.)

Not asking questions of the client at this point is crucial; the therapist needs to stay
with the client and allow her space to respond. This allows the client to know that
this is a relational exchange and that the therapist welcomes her questioning and
is giving it her full consideration. It potentially can rebalance some of the power
dynamics always at play in the therapy room.

Therapist: (after a moment of conscious breathing): I notice I want to say a bit

more about our differences… Is that okay for you?
Claudine: Well, it is the elephant, isn’t it (laughs a little).
Therapist: Yes, it is the elephant in the room between us (smiles). Um… I am
noticing my regret that I did not do this with you before now… (allows space
for client to hear her words) … So now, I am naming my whiteness, your
Blackness…. my straightness and your questioning of your sexuality… (waits
for the client to choose what she wishes to respond to).

Note the therapist is consciously trying to not set the agenda here. She is staying
with the client’s interest.

Claudine: Oh… well… You named you’re white and straight… and I feel… I feel
like this is the beginning…
Therapist: The beginning? The beginning for us (therapist clarifies her
understanding)?
Claudine: Yes… like we are beginning now… everything we did before was
important… but this feels like now we start with each other for real.
Therapist: Now we start for real with each other… and I am discovering something
here with you that matters in our relationship… I want to do this here with
you…
Claudine: So, have you ever said you are straight to a client before? I mean, is that
new for you?
Therapist (deep steadying breath): I will answer your question… and I want to ask
you how this matters right now for you… and I will answer in a moment.
Claudine: Umm… I think it tells me if you are being real here with me…
148 Who is transforming what?

Therapist: I’m doing my best to be that… (pause). Yes, it is the first time I have
told a client I am straight… or, as I think about the questions you brought,
I’d like to say to you now that straight is how I identify… (silence for a
while).

The therapist tries to capture the essence of what the client has brought by correcting
to ‘straight is how I identify’. In using these words, the therapist makes a clearer
statement and also reflects her awareness of identity as a process.

Therapist: Would you share what you are noticing… right now?
Claudine (big breath): I’m realising how much not knowing about you has really
stopped me from trusting you… not all the time, but how there are parts of
me I thought you can’t get… umm. I think I am more wary here than I had
realised… and I am thinking about this… (silence for a while).
Therapist: Maybe what we do today allows something to emerge… that has some
meaning around how we handle difference here… (silence for a while)… I
have things to reflect on and you have things to reflect on… I suggest we can
each see what emerges between now and next time we meet… How does that
sound for you?
Claudine: I can agree to that… I need time to digest… I’ll be here next week.
Therapist: Okay, and I agree to do some digesting also… I’ll see you next week.

In this version, the therapist is staying with the emergent present experiencing in
the room, and not trying to ‘make sense’ in the moment. Trying to make sense can
mean the client experiences us as not present enough or they pick up on a kind
of scrutiny that can feel objectifying. The reflective scrutiny involving checking
speculations and making links to possible aspects of theory for insight is often
more suited to a post-session reflecting and to supervision.
We may use specific terms, unpacking them to help clients and ourselves
understand what is emerging; this use of therapy language is kept to the minimum,
ideally. The presence of the person of the therapist is key to being with the emergent
intercultural (whole being in context), and to the dialogic nature (here-and-now
sensing and naming) that is needed when exploring identity and identity processes.
I am highlighting here a looking beyond the original meaning of psychotherapy
theories while honouring their origins and finding new, more inclusive meanings,
both within and without the core theoretical models, that can become part of our
ongoing reconstructive processes.
Our therapist says to Claudine, ‘I am discovering something here with you
that matters in our relationship… I want to do this here with you.’ Similar words
naming the therapist’s commitment are important in establishing a human-to-
human connection. They say, ‘I am taking time to notice how I am, so I can be here
with you more fully.’
 Carmen Joanne Ablack 149

Something reparative is then reiterated in the comment, ‘I have things to reflect

on and you have things to reflect on,’ which allows a re-contracting between client
and therapist to happen. One major point to note is the client has space and time
to reflect on what she wants to bring to the dialogue. When faced with something
uncomfortable or brought into our awareness by a client, we may defensively fall into a
habit of asking questions, as an unconscious act of ‘taking charge’ again. When clients
point out our lack of awareness, inadequate training or lack of ability to be with them
in a fullness of presence, we can act from a resentful, shamed and/or offended place.
When this involves issues of identity, the action-reaction dynamic gets amplified.
Finding ways of owning this amplification with the client is part of the work.

Supervision spaces
Our supervision spaces need to offer opportunities where we can, together, critically
reflect on and work through ‘the impact of racism and recognition trauma on the
intersubjective space and relational process’ (McKenzie-Mavinga, 2016, p.182).
This means supervisors must be trained and practised in understanding and
working with these dynamics. It also means we need supervisors who have a depth
of understanding of their own habits of reactive responding and what these mean
in terms of their behaviours, actions and beliefs. The recognition of fears, anxieties
and challenges as we become aware of what we are engaged in and the pain of
the wounding these explorations bring to light need specific processing, enabling
‘progress from fear to transformation’ (McKenzie-Mavinga, 2009, p.2).
This progress from our own fearfulness as we face our habitual and embedded
reactivity in light of challenges can only happen across the professions when
psychology, psychiatry, counselling and psychotherapy trainings and their
professional organisations and the allied supervision trainings and organisations
are attending to differentiated needs. They can only happen where the deconstructing
of long-held paradigms and fostering of reconstruction into processes of
understanding and actions happens as a matter of regular practice.
Our task becomes the critical evaluation of our own position and our full
engagement with being critically evaluated in our own position. This goes beyond
taking responsibility for dialogue; it speaks to the very heart of what is being
offered and why. It requires radical reconstructive processes and active and willing
engagement across the professions, with those who are not currently represented
placed at the very heart and soul of all our efforts.

Recognising the role of intersectional understanding

Identity and identity processes are deeply complex. Intersectionality plays a vital role
in understanding this complexity and is an important part of any deconstructive-
reconstructive dialogue. We need to explore and discover with our clients the
ascriptions, formations, attachments and disavowals that they have experienced in
their socio-cultural and other identifications and bring our fullness of attention to
how we are part of such processes.
150 Who is transforming what?

Coming back to Claudine for the moment, her age, gender and community
are named, as is her racial identity as a Black person, in the original response
from the counsellor. We can ask the following paired questions to start to look at
experienced intersectional processes of discrimination:

• What is ascribed to the client at this point?

• What effect does this have on the client and what might happen with how she
may ascribe to herself (what might she swallow whole from the experience)?

• How does the therapist ‘form’ or hold the client in their mind in this moment
(what is the therapist revealing)?
• How does the client experience being ‘formed’ or held in mind by the therapist
(what does the revelation do to the client)?

• What are the assumptions made by the therapist about how the relationship
with their client is working in the moment, and also over the period of working
thus far?
• What happens to any sense of attachment and safety the client may have
developed, both in the therapy and in the reflected experience of the wider
world?

• How is the therapist denying the relationship and who the client is at this
point?
• How is the client experiencing this denial (how might the client make sense of
this, in light of already experienced intersectional processes of discrimination)?

By intersectionality, I am referring to the experiences of what happens when our

multiple identifying processes overlap and are not properly attended to. This
overlap can then be operationalised into systemic discrimination and biases.
The operation of systemic discrimination, bias (unconscious or otherwise) and
marginalisation happens through (the acting from) privileges, prejudices, fears and
other processes of enacted abuse of power and authority positions. This enacted
abuse can be experienced by individuals, groups, communities and societies. These
paired questions above and the other discussion points made in this article offer, I
hope, some direction in terms of the kind of deconstructive analysis needed.
I urge those reading this to come up with many more questions and ideas
about what is needed in your own work, in your words. I believe we all can identify
the support we need and make use of it in developing ongoing deconstruction-
reconstruction narratives for ourselves.
 Carmen Joanne Ablack 151

References
Corbett, A. (2015). The politics of intelligence: working with intellectual disability. In Warnecke, T.
(Ed.), The psyche in the modern world (pp.23–41). Karnac.
Lago, C. & Charura, D. (2019, March 2). Personal communication (Letter of invitation to the
contributors to this book).
McKenzie-Mavinga, I. (2009). Black issues in the therapeutic process. Palgrave.
McKenzie-Mavinga, I. (2016). The challenge of racism in therapeutic practice: Engaging with
oppression in practice and supervision. Palgrave.
Totton, N. (2015). Embodied relating. Karnac.
Wollants, G. (2012). Gestalt therapy: Therapy of the situation. Sage.
152 Negotiating the Faustian pact

14 Negotiating the Faustian pact: A psycho-social

approach to working with mixed-race people
Yvon Guest

There is very little literature on the experience of mixed-race people in the UK,
although they are becoming the fastest-growing minority group in the UK, and
the largest. Although both Black and white communities tend to assign mixed-
race individuals with African or African-Caribbean ancestry – a Black identity –
there is evidence that we see ourselves as a distinct intermediary group (Olyedemi,
2013). Sixty years on from Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech, and now in
the aftermath of Brexit, race relations are increasingly fraught. The furore from
white nationalists and some sections of the media over Prince Harry’s marriage to
Meghan Markle, a mixed-race woman, led to the imprisonment of one young man
for calling for Harry’s death as a punishment for being a ‘race traitor’.
When social scientists attempt to understand race, they end up privileging
either the external world or the internal world. By bringing psychoanalytic and
sociological thinking together, as advocated by Hollway and Jefferson (2000), I aim
to capture what happens in terms of unconscious intersubjectivity (inner-outer
world traffic): that is, what travels from the mind of an individual to the outside
world, and vice versa, between mixed-race individuals and their external world, via
their interactions with the Black and the white communities. My objective here is
to illustrate how traumatising it can be for mixed-race people to have to navigate
environments that can coerce them into choosing one racial group over another,
while feeling they don’t belong truly to either.

A word about ‘mixed-race’

I will take a moment here to explain why I am using the term ‘mixed-race’. This
is multi-layered. I concur with Ifekwunigwe (1999) that race is not a biological
fact; we are all, regardless of colour, part of one large gene pool. Race is a social
construct, devised by white colonialists, which creates artificial divisions. Heritage
is preferred by many because heritage is about ancestry rather than race, and in
 Yvon Guest 153

theory less divisive. However, using the term dual-heritage is problematic. Some
people have multiple strands of ancestry: for example, South Asian, African and
European. To resolve this dilemma, Ifekwunigwe (1999) advocates the use of the
word Métis,1 which originates from Canada, to describe people of mixed indigenous
and European ancestry.
I view the real problem here as the limitations of language. I could call myself
Métis, or dual-heritage. However, if someone abuses me because of the colour
of my skin, that person will be perceived as racist. If I am discriminated against
in an employment scenario or while accessing public services, there will be an
investigation into institutional racism. On a personal level, as a child, I was labelled
half caste, or coloured. Around my teens, this changed to Black, then to mixed-
race; much later in life, I became dual-heritage or biracial. I feel comfortable
with mixed-race. In this, I follow Olyedemi (2013), who holds that, regardless of
whether we use the concept of race, culture or heritage, it always comes down to
white being seen as superior (Olyedemi, 2013).

The background to this chapter

According to Davids (2011), psychoanalytic models are silent about racism
because they omit the social, while social scientists construe racism in a way that
leaves out the workings of the mind. For Davids, racism exists in the world and
in the mind:

The racist element runs outside of, and parallel to, ordinary conscious
discourse – that is why our inquiry must be psychoanalytic rather than
psychological. (Davids, 2011, p.7)

Before undertaking a PhD, I perceived the individual (internal world) and the
environment (external world) as separate entities. For my doctoral thesis, I applied
a psychosocial approach to integrate psychoanalytic and sociological thinking
in seeking to understand trauma and resilience in adults who had experienced
being in care as children. This enabled me to explore ways in which individuals
interact with their environment and vice versa. I was able to capture some of
the intersubjectivity or ‘inner-outer world traffic’ (Hollway & Jefferson, 2000),
including the psychodynamic (unconscious) working of the mind.
Since I resumed my clinical practice, an ever-increasing number of mixed-race
people (predominantly of European and African or African-Caribbean heritage)
have sought my help on issues around racial identity. I had only touched on trauma
and resilience in mixed-race individuals in my thesis. I am mixed-race myself, and
drawing on this new material from clients, my aim here is to contribute to our
understanding of our lived experience.

1. The Métis are of mixed indigenous and European (primarily French) ancestry, living mostly in Canada,
where they are one of the three recognised Aboriginal peoples, and in parts of the US. They have combined
Native American and European cultural practices since at least the 17th century.
154 Negotiating the Faustian pact

Making use of conventional and new models of thinking

I wanted to be able to understand how concepts such as ‘white is good’ and ‘Black
is bad’ are applied to individuals and groups. I found a useful explanation to begin
my exploration in Melanie Klein’s concept of splitting (1946). Splitting is something
that we are all capable of; indeed, Klein sees the capacity to split as an essential part
of development; a way of managing our powerful feelings of love and hate. We all
have the tendency to think of some people as wholly good or wholly bad. Splitting
becomes destructive when objects – other people or oneself – are seen as entirely
good or entirely bad, not as whole people with the capacity to be both at various
times and in varied circumstances.
Having established an understanding of how ‘good’ and ‘bad’ are the result
of splitting, I then needed to address the problem of why white and Black people
believe that white is good and positive and Black is bad and inferior. I found a
suitable, though partial, explanation within the concept of projective identification.
This concept also originates in the work of Melanie Klein (1952/1975), who viewed
projection as an unconscious defence mechanism used to expel uncomfortable
thoughts and feelings: for instance, when someone is feeling inferior and projects
those feelings of inferiority onto other individuals or other groups. Introjection
occurs when someone takes inside them the views or attributions towards them
of others, particularly those on whom that person depends or people who are
significant to their sense of themselves. In the context of racism, a Black child may
internalise characteristics of its parents or its community into its own persona: for
example, a strong work ethic or being a good neighbour. Projective identification
involves projection of something that is unacceptable to oneself onto another. That
person then internalises those projected qualities, believes they are true and may
even start to act in ways that fulfil them. So, for example, a Black or mixed-race
child may internalise racist attitudes from the wider white community and come
to see themself as bad, inferior or stupid. In other words, the other takes in and
identifies with what is projected into them.
So far, I had developed an understanding of the origins of splitting individuals
and groups into ‘good’ and’ bad’ and the processes by which individuals and
groups identify with the ‘good’ and ‘bad’. I didn’t want to leave it there because,
in my exploration of inner-outer world traffic, I wanted to grasp how a traumatic
experience like racism impacts on an individual. Franz Fanon was able to illustrate
some of the inner-outer world traffic in the context of racism. He was the first to
apply psychoanalytic thinking to explore the effect of colonialism on the psyche
of the colonised. Fanon used the concept of projective identification developed
by Klein (1952/1975) and then expanded it to illustrate what transpired when
colonialists met darker-skinned ‘colonial subjects’. According to Fanon, before
white people journeyed to the colonies, they were predisposed to a prejudice that
anything black or dark, such as the night or dirt, was bad or negative. Therefore,
they projected all that was savage and animal into the Black other and, by splitting
this off , were able to maintain an idealised picture of the white colonist as ‘civilised’
and of superior intellect.
 Yvon Guest 155

Thus, behaviours such as unrestrained sexuality and indolence, which the

white colonialists experienced as negative, immoral and shameful, were attributed
to the Black populace. Fanon held that coming into contact with white colonialists
left Black people with a ‘colonised mind’: the belief that to be white was to be good
and to be Black was to be bad and inferior. Black people internalised racism from
white people, via a process Fanon described as ‘epidermalisation’. Having identified
with it, they then projected this inwards into their own dark skin and outwards
onto other Black people (Fanon, 1967).

Colourism and shadism

Two further linked concepts that I encounter in my work with individuals of mixed
race (and also with Black clients) arising from the legacy of colonialism and the
transatlantic slave trade are shadism and colourism. These describe discrimination
based on the lightness or darkness of the shade of one’s skin. When white male
plantation owners forced female slaves into sexual relations, they created a
classification based on how light or dark the skin shade of the mixed-heritage
offspring was. This established a type of caste system among slaves. The lighter-
skinned slaves were given roles working within the household, closer to the master
(raised to a higher position by the whites). Darker-skinned slaves were allotted the
more physically demanding field work, further from the master (cast into a lower
position by the whites). In 2019, The Guardian newspaper ran a series of articles
on colourism entitled ‘Shades of Black’. These described the discrimination that
darker-skinned women encounter both from the Black and the white community,
and how this either makes it difficult for them to establish lasting intimate
relationships or makes them feel invisible.
The film No Shade, written and directed by Clare Anyiam-Osigwe (2018),
illustrates the impact of shadism on her and her friends growing up in the UK and
how whiteness is seen as the global standard for beauty. Williams’ biography of
Michael X (2008) explores the impact of the skin-based caste system on Michael
and his Black Trinidadian mother. In order to capitalise on him having a white
father, his mother discouraged Michael from playing with darker-skinned children
and sent him to schools for white and lighter-skinned pupils. This book also
offers a fascinating exploration of Michael’s struggle to find his place among the
first-generation Windrush immigrants in the UK (Williams, 2008). So, although
shadism and colourism originate from the language of the slave owner, these
prejudices are still present in the white and Black community.
Alice Walker, the novelist, is said to have coined the phrase ‘colourism’. She is
convinced that, even if all the white people in the world disappeared, colourism
would still exist in the Black community (Walker, 1983). This is an example of
inner-outer world traffic between the white and Black communities and within the
Black community. I contend that darker-skinned people in the Black community
are just as deeply affected by the caste system based on skin shade or tone as mixed-
race people, but for different reasons. My hope is that this will be explored further
by my darker-skinned peers, as they have the direct lived experience.
156 Negotiating the Faustian pact

Miscegenation
To be mixed-race is not just to be lighter in skin tone; it is also to be a product of
miscegenation, or the production of offspring by people of different races. From
studies of eugenics, geneticists have argued that inter-racial hatred is a natural
mechanism of biology to ensure the races remain separate (Galton, 1883; Popenoe
& Johnson, 1918). It has been argued that, if the races were to mix, then the
‘inferior’ Black races would gain but the (presumed superior) white races would
lose (Provine, 1973).
Ifekwunigwe, in her book Scattered Belongings (1999), explores the concepts
of belonging and not belonging and being a stranger in two cultures. She holds
that social inequality stemming from the artificial constructs of Blackness and
whiteness, along with issues of gender and class, manifest in many forms of
expression, from grief, rage and despair to resilience, resistance and innovation. In
her autobiography Black, White and Jewish, Rebecca Walker (2001) writes about the
impossibility of living in these three separate worlds in America. Hers is a searing,
painful account of the lived experience of being born a product of miscegenation
at a time when it was seen as making a political statement, and then navigating a
childhood where the political ideology had changed.

Identity
There is evidence that children who live in multicultural areas are more likely
to identify as ‘intermediate’; by this they mean mixed-race, brown, coloured or
‘half and half ’ (Wilson, 1987; Tizard & Phoenix, 1993). Evidence from the UK
1991 national census shows that children of parents from differing races want to
be recognised as a distinct group (Olyedemi, 2013). Racial identity in children is
linked to the development of language. Social interaction leads to children feeling,
consciously or unconsciously, a shared experience with some individuals but not
with others. They are drawn to those they perceive as most like them (Hall, 1996;
Woodward, 1997).
The more that human beings feel accepted by those around them, the higher
their self-esteem (Brewer & Brown, 1998; Erikson, 1968). Erikson (1968) posits
that non-acceptance can lead to problems with identity, crisis and confusion, which
initially come to the fore during adolescence. As individuals become conscious
of their experience of the world and their interactions with others, psychological
issues such as insecurity about who they are or what they want from life may
emerge.

Making sense of it
So far, I have outlined the problems between the races and some of the dilemmas
faced by people of mixed race. How do I understand what happens as a result of
those experiences? How do I and my clients make sense of them? Bion (1984) holds
that, in the same way that we have the capacity to digest physical nourishment, we
need to develop the capacity to digest (i.e. contain) our experience: to transform it
 Yvon Guest 157

into something that we can make sense of and grow from. Britton (1992) develops
Bion’s thinking further in terms of what happens to experience that cannot be
processed or digested. He suggests that it must go somewhere and proposes three
possibilities: that it becomes embodied, enacted or projected. Embodied experience
can produce psychosomatic symptoms and stress reactions. When we try to get rid of
overwhelming experience through action, this can produce behaviours that may be
construed as manic, antisocial or aggressive. But if we cannot digest the experience,
we can project it on to others, reproducing cycles of oppression and victimisation.
Cultural humility is a vital component of my work. According to Hook and
colleagues, this is the ‘ability to maintain an interpersonal stance that is other-
oriented (or open to the other) in relation to aspects of cultural identity that are
most important to the client’ (Hook et al., 2016). If I find myself in the situation
where the person sitting opposite me looks and sounds just like me, I am careful
not to assume I know either their ethnicity or unique life experiences.

A psycho-social approach to race in the counselling room

As outlined earlier, I view racism as traumatic because it is an experience that
overwhelms the individual’s capacity to process, digest or contain it. The clients
who come to see me are having difficulty processing traumatic experiences around
their mixed-race identity. In terms of inner-outer world traffic, they are struggling
to process both the racism that the white community projects onto them and the
shadism and colourism projected from the Black community.
All the mixed-race clients who I work with will, at some stage, have been
coerced into a Faustian pact around their racial identity. This metaphor comes
from European mythology. The core idea is that an individual enters into a bargain
or pact in which they surrender something, knowingly or unknowingly, that is
far more valuable than what they gain: for example, in the classic case of Dr Faust
(Faustus), exchanging his soul for material gain. The mixed-race individuals I work
with have been coerced into taking on the identity of whichever community they
are raised in and forsaking the other, without understanding what is at stake.
The majority are raised by white mothers, in a predominantly white world,
with little input from their Black fathers. Clients endure the legacy of the situation
that Benson (1981) initially described in the 1950s. This would have been when the
early Windrush migrants were settling here. At that time there was great hostility
towards interracial marriages between Black and white people. There was an
assumption that the white women who typically entered into these relationships
were already social outcasts, prostitutes, ex-prostitutes, women who had been
rejected by their families for already having illegitimate offspring, poor women and
those who were mentally abnormal or unstable (Benson, 1981). However, I have
seen a few clients who were raised by a Black father or mother who has rejected
their own Black heritage, often for complex reasons. These might include a wish
to distance themselves from traumatic family dynamics or because, consciously or
unconsciously, they believed that white is better than Black. They may also have
begun an interracial relationship simply because they fell in love.
158 Negotiating the Faustian pact

Prejudice towards interracial relationships is still present. As pointed out

earlier, the reaction to Prince Harry’s marriage to Meghan Markle is a case in
point. Flash forward to my own counselling room and the Black woman and white
man sitting before me, seeking couples counselling. She is now estranged from
the majority of her Black family because they disapprove of her relationship with
a white man. He doesn’t know what to say to his mother who says she loves her
grandchild but feels so embarrassed when people look inside the pram and wonder
whose grandchild it is.
Clients talk about the difficulties they face being brought up in either
community. Some have spent years struggling in both communities at different
periods. They have heard their parents, whether Black or white, apologise for them
having ‘too dark’ or ‘too light’ a skin tone, being unable to speak patois or lacking
cultural awareness. The mother of one client voiced her regrets for having had
mixed-race children because of the pain, suffering and poor mental health she has
seen them endure.

Negotiating the Faustian pact

Clients have shared with me how, in every social encounter, they are desperately
trying to work out what the person standing in front of them, be they Black or
white, wants them to be. They feel caught in a position of trying to hold onto
a sense of self and simultaneously manage this level of responsive fluidity with
others. Such situations can progress to the point where they find it easier to stay at
home, in social isolation.
As I stated earlier, in ideal circumstances, experience is processed, digested
or made sense of. If not it becomes embodied, enacted or projected (Bion, 1984;
Britton, 1992). The most common manifestation that I observe of what happens
when experience becomes embodied is depression. Becoming a bully, criminal
behaviour, self-destructive behaviours, including suicide attempts, and antisocial
and compulsive behaviour are all symptoms of people enacting what can’t be
made sense of. I have already discussed how racism, shadism and colourism are
internalised and projected onto other mixed-race individuals or darker-skinned
members of the Black community. It is projected because it is unbearable. As
Davids puts it, ‘to be Black is to be bad and nobody wants to be bad’ (Davids, 2011).
This is often attempted before therapy and the complexities that arise are what
cause individuals to seek help. This complex process can generate tremendous
feelings of guilt and betrayal. A painful realisation may dawn: their white families,
friends and community are racist. This may lead to attachments being disrupted.
For an individual who has rejected their upbringing, there is a profound sense of
loss. They may begin to idealise the part of their identity that was denied. They
perceive what has been lost as their ‘Blackness’ – their African Caribbean or
African heritage. This can lead to a hatred of their white selves. All of the clients I
work with have mixed European and African ancestry, so I cannot speak for people
of other combinations of mixed heritage. However, what I can say is that there
is evidence that individuals of mixed European and Asian heritage also struggle
 Yvon Guest 159

with identity issues (Guest, 2015; Millar, 2015) and, as practitioners, we need more
research about this.
Social media exacerbates racial tensions. Some individuals become radicalised
online. They tell me they want to overthrow white supremacy or even kill white
people, such is the strength of the internal split. The burden of ancestral, colonial
shame sits heavily on the one shoulder while the intergenerational wounds from
slavery and racism sit on the other. If they have grown up in only the white
community, all they have to connect them to the Black community is their DNA.
They have effectively been stripped of their cultural heritage since birth. However
hard they struggle to understand, it is too late to have a lived experience of Blackness
in a Black community. Clients recall their attempts to become part of the Black
community, battling through rejection for being too white or lacking knowledge of
Black culture. Having felt alien in a white world, they now feel like an imposter in
both worlds. Some overcompensate with accelerated learning about Black history
and culture or the exaggerated manner in which they speak, what they wear or how
they style their hair. These are examples of projective identification – they identify
with an image of Blackness. If they are very light skinned, they feel they are not
qualified to claim any Blackness at all; even though they experience racist trauma
vicariously, this remains an invisible but deeply painful wound (Guest, 2019).
Having idealised the Black community, there inevitably follows the realisation that
there is no big happy Black family. Huge disappointment, even despondency sinks
in as they encounter divisions, conflicts and prejudices that they cannot understand
until they can frame it as internalised and projected racism.

Revisiting whiteness
This is a very precarious stage to negotiate. As with the previous stage, this can
occur in the therapeutic setting or outside of it. In my work, one manifestation
could be a rejection of the client’s Black self. Another scenario is that all the pain
and rejection projected onto them by both communities is projected onto the
Black community. The level of confusion can be so great they might reach a point
where they abandon the attempt to forge a racial identity. Some have said to me,
‘Any identity will do just as long as I have one’ – doctor, lawyer, teacher or mother.
Some have identities imposed by others; like hermit crabs, they exchange shells.
Then there is yet another possibility: with skilful facilitation, they can integrate
both worlds. To make sense of what doesn’t make sense cannot be accomplished
alone. Now they can choose not to make a binary choice.

‘No man’s land’

When mixed-race clients arrive at a place where they want to embrace their mixed
heritage, another dilemma begins. If they don’t want to be allied to either Black
or white, when the price of admission is to give up half of their identity, they find
themselves in a whole other new dimension: ‘no man’s land’. This concept originates
from them being asked, ‘Where do you come from?’ Their reply is usually, ‘My
160 Negotiating the Faustian pact

mother comes from X and my father from Y.’ This illustrates how they have no
place of their own; they don’t come from or belong anywhere; they sit between
two worlds. ‘No man’s land’ is a unique and individual experience: no two clients
inhabit the same landscape.
Some of my clients, before starting counselling, doubted whether they actually
existed. This begins in childhood, when they believed that they had come from
outer space; that they must be alien because they do not resemble everyone else
in their predominantly white or Black environment. Doubting one’s existence can
also be explained in terms of how the outer world views mixed-race marriage and
mixed-race offspring (Guest, 2015). Miscegenation was never illegal in the UK, but
it was socially taboo and both communities were hostile towards it (Benson, 1981).
Ifekwunigwe holds that to conceive Black and white as races is a non-existent
social construct (Ifekwunigwe, 1999). This notion graphically reveals the dilemma
for mixed-race people, who occupy the space between.
We live in an increasingly racially polarised world. For those in ‘no man’s land’,
one of the perils is getting caught in the crossfire. Another is resisting the constant
pressure to choose a side. ‘No man’s land’ lacks many aspects that others take for
granted. It doesn’t have a language, faith, literature, artefacts or culture. Historical
figures have been claimed by one side or the other (think of Mary Seacole or Barack
Obama), or neglected. Clients need to work towards establishing environments
and communities that enable them to explore their embryonic identities. Finding
other mixed-race individuals who are of the same mindset can be helpful. Living
in diverse communities where the polarisation between Black and white is not so
great facilitates a more nuanced experience.

To sum up
Using a psychosocial approach facilitates greater understanding of how racism
exists in the mind of the individual and the external world. This approach allows
us to observe the constant dynamic flow between the two worlds, and the impact
on people with complex identities as they attempt to navigate multiple worlds.
Language, as it currently exists, has been shown to lack the sophistication to fully
express the complexities of a world still significantly impacted by the legacy of
colonialism and slavery. The notions of the Faustian pact and ‘no man’s land’
offer a way of conceptualising these experiences. These concepts may have wider
applications for working with people from other mixed-race backgrounds than
European and African or African-Caribbean.
 Yvon Guest 161

References
Anyiam-Osigwe, C. (Dir.). (2018). No shade. BUFF Originals.
Benson, S. (1981). Ambiguous ethnicity: Interracial families in London. Cambridge University Press.
Bion, R.W. (1984). Learning from experience. London: Karnac.
Brewer, M.B. & Brown, R.J. (1998). Intergroup relations. In D.T. Gilbert, S.T. Fiske & G. Lindzey
(Eds.), Handbook of social psychology (4th ed) (pp.554–594). McGraw-Hill.
Britton, R. (1992). Keeping things in mind. In: Anderson R. (Ed.), Clinical lectures on Klein and
Bion (pp.102–103). Routledge.
Davids, F. (2011). Internal racism: A psychoanalytic approach to race and difference. Palgrave
Macmillan.
Erikson, E.H. (1968). Identity, youth and crisis. W.W. Norton & Co.
Fanon, F. (1967). Black skin, white masks. Grove Press.
Galton, F. (1883). Inquiries into human faculty. Macmillan.
The Guardian (2019, April 8–12). Shades of black. The Guardian. www.theguardian.com/us-news/
series/shades-of-black
Guest, Y. (2015). A psycho-social exploration of the lifelong impact of being in care as a child and
resilience over a life span. Unpublished PhD thesis. University of the West of England. http://eprints.
uwe.ac.uk/24515/
Guest, Y. (2019). Between black and white. Therapy Today 29(3), 26–29.
Hall, S. (1996). Gramsci’s relevance for the study of race and ethnicity. In: Morley, D. & Chen, K.-H.
(Eds.), Stuart Hall: Critical dialogues in cultural studies (pp.411–440). Routledge.
Hollway, W. & Jefferson, T. (2000). Doing qualitative research differently: Free association, narrative
and the interview method. Sage.
Hook, J., Farrell, J., Davis, D., Deblaere, C., Van Tongeren, D. & Utsey, S. (2016). Cultural humility
and racial microaggressions in counseling. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 63, 269–277.
Ifekwunigwe, J. (1999). Scattered belongings: Cultural paradoxes of ‘race’, nation and gender.
Routledge.
Klein, M. (1946). Notes on some schizoid mechanisms. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis,
27, 99–110.
Klein, M. (1952/1975). Some theoretical conclusions regarding the emotional life of the infant. In
M. Klein, Envy and gratitude and other works, 1946–1963 (pp.61–93). Hogarth Press.
Millar, T. (2015). Race, identity and the countertransference: A mixed-race patient and a mixed-race
psychotherapist – a single case study. Unpublished PhD thesis. University of East London/Tavistock
and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. https://core.ac.uk/display/42549290
Olyedemi, M. (2013). Towards a psychology of mixed race identity development in the United
Kingdom. Unpublished PhD thesis. Brunel University. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/handle/2438/7728
Popenoe, P. & Johnson, R.H. (1918). Applied eugenics. Macmillan.
Provine, W.B. (1973). Genetics and the biology of race crossing. Science, 182, 790–796.
Tizard, B. & Phoenix, A. (1993). Black, white or mixed race? Routledge.
Walker, A. (1983). In search of our mothers’ gardens: Womanist prose. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Walker, R. (2001). Black, white and Jewish: Autobiography of a shifting self. Riverhead.
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Wilson, A. (1987). Mixed race children. Allen & Unwin.

Woodward, K. (1997). Concepts of identity and difference. In K. Woodward (Ed.), Identity and
difference (pp.7–61). Sage.
 Lennox K. Thomas 163

15 Developing a diversity-sensitive psychoanalytic

and psychodynamic psychotherapy: Personal
and professional reflections
Lennox K. Thomas

I would like to start by setting in context the motivation to developing a diversity-

sensitive psychoanalytic and psychodynamic practice. Intercultural psychotherapy
was born in around 1980 out of the frustrations of British mental health professionals
seeking to find ways to work appropriately with people from varied cultural
backgrounds. Working across cultures and ethnicities was always intended to help
patients who were on the margins of the mental health system and not thought
suitable for talking therapy (Kareem & Littlewood, 1992). Many people of colour
were not referred for psychotherapy by GPs, whose bias was that it was the domain
of white, middle-class people who had the intellectual ability to use it. As a result,
minorities and working-class people were deprived of a service. Controversially,
however, Commonwealth immigrants in the UK were over-represented in the
mental health system and usually over-medicated (Littlewood & Lipsedge 1982).
The development of intercultural therapy was a bid to make psychodynamic
therapy more inclusive by exploring its concepts and cultural precepts. We were
interested in how universal the theories were and what, if any, adjustments needed
to be made for them to become more sensitive and appropriate to different cultural
and linguistic groups.
One of the other aims was to seriously explore the idea that talking therapy
only worked with the educated classes. This idea around intellectual elitism
was also being tested by Valerie Sinason, in a project at the Tavistock Clinic in
London, working with young people with learning difficulties. It was found that
relationship-based therapy was effective with most patient groups because giving
voice to emotion was important to all people (MacDonald et al., 2003).

Recognition of the impact of the patients’ social context and

their perception of the therapist
An approach to therapeutic work might be informed by any number of factors:
164 Developing a diversity-sensitive psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychotherapy

the prior experience of the patient, the social values of the therapist and the degree
to which the external world and reality are part of the therapeutic discourse. It
was recognised that both helping patients to understand their inner world and
acknowledging their external world were important. Without a connection between
their psychological state and their social circumstances, the patient would only
develop awareness of their internal world, not a good, functioning knowledge of the
impact of the outside world on their mental health. There are few psychoanalytic
texts that address this well, but American psychoanalyst Neil Altman (1995) provides
a good example of engagement with the material circumstances of the patient. In his
book, he discusses his therapeutic work in a poor immigrant area of New York and
makes observations contrasting this with his work in well-heeled Manhattan.
We also believed that the therapist presenting as silent and anonymous (a
practice derived from classical psychoanalysis) was not a valuable component of
the therapy, recognising this could unwittingly push patients into psychosis.

My early professional influences

My first training in clinical social work with children and families was a good
preparation for understanding human development and life-cycle events. During
my training, I visited social work agencies in Boston and New York and met an
impressive group of African-American psychoanalysts. They were interesting
because many had begun their careers as psychologists in local hospitals or as clinical
social workers in local charities, and they believed that Black mental health was
being neglected by the state. Many of these American colleagues had suspicions of
the government that had barred Black people from property ownership, education
and the right to vote and, moreover, had conducted unethical, life-threatening
medical experiments on them without their knowledge. From the perspective of
Frantz Fanon’s assertion that it was difficult for the colonised to live in the land of
the coloniser, it was clear the colonised had learnt to see themselves as inferior to
their former masters (1963).
So, in a society that has taught African-descended people to mistrust and hate
themselves and those who look like them, it was important to develop a therapy
that was able to recognise and address this. Because of societally created negative
introjects, it is important for patients to carefully select a therapist who will not
cause further harm but could help to restore self-love and psychological growth.
Working with young people as a probation officer in West London in the
early 1970s, I became interested in family psychotherapy in order to engage
parents with the lives of their disaffected teenagers. I had always been curious
about the theoretical base for psychological change and began training to work
psychoanalytically with patients on the couch.
This classical training was not taught critically; it was as if Freud or Klein were
listening in, so lecturers stuck to the script! The topics of gender, class and sexuality
were not mentioned in the lectures but, if you were lucky, clinical supervisors filled
in the gaps. Similarly, race or difference were not mentioned. I would do my own
research, sometimes enlisting the help of a relative in the US to seek out references,
 Lennox K. Thomas 165

such as Grier (1967) and Shannon (1970). Griffith (1977) wrote about transference
issues across the ethnic divide, which opened up useful topics in clinical discussion
groups. Without these, I would have found it difficult to exist as a young Black man
in this environment; I would have been barely visible.
I took much of value from the reading and training but had to go on my
own quest to find something in psychoanalysis that made reference to a Black
therapist or patient or that bore ‘difference and diversity’ in mind. I found some
references in Solnit et al (1999) and discovered a few therapists of colour, including
Dr Marie Battle-Singer and Jafar Kareem, who had recently founded Nafsiyat, the
intercultural therapy centre in north London.

Creating new theoretical and clinical perspectives

Working in north London was exciting because Nafsiyat was surrounded by other
therapy organisations addressing diversity issues. We became aware, through
meetings with these organisations, that it was critically important to challenge the
sexist, heteronormative and racist assumptions underpinning traditional theories
and practices and to provide a lead for the statutory services. These efforts were
taking place at a time when some therapists in the private sector did not believe
that free access, once-a-week psychotherapy could possibly be effective.
Nafsiyat was a collective of mixed-ethnicity professionals trained in clinical
social work, psychology, mental health nursing, teaching and medicine. We began
to study papers by Curry (1964) on race and the pre-transference, Holmes (1992)
on transference phenomena, and Clarke and Clarke (1947) and Logan (1981) on
negative self-identity in African-American children. Sudhir Kakar (1985) wrote an
interesting paper on the cultural influences on child development in India.
Colleagues at Nafsiyat were doing psychotherapy training at various training
institutes and they all reported that their trainings made no reference to difference.
The ‘intercultural project’ served to get together groups of people of all ethnicities
who wanted to study the effect of talking therapy with people from different
cultures and to make some link to what they were learning.
We realised that assessment guidelines needed to flag up difference: for
example, had the person experienced discrimination? Later, we realised that we
needed to include a question about abuse, indicating that it was something that
patients might talk about in the therapy. As the assessor was not necessarily going
to see those patients in therapy, it was possible for them to be more active in the
assessment.
At the beginning, we saw young Asian and Caribbean people who had problems
settling into their birth families, having been raised by their grandparents abroad.
They were experiencing bonding and attachment problems. Other West Africans
were living with their parents for the first time, having been privately fostered with
English families in the British countryside, and felt like imposters in their African
families.
Our attention was naturally drawn to attachment theory (Bowlby, 1951) and
the research conducted by James and Joyce Robertson (1971), who studied the
166 Developing a diversity-sensitive psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychotherapy

effect of separation on children during hospital stays or other brief separations from
their mothers. Clare Winnicott (1964) also observed children who were separated
from parents during the Second World War and how they became attached to a
soft toy or blanket, in which they found comfort.
Dr Elaine Arnold (1975, 1997, 2012) conducted research at Nafsiyat to look
into the experiences of parents and their children who had been left in the care of
family in the Caribbean. Joining their parents in the UK had been problematic and
some of these children were placed in the care system, which served to exacerbate
their problems (Thomas, 2014). This story is explored in the novel The Unbelonging,
by Joan Riley, about a girl joining her family from the Caribbean, and feeling out of
place and desperately missing her grandmother (Riley, 1985).
These early patterns of attachment have far-reaching consequences and can be
passed down the generations. Repeated separations during the slavery period have
certainly affected post-slavery communities. Mary Ainsworth conducted studies in
several countries (1967), and she was able to observe multiple attachment styles in
an infant’s family network. She discovered that similar patterns of attachment can
be observed in families three generations on.
Some families experience traumatic events, often through an avoided subject,
generations earlier, that shapes family behaviour. The incubation of this trauma
affects the way that children are treated in the family, sowing seeds of self-doubt
and fear of the outside world (see Lago & Charura (2015) on post-traumatic slavery
syndrome, and Reid et al. (2005) and DeGruy Leary (2005) on holocaust repetition
fear). Intergenerational transmission of trauma can be experienced as a family or as
a ‘people’. Once it is recognised, it is possible to engage with it therapeutically. Like
the avoidance of difficult issues in families, communal trauma events are equally
difficult to talk about. The intergenerational trauma as a result of Nazi concentration
camps and the enslavement of Africans has been too painful for survivors to engage
with for many years, and it is only now beginning to be talked about. People from the
Indian sub-continent, Africa and the Caribbean were coming to therapy and finding
themselves talking about events that had happened to great-grandparents decades
earlier, which had been passed on to them as stories in childhood.

From the couch and blank screen to a relational approach

For many therapists, learning to work effectively with diverse groups begins with
their own experiences of therapy and knowing the areas that were not explored.
One colleague said that his analyst had little understanding of Britain’s role in the
colonies and was in no position to help him with his internal decolonisation. His
therapist had difficulty understanding his patient’s wariness of white people, not
recognising that there was a shared communal history of white oppression that
came with this.
Having their roots in psychoanalysis, with its understanding of unconscious
processes, intercultural approaches to therapy have much in common with relational
psychotherapy. The patient is invited to bring real issues to the consulting room.
Recognising the real relationship between the therapist and the patient and taking
 Lennox K. Thomas 167

into account difference in gender, sexuality, race and culture are as important as the
clinical reasons for help-seeking, and probably part of the reason. Patients living as
a minority in a majority culture can pose issues of identity and invisibility, so being
seen by the therapist is important. Change takes place intrapsychically as well as
interpersonally, and the relationship with the therapist is at the heart of shaping
psychological development.
On first meeting Jafar Kareem at my training institute, the British Association
of Psychotherapists, I realised that he had been doing the same as me, greedily
reading material about diversity when he trained years earlier. The book that he
co-edited with Roland Littlewood, Intercultural Therapy, was published in 1992.
The research in the book revealed compelling findings that Black and Asian people
could make use of talking therapy, contrary to popular belief at the time. Black and
minority ethnic patients at Nafsiyat were more likely to be referred by a psychiatrist,
and we saw higher proportions of men. Some had experienced psychotic episodes
and hospitalisation or had been on medication in the community for many years.

Critical exploration of classical psychoanalytic/psychodynamic

theories
What is missing from standard classical psychoanalytically informed psychotherapy
teaching is how to understand and negotiate the therapeutic relationship with the
‘other’. The teaching of ideas developed by Freud in the 19th century with clinical
examples from that time is interesting but will not necessarily help with issues
contemporary to the 21st century. I doubt there would have been many Black or
brown faces in old Vienna and the only account that I have read about a Black
person in analysis was written by Wulf Sachs. He analysed an African nobleman
in Southern Africa in the 1930s (Sachs, 1937). Sexual minorities and Black and
minority ethnic people should not be made invisible on training courses by the
absence of reference to their connection to psychotherapy as therapists or patients.
The teaching of transference needs to include how historical relations around
race, class or sexuality are played out in the therapy. There is little written about the
meeting of the white therapist and Black or Asian patient and how the transference
might develop between them in the context of our colonial past. Attention to the
relationship between the Asian or Black therapist and white patient is even more
difficult to find. This gap in psychotherapy literature does not serve Black, Asian
and minority ethnic or white therapists well, given that most of the former will be
treated by white professionals. The Black patient who is not informed about therapy
will simply accept what is offered, but Black, Asian and minority ethnic trainees in
therapy might feel cheated if they are not able to see themselves modelled in the
authoritative position.
Race and difference can be avoided in therapy – superficially perhaps out of
politeness but there are deeper reasons than this. By acknowledging difference, the
patient’s attention might be drawn to historical oppression and slavery. African
and Asian patients who experience racial prejudice outside the consulting room
have found it difficult to talk about it in therapy. When they find their experience
168 Developing a diversity-sensitive psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychotherapy

is reduced to a misunderstanding by the therapist, or when the therapist takes it the

wrong way, they report that some white therapists do not cope well with it. Avoiding
the issue of difference in therapy serves the therapist but robs the Black trainee or
patient of the opportunity to explore their hurt and inner colonisation. If the training
therapy does not deal with these issues, the trainee will have difficulty working at
depth with their own patients, Black or white, and the cause of psychotherapy will
not be advanced. This sort of polite therapy is false and has skated over the surface
of the psychological structures in the patient, maladaptive or otherwise.
There are many complicated reasons for Black and Asian patients not speaking
freely in therapy. This, sadly, gets in the way of their development. Dr Ralph
Greenson (1973) gives a case example that illustrates how well the white therapist
is able to work with this issue. Having worked with a Black male patient for some
time, Greenson is surprised that, one day, this patient comes to analysis not his
usual, polite and pleasant self. When Greenson asks what is the matter, the patient
tells him that he, the analyst, needs to have a word with the doorman of the plush
apartment building where he works. He says that, although he has been coming
here for months, parking his car in the car park, walking into the building, suited,
with his briefcase, the hostile doorman asks him every time what he is doing there
and what is his business. Greenson calms his patient and tells him that he will deal
with the matter, which he does. Greenson says that this incident is a useful gateway
because, in the many months of intensive therapy, race or difference has not been
mentioned once. The patient’s family had lived in the southern states of America
and had survived racial segregation, rape, shame, lynching and house burnings,
and this was the first time he was able to talk to a white person about his feelings
about these things done by white people.
Dr Onel Brooks describes in the book Thinking Space (Brooks, 2013) how
he tried to talk to his white analyst about incidents at work that he thought had
unfairly singled him out as a Black employee. He said that his psychoanalyst was
quick to tell him that he was talking about a deeper issue, the Oedipus complex,
and that he also seemed concerned about her (the psychoanalyst’s) racism. This
contrasts with the way that Greenson engaged with his patient and was able to
hear him. Feeling out of their depth with this material leads therapists to shut
the patient down, refusing to talk about matters outside the consulting room that
concern the patient. It is critically important for the therapist to recognise their
countertransference and how they are conducting themselves in the therapy room.
The training analysis is important for this reason: unless difference is addressed,
the trainee will not feel comfortable or learn about their capacity to receive and
contain what is said to them by the patient. In the case above, the therapist edited
the patient’s narrative in order to protect her own comfort.

Damage to patients
Therapists who are unable to deal with the issue of race cause damage to their
patients by not engaging with these aspects of their lives. If race and difference is
not worked through, the patient (trainee) will be ill-equipped as a professional and
 Lennox K. Thomas 169

will repeat their own experience of therapy with their patients. Through training in
a profession that is ill-equipped to deal with these issues, Black, Asian and minority
ethnic trainees particularly are left to rely on the coping skills drawn from their
families and communities. For example:

Gurpreet, a trainee Asian counsellor in her 30s, talks openly about race and
diversity and chose a Black woman therapist for this reason. She describes
to her therapist an incident at the weekend, on a visit back home, when
she was introduced to a friend’s new boyfriend in a pub. After a while, she
realises that he is the class bully who made her life hell with racist insults 15
years previously. He clearly does not recognise her, and she does not remind
him. He is polite, insisting on getting her a drink when she arrives. She
wonders what has changed him and also wonders whether, if she reminds
him of what he did, he would deny it.

This case was a challenge to the Black therapist, who had to hide her fury that this
man was giving the impression of being decent. She also did not want her patient’s
story to be supplanted by her own feelings from the times this form of racism had
happened to her. The countertransference feelings were strong, but the therapist was
able to hold back, having seen the hurt in her patient and wanting to give her enough
space to express her feelings. Gurpreet felt that her friend’s boyfriend had learned
that white people have the capacity to start afresh as if nothing has happened. What
if he had recognised her, and getting her a drink was a means of dealing with the
immediate embarrassment and the drink was a token of atonement for his cruelty?
A few sessions after telling the story, she asked her therapist if a white person would
ever tell their therapist, Black, Asian or white, a story like this about race. Gurpreet
said that white people seem reluctant to talk about these matters, so a veil is pulled
over it and the profession goes along with this.

Personal and professional development

The teaching of classical theory cannot be without social context, because without
it the therapeutic work would not be helpful. People who once colonised an Empire
are now living with the former colonised and the psychological wounds left by
racism and colonisation still need to be dealt with. If it is not addressed in therapy,
the patient might feel that this is an unmentionable subject. The Black person was
the recipient of many projections during slavery, which has served to complicate
the relationships post-slavery. There are sexual stereotypes of Black people that
don’t get talked about in therapy: the ‘young, Black buck’, the ‘mammy’, and the
‘Black slut’. They are so much part of our thinking that they are almost archetypical.
Self-esteem and self-worth can be seriously affected by what powerful groups
in society tell the less powerful, explicitly or otherwise. This happens on a daily
basis in fiction and the media. Reversing hundreds of years of internal colonisation
is both a political and a psychological act and should be a function of good therapy
if therapy is about restoring self-love and good mental health.
170 Developing a diversity-sensitive psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychotherapy

Some years ago, Dr Isha McKenzie-Mavinga (2009) wrote about the need
to bring Black issues into therapy because the traditional curriculum will always
justify leaving it out. I am aware of only one pioneering psychodynamic training
that runs seminars called ‘The Social Critique’, examining diversity and other issues
alongside the classical theory seminars.
Once considered to be a post-qualifying experience, intercultural
psychotherapy is now taught as a qualifying psychotherapy course. This strategy
thus avoided theoretical resistance that had emerged in post-qualifying courses.
Intercultural therapy training suggests that trainees have one intensive patient who
is close to their own ethnic background and another from an ethnic background
very different to their own. This helps to bring topics to the clinical discussion
groups, from which the students can learn about sameness and difference. White
trainees have talked of a hesitance to discuss their work with Black patients if Black
therapists are in the room, for fear of not ‘doing it right’ and being criticised.
Modern psychodynamic therapies have developed some reflexivity, moving
away from the traditional passive approach of psychoanalytic therapy. Much has
been learnt from relational psychoanalysis. One of the impediments to change
is the fear of inexperienced psychoanalytic therapists being told that what they
are doing is not real therapy. There is something about the mythologising of the
therapist within psychoanalytic circles that creates distance and coldness in their
interactions with the patient, yet research consistently finds that what is valued and
therapeutic by the patient is empathy and warmth in the therapist.

How wider therapy can learn from these ideas

Psychotherapists tend to be loyal to their tribe and mistrust those who are critical of
it in any way. This is particularly the case if the critique is by someone with a Black
or brown face. After hundreds of years of indoctrination about the inferiority of
those who were enslaved or colonised, it is not at all surprising that this is the case.
In the UK, there have been Black, Asian and minority ethnic therapists talking and
teaching diversity in counselling and psychotherapy for 40 years (Kareem, 1988;
Lago & Thompson, 1996; Fletchman-Smith, 2011). Very qualified and senior in
their professions, their core ideas have been slow to catch on and be used in training.
The same could not be said of supervisors, who are the backbone of continued
professional development in psychotherapy. There is no set of competences that the
supervisor has to satisfy in relation to race and diversity. The question needs to be
asked, would the white supervisor be any more skilled at untangling the therapist’s
difficulties around race with Black patients? As guardians of good practice in the
profession, should more be expected of them so that they are not implicated in this
collusive silence? Lago (2005) poses these serious questions to white therapists and
supervisors. Becoming a therapist is not a cure for racist feelings.

Systemic resistances and barriers

Training psychoanalytic therapists in diversity has been problematic because
 Lennox K. Thomas 171

criticism of training and therapy has been seen as an attack on the founding
parents of psychoanalysis. Yet intercultural and diversity ideas have been around
for many years, promoted by working groups of the United Kingdom Council for
Psychotherapy and the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.
There are many barriers to learning; some consider it is not necessary if they
do not treat Black patients, or do not consider it necessary to think about diversity.
One group of students told me that they were generally tired of all this race stuff
and had left the NHS to get away from it. The presentation of critical ideas, usually
from class, gender and race perspectives, can be as unwelcome as a spectre at a
feast. But therapists who claim not to need diversity training because they do not
see Black clients harm their white patients who might want to talk about race issues
or deep feelings of prejudice or guilt.

A challenging experience in training

I was invited to give a paper to a trainee group of 10 or so, mainly social workers who
were improving skills for direct work with children. With the exception of one Black
woman, all were white. I gave them a published paper based on Winnicott’s true
and false self and the proxy self of Black and Asian children (Thomas, 1995, 2000;
Uwahemu, 2004). After reading the paper, the white people in the group said that
they did not understand it, but the Black woman said that she did. There was little
curiosity among the white participants about the paper and even less about why their
Black colleague understood it and they did not. I took this experience to be the game
that is played to show resistance to ideas of difference. The paper gave clear examples
of the difficulties some Asian and African-Caribbean children have in living in a dual
world and the behaviours they adopt to help them negotiate this. Often it is to their
psychological detriment, and it was for this important reason I had presented it.

Concluding thoughts
There are moral and ethical issues involved if therapists are unable to recognise the
psychological or emotional effects of racism and are therefore not able to treat the
patient. For therapists to make changes with regards to diversity, they need to start
from where they are, often recognising the gaps in their knowledge. Understanding
one’s own whiteness, Blackness, maleness, femaleness and so forth exercises
thinking about the impact one might have on others. It is critical to appreciate how
one might be viewed by the other, including awareness of the oppressive historical
relationships that might have existed and how these can be explored. The patient’s
internalised racism (Rose, 1998) or homophobia prevents them from feeling they
have the right to be heard in therapy, so the hidden self remains hidden and does
not participate in the therapy. When therapists collude with the patient’s false
selves, the therapy is incomplete, as they have only engaged with the false self and
there is no analysis of defences.
A case could be made against the state of clinical practice and its unethical
position of not teaching therapists to work with diverse populations while claiming
172 Developing a diversity-sensitive psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychotherapy

the therapy to be universally available and applicable to all. While it might not
be possible to know about all cultures or differences, we can start with ourselves,
knowing who we are, learning our blind spots and endeavouring to be self-
reflexive. Trainings provide feelings of security and stepping outside of this evokes
fear. Many therapy trainings lack depth on race and class and how this affects
transference issues. This fails many therapists, Black and white alike. Black patients
having group therapy have complained about the lack of understanding of the dual
world they live in and sometimes feel bombarded by the projections of a whole
group, even by the white group analyst. This herd instinct makes it difficult for a
different voice and another narrative to be heard.

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174 Colour blindness as microaggression

16 Colour blindness as microaggression:

Perspectives on race and ethnicity in counselling
and psychotherapy training and practice
Mark Williams

Historically, counselling and psychotherapy have been considered to be a white,

middle-class profession (Spalding et al., 2019) and as failing to attend to the
specific but diverse social constructs of the identities of Black and ethnic minority
patients. The perpetual perception has been that ‘talking therapies’ are ill-suited
to the intellectual capacities of non-white patients, which extended to individuals
of working-class background (see, for example, Lennox Thomas’s chapter in this
book), so that these groups were readily excluded from such services. Our ever-
growing diverse and multicultural British society calls for the continual examination
of contemporary counselling and psychotherapy training and practice, which must
seek to consider more transformative ways of developing appropriately inclusive
models of intervention in these fields.
Many researchers, including Moodley and Dhingra (2002) and Lago (2006)
(both cited in Spalding et al., 2019), acknowledge the lack of empirical research
regarding the intersection between race, culture and ethnicity, and counselling
and psychodynamic psychoanalytic therapies, despite this growth of diversity and
multiculturalism in British society. Carter (1995) brings about a mindfulness of how
the influence of race and racial identity impacts on counselling and psychotherapy
of all orientations, which can cause confusion for practitioners. Consideration
must be paid to how the traditions, conventions and structures of psychodynamic
counselling and psychotherapy training and practice can exclude the experiences
of race, ethnicity and culture as constructs of identity that are all too present in the
consulting room.
Moodley and Palmer (2014) engage us in thinking that concerns the need
for practitioners to have a better and more flexible understanding of meaning and
relevance of race and its related terms to the individual’s identity and experience. It
is important for the therapist not only to understand the patient’s self-identification
in terms of these influences but also to understand the nature and impact of their
 Mark Williams 175

social experience in relation to their race, ethnicity and culture. The definition of
these terms does little to voice the experiences of racism, however direct or indirect,
and its impact on the Black patient’s sense of self or how the internalisation of
such experiences shapes their psychological construction. The question arises as
to whether therapies that aim to inclusively engage Black, Asian and minority
ethnic patients do so with the assumption that the focus on the individual, by its
very nature, brings the whole person into the therapy and therefore presents the
opportunities to address race and culture-specific factors affecting their daily life.
Or do there continue to be gaps in practice with Black, Asian and minority ethnic
patients where the generalised approaches to therapy fundamentally ignore the
unique experience of race and racism in the human psyche? In other words, are
counselling and psychotherapy training and practices colour blind?
This chapter explores what continues to be the ‘rhetoric’ of racial bias in
the psychiatric treatment of Black, Asian and minority ethnic patients in the
psychotherapy process, and considers whether there is an absence of engagement
with race and culturally related presentations of the Black identity in therapy. The
ensuing discussions seek to move our exploration on from the experiences of Black,
Asian and minority ethnic patients in psychiatric care, where psychopathology is
overestimated, prognoses are underestimated, shorter periods of treatment are
prevalent and there are higher rates of termination from treatment and more
frequent referral to more restrictive forms of treatment (Burkard & Knox, 2004).
This chapter considers how, and perhaps why, these experiences continue to be
a concern in counselling and psychotherapy. The fundamental question held in
mind throughout the analysis of the literature drawn upon for this discussion is
how psychic resonance of racialised experiences is represented in the transference
and countertransference of the patient-therapist relationship.
The exploration of the concept of microaggressions in the form of negative
expressions and actions aimed towards Black, Asian and minority ethnic people
leads us to understand how the effects of such experiences come to manifest in the
individual’s own beliefs, thinking, attitudes and behaviours. The development of
these ideas in this chapter requires us to discuss available definitions or descriptions
of microaggressions and consider examples of these. Furthermore, by establishing
racialised experiences and the effects of racism as forms of microaggressions,
we are enabled to consider the idea of the emergence of racial psychic pain in
the transference and countertransference dynamic. This will afford possible
explanations of why therapists continue to have difficulty in engaging with racial
content in therapy (Burkard & Knox, 2004).

Microaggressions
It is this very avoidance of addressing racialised content material in therapy that is
taken as a conceptualisation of ‘colour blindness’ in counselling and psychotherapy
training and practice. Owen and colleagues (2018) acknowledge that long-
term, ongoing or recurring experiences of racism can affect the psychological
wellbeing of Black, Asian and minority ethnic people, as well as their resilience
176 Colour blindness as microaggression

to other life stressors. They point to the impact of subtle or indirect forms of
racist behaviours and attitudes, more typically described as microaggressions,
in the material that Black, Asian and minority ethnic patients bring to therapy.
They look to Sue and colleagues (2007), whose research identifies three forms
of microaggressions: microassault, microinsult and microinvalidation. The term
‘microassault’ represents what we typically understand to be racist acts, attitudes
and behaviours; ‘microinsults’ are described as racial biases in verbal and nonverbal
communications; ‘microinvalidation’ is defined as ‘communications that exclude,
negate, or nullify the psychological thoughts, feelings or experiential reality of a
person of colour’ (p.274). Sue and colleagues (2007) suggest ‘colour blindness’ to
be one of nine categorisations of microaggressions.
Owen and colleagues (2018) conducted a study that found significantly large
reports of microaggressions occurring in therapy with Black, Asian and minority
ethnic patients. The study highlighted ‘counsellor comfort’ in relation to the
avoidance of addressing racial issues, failure to demonstrate cultural humility, and
missed cultural opportunities in the therapy as examples of microaggressions in
therapy. Some of the outcomes reported in their study link to the microaggressions
they describe (Sue et al., 2007).

Racial trauma
To avoid the reader being left with more questions than answers about this focus
on colour blindness, it is important to offer some absolute tenets that are being
applied in what follows. First is the assumption that racial trauma exists as an
authentic phenomenon that presents as an effect of direct and indirect racial
experiences generated through violence and perpetual reinforcement of oppression
against people of colour. Second, racism is experienced in many forms by people
from Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities from very early childhood,
although early infant and childhood experiences of racialisation may be buried
within the person’s psychic make-up and, even in adulthood, they therefore do
not possess the verbal capacity to articulate them. The presentation of the effects
of racist experiences can be masked by other social concerns, such as financial,
familial and social relationships, wider social and political factors, and so on, thus
making it difficult to identify its relevance in therapy. Finally, racial trauma defies
the conventional definitions that presuppose a specific event of violence or attack,
physical or verbal. In these discussions, it must be understood that the experience
of race, racism and racialisation are everyday occurrences, and their triggers may
be both internal and external, but, importantly, they have equal impact in how
they are experienced and equal significance how they manifest in therapy (Bryant-
Davis, 2007; Sue et al., 2007; Owen et al., 2018).
Early accounts of the development of a Black identity (Cross, 1978; Cross et
al., 1991) suggests a period when a person of colour redefines their identity to now
include an ‘almost exaggerated idealisation of all things Black and a rejection of
negromancy’. This is a former identification of the self, understood through the
internalised view of a white racist society, which is seen to instigate feelings of
 Mark Williams 177

low self-worth and is equated to mental illness (Cross, 1978). For Cross (1978),
this is immersion-emersion, the third of five stages in the construction of a Black
identity. Cross’s initial stage, pre-encounter, suggests that the Black individual
favours everything white while avoiding the stigma of being Black. The next stage,
encounter, ‘involves cataclysmic experiences of racist encounters’. The final two
stages are internalisation, which is seen as the acceptance of a Black identity, and
internalisation-commitment, which recognises internalised beliefs and values that
are enacted as expressions of the Black identity. The successful completion of the
five stages leads to the formation of healthy Black identities. Carter suggests we
fail to appreciate the pervasive traumatic impact of those very experiences on the
psychopathology and mental health of the individual (Carter, 2007).
Although much critiqued, Cross’s (1978; Cross, et al., 1991) model of the
developing Black identity has been the catalyst for many similar models, as well
as revisions of his theories. What appears to be persistent in the research is the
tendency to apply conventional Western methodologies in the psychoanalytical
research of the Black identity, which limits the understanding of race and racial
identity. This is not to negate the significance or the effectiveness of psychodynamic
approaches to the treatment of mental distress and illness. However, there continues
to be debate and concern about the dichotomy whereby the traditional approaches
of psychotherapy and psychodynamic counselling are maintained alongside a
recognition of the need for these approaches to develop stronger foundations in
empirical research that both reaffirms traditional counselling and psychotherapy
practices while simultaneously facilitating their evolution towards the needs of
contemporary societies (Lemma, 2016) – in this case, transcultural therapy. As
long as understandings of racial identity and the effects of racial trauma continue
to be unclear in psychotherapy theory, the likelihood remains that therapists
will continue to ignore its relevance in what the Black patient brings to therapy
(Moodley & Palmer, 2014).
Recent research (Bryant-Davis, 2007; Carter, 2007; Sue et al., 2007) has
examined the effects of racial microaggressions and presented findings that
parallel symptoms and presentations of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
These include presentations such as a fear of physical harm or attack, difficulty in
coping with everyday stresses, interpersonal and relationship problems, feelings
of helplessness, and horror or terror of persecution related to institutional racism.
These are everyday microaggressions that can become generalised as psychological
presentations if divorced from any racial context. Sue offers a real-life example
of his own experience of microaggressions while travelling on a plane with a
colleague, when they were asked to move seats to balance the weight, yet three
white male passengers, who had boarded the plane after him and his colleague, and
were left undisturbed:

Both of us (passengers of colour) had similar negative reactions. First,

balancing the weight on the plane seemed reasonable, but why were we
being singled out? … Were we being singled out because of our race?
178 Colour blindness as microaggression

Was this just a random event with no racial overtones? Were we being
oversensitive and petty? Although we complied by moving to the back of
the plane, both of us felt resentment, irritation, and anger. In light of our
everyday racial experiences, we both came to the same conclusion: the flight
attendant had treated us like second-class citizens because of our race. But
this incident did not end there… When the attendant walked back to make
sure our seat belts were fastened, I could not contain my anger any longer.
Struggling to control myself, I said to her in a forced calm voice: ‘Did you
know that you asked two passengers of colour to step to the rear of the
“bus”?’ For a few seconds she said nothing but looked at me with a horrified
expression. Then she said in a righteously indignant tone, ‘Well, I have
never been accused of that! How dare you? I don’t see colour! I only asked
you to move to balance the plane. Anyway, I was only trying to give you
more space and greater privacy.’ Attempts to explain my perceptions and
feelings only generated greater defensiveness from her. For every allegation
I made, she seemed to have a rational reason for her actions. Finally, she
broke off the conversation and refused to talk about the incident any longer.
Were it not for my colleague, who validated my experiential reality, I would
have left that encounter wondering whether I was correct or incorrect in
my perceptions. Nevertheless, for the rest of the flight, I stewed over the
incident and it left a sour taste in my mouth. (Sue et al., 2007, p.275)

It is the deeper meaning in these interactions that continues to cause racial

psychological wounds. These are psychological injuries that hold within them
previous experience of racism and racialisation and the immediate expression
of oppression and injustice. Other microaggressions are also communicated to
the Black patient through their relationships with other Black people and Black,
Asian and minority ethnic groups who they identify with and who have also had
experiences of racism. Such microaggressions can generate levels of anger and
frustration in the individual as well as affecting the internalised communication
of low self-worth.
Most development models of Black identity, as in that of Cross (1978), propose
a stage in development when the Black individual encounters their Blackness
or otherwise ‘otherness’ through a specific event or a series of racist events that
prompts the realisation of racialised experiences – the encounter stage. However, as
mentioned above, racialised experiences are encountered much earlier in childhood
than Cross discusses and, dependent on age and stage of cognitive development,
are perhaps not conceptualised by the Black child as experiences of racism. Yet, the
psychological effects of such occurrences may be experienced and internalised as
early formations of the Black identity. These may well be the hidden wounds that
Hardy (2013) refers to when he talks about how children of colour fail in school
and are channelled towards mental health services, social services involvement and
the criminal justice system. Hardy recognises how the psychological pains of racial
trauma can be masked by other ‘distracting symptoms ranging from hopelessness
 Mark Williams 179

to acting out behaviour’, where all too often children’s symptoms of emotional
injuries are problematised rather than analysed and understood. Therefore, it may
be a logical conclusion to make from a psychodynamic standpoint that the absence
of the language for children and young people to name their racial experiences
and trauma implies there is more likelihood of Black children internalising their
experiences of pain, hence causing internal psychological distress.
There is an oversimplification in the conceptualisation of Black identities
that fails to recognise the intersectionality of the multiple identities of the Black
individual. These are understood not as separate identities but in relation to the
diversity of individual experience and how variations in race, culture, ethnicity,
gender, socioeconomic status, religion and other variants come together to make a
unique self-concept that includes the individual’s internalisation of experiences of
marginalisation and oppression. There are strong correlations between low income
and unemployment, poor/lower education outcomes, poorer socio-economic
conditions such as housing and community environment, poorer physical health
and mental health outcomes (including higher rates of morbidity and mortality) and
belonging to particular racial minority groups (Nazroo, 2003; Gay, 2004; Williams
et al., 2010). These associations demonstrate the further dynamic complexities of
intersectionality. Moreover, when the available models of racial identity seek only
to discern structured stages and processes of nigrescence identity formation, they
omit important links with early infant and childhood development.
Rowe and colleagues (1994) cast critical light on the various models of racial
identity development, including white racial identity development models, which
are considered to be useful frameworks for counsellors to understand cross-cultural
dyadic interactions and the idea that ‘a verified model of White racial identity
attitudes would allow the personalising of cross-cultural learning experiences
for White counsellor trainees’ (Sabnani et al., 1991). There continue to be gaps in
the understanding of counsellors, therapists and trainees alike due to the lack of
knowledge, approaches to teaching and the lack of useful models that adequately
address issues of race.

Personal learning from therapy

When exploring facets of my own cultural experiences as a Black professional
academic working in a conceptually white institution, I discovered that I
experienced uncertainty about my right to be in this profession, let alone to be
successful. I found myself challenged when faced with the idea that I hated aspects
of my Blackness, and my Black culture – presumably those parts that on the whole
are not represented in academia and are less likely to be seen walking the corridors
of a higher education institution, or those parts that feel academically inferior, or
any number of other negative stereotypes that associated with being Black British.
As a trainee therapist in therapy myself, I was immediately able to identify
with the interpretation of my reluctance to explore the crystallised catacombs
of my internalised identification of the Black me steeped in four decades of life
experiences, which must simply be seen through the lens of a racial experience
180 Colour blindness as microaggression

as much as any other experience that may relate to other forms of my identity.
Interestingly, I think I too, as well as my therapist at the time, was willing to
ignore the simple fact that, in my transference in therapy, I resented the idea of
being defined by an external authority – by a predominant ruling presence that
would subjugate me to identify with and behave in a way that was recognisable
as belonging to a racial group with which I myself did, in fact, identify. But, at the
same time, I could also recognise the qualities and ambitions that I possessed and
that brought me to academia as characteristic of my own ethnic group.
That my resentment towards my therapist may be related to my earlier
experiences in childhood of being Black and not recognised for my intelligence or,
conversely, being recognised as an exception to the rule of the academic failures
of Black people, among a host of verbalised and non-verbalised minor racial
aggressions, is unquestionably a part of my internal psychic workings and therefore
has resonance in the externalisation of my internal psychic world.
I felt that this dyadic complexity of my presentations in therapy was
barely acknowledged or explored. On reflection, I felt that the interpretation of
transference in therapy was apportioned to my feelings of abandonment by my
deceased mother and a desire to demonstrate the damage she caused, not unlike
the resentment I should feel towards my therapist for the damage she threatened in
persistently drawing me into this way of thinking. Perversely, my anxieties about
being an imposter in my profession and my fears of being found out and ostracised
were not explored in their racial and cultural context.
If we keep to Freud’s early descriptions of transference as a mechanism in the
therapy relating to the patient’s early experiences with their parents (Freud, 1939,
cited in Winer, 2014), we may rightly reduce interpretations of the transference to
frustrations and traumas related to ‘normal’ development in children. However,
the significant impact of racism on the human psyche as it relates to the emerging
identities of Black, Asian and minority ethnic children must also be understood in
therapy through the interpretation of the transference.

Transference and countertransference in the context of race

and racism
In the world of psychoanalytically informed therapy, transference is widely
accepted as playing an important role as a tool, and the work of treatment is seen
to be to help the patient understand the communication ‘so that current relating
becomes more relevant and less encumbered, more “objective” and less “neurotic”
in the language of the times’ (Thompson, 1945, cited in Winer, 2014). Thompson’s
interest in the impact of culture on psychological development recognises the
relevance of early experiences of women that are internalised and become a part of
their identities and internal mental representations (Winer, 2014).
The concept of intersectionality in relation to race, culture and identity speaks to
the unique experiences of the individual relating to socio-economic status, gender,
age, ethnicity, religion and other such influencing factors that impact on human
development and therefore significantly influence our identities. They affect how
 Mark Williams 181

we view the world in relation to ourselves, which in turn informs our understanding
of how we are viewed in the world (Bryant-Davis, 2019). Bryant-Davis’s focus on
post-traumatic stress disorder offers a further facet to this discussion in its call
for the recognition of early experiences of racism and cultural biases as traumatic
experiences that can be characterised as long-lasting psychological wounds. It
follows that the manifestation of such traumas in Black, Asian and minority ethnic
patients, being a part of the mental state of the patient, must surely be present
in the transference communicated in therapy. Consequently, the patient’s ability
to come to understand the meaning in the transference moves them towards
what Thompson describes as being more objective, more understanding and less
neurotic. Therefore, the therapeutic focus must be on effective interpretation of
transference communication.
According to Segal (1973, p.9), Klein’s (1930) earlier work ‘gained access to the
understanding of the child’s inner structure through following the transference and
the symbolism of the child’s play’. If it can be accepted that not only the child’s play
but all of the child’s activities can offer opportunities for interpretation through
the symbolisation of their phantasies and is represented in the child’s psychic life,
then we are able to reinforce the importance of social context in development and
identity.
The therapist’s attunement to the extent and severity of specific racial trauma
and microaggressions is of great importance. Burkard and Knox (2004) consider
the effects of therapist colour-blindness on empathy and offer some interesting
contributions to this thinking. One interesting aspect is the therapist’s ability to
empathise with the effects of racial trauma on the patient. This presents many
challenges to the therapist’s capacity to genuinely communicate understanding to
the patient of his or her experiences. This is as much a complex dynamic for cross-
cultural psychotherapy and counselling as it may be for situations where both
client and therapist may be from the same or similar cultural backgrounds.
A further interesting point offered by Burkard and Knox (2004) is the attribution
of patients’ responsibility for their problems and for finding solutions. In the first
place, Burkard and Knox make links to the level of empathy the therapist is able
to express and the effectiveness of cross-cultural counselling, where lower levels of
empathy produce poorer outcomes. However, the entire context of the therapeutic
relationship must be considered here as the frame and approach of therapy will
have relevance to the patient’s experience of any empathic communication. The
very nature of talking therapies being seen historically and still, today, as a middle-
class resource may be a barrier to the expression and acceptance of empathic
communication.
There are several reasons for the avoidance and neglect of addressing the
effects of racial trauma in therapy. One of the main factors that underpin this
avoidance is the idea of colour-blindness in racial attitudes; the idea that race does
not matter (Neville et al., 2000, cited in Burkard et al., 2014). To some extent, this
is further perpetuated by the concept of post-racism: that we have overcome or
moved beyond racism. Yet, we are still in an environment where Black, Asian and
182 Colour blindness as microaggression

minority ethnic therapists are under-represented in the profession and where race
and cultural-related issues that impact on mental and physical health and wider
socio-economic experiences continue to go unrecognised or unacknowledged
(Jackson et al., 2018). There is also the issue of ‘race avoidance’ (Mendez, 2019) in
therapy. Therapists may bring a resistance or fear of addressing cultural difference
and race in therapy that may well be related to the need for them to address
their own prejudice and racial ignorance that are operational in the therapeutic
relationship and become part of the countertransference. This may be one of the
realities that affects the capacity for empathic attunement in the patient-therapist
relationship and the perpetuation in therapy of the microaggressions the patient
experiences in their everyday life.

Implications for practice and training

Mendez (2019) offers a reflexive account of her encounter with a Black patient
that I think encapsulates the nature of the problem that leads to the exclusion
of helpful race perspectives in the education and training of psychodynamic
therapists. She recounts her efforts to draw her patient to the more prescribed and
familiar conversations regarding his everyday traumas, while possibly failing to
acknowledge the significance of concerns the patient was bringing to the therapy
about the traumas and injustices to which Black, Asian and minority ethnic people
have been generally subjected, collectively and individually. Mendez acknowledges
this potential oversight in the transference across all the patient’s phantasies and
activities that related to his own feelings of abject annihilation and fear of complete
destruction. Klein’s observation that the transference communication can be
interpreted across the child’s phantasies and their interrelatedness demonstrates
one way that therapists can be inclusive of the intersectional representations of the
patient’s whole identity, and as such acknowledge all his or her experiences that
make up the patient’s mental state.

Conclusion
There is a need for the development of more reflective practice that seeks to
engage psychotherapy students and therapists in identifying and addressing their
own positions of prejudice in both their thinking and their language. There must
be some acknowledgement of the position of privilege and/or power that the
therapist/trainee holds, and how this may be reflected within the institutions and
organisations that deliver education and treatment in these fields.
There is a need for therapists to be willing to evaluate the appropriateness of
their approaches in practice generally, but more specifically when working with
people of colour. This will require the acknowledgement of microaggressions that
occur in therapy. Therapists and students must be able to develop practices that
help them to detect their own perpetuations of microaggressions and to seek to
redress the incidences of these occurrences.
It also requires the ability to conduct transparent dialogues about race and
culture as a dimension of psychotherapy and counselling education and practice.
 Mark Williams 183

This, of course, calls for the evolution of psychodynamic/psychoanalytic research

and theory and a decolonisation of what are largely white European curricula that
favour traditional psychoanalytic ideas about mental development and human
behaviour and exclude transcultural perspectives on both mental health and
treatment.
We also need much more research into the exclusion of Black perspectives in
psychodynamic therapies, and more action on the part of practitioners to continue
to challenge such exclusions.

References
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Counseling Psychologist, 35(1), 35–143.
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stress disorder practice guideline and intersectionality. American Psychological Association, 56(3),
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 Divine Charura and Colin Lago 185

17 Towards a decolonised psychotherapy research

and practice
Divine Charura and Colin Lago

I hope… we’re always on the move, to a new theory… to new areas of

dealing with situations, new ways of being with persons. I hope that we’re
always part of a growing edge. (Carl Rogers, quoted in Cornelius-White &
Cornelius-White, 2005, p.396)

Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein, Aaron Beck, Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow et al
did not live in Europe in 2021.
The opening sentence to this chapter was informed by discussions we,
as authors of this chapter, have had over the past decade when we have been
discussing the applicability and challenges of classical psychotherapy theory to
contemporary practice in the multicultural cities where we live. Undoubtedly these
founding parents’ contributions have been invaluable in developing psychotherapy
and counselling modalities, and for that we are indebted to them. Nonetheless, it is
important that we review whether and how their theories still apply today, in 2021,
given the very different societies we inhabit and the different challenges we face
from those of their time.
Our task in this chapter is to critically explore what it means to decolonise
psychotherapy, counselling and practitioner psychology training, research and
practice. It is a huge task to attempt in one chapter and it is important to note that
what we offer here will critique but also complement literature from other writers on
the subject (Liamputtong, 2008; Mendoza et al., 2012; Nyoni, 2019; Keating, 2020).
In our experience, the whole subject of decolonising psychotherapy,
counselling and practitioner psychology training, research and practice is often
misinterpreted. In dialogue with colleagues, we have witnessed ‘decolonising the
curriculum’ being interpreted to mean including a few Black/non-white authors
on reading lists or including a group of Black and ethnic minority participants
in research studies. Some have gone so far as state to us, ‘We have a diversity
186 Towards a decolonised, psychotherapy research and practice

weekend on our programme’, or ‘We have the following reading list, which includes
many writers of colour’. However, decolonising knowledge is much more than
this. It is about breaking down the structures that support the status quo. These
are structures that often support power inequalities, discrimination and racism
within our profession. Keating (2020) argues that this can be done by analysing
how oppression and power are used to exploit, oppress and discriminate against
racialised groups. Furthermore, he argues that it is also about challenging and
critically examining the beliefs one holds about other groups and the process of
‘othering’ and, through this, valuing the views of other groups.
Decolonising research and practice is about challenging how Eurocentric
ideas are used to inform what we do in these arenas. It is also about challenging the
pre-eminence given to Western models for viewing mental health/ill health, even
when these don’t apply to or fit other groups (Keating, 2020). It is essentially about
critiquing psychotherapy/counselling theories, Western psychology perspectives
and the way their research evidence base is seen as the gold standard, even when
they are incongruent or culturally inappropriate to certain populations. Thus, it has
been argued that decolonising research is about disrupting the alignment between
ethnicity and mental ill health (Liamputtong, 2008; Mendoza et al., 2012; Nyoni,
2019; Keating, 2020). Keating (2020) asserts that ‘believing the myth that ethnicity
is a risk factor for mental health is blatantly wrong’. He argues that ‘the factors that
cause mental ill health are the adversities that are associated with discrimination,
racialised trauma, oppression, exclusion, the invisibility of particular groups in the
research and literature, but not ethnicity in itself ’ (Keating, 2020).

What are the radical propositions in this chapter?

The propositions we are making in this chapter go way beyond tokenistic diversity
seminars in psychology, psychotherapy and counselling training. It is important
for all researchers and practitioners in our field to critically engage with how white
privilege operates and impacts the system within which they work, including its
trainings, research and practice. There must be a disruption of the status quo. For
example, in research there must be active involvement of Black, Asian and ethnic
minority groups through the process, which will ultimately be for the benefit of a
diverse society (Liamputtong, 2008; Mendoza et al., 2012; Nyoni, 2019; Keating,
2020). As this chapter develops, we will highlight some critical positions that
we draw from our experience as educators and practitioners and from research
literature. Listed below are the propositions that we will expand on:

1. It is important to engage critically with one’s ontological and epistemological

position in counselling, psychotherapy and psychology research design. By
this we mean questioning ‘the nature of reality’ and one’s own experience
of ‘being in the world’ (Pring, 2004). In relation to epistemology, we mean
critically exploring how the theory of knowledge and the methods used to gain
understanding of social reality are generated (Grix, 2001). We argue that this
can enable an engagement with challenging how Eurocentric perspectives and
 Divine Charura and Colin Lago 187

power inform a system that maintains mechanisms that perpetuate oppression

and discrimination – thus challenging how knowledge is generated and having
an openness to embody a non-defensive approach and capacity for reflection.
2. It is important that educators and researchers have an awareness of the
historical impact of traumatic experiences faced by the populations they will
be working with or researching in.
3. It is important that practitioners and researchers have an awareness about the
knowledge generation of the issues of difference and diversity of experiences
of their clients/participants (individuals/group). In line with this, it is
important to question whether there were/are culturally sensitive recruitment
methodologies employed in the research and also, if relating to therapy
practice, to question whether the practitioner engages with culturally sensitive
approaches.
4. It is important that researchers critically analyse the research literature
(including historical research that evidences discrimination) or engage in
research planning from the position of analysing whether there have been
cultural considerations made in the research design (Finlay, 2008).
5. It is important to question and reflect on one’s power in relation to questioning
what theories dominate research and clinical practice, which, after all, draw
and benefit from research. We ask you, the reader, to question yourself on
whether you are critically engaging with perspectives that evidence challenging
unequal power relations. This may mean you are consciously/unconsciously
excluding the multiple realities and knowledge bases of the clients/patients or
participants you work with (see, Tillman, 2002). If so, how?

For those in educator or research roles in our field, we highlight the importance
of co-creating a positive environment for learning and training with students/
trainees. This enables reflection on the impact of negative feelings that may be
evoked from the process of destabilising and disrupting the status quo: that of
seeing Eurocentric perspectives as the dominant discourse and gold standard of
evidence that is then applied to all groups, while dismissing other ontologies and
lived experiences. In line with this, we name and address what we see as some of the
systemic failures of paying attention to diversity in psychotherapy and practitioner
psychology research.
We have noted as a start to this chapter a quote from Carl Rogers, (Cornelius-
White & Cornelius-White, 2005, p.396), which highlights what we hope for our
professions in relation to research. That is, to be ‘always moving, open to change
and to being part of a growing edge in our research practice, or in facilitation of
research learning as well as in therapeutic practice’.
We critique research and teaching pedagogy as well as the mainstream
Eurocentric psychotherapy and counselling research curriculum development.
By its very nature, the Eurocentric curriculum, which primarily informs current
188 Towards a decolonised, psychotherapy research and practice

research and teaching in the UK, has an academic heritage determined mostly by
white Western male theorists. So, in order to try to re-contextualise and offer the
stimulus for new research developments, so striving to ensure that our practice
is embedded in the current geo-socio-political-cultural position, this chapter
importantly offers a counter-narrative – one, we contend, that better fits the
multicultural and contemporary context within which we live, as well as in which
we facilitate psychotherapy training and research.

Illuminating the dominance of Eurocentric perspectives in the

counselling, psychotherapy and psychology curriculum
To illuminate and unpack the nature of this challenge, we have an exercise in
which we engage trainees who are on counselling and psychotherapy courses. In
this exercise, we ask them to shout out randomly the names of all the theorists and
major contributors who have influenced their theoretical and research orientation.
In preparation for writing this chapter, one of us conducted this exercise with three
different counselling and psychotherapy trainee cohorts. These ranged from those
in the first year of their degree to those actively engaged in working with patients/
clients and two months from qualifying as therapists. The smallest group had 30
participants and the largest more than 40 participants.
The groups with whom we have worked over the years, and in particular
the groups we invited to take part in this exercise, are taught a curriculum that
clusters models according to the four major forces in psychology: psychoanalytic
(psychodynamic); behavioural and cognitive-behavioural (behavioural, cognitive-
behavioural, reality); humanistic (existential, person-centred, Gestalt), and
contextual/systemic (feminist, family systems, transpersonal trans/multicultural)
(Corey, 2011).
All the groups independently responded with the following names: Martin
Buber, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Melanie Klein, Carl Rogers, Aaron Beck,
Fritz Perls, John Bowlby, Eric Berne, Salvador Minuchin, Murray Bowen, Heinz
Kohut, Robert Stolorow, Abraham Maslow, Stanislav Grof. Unsurprisingly for us,
having facilitated this exercise many times, what emerged from the groups was a
list of names, philosophical perspectives and therapies built on a long history of
Eurocentric thinking and ideologies rooted in white male privilege and colonial
history.
We have often felt deeply saddened, from our perspective as male practitioners
who embrace and value feminist critique, that female contributors of significant
research and theory are rarely acknowledged. For example, Anna Freud, Melanie
Klein, Claire Winnicott, Mary Ainsworth (who worked alongside Bowlby), Laura
Perls (who worked alongside Fritz Perls and co-established the Gestalt school of
psychotherapy), Natalie Rogers and many others are not named or acknowledged
when we use this exercise. Further, as we both deeply value and embrace classic and
contemporary practice that values diversity of thought, positioning and perspective,
we also notice that historical and contemporary non-white contributors are not
named here, and rarely whenever we do the exercise. When we ask trainees, there
 Divine Charura and Colin Lago 189

is usually a limited awareness of the range of critical psychological perspectives

that offer a counter-narrative to the dominant Eurocentric theoretical perspective.
We will not list here the full list of contributors who offer such counter-
narratives, but we will point out that many non-Western cultures have a rich
history of authors and researchers who offer an insider understanding of the
psychology and culture of those of non-Eurocentric heritage. For example, Francis
Cecil Sumner (1895–1954) was the first African American to receive his PhD in
psychology and was instrumental in establishing the psychology department at
Howard University to train African American psychologists. His work and that
of those that followed offers a counter-narrative to the psychology of African
American communities and includes a vast amount of research that counteracts
racism and bias in psychological studies of African Americans. Then there are some
of the most eminent figures in the history of psychology in Japan, such as Yūjirō
Motora and Matatarō Matsumoto, whose work, and that of other psychologists
who came after them, offers insight into Japanese cultural perspectives. Over the
past few decades, there has been a continual and essential increase in psychologists
who have offered a much-needed critical perspective and counter-narrative to the
dominant Eurocentric theoretical perspective in both cross-cultural research and
methodological/practice perspectives. We will list here only a few: Alessandrini,
1999; D’Ardenne & Mahtani, 1999; Denzin et al., 2008; Kareem & Littlewood, 1992;
Lago, 2011; Lago & Thompson, 2006; Lee, 2013; Liamputtong, 2008; McKenzie-
Mavinga, 2009; McMurray, 2004; Miller-Loessi & Parker, 2003, and Marriott, 2018.
In our experience, despite examples of such important theory and
research contributions, there remains a limitation in mainstream research and
literature regarding the inclusion or acknowledgement of counter-narratives
to the dominating Eurocentric research evidence base. The identification of the
importance of different cultural voices and research practices being regarded
as worthy of being viewed as equal knowledge-generation partners has formed
our rationale for this chapter, with our focus on a radical call for decolonised,
psychotherapy and counselling research, teaching, learning and practice.

A brief critique of decolonising the curriculum perspectives

In relation to the lived experience of training and practice of practitioners, there
has been a range of ‘decolonise my curriculum’ movements internationally, and
here we give an example of those in the UK that have been championed by the
National Union of Students. They have included, for example, the 2015 ‘Why is my
curriculum white?’ campaign. This originated at University College London (UCL)
and was quickly adopted by other student unions nationally. It was a response to the
lack of diversity found on reading lists and course content and in recognition that
universities in the UK continue to perpetuate the idea of certain sources holding
academic privilege. From this movement was born a range of other ‘decolonise
my curriculum’ initiatives by other academic psychology training institutions and
professional bodies nationally, joining those taking place internationally.
190 Towards a decolonised, psychotherapy research and practice

These movements have not been without strong criticism. For example, Stokes
(2019) argues that decolonising the curriculum is a ‘big mistake’ because the last
thing universities need is to have white male voices or Eurocentric theoretical
perspectives side-lined. However, a counter-argument points out that decolonising
institutions or the curriculum is not about the complete elimination of Eurocentric
perspectives but about challenging longstanding oppressions, biases and omissions
that limit how we understand not only psychology, psychotherapy and counselling
theory, research and practice but, according to Muldoon (2019), politics and
contemporary society as well.
The Learning and Teaching Toolkit for Programme and Module Convenors
(2018), produced by the University of London as part of its Decolonising SOAS
programme, is a helpful briefing for programme and module convenors on what
‘decolonising’ learning and teaching might entail. Ultimately, the aims of such
campaigns are to challenge and highlight the lack of diversity in educational and
research systems. In the section that follows we outline further what decolonising
the research curriculum entails.
We make the case here for culturally relevant research pedagogy and for
research educators to engage with decolonised and cultural considerations in
the pre-testing and planning of research, selection/translation of instruments,
recruitment, data collection, analysis and interpretation, and reflexivity.

What is decolonised, culturally informed, research teaching,

learning, design and practice?
Decolonising the education curriculum is an expression of the shift in the geopolitics
of knowledge in which modern epistemological frameworks for knowing and
understanding the world are challenged. It is about no longer accepting Eurocentric
research approaches, evidence and curricula perspectives as the universal and best
ways of understanding the world (Mignolo, 2011).
It is a call for a radical shift to challenge racial undertones and all forms of ‘isms’
that breed discrimination (Mignolo, 2011; Nyoni, 2019). There is a commitment
to promoting gender equality and to challenging and reforming research and
curriculum perspectives that rank evidence and knowledge hierarchically by
Eurocentric concepts, standards and assumptions (Tillman, 2002; Mignolo, 2011;
Nyoni, 2019). A commitment to a decolonised approach acknowledges the diversity
of cultures and contexts in which there is epistemology generation; it sees these
contexts as having their own developmental intricacies, and thus regards them as
equal knowledge-generation partners.

Awareness of discriminatory historical research and its impact

When teaching research methods or conducting research within counselling/
psychotherapy or practitioner psychology, educators should reflect on the impact
their work may have on those learning/engaging with it (Bishop, 2005; Chavez,
2008). In this chapter, we would like to use studies on trauma and Covid-19 as
 Divine Charura and Colin Lago 191

examples of what educators and participants could do to demonstrate decolonised,

culturally informed research teaching, learning, design and practice.
In qualitative research on trauma, for example, it is important for educators
to have an awareness of the kinds of feelings the research methods may evoke.
For instance, in our work on the lived experience of refugees and asylum seekers,
it has been invaluable having knowledge of the Black psychology and African-
centred research pedagogy. In brief, these perspectives encourage researchers to
acknowledge awareness of oppressive conditions that serve as barriers to minorities
in society and how these have historically, and continue to impact on their lived
experience.
Furthermore, research course instructors and therapists engaging in research
need to take into consideration narratives of how scientific research has historically
been used as a mechanism of oppression for people of African descent (Henderson
et al., 2016). To demonstrate the point, Henderson and colleagues (2016) argue
that the historical impact cannot be ignored, particularly on those who belong
to the groups on which such research was conducted. This could be in relation to
their ethnicity, gender and so on. So, if research educators and counsellors and
therapists are to engage with a decolonised research pedagogy, they need to have
awareness of such studies.
Examples of such historical studies include eugenics and forced sterilisation,
which stemmed from research conducted with upper-class British families in the
1880s. Researchers hypothesised that the most elite populations were elite because
of their genetic make-up (Selden, 2005). Such research was centred on the goal of
‘race betterment’ (Monroe & Alexander, 2005, p.19) and thus included initiatives
to increase the number of births for privileged upper-class whites while decreasing
the reproductive rates of those of lower classes, those with a disability and those
with mental ill health. This was often through procedures such as forced and
involuntary sterilisation.
Another example was the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, in which African
American men were informed they were engaged in a study of ‘bad blood’, when
in fact it was a study of the natural progression of untreated syphilis. The study was
supposed to last six months but went on for 40 years (Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, 2013). The men, and some of their partners, died from the disease,
and children were born with congenital syphilis. The study was additionally
unethical because penicillin became a viable treatment option during the life of
the study and could have cured them (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
2013; Tuskegee University, 2014; Henderson et al., 2016).
While it could be argued that these examples of such unethical experiments
were of their era, there is a more recent example of overt actions that serves as a
reminder of the importance of decolonising research perspectives. This example
relates to one of the world’s most respected scientists, James Watson, a Nobel Prize
winner for his part in discovering the structure of DNA, who claimed that Black
people are genetically less intelligent than white people (Shapiro, 2008). We are,
however, aware that these comments, made ahead of his arrival in Britain in 2007,
192 Towards a decolonised, psychotherapy research and practice

rightly provoked outrage. It is important to challenge such perspectives, and this is

an example of where having a rich curriculum that draws from the voice of non-
Eurocentric writers can offer a counter- narrative.

Decolonisation through engaging with culturally sensitive

practice
There is another dimension to ensuring that research is culturally sensitive, and this
can be achieved by recruiting under-represented groups for research and services: for
example, greater inclusion of non-white populations. There is in the UK an under-
representation of minority groups in major research projects. For a comparison, the
National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the US issued a policy more than two decades
ago requiring the inclusion of women and minorities as subjects in clinical research
studies (NIH, 1994). This policy also stated that research applications and proposals
should include strategies by which they would achieve diversity in their samples.
This perspective is supported more recently by some who have proposed a similar
argument to the one we are making here for counselling and psychotherapy: that
is, to ensure culturally informed research should be extended beyond large cohort
studies or NIH randomised clinical trials and apply to all research (Awad et al., 2016;
Bishop, 2005; Liamputtong, 2008; McMurray, 2004; Mendoza et al., 2012).
While these examples relate widely to the importance of decolonising research,
within the field of counselling psychology and psychotherapy there is literature
that has outlined how oppressive and culturally insensitive ideologies continue to
be at the centre of debates around issues of culture and difference. They include,
for example, the uncritical acceptance of colonialist anthropological conclusions
that are drawn into psychoanalytic theory (Morgan, 2008), and the Eurocentric
focus in both psychoanalytic and humanist-existential theories. In these cases, pre-
eminence in these modalities is often given to individualistic formulations of the
self, while systematically marginalising other psychologies that draw on collectivist
cultures and interrelatedness.
Tillman (2002) argued that the use of culturally sensitive research approaches
can apply to the cultural knowledge and experiences of researchers and their
participants in the design of the research as well as in the collection, analysis and
interpretation of data. She argued for culturally congruent and sensitive research
methodologies that use a range of qualitative methods. These include interviews
(individual, group, life history), observation and participant observation. She
further argued that, as part of their commitment to cultural sensitivity and a
decolonised approach, researchers should carefully consider the extent of their
own cultural knowledge and insider and outsider issues related to the research
process. It is important that researchers challenge their own cultural power,
commitment to theoretical dominance and unequal power relations that may
minimise, marginalise, subjugate or exclude the multiple realities and knowledge
bases of their participants (Tillman, 2002).
Another perspective is that it is important to question research privilege
and power. This relates to questioning claims of neutrality and objectivity in
 Divine Charura and Colin Lago 193

psychological research. The researcher, or educator, should consider the power of

‘research on’ participants, as well as be aware of their own assumed knowledge of
and standpoints on their participants’ social, political, economic and cultural lived
experience (Tillman, 2002; Bishop, 2005; Denzin et al., 2008).

A case example of Covid-19 research: challenges and

opportunities
Recently we have seen the psychological impacts of Covid-19 and consequent self-
isolation policies, and we identify here a few examples of areas of consideration
in which a decolonised and reflexive approach towards power and difference can
be demonstrated. It has been documented that disease outbreaks create a fear of
the different other, and fear is a known key ingredient for racism and xenophobia
to thrive. Devakumar and colleagues (2020), in a recent article on racism and
discrimination resulting from Covid-19 published in the Lancet, argued that
the pandemic had uncovered social and political fractures within communities,
manifested in racialised and discriminatory responses to fear disproportionately
affecting marginalised groups. Further, they noted how, following the spread of
Covid-19, discrimination had increased towards people of Chinese heritage,
including individual acts of microaggression or violence, as well as collective forms
of discrimination, such as Chinese people being barred from some establishments.
Very sadly, rather than humanity joining together and recognising Covid-19 as
an equaliser, as it could affect anyone and everyone, Covid-19 responses were
discriminatory in many societies. In addition, the disproportionate impact on people
in the lower socio-economic groups, including people of colour and migrants, was
not addressed as it should have been (Devakumar et al., 2020). Devakumar and
colleagues (2020) went on to further argue that self-isolation was often not possible
for these communities and individuals, leading to higher risk of viral spread. In
some cases migrants, and particularly those without documentation, avoided
hospitals for fear of identification and deportation, meaning they presented late,
potentially with more advanced disease.
Thus, in another example of our radical call for decolonised, psychotherapy
research and practice, we have a momentous example of research into the
psychological impacts of Covid-19 responses. It is important to demonstrate in
research design this awareness of the socio-economic-political complexities,
including further discrimination that marginalised populations and people of
colour can face (Chavez, 2008). Including individuals from these communities as
participants in research would offer a voice to their lived experience. Such a task
of undertaking cross-cultural research offers researchers unique opportunities, as
well as dilemmas, that can enrich research teaching, learning, design and practice
(Liamputtong, 2008).
We draw on Liamputtong (2008) further, with his argument that there is a
range of questions that we can agree can facilitate decolonisation and cultural
sensitivity in research. We have summarised these questions in the context of
trustworthiness of research and decolonising research processes, as follows:
194 Towards a decolonised, psychotherapy research and practice

• Who are the participants I am working with?

• What ethical and moral considerations do I as a researcher, supervisor/
educator need to observe?
• How could a position of culturally appropriate methodology and method be
adopted in line with the needs of people being researched?
• How do I deal with language and cultural norm issues in the context?
• How will I negotiate access? And what research methods should I apply to
ensure a successful research process?

We would also add that educators of research methods and researchers engage
critically with the literature. This can be done by challenging, in their review
of the literature and their research design, any hierarchically ranked evidence
and knowledge that gives pre-eminence to Eurocentric concepts, evidence and
assumptions as the gold standard without thorough critique.
The section that now follows focuses briefly on the importance of challenging
one’s philosophical influences and values (ontological and epistemological
perspectives) in research design. We offer examples from our own engagement
with facilitating teaching, research, and research methods.

Clarifying one’s ontological and epistemological position in

research design
We have both learned through academic practice in the UK, the US and, more
recently, on a joint educational trip we took to Cambodia, the importance of first
clarifying one’s own positioning in relation to the research. We have shared values
in our ontological position (the nature of being, or what exists in the world and the
nature of reality). For example, we examine our ontological and epistemological
positions in every reflection about research or therapeutic practice. An example is
how we see ontology as rooted in constructionism, which argues that knowledge,
reality or truth can never be truly known (Punch, 1998, p.170; Pring, 2004). In
relation to epistemology, we see it as concerned with the theory of knowledge and
the methods used to gain understanding of social reality.
We concur that, when considering decolonising any curriculum, it is
important to start from the position of seeing reality as highly subjective (Pring,
2004; Serning, 2011). In relation to our different positions and experiences, over
the years we have worked together, we have found agreement in Blackburn’s
(2006) philosophical stance of perspectivism. This stance argues that different
perspectives are a result of being positioned at different viewpoints and that
there is no absolute standpoint from which one can see the universe, but rather a
multiplicity of perspectives.
Additionally, our alignment with the central theme of a post-modernist
philosophical assumption and stance, which embraces and involves complexity, an
ethos of ‘both/and’ rather than ‘either/or’, enables us to accept seemingly different
 Divine Charura and Colin Lago 195

or opposing perspectives, paradoxically, side by side (Giovazolias, 2005; Wachtel,

2014). Within our epistemological position, nothing therefore is fixed but rather
there is fluidity across different positions. Thus, our interest and commitment to
difference and diversity is clearly demonstrative of us not privileging Eurocentric
perspectives but, as Nyoni (2019) argued, seeing the worthiness of non-Eurocentric
perspectives as equal knowledge generation partners.

Conclusion
Thus, simply put, a decolonised research curriculum is not just about inclusion
of a diverse range of research sources/references in the reading list but is an
active way of engaging with research and reflexivity. It is about challenging how
Eurocentric ideas are used to inform research and pre-eminence is given to
Western models of viewing mental health/ill health in psychotherapy/counselling
theories and Western psychology perspectives when they don’t always apply to
other groups (Keating, 2020). Doing this enables the non-defensive approach
to acknowledge the power and limitations of the theoretical perspectives and
methodologies employed in the research. Furthermore, this stance rightly disrupts
the presumed association between ethnicity and mental ill health, and the myth
that ethnicity in itself is a risk factor in mental health. Engaging with decolonising
the research curriculum also fosters learning and advancement in research that is
contemporary, non-colonial and challenges longstanding oppressions, biases and
omissions that limit how we understand therapeutic research, practice, politics
and contemporary society.
To conclude, we summarise this chapter by proposing the following 10 points:

1. It is important to embody a non-defensive approach and capacity for reflection.

This can be achieved through acknowledging and encouraging engagement
with one’s own ontological and epistemological stance in a way that embraces
an openness to learn from the literature of past research, from the participants/
data, awareness of intersectionality, diversity and culturally informed research
teaching, learning and design.

2. It is important for educators and researchers to have the awareness of the

historical impact of traumatic experiences faced by the populations they
will be working with or researching in. For example, in our area of interest,
namely trauma, we explore the impact of intergenerational trauma linked
to slavery in those of African heritage (Moodley & Walcott, 2010) and the
resulting epigenetic implications and transcultural perspectives (Lago &
Charura, 2015).

3. Researchers and practitioners should have a clear awareness about the difference
and diversity of experiences of their client/participants (individuals/group).
For example, in our chapter, cited above, this related to trauma, but it could
also relate to political and colonial oppression, genocide, disempowerment,
196 Towards a decolonised, psychotherapy research and practice

discrimination and so forth. In our teaching, we have encouraged students on

the research methods modules and when we have supervised/marked PhDs to
critique literature through a culturally sensitive and decolonised lens.

4. It is important to question the nature of research that has been done in your
area of interest and to check that the research participants in research into
your field reflect a diverse population globally. This enables engagement with
ethics and facilitates questioning whether there were/are culturally sensitive
recruitment methodologies employed in the research.

5. Engage in reflexivity that demonstrates cultural considerations in the pre-

testing and planning of research, selection/translation of instruments,
recruitment and the collection analysis and interpretation of data (Finlay,
2008).

6. It is important to conduct in-depth literature reviews that cite good examples

of theory and research that demonstrate a decolonised, culturally sensitive/
informed approach, thus enabling learners/researchers to have a solid
underpinning in their own approach.

7. Demonstrate trustworthiness and awareness of the depth of research within

your area of interest, including engagement with toolkits for ethical and
culturally sensitive research.

8. Question and reflect on your power as a researcher. This can be in relation to

critiquing the dominance of Eurocentric perspectives that exclude the multiple
realities and knowledge bases of your participants. It can also be in relation to
challenging unequal power relations with disadvantaged, marginalised groups
and communities (see Tillman, 2002).

9. We advocate facilitating reflection through co-creating with students/trainees

on counselling and psychotherapy research modules a positive environment
that enables reflection on the impact of negative feelings. The containment of
emotions and creation of space for feelings evoked in research learning, as a
result of reviewing literature and identifying discriminatory or disempowering
research practice that has historically resulted in serious harm to participants,
is important. (e.g. the Tuskegee syphilis experiment).

10. It is also important to identify studies that fail to demonstrate researchers’

challenge of their own cultural power or that assert a theoretical dominance or
perspective that results in unequal power over the population of participants.
 Divine Charura and Colin Lago 197

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 Rachel-Rose Burrell 199

18 Religion, therapy and mental health treatment

in diverse communities: Some critical
reflections and radical propositions
Rachel-Rose Burrell

This chapter explores personal and professional experiences that have shaped
my theoretical and research journey, pulling together elements central to my life
and work – namely being Black, female and Christian, attending a Black majority
church, and mental health and psychotherapy. It will describe how they have
interwoven over time and led me to bring about meaningful change. It will also
present an example of therapists working beyond the confines of the consulting
room to influence social institutions to become more humanely responsive and
better equipped to support their membership.

Early influences and experiences

As a student nurse in the 1980s, I was assigned a 13-week placement on a psychiatric
ward in a large hospital in central London. Walking onto the ward for the first time,
I felt shocked, frightened and confused. Most of the patients were Black; 90% were
Black men. It was overwhelming; I had never observed anything like this before.
During conversations with the patients, I realised they were heavily medicated.
My first counselling course introduced me to person-centred counselling,
which resonated with me because the core conditions appeared so similar to biblical
principles. Subsequent training courses in psychodynamic, CBT and transcultural
therapy helped to widen my scope, thinking and approach when working with
clients. However, I struggled with psychoanalytical theory: the symbolism and
frequent reference to sexuality and violence felt at odds with my biblical teaching
and Black culture.
These experiences with psychiatric care and counselling theories remained
imprinted on my mind and were significant markers in my professional and personal
development. I began asking questions, researching and adding my voice to other
like-minded professionals who were equally appalled with the numbers of Black
200 Religion, therapy and mental health treatment in diverse communities

people in the mental health system, with the design and delivery of counselling
courses, and with racism and discrimination generally. I joined the Association of
Black Psychologists and Operation Black Vote and rubbed shoulders with writers
who contributed to the journal of the Race and Cultural Education in Counselling
(RACE) division of the British Association for Counselling (as it was then called).
I became interested in the writings of Dr Na’im Akbar, particularly Know Thyself
(1998), and those of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. These authors emphasised
the importance of ‘we’, not ‘me’, and asserted that together people are richer, better
and stronger, both within and between racial groups.
After qualifying as a counsellor, I approached senior leaders in the Pentecostal
church I attended to gain their endorsement for a counselling initiative I wanted to
implement in the church, following years of hearing congregants talk about their
emotional and psychological struggles. The response I received was: ‘There is no
need for counselling when we have prayer.’ This perturbed me and raised many
questions, not least of which was: Why does it have to be either/or; why not both?
I felt stumped and decided not to pursue the project. Yet, over the years, I found
myself revisiting the interface between faith and therapy and questioning whether
the two could work together.
My experiences as a student and qualified nurse, and later as a counsellor and
psychotherapist, further stimulated my interest in Black mental health. These early
encounters raised questions and stirred emotions, leading me on a quest to find
solutions. In one of my early jobs as a residential psychotherapist, my first client, a
young Black woman, refused to see me because I was Black. I couldn’t understand
why; it was a very uncomfortable experience that left me feeling bewildered. It was
later explained to me this was an example of ‘internalised oppression’, of ‘turning
upon oneself, one’s family and one’s people the distress patterns that result from the
racism and oppression of the majority society’ (Lipsky, 1978, p.5).
The single two-hour lecture on diversity in counselling offered on my Master’s
course at a leading London university also left me perplexed by the little time
assigned to what was, and is, in my view, a huge and important community concern.
The issue of diversity in therapy training still needs to increase, in my opinion.

The alarming statistics of mental distress

I read several books by eminent psychiatrist and writer Suman Fernando (2002,
2012), and attended several of his seminars. He asserted little had changed since
his earlier publications in 1995 and 2002 – Black people were over-represented in
the mental health system, and this is still the case today. The mental health charity
Mind (n.d.) reports that 23% of Black or Black British people will experience a
common mental health problem in any given week. This compares with 17% of
white British people.
Fernando (2012) highlighted that Black people were between 10 and 20 times
more likely to be diagnosed as ‘schizophrenic’; more likely to be sectioned under
the Mental Health Act, or, since 2009, placed on community treatment orders.
They were also more likely to be deemed both ‘mad’ and ‘bad’ and so kept in
 Rachel-Rose Burrell 201

forensic institutes and not referred to or accepted for counselling or psychotherapy.

Black people were therefore more likely to be subjected to medication rather than
therapy. Fernando’s work supported my belief that church and community could
work together in supporting the mental health of Black people, but that the field
of psychiatry is slow to change, and also seems to hold a largely negative attitude
towards faith/religion.
The statistics are alarming (Mental Health Foundation, n.d.). People from
African and African-Caribbean communities in the UK are more likely than others
to be admitted to hospital for mental illness, as are people of mixed ethnicity. In
addition to common everyday concerns such as money worries and work-related
stress, African and African-Caribbean communities face further problems that
can affect their mental health, such as sub-standard housing, unemployment
and racism. Black people, and particularly Black men, are over-represented in
psychiatric hospitals and secure units, and more likely to come into care via the
police, rather than via their GP. This is attributed in part to not engaging with
services early enough, due to distrust and understandable fears of the mental
health system, stigma around mental health in their communities, and a belief that
counselling and other preventive and community-based mental wellbeing support
services are not relevant to them.
The image of counselling often alienates Black people further, as it is mainly
delivered by white, middle-class women, is rooted in white European theories,
and the services delivering it are staffed by white people using ritualistic and rigid
therapeutic processes (Jackson, 2019).
Worldwide, people who move from one country to another have a higher risk
of mental illness. This is especially true for Black people who move to majority
white countries, and the risk is even higher for their children (Mental Health
Foundation n.d.). In a report on Racial Disparities in Mental Health, Bignall and
colleagues (2019) urge service providers to do more: to have a better understanding
of cultural and faith beliefs of Black and minority ethnic communities and how
these impact on beliefs and behaviours around mental health; to improve their
recognition of symptoms and how these are expressed in different ethnic groups
(for example, depression in people of the Caribbean community); to increase their
understanding of how loss (particularly among refugee/migrant children) and
trauma are contributing factors to mental illness, and to develop a more holistic
approach that integrates mental health, physical health, culture and belief.

The historical development of Black majority churches

Howard (1987), quoting Duffield (1981), writes that Black people have been living
in Britain since at least Roman times. Britain’s Black population increased notably
during the First and Second World Wars, when soldiers, seamen, munitions
workers and others from the colonies rallied to fight for the Mother Country
(Fryer, 1984).
When the Second World War ended, there was a shortage of labour in Britain,
especially in the textile and heavy engineering industries, transport and healthcare.
202 Religion, therapy and mental health treatment in diverse communities

This factor was largely responsible for the invitation of the most recent and largest
African-Caribbean migration to the UK, beginning in June 1948 when the Empire
Windrush docked at Tilbury from Jamaica (Howard, 1987).
With religion being an integral part of many Caribbeans’ lives, on arrival to the
UK they attended the Sunday services at established local churches (e.g. Anglican,
Methodist) and responded to sermons and songs as they normally would, with
loud, vocally expressive and vibrant worship. The host congregations felt this style
of worship to be disruptive and inappropriate, compared with their more sedate
and passive way of participating, and the frequent result was that the new Black
congregants were told by the vicar, ‘Your people meet down the road’, or, ‘I’d prefer
if you didn’t come again’ (Aldred, 2016).
In response, Black Christians formed their own churches, often starting
in homes and expanding to halls and hired rooms until enough capital was
accumulated to buy church properties.
What has been termed the ‘the Windrush era’ since 1948 has seen a surge
of Black Christianity in Britain, which has had a profound effect on British
society, including the church. According to Clarke (2015), a range of factors has
contributed to the growth of Pentecostal Christianity in the UK, including the
desire to maintain a sense of cultural identity in an unfamiliar and generally
unwelcoming society. Church was a place of refuge and acceptance where
spiritual, social, economic and emotional needs could be met (Charman, 1979;
Cooper, 2013).

Faith, church membership and mental health

A vast amount of research already exists with regard to the influence of religion
on health, including mental health. Some studies have demonstrated that being
religious results in:

• more hope, optimism and life satisfaction (Koenig, 2009)

• less depression and faster remission of depression (Koenig, 2007; Smith et al.,
2003)
• lower rates of suicide (Van Praag, 2009)
• reduced drug and alcohol abuse (Cook et al., 1997)
• reduced delinquency (Johnson et al., 2000)
• some evidence of reduced anxiety rates (although other studies indicate
that anxiety levels are heightened in the more religious) (Koenig et al., 2012;
Shrieve-Neiger & Edelstein, 2004)
• some evidence that prayers and Bible reading help people with psychosis cope
with their voices, and that higher levels of religiosity increase compliance with
medication (Mohr et al., 2006).

Anderson (2000) emphasises that healing is central to many world religions,

including Pentecostal Christianity. He focuses on African Pentecostalism,
 Rachel-Rose Burrell 203

highlighting that, for some, faith in God’s power to heal physical and mental illness
directly through prayer has resulted in rejection of other forms of healing. There
is the suggestion that the process of healing should involve modern medicine
working together with traditionally or culturally informed practices (Thachil &
Bhugra, 2009).
With regard to the role of the church in helping individuals with mental distress,
researchers at the University of Birmingham found that, historically, churches have
provided a range of help and support to individuals in mental distress that is often
undervalued and overlooked (Gilbert & Nicholls, 2003).
Miller (1999) suggests that incorporating spiritual perspectives in secular
treatment has been found to improve outcomes for religious clients. In terms of
how church membership can impact health, Miller (1999) suggests that a spiritual
community can provide spiritual fellowship as a source of social support and
enhance a sense of belonging, security and community. This was also demonstrated
by VanderWeele (2017), who found a strong association between church attendance
and improved health, mood and wellbeing.
Different communities understand and talk about mental health and
psychological concerns in different ways. This subject remains taboo in many
African and Caribbean communities, and consequently within their churches.
In some communities, mental health problems are rarely spoken about and can
be seen in a negative light. Such attitudes inevitably discourage people within the
community from talking about their mental health and can prove to be a barrier to
engagement with health services (Mermon et al., 2016).
Black majority churches have long been cited as places of safety and
sanctuary, providing spiritual and practical support and promoting self-
progression, strong identity, purpose and connectedness. All of these positively
contribute to wellbeing, and the health benefits in terms of reduced anxiety
and depression, for example, have been widely researched (Akhazemea, 2015).
However, churches have also been associated with being hostile, punitive and
unsupportive environments for individuals with mental health difficulties (and
sometimes for those with none); as places where a person cannot be themselves
but is expected to conform or risk being alienated. This abuse of power and
control often has devastating and long-lasting effects. In addition, the Black
Christian can find themself worshipping alongside their aggressor – those who
are judgemental and disapproving. Thorne (2003) writes that organised religion
has caused suffering to countless numbers of people, causing them to feel judged,
wicked and unlovable.
The significance of the leader/pastor of the church and how they might
influence attitudes, interpretations and behaviours in relation to ill health and
mental illness cannot be underestimated. Black majority churches have a significant
place in the psychological care of their congregants, and it is clear that faith and
belonging to, or regularly attending, a church are central to health and wellbeing.
However, creating a church culture that cultivates awareness, understanding and
compassion around mental health is key.
204 Religion, therapy and mental health treatment in diverse communities

Researching responses to mental health in Black majority

churches
Having attended Black majority churches since childhood, and with my background
in mental health, I was drawn to research the provision of holistic care within the
church, in terms both of prevention and treatment intervention.
The study I undertook, ‘The Black majority church: Exploring the impact
of faith and a faith community on mental health and wellbeing’ (Burrell, 2019),
examined interpretations of problems, coping strategies and help-seeking
behaviour of Black Christians attending a Black majority church. Black majority
church communities are the fastest-growing group of Christians in the UK
(Christian Research, 2006), and a growing body of research now exists on their role
in supporting individuals in mental distress (Bhugra, 1997; Edge, 2010; Leavey,
2004). Fifty-six people participated in the study – 11 males and 45 females. Between
them, they represented nine denominations of Black majority church, including
New Testament, Apostolic, Independent and Catholic. Eleven focus groups and
seven individual interviews were conducted, and the data were analysed using
thematic analysis and narrative inquiry.
My findings suggest that music, prayer, The Word (preaching, quoting/
reading the Holy Bible) and belonging to a church provide a positive sense of
wellbeing. Lack of understanding of mental health issues within the church,
distrust, ignorance and leaders lacking adequate training and qualifications were
cited as areas impacting negatively on mental health and wellbeing. Faith in God
emerged as central to mental stability and wellbeing, and was considered more
effective and appropriate than therapy, in some cases. Mistrust and suspicion
of psychiatrists and mental health services was expressed by the research
participants, often based on both first- and second-hand experiences of the
effects of medication, negative encounters, lack of understanding and little or no
access to talking therapies.
Research participants recovering from or living with mental health difficulties
voiced a wish to be respected, to be treated with kindness, to receive a warm
welcome when they attend church services and to be contacted regularly. A culture
of acceptance, openness and de-stigmatising mental health problems, rather than
spiritualising and demonising them, was emphasised. Participants stressed that
leaders should be better equipped to deal with both the congregants’ and their own
mental health concerns.
In response to these identified needs, I have developed a range of products and
services designed to address areas of concern raised by participants in the study.
In the early stages of the study, I launched ‘Speak Your Mind’ on Ruach Radio,
an award-winning, 24-hour Christian radio station. The talk show discussed
mental health issues using biblical and psychological principles, and addressed
what mental health is, the signs and symptoms of mental ill health, how to maintain
good mental health and where to find help. Christian professionals were invited to
share their expertise on a range of mental health topics, such as dementia, body
dysmorphia, depression and anger.
 Rachel-Rose Burrell 205

I also developed Sozo Therapeo, as a resource for churches to promote,

improve and maintain good mental health through information, education and
therapy. Sozo Therapeo provides bespoke training packages, information and
access to counselling services to Black majority churches and faith- and non-
faith-based organisations. This initiative was developed in response to the lack
of training among church leaders/leadership teams and their being generally
insensitive and ill-equipped to manage mental health distress within Black majority
churches. Leaders and church members can approach the service for signposting,
information and training, and its website lists other Christian-based support
services and helpline numbers for non-Christians.
Research participants made specific reference to the lack of professional
counselling that is sensitive to their racial and religious backgrounds, and
emphasised the need for those providing such support to be trained in this. I
have therefore developed a directory of qualified practitioners/therapists who
are practising Christians of African, Caribbean or Black British background,
thereby providing some degree of choice to individuals seeking a therapist who
acknowledges religious, cultural and racial factors. I have also developed and
piloted two training workshops, ‘Mental Health Awareness for Church Leaders’
and ‘Counselling Skills for Pastors and Leadership Teams’. They were designed
in response to participants who had approached their church leaders for help
and were left feeling worse, or in some instances damaged. The workshops aim
to equip leaders to recognise signs of possible mental ill health, to develop good
communication skills when engaging with distressed members and to build
confidence in signposting and referral processes.
A common issue raised by my research participants was the insufficient
numbers of Black consultants, Black policymakers and books on mental health
from a Black perspective to increase awareness and bring about change. In
response, I created two training manuals, Mental Health Awareness for Churches
and Counselling Skills for Pastors and Leadership Teams, knowing that some pastors
would not attend training but might prefer to read printed material. Reading about
how to manage mental health might help pastors and leaders avoid the damage
caused to congregants through ignorance and inappropriate interventions. The
manuals use biblical and psychological principles and can be used in conjunction
with the training sessions or as a stand-alone reference guide.
In addition, I provide consultancy to churches on setting up counselling
services. I also developed a church-based therapy forum where members meet to
discuss current issues and share resources, good practice and training. The aim
is to facilitate joint events, provide a network of support, reduce the number of
counsellors working in isolation and create a referral network.

Critiques of the current training for counsellors and

psychotherapists
My research findings implicitly pose the following question of traditional therapy
services: ‘How equipped do therapists feel to deal with race and religious issues in the
206 Religion, therapy and mental health treatment in diverse communities

consulting room?’ Awareness of the different ways in which Black Christians approach
their problems may have implications for how secular agencies promote services, use
therapeutic models and formulate treatment programmes. Such re-visioning needs to
enhance therapists’ capacities to deal with issues of race and religion and open their
attitudes towards traditional healing and culturally informed practices.
Marrington-Mir and Rimmer (2007), in their paper on ‘Black and minority
ethnic people and mental health in Britain: An holistic approach’, challenge the
medically dominated mental health orthodoxy in Britain and advocate for an
integrated community development approach, underpinned by anti-racist and
empowering practices. They offer successful practice examples of a holistic, self-
governed mental health system for Black people in Britain. The authors take
issue with the ‘championing’ of the singular medical model, traced to the birth of
psychiatry in England and North America in the mid-19th century, with critics
evidencing recurring themes of oppression, control and intolerance of difference
(Fernando & Keating, 1995; Ndegwa & Olajide, 2003; Szasz, 1977).
Zahid (2017), in her compelling paper about the Black experience in mental
health services, states that mainstream mental health services are failing to
understand and/or provide services that are acceptable and accessible to Black and
ethnic minority communities and cannot meet their cultural needs. She highlights
that mainstream approaches to counselling and psychotherapy might be so bound
up by European assumptions about human nature that they become irrelevant
to people from non-European cultures. She posits that the experience of slavery,
colonialism, and oppression has been grossly underestimated within the therapy
world, considering that psychotherapy research and practice evolved during the
late 19th century when racism was the norm.
In her paper, Zahid (2017) raises the question: ‘How do we address racism and
cultural bias in the therapy world so that it isn’t re-enacted within the therapeutic
relationship?’ Zahid emphasises that cultural awareness training is key and that it is
important to explore one’s own prejudices, assumptions and issues regarding race
and racism (Thomas, 1998), so that our cultural story does not unconsciously spill
into the therapy room and cause clients to disengage from counselling services.
Zahid warns that, if therapists ignore race or don’t deal with it adequately, there is
a danger of the therapist and client re-enacting historical racist dynamics, and that
the therapist may misjudge ‘political’ resistance as ‘therapeutic’ resistance.

Religion and psychology: An unholy alliance

Interestingly, ‘psyche’, the root word of psychology, psychotherapy and
psychoanalysis, translates to mind, emotions and feeling. But, according to Jacobs
(1998, p.4), soul and spirit are more accurate descriptions. As therapy has evolved,
there has been a deliberate attempt to move away from ‘healing the soul/spirit’ and
to take the spirit out of psychology.
Religion and psychology have for centuries occupied polar positions, often
regarding each other with suspicion. Leading figures within the field of therapy
have been less than complimentary of religion for many decades. Freud’s work
 Rachel-Rose Burrell 207

was very much influenced by literature such as the work of Charles Darwin
(1874/2004). Freud promoted his view in several works, such as The Future of
an Illusion (1927/1989), in which he pathologises religion as ‘a system of wishful
illusions together with a disavowal of reality, such as we find nowhere else… but
in a state of blissful hallucinatory confusion’. In his short paper, ‘Obsessive Acts
and Religious Practice’ (1907), regarded as the first major essay on the psychology
of religion, Freud suggests ‘obsessional neurosis’ may be taken as a pathological
counterpart to religion – a kind of individual religiosity, with religion functioning
as a universal obsessional neurosis (see Lukoff et al., 2011 for a helpful review of
Freud’s and his contemporaries’ writings on religion).
Thorne (2003) describes how the post-Second World War generation became
disenchanted with Christianity and were therefore primed and ready to fully
embrace humanistic psychology, noting that for some this became the new secular
religion. Thorne reflects on his clinical practice over several decades and identifies
various demands clients have made of him, such as ‘love me’, ‘heal me’ or ‘give me
meaning’. He suggests that recent changes to the major institutions of society –
family, organised religion and medicine – have left those who need love, healing
and meaning not knowing where to turn. In this social vacuum, he suggests, the
therapist has offered hope and become the substitute family, doctor and priest. It is
likely that many church leaders perceive themselves as lover, healer and provider
of meaning to their congregants, but this can only become a true reality if they are
also prepared to practise what they preach.
Studies carried out to explore religion in the consulting room show increasing
attention being paid to how therapists might respond respectfully and usefully
to clients’ religious and spiritual beliefs and commitments (Coyle & Lochner,
2011). Therapists are encouraged to engage constructively with clients’ religious
and spiritual material to enrich therapeutic experience and effectiveness. Coyle
and Lochner (2011) mention that, within Western liberal social discourse,
religion has often been associated with negative qualities such as conflict, control,
judgementalism and anti-intellectualism. To ignore or attempt to deconstruct the
religious and spiritual beliefs of clients could have major adverse implications. As
Bergin and Payne (1991, p.201) point out:

Ignorance of spiritual constructs and experience predispose a therapist to

misjudge, misinterpret, misunderstand, mismanage, or neglect important
segments of a client’s life, which may impact significantly on adjustment or
growth.

There is evidence that clients with strong religious beliefs may be wary of seeking
therapy in non-religious settings because of such fears (Mayers et al., 2007).
Crossley and Salter (2005) carried out a study of clinical psychologists’
experience of addressing spiritual beliefs in therapy. They found that, while some
practitioners reported a proactive approach, others waited for clients to raise
spiritual issues on the assumption that, if these were significant, the client would
208 Religion, therapy and mental health treatment in diverse communities

mention them without prompting, but this assumption may not always be justified.
Client feedback suggests that some therapists take a suspicious, even hostile
attitude to the subject of religion (Burrell, 2019). Here is one client’s experience:

When I was ill, I certainly learned VERY quickly to keep the spiritual side
of myself separate from the rest of myself whenever I met with any of the
‘professionals’. (Jenkins, 2006, p.80)

Clients may be anxious that faith issues will be considered pathological if they bring
them to therapy. This is echoed by Dein (2004), who suggests many psychiatrists
see religion as primitive, guilt-inducing, a form of dependence, irrational and
having no empirical basis.
Thorne (2003), however, observes that therapists are showing a change in
attitude towards spirituality and spiritual dimensions of personality. In his view,
therapists who, in the past, rejected such notions now acknowledge their relevance
and have even been forced to review their own understanding of human nature
and destiny. He attests that this is partly driven by clients pursuing meaning and
insisting that therapists explore this in the work, and partly due to a sea change in
the fields of both psychology and theology, resulting in a developing dialogue.
Thorne (2003) outlines three positions for the therapist in a profession where
it is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid spiritual/religious issues. The therapist:

1. can deny the reality of spirituality and see such phenomena as explicable in
psychological terms and therefore not requiring any further exploration
2. can acknowledge the validity of spiritual experience but dismiss it as something
therapists are not equipped to respond to, or
3. can accept spiritual experiences as a natural and normal part of being human.

Thorne asserts it is commonplace for spiritual experiences to occur in the

consulting room in the form of extraordinary coincidences, sudden premonition
or overwhelming feelings of love or of oneness, if one is willing to embrace the
idea. He shares his belief that we are all spiritual beings.

Implications for training counsellors and psychotherapists

It is pleasing to see BACP moving from simply suggesting spirituality, faith and
religion might be included in therapy and supervision training (Harborne, 2008)
to a stronger position, as now stated by its Spirituality division (n.d.):

We are committed to understanding and working at the interface between

spirituality, belief, faith and religion in relation to counselling and
psychotherapy practice, training and research. We seek to advance standards
of good practice, develop and promote a climate in which the subject of
spirituality can be acknowledged and discussed freely, openly and inclusively.
 Rachel-Rose Burrell 209

Tribe (2014) argues that awareness of race, culture and diversity is a fundamental
element of good professional practice for all psychologists and an imperative
element of training:

The need for all clinicians to be fully cognisant with issues relating to race,
culture and diversity within mental health and to use these in their daily
clinical practice is a core skill and requirement. (p.134)

This is reinforced in the British Psychological Society Division of Counselling

Psychology publication, Race, Culture and Diversity (Ade-Serrano et al., 2017),
which states clearly, to all counselling psychologists: ‘Lacking an awareness of race,
culture and difference is unethical’ (p.2), and repeats the call to:

… bring about a change in the thinking of and attitudes towards race,

culture and difference, particularly within the areas of training, clinical
practice and supervision… (p.1)

One issue frequently highlighted by counselling students is the lack of adequate

content on race and diversity within most counselling training curricula
(Jackson, 2018). It is also argued that the professionals delivering these courses
ought to be representative of the communities, ethnicities and diversities they
are trying to raise awareness about. These students (and other professionals)
from ethnically diverse backgrounds have commented that the training offered
does not complement their experiences or speak to their identities as individuals
(Ellis & Cooper, 2013).
Diversity within therapy training requires a radical review, an enhanced and
better informed curriculum and substantially more time devoted to it.

Conclusion
The research cited in this chapter contributes to a growing body of knowledge that
suggests that churches have an important role in supporting individuals in mental
distress. However, Black majority churches do not always provide the welcome,
safety and healing their congregants seek when experiencing mental distress. More
information, understanding and basic counselling/healing skills are needed among
church leaders.
That said, the traditional suspicion of religion within the psy-professions and
counselling does not serve the Black community well. Therapists, too, need to be
better informed about the role of Black majority churches in the lives of their Black
and minority ethnic clients, as well as the importance of faith and how it impacts
interpretation of problems and help-seeking behaviour.
If we are to support the mental health of the Black, Christian client in a holistic
and culturally sensitive way, a genuine person-centred approach and a joined-up,
respectful partnership between church and community services is the only way
forward.
210 Religion, therapy and mental health treatment in diverse communities

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 Fiona A. Beckford 213

19 Race and cognitive dissonance: Could

supervision be a way of connecting tutors to
students?
Fiona A. Beckford

As a psychotherapist who, over the years, has attended many training sessions with
tutors looking to navigate their way through the unpredictable topic of ‘equality
and diversity’, it is clear to me that there are some who have little or no problem
addressing issues surrounding racial difference and how these dynamics play out in
psychotherapy training; there are some who attempt to manage the topic, but seem
to crash and burn at the first sign of a challenge, and there are others who shut it
down the moment it presents itself. In such instances, I was often left wondering of
the tutor: ‘What on earth were you thinking?’
But before we go into white tutors and their cognitive dissonance, permit me
to share what this looked like for one Black British family.
My parents were part of the Windrush generation. They left Clarendon,
Jamaica for England in 1962, and on arriving in the UK went straight to work
and decided to start a family. They were conscientious, working-class people
who understood the importance of hard work in order to achieve a better life for
themselves and their family. With one skilled in a trade and the other battling low
academic confidence, to be offered a job and then retain it was one of the biggest
achievements and challenges they faced, or so they thought. Securing employment
would mean the difference between being able to pay the mortgage or instantly
becoming homeless in a hostile environment. With a young family, this was not an
option. Although this might appear elementary, they had an additional, day-to-day
battle to fight, one that they had never encountered before , that had nothing to do
with mortgage payments, yet presented itself on a weekly if not daily basis to them,
constantly threatening to jeopardise their objectives and ambitions: cognitive
dissonance.
Cognitive dissonance describes the feelings of discomfort that result when your
beliefs run counter to your behaviours and/or new information that is presented
to you (Perlovsky, 2013). As people of colour, my parents were subjected to regular
214 Race and cognitive dissonance

racial abuse from strangers and neighbours; even small children in the street
could hurl insults at brown or Black people, with no reprimand and little or no
repercussions. And each time a derogatory or offensive comment, sound or gesture
was made towards them, my parents, without fail, would conduct themselves with
dignity, and in such a way that it appeared the intended communication had no
effect. But this was not the case. Externally, their behaviour implied they were not
perturbed or discomposed by the treatment they received, but internally they were
maddened and enraged, oftentimes wanting to give as good as they got. However,
had they expressed their anger the way they wanted to, the community that
surrounded them would have frowned on their response. Newspaper headlines,
television narratives and race-hate graffiti had taught them any display of anger or
retaliation, however justified, could have damaging consequences, resulting in the
potential for longer-lasting harassment and hate targeting.
By all accounts, judging by today’s standards, my parents were not highly
educated people. However, they possessed an ability to absorb, process and
productively thrive from a place of strength and resilience, which resulted in
them teaching their children to be resilient, persistent, intentional and to ‘dream
big’, despite the messages and behaviour they received on arriving and settling in
England throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
If Black British citizens could manage this level of relentless cognitive
dissonance, I couldn’t help but wonder, why did it appear to be so difficult for white
psychotherapy tutors who face racial challenges in training settings to manage
theirs?
As a young girl growing up, I became curious as to what it was like for
white children my age, whose parents, uncles, aunts and so on imposed their
conscious or unconscious racial bias or fear of difference onto them. I wondered
if the children shared the same perspective as the adults around them. For those
children who grew up and entered the psychotherapy profession and became
educators or tutors, what had their journey into teaching looked like and did it
carry a racial or cultural component of inclusion? Had they considered that one
day they might tutor students of colour and, if so, what ‘isms’ they might bring
into the training room? Before teaching, how had they prepared themselves to
manage the transgenerational traumas and microaggressions (DiAngelo, 2012)
that many people of colour had experienced and that would undoubtedly emerge
during group discussions? If the majority of the faculty were themselves white,
where would the Black perspective come from and how could it be successfully
integrated into their teaching approach?

Researching these questions

This curiosity led me to conduct a piece of small-scale qualitative research using
interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to explore the lived experience of
white tutors delivering training on matters of race to Black students. To recruit
participants, I contacted 22 institutions offering psychotherapy training courses in
areas with relatively high Black populations (London, Birmingham, Coventry and
 Fiona A. Beckford 215

Wolverhampton). Each institution varied in size and theoretical approach, and all
provided BACP accredited courses. Of the 22 contacted, 20 were unable to provide
assistance (e.g. by circulating the research request for white tutors or providing an
email address to send the information letter to). One institution told me it used
an external company to provide ‘diversity training’, so had no in-house tutors who
could participate, and one institution agreed to circulate the advert to its tutors,
which yielded no response. As recruiting via more conventional methods was not
working, I wondered if the topic created at best unease or at worse resistance or
anger. I posted an advert on the BACP website, which also yielded no response.
Finally, to recruit the four participants in this study, I resorted to ‘word of
mouth’ and adopted the ‘snowball’ approach, where one participant recommends
another and so on. I did this twice, and on both occasions was successful. I
interviewed four white tutors – two male, two female – and asked them the same
semi-structured questions related to their experiences in the training room.
The findings gathered from this research showed white tutors experience
cognitive dissonance in relation to addressing race-related themes in training and
struggle with feelings of shame, anger and internalised racism. Other research
from the literature shows that tutors believe more can be done on an institutional
level to reform the racial status quo for psychotherapy tutors (Bezrukova et al.,
2012; Hays & Chang, 2003; Pajak, 2003; Ryde, 2005).
However, in order for this to materialise, training institutions and governing
bodies would need to take greater responsibility, which in turn would require
the decision-makers within the higher echelons of such institutions to include
representatives from different ethnicities. These representatives would sit alongside
them and share control and responsibilities to reflect and consider the needs of our
ever-changing multicultural communities.
In the rest of this chapter, I will present my findings relating to one main
question from the research: ‘What has been your experience as a white tutor
delivering training on matters of race to Black students in the psychotherapy
training context?’ To protect their identity, participants have been given
pseudonyms. Anna, Stuart and Neville identify as white English and Millie as a
‘white foreigner’.
The following themes appeared throughout the research: privilege and power,
personal reflection, awareness of their bias, avoidance, silence and ‘The Voice’. The
Voice represents what Welsing (1991) names as ‘every area of society’ that endorses
without exception that ‘being white equals being superior’ and Anna provides a
great example with her own experience of cognitive dissonance, when she says:

That Voice, I think I’m superior because I’m white. Now, I knew that wasn’t
my fault because that’s not what I believe but it’s what my experience had
taught me.

Tables 19.1 to 19.5 show the themes and relevant quotations produced from the
research. Between each table are my interpretations.
216 Race and cognitive dissonance

Table 19.1: White tutors and history

Superordinate Subordinate Selected illustrative quotations

themes themes

Conditions How history Millie: Uh, and torture and things that relate
associated with impacts tutors to the history of Black people. So, somehow, I
cognitive dissonance think it’s different… me… my whiteness if you
like, is different to if I was a… I don’t know, a
Dutch or a Portuguese or a Spaniard, or, uh, you
know with the colonial history.

Anna: I think it’s guilt. That’s what I think it is,

it’s guilt and it’s – um, wanting to make it all
okay and I’m not like that, but I can’t go into
that place, I can’t, alright. I mean it’s very, very
painful, it’s very painful.
Interviewer: In what way?
Anna: Now you see, it’s unfair, but you want it
to be fair.

Stuart: I used to do some training with a

colleague of Asian heritage, um, with colleges
and local authorities. But because it was so
radical, it was just really… It really named the
issues of power, discrimination, you know,
power, powerlessness, um, the complexity of
history etcetera, etcetera.

When asked, ‘What has been your experience as a white tutor delivering training
on matters of race to Black students in the psychotherapy training context?’, all
participants agreed that race is everywhere and ever present. The same can be said
of its historical legacy, which accompanies all students into the training room in
one way or another.
Of the three participants who shared their experience of delivering training
on matters of race to Black students, each appears to hold a completely different
view on how the explosive forces of Black and white history impacts them. Yet
each makes reference to the historical component related to race, which plays a
significant part in their ability to tutor students of colour.
Millie previously shared that she came from a country that did not enslave
or colonise people from the African diaspora, but her country of origin was itself
invaded and exploited, which generated ‘racism’ and ‘trauma’. So to her, being
white but not English means her ‘whiteness is different’, so she sees herself as ‘other’.
To provide a comprehensive answer to my question, Millie expresses a
cognitive dissonance that is far more complex, subtle and nuanced than simply the
Black and white contention. Millie brings into focus ‘differences within whiteness’,
which highlights and acknowledges that being ‘white’ is not a singular, monolithic
experience. This is important to highlight, otherwise there could be a danger of
getting into binary thinking, rather than something more elusive and implicit.
While white privilege exists, not all whites experienced the same benefits, such as
 Fiona A. Beckford 217

the Irish, Jews, some Eastern Europeans and those from the Mediterranean (Ford,
2011, p.1017). However, this privilege is still attributed to all white people, and not
to those of colour.
Anna shares that the cognitive dissonance she experiences comes from a
painful place within herself. She acknowledges that, on hearing Black students
share their truth of discrimination during training and witnessing their pain,
which is oftentimes dismissed, she has felt this pain herself and believes that both
hers and that of other white tutors she’s worked with have stemmed from a place
of guilt. For Anna, this guilt is fuelled by a longing to rectify the historic wrongs
Black people have been subjected to, as she sees their injustices as ‘unfair’, not
only in society but also in psychotherapy training. Consequently, she chooses
to tutor a multicultural group of psychotherapy students, in the hope that she
can make a significant difference by openly addressing with students the ‘guilt’
elephant in the room.
With more than 40 years of experience in discussing and exploring matters
specifically related to racial discrimination and injustice, Stuart is clearly a
seasoned educator and a reflective tutor. As he shares, I find it interesting that, even
with a tutor of colour co-presenting, this does not appear to dilute or distract the
participants from the inescapable reality of those with historic and current power
and those without (the ‘powerful’ and the ‘powerless’). The recurring experience
Stuart expresses in the ‘complexity of history’ (racial) is paralleled in the complexity
of his racial discussions and brings to the forefront the cognitive dissonance he
experiences as a white male delivering this type of training.
The rest of the data will be explored through the considerations of how
supervision could be used to address the subordinate themes and quotations from
each participant.

Table 19.2: Avoiding white anger

Superordinate Subordinate Selected illustrative quotations

themes themes

Conditions Accumulation of Neville: Um, whereas, you know, the experience

associated with avoiding white on the other – on the other side, it’s different
cognitive dissonance anger and they tend to avoid the issue.
Interviewer: Hmm. When you say, ‘they‘, who
are you referring to?
Neville: The non-Blacks.

Interviewer: In what way is it painful for you?

Anna: That people have to suffer that at the
hands, if you like, of the oppressor, no – not if
you like, at the hands of the oppressive group
that I belong to.
Interviewer: Um…
Anna: Right, and I do belong to an oppressive
group.
218 Race and cognitive dissonance

Stuart: Um, I-I-I think there was something

about, um, uh, a – a sense that they were
feeling accused. They were feeling defensive,
um, as if I was saying they were absolutely
responsible for, yeah, etcetera. Uh, as if, in some
way, by inference, wh-what I was trying to say,
‘Let’s just have a look at these things,’ you know.
‘These are the statistics, this is what’s going
on, I wonder…’, you know. Um, and however
inoffensive or diplomatic I feel myself to be,
um, there was a sense that clearly, I-I was
pulling a trigger. I was pulling the trigger of
something of defensiveness. Uh, that was my
interpretation, that somehow, suddenly, I’d put
them into a position of discomfort.
Interviewer: Right.
Stuart: Uh, and from an earlier position of a
greater comfort, i-it was more comfortable to
discuss cultural origins. It was less comfortable
to talk about patterns of prejudice.
Interviewer: Okay, and can you recall which of
the students felt uncomfortable, were you able
to identify who they were?
Stuart: Uh, I mean, um, yes, to a great extent.
I’m – I’m talking about the white students in the
group or the white participants.

Here we see Neville, Anna and Stuart describing scenarios where they have either
tried to avoid the race discussion with students because past experience has taught
them that the ‘non-Blacks’ in the group (meaning white students) don’t want to
address it; or the weight of their historical, oppressive whiteness is present, which
triggers their cognitive dissonance; or the sheer idea or mention of exploring racial
or social justice matters moves white students (for the most part) from a place of
comfort to a place of discomfort. This discomfort morphs into defensiveness, which
triggers not only other students in the group but cognitive dissonance in the tutor.

Supervision
There is an argument that says tutors could discuss these thoughts and feelings with
other tutors, who may understand, which is true. However, these are extremely
personal, exceptionally emotive, highly sensitive and tremendously controversial
issues to discuss with anyone, so each tutor would need the protection of the
therapeutic alliance, clear boundaries, the knowledge of a non-judgemental
environment and the absolute certainty of confidentiality.
For some white tutors, it would be difficult to assert that the message from The
Voice (‘I think I’m superior because I’m white’) is wrong, especially as the evidence
in psychotherapy race-related training doesn’t support it. So, tutors require a
safe place to be able to move from a place of comfort to a place of manageable
discomfort, which would mature and develop their multicultural skillset. Too much
 Fiona A. Beckford 219

comfort means we’re not growing, so it is necessary to be able to challenge and

explore different ways of thinking in order to be effective when teaching students.
If tutors are unwilling to become uncomfortable as part of the learning process,
how can we teach or expect students to do this?
Table 19.3: Escaping the oppression

Superordinate Subordinate Selected illustrative quotations

themes themes

Conditions Attributing Anna: So, what my experience is in general, is

associated with causing offence to from what students tell me. Which is when they
cognitive dissonance lack of knowledge try to bring their experience of oppression into
the training, the truth is tutors can’t hold it…
But I can’t go into my own oppressions.
Because that’s something I learnt from my Black
tutors. You know, if the white person goes into all
their oppressions, which of course we all have, we
are all oppressors and oppressed. Right? Who’s
there for the Black students and client? And my
students tell me that that’s what happens.

Neville: That I’m somehow going to put my

foot in it because I don’t understand and cause
offence or something, yeah.

In different ways, both Anna and Neville are talking about the need for tutors to stay
‘present’ for their students and not allow themselves to dissociate. As a practitioner
or a tutor, when countertransference takes place, it’s very easy to stop listening as
the focus of our attention switches from the other to ourselves. This is exactly what
Anna and Neville are talking about: either the fear ‘of us’ getting it wrong, or tutors
being drawn into and focusing on ‘their own’ oppression instead of staying with
that of the students.

Supervision
It’s vital that tutors whose thinking may match that of the other ‘non-Blacks’ in
the training room are able to share, explore and discuss in a safe setting how Black
oppression triggers them, so they can stay in the uncomfortable moment. If white
tutors can stay on track and pilot a way through this stormy and difficult subject,
they will be modelling to their students how they too can do the same (like my
parents did for me).

Table 19.4: Is the price right?

Superordinate Subordinate Selected illustrative quotations

themes themes

Conditions Emotional cost in Millie: Uh, so, there’s some… so in my… I don’t
associated with staying connected know what students thought about me, but
cognitive dissonance in my experience, I felt an affinity [to Black
students].
220 Race and cognitive dissonance

Stuart: Then we’d have lunch and then I’d

say, ‘I’m wondering if, you know, that we
need – begin to need to also look at, kind of,
the structural relations within society and
what’s going on.’ And it often felt as if, and I’m
dramatising this, but it often felt as if sometimes
the whole group would be at my throat.

Anna: It’s, you know, sometimes when we do

this diversity stuff and we get onto the Black/
white issue, I feel like my heart is being torn
out.

Millie: Yeah, I did, I did feel that, and I felt, I

think early in – earlier in my career, maybe I
was a bit more careful and sensitive, like I was
very – I was more aware of how to talk about
these things, maybe because I was feeling
over-protective, but I think that this over
protectiveness…
Interviewer: Of whom?
Millie: Of the… yeah, of the pain I might touch
upon when I talk about issues of race.
Interviewer: Pain in whom?
Millie: In – in the Black student.

Millie, Stuart and Anna shared with me the very personal and emotional cost that
comes with delivering race-related training. It’s embodied!
Millie feels ‘an affinity’ with the Black students in the group. I would go as far
to say maybe this affinity could be extended to any student who could be classed as
‘other’, as this is how she views herself. Maybe from Millie’s sense of ‘other’ comes
this protective, almost maternal ‘careful and sensitive’ side that carries with it an
understanding of what it means to be othered and the pain associated with it.
Anna also speaks of a heart-felt pain that comes as part and parcel of race-
related training. She expresses her own experience of this pain and, previously in
this chapter, of the oppression she is aware she cannot go into, otherwise the Black
students in the training will be sidelined.
Stuart’s experience seemed to be full of dread of the ‘after lunch‘ sessions, as
previous encounters have taught him that the afternoon sessions are where the
whole group could project their fears, anger or rage onto him, which he would then
have to hold psychologically and physically, indefinitely.

Supervision
The personal toll and subsequent emotional exhaustion experienced by tutors who
take on the race discussion is massive and overwhelming, and they need a place to
debrief after training. Both the institutions that employ the services of tutors and
the tutors themselves are in the business of confronting, addressing and working
through the historic psychological and emotional pain of others. How effective are
 Fiona A. Beckford 221

we being as a profession if tutors (and the institutions that employ them) appear
too afraid to tackle the very real and difficult pain presented by racially diverse
groups?

Table 19.5: The voice and its messages

Superordinate Subordinate Selected illustrative quotations

themes themes

Conditions Attributing Anna: One of the hardest things that ever

associated with personal came out for me in my life, and it took me a
cognitive dissonance experience of year, to allow it to come from the back to full
superiority to consciousness. That ‘Voice’, I think I’m superior
messages from because I’m white. Now, I knew that wasn’t my
society fault because that’s not what I believe but it’s
what my experience had taught me.

Neville: Yeah, I sometimes find it quite

difficult because, um, although I have had to
experience exclusion myself being bisexual and
even identifying as gay for a while, I realised
that my background has meant I don’t know
what it’s like. I’ve been in the majority.
Interviewer: Hmm.
Neville: Or the group that is advantaged,
maybe. And so I’m kind of always rather a bit
edgy about it, that’s my experience.

Unfortunately, the deception perpetuated by society that ‘being white equals being
superior’ and ‘being Black or of colour equals being inferior’ is believed by many
on both sides. All of us are equal; however, as Anna suggests, we have certainly
not all had equal experiences of life. Here are two different white tutors (Anna and
Neville) who, in sharing their experiences of delivering race-related training to Black
students, appear to hold polar opposite ways of approaching and addressing the task.
In answering my question, the cognitive dissonance that seemed to be present meant
that Neville felt the need to ‘go into’ his oppression in order to help him appropriately
respond. However, Anna is able to ‘hold it’ and talks it through by sharing the
challenge she underwent in recognising that the message ‘The Voice’ had been
feeding her did not align with what she believed. Anna doesn’t see the need to speak
from the perspective of her oppression or unprocessed cognitive dissonance, because
for her, a high degree of personal exploration and reflection has already taken place.

Supervision
Imagine for a moment what a supervision session might look like if both these
tutors were in the same session as you and you were able to hear their views,
then safely reflect on and share your own teaching methods, injunctions and
projections without discrimination or prejudice. How might you respond if this
practice became a regular occurrence, developing camaraderie with other tutors
and building confidence in your ability to manage racial pain?
222 Race and cognitive dissonance

Conclusion
Tutors can only fully equip trainee therapists to work through the challenges of
race-related material if they themselves have been through the process (Howard,
2016, p.6). While there are white tutors who are not afraid of the subject and will
address it assertively and with confidence, the research demonstrates that ‘it’s
difficult’ and the reasons for this can be multiple. These participants have been
willing to explore that which is ‘difficult to address’, but this research shows that
many psychotherapeutic institutions still will not. Thus, students are free to
qualify and begin closed-door work with clients of colour or clients of a different
ethnicity to their own, having never systematically considered these conscious or
unconscious biases. If this failure to address these issues continues within training
courses, further damage to clients seems inevitable.
When looking at diversity, Zeichner and Gore (1990) make their idea of
educational social change clear by suggesting thought-provoking reflective practice
takes place. They write:

The central purpose of critical approaches is to bring to consciousness

the ability to criticise what is taken for granted about everyday life. Class,
gender, and race relations become key foci, given the historical and
contemporary alienation of particular groups. (Zeichner & Gore, 1990, p.5)

Pajak agrees with Zeichner and Gore by stating that the cultural and psychological
impact of observable change within each class for educators should be supported
with clinical supervision (Pajak, 2003, p.4). Pajak suggests that teachers, like
practitioners, need to have their work ‘critically examined and possibly altered to
improve their professional practice’ (p.5). Clinical supervision stops short of being
used as a supportive tool for tutors in training. Pajak suggests this needs to be
taken further and supervision for tutors should be mandatory. Watson (2004, p.20)
agrees and believes that, particularly in relation to matters of race, the role of the
psychotherapy educator (tutor) is ‘too important to be unexamined’.

Question: If ‘tutor supervision’ became standard practice within psychotherapy

training, a place where tutors could safely address racial transference and
countertransference, could this positively impact the experience of the tutor, and
ultimately the students?
I believe it would.
 Fiona A. Beckford 223

References
Bezrukova, K., Jehn, A. & Spell, S. (2012). Reviewing diversity training: Where we have been and
where we should go. Academy of Management, 11(2), 207–227.
DiAngelo, R,J. (2012). What does it mean to be white? Developing white racial literacy. Peter Lang
Publishing.
Ford, R. (2011). Acceptable and unacceptable immigrants: How opposition to immigration in
Britain is affected by migrants’ region of origin. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 37(7),
1017–1037.
Hays, D.G. & Chang, C.Y. (2003). White privilege, oppression, and racial identity development:
Implications for supervision. Therapist Education & Supervision, 43(2), 134–145. doi: 10.1002/
j.1556-6978.2003.tb01837.x
Howard, G.R. (2016). We can’t teach what we don’t know: White teachers, multicultural school (3rd
ed.). Columbia University.
Pajak, E. (2003). Honouring diverse teaching styles: A guide for supervisors. ASDC.
Perlovsky L. (2013, April 10). A challenge to human evolution – cognitive dissonance. Frontiers in
Psychology, 4, 179. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00179
Ryde, J. (2005). Exploring white racial identity and its impact on psychotherapy and psychotherapy
organisations. Doctoral thesis. University of Bath.
Watson, V. (2004). The training experiences of black counsellors. Unpublished PhD thesis. University
of Nottingham.
Welsing, F.C. (1991). The Isis papers: The key to the colours. C.W. Publishing.
Zeichner, K. & Gore, J. (1990). Teacher socialization. In W.R. Houston (Ed.), Handbook of research
on teacher education (pp.329–348). Macmillan.
224 Postscript

Postscript
Divine Charura and Colin Lago

Rather than writing a chapter that attempts to sum up the many perspectives and
ideas offered within these pages – a daunting task, not least with all the potential
omissions and errors of interpretation we might make – we have chosen to leave you
with key lines from the chapters and favourite quotations chosen by our authors.
Our wish is to offer a final stimulus for reflection on the myriad issues raised.

Preface
‘It is a contradiction in terms to claim that the helping professions aspire to be
helpful to all clients when we are, as a profession, apparently systematically ignoring
the needs of those from diverse communities. With such a situation, the combined
psychological helping professions could be accused of serious philosophic, practice,
moral and ethical negligence.’

Chapter 1
‘Anyone and everyone who has been involved, whether as a student, training
course participant or trainer, in training sessions dedicated to the exploration of
diversity is likely to have experienced varying levels of discomfort, defensiveness,
shame, guilt, denial and distress. This phenomenon is widely referred to in many
of the chapters that follow. What is very clear from these training experiences is
that a) the issue of personal identity, when raised for exploration and reflection,
is of deep importance and significance to each person; b) one’s attitudes towards
others of differing identities, once recognised and articulated, can become most
distressing and disturbing; c) this is most likely to happen through open dialogue.
The capacity to listen to others’ perspectives and personal histories can become
severely inhibited by one’s own reactions of anxiety, guilt and shame.’

Chapter 2
‘The basic challenge of the original project was to create the right circumstances
 Divine Charura and Colin Lago 225

for a meaningful and effective encounter between a variety of individual cultures

where it was possible for everybody to feel included, recognised and welcome
to participate and contribute. It was, first of all, important to establish a climate
of inclusiveness and creativity where “problem solving” and group work could
occur… The humanistic, phenomenological-existential theoretical framework was
considered the most appropriate to establish that climate where a student-centred
ethos was a priority and bracketing personal assumptions and engaging with the
“unknown” were a necessity.’

Chapter 3
‘Understanding human beings as Imago Dei, created in the image of God, helps
me in my work, whether clients subscribe to a faith or not. What matters is that I
accept them and how the therapeutic alliance is developed… I do not see humans
as a bundle of cells living life as an awful experiment. We are far too complex a
species to be described in such reductionist terms. I see all clients as human beings
on a spiritual path, known or unknown, struggling to live, or at least trying to find
out how to live.’

Chapter 4
‘As I see it, the primary challenge for those devising counselling and psychotherapy
training courses is how to get white trainees to engage as equals in the racial
conversation as equals by considering themselves as racial beings and sharing their
own racial experiencing. What thoughts and feeling emerge, how is this shared or
processed, what is acknowledged or suppressed and how is supervision used to
address any discrepancies in their racial understanding?’

Chapter 5
‘… anti-racist thought can be seen as the basis of true Black social and cultural
empowerment (Kendi, 2016). An anti-racist perspective is crucial for counselling
intervention because it provides a modality for addressing the notions of white
superiority that are often implicit in the theory and practice of counselling. These
inherent racist traditions within the field have often had a negative impact on both
people of colour and whites (Sue et al., 2019). An anti-racist perspective, therefore,
offers direction for healing the psychosocial wounds often inflicted by racism on
both victims and perpetrators. Further, an anti-racist perspective is underscored
by cross-cultural counselling competency, which has become a hallmark of
contemporary professional counselling.’

Chapter 6
‘Developing a working knowledge and understanding of the context of the
client is crucial. So too is being prepared to learn, unlearn and re-learn what
we think we know. To promote trust and the potential for healing, counsellors
need to demonstrate a willingness to understand and openly acknowledge the
226 Postscript

socio-political context of Black clients’ stories. In my view, this is a counsellor’s

obligation and a position to be held irrespective of the content or nature of the
counselling and client material. Being empathic and open to continual learning
does not necessarily mean learning only from clients in the counselling room and
sometimes it may not be enough.’

Chapter 7
‘“You know what I mean, where are you really from?” The question often comes
from a white person and the responsibility always falls on the person of colour
to figure out what is really being asked and to respond in a way that satisfies the
listener. This is modern racism! I soon realised that growing up in apartheid-ruled
South Africa did not adequately prepare me for the subtlety of modern racism that I
would experience in the US, or maybe it had more than adequately prepared me so
that I was always alert to the possibility of racism in my new environment?’

‘Cultural racism is perhaps the most pervasive and insidious type of racism because
it serves as an overarching umbrella under which individual and institutional
racism thrives.’

Chapter 8
‘However radical they say this course is, in my experience, to maintain a healthy
suspicion is to stay alive and on track. My aim is to make it through the course,
learn what I can and collect the paper on the way out. Whiteness can feel pretty
basic in how it blocks access and stops us getting through, so I guess complicating
it might be a good idea. Still, I’m staying fugitive. Put another way, in a private
space in my mind, there is a collection of strategies and practices of escape and
survival bequeathed to me by my ancestors. I will use them as necessary.’

‘We are doing the work that George Yancy (2014) describes as un-suturing the
wound of whiteness – opening ourselves up to the irreality of whiteness and the
inevitable collapse into a narcissistic emptiness as we let go of the delusion of white
innocence and goodness. I think this is the depressive position of whiteness. I
wonder how to make this an aspirational journey since it feels so bad. At the same
time, there is relief because I get to see what is true – no matter how grim. I wonder
if there will ever be enough white people invested in doing this work, given the
currents that operate against waking up. I notice that hope comes and goes.’

Chapter 9
‘The group holds the sense of shame or privilege; the group also holds the collective
sense of shame at their otherness. These conjoined factors are therefore not
unconsciously disconnected from where one aspect will rise to the surface suddenly,,
just as we are discussing the other. They emerge into the training space together,
hand in hand, to be witnessed and felt, like the co-dependent couple they truly are.’
 Divine Charura and Colin Lago 227

Chapter 10
‘This firasah (my intuition) is a way of feeling connected and attuned to the client.
It guides me through the process of therapy so that I can meet the client where they
are: this can be compared to early childhood developmental attunement. It helps
me connect with the client and gives me insight into what the client needs from me
in that moment; it is not a digression from sound clinical judgement. Information
about my clients’ functioning and understanding what the client needs from
therapy are essential throughout the whole process. Therefore, my intuitive process
is grounded in a thorough knowledge of myself and the conscious/unconscious
processes of my clients.’

‘When I bring the issues of race and culture into the therapy room, I break the cycle
of oppression and racism. Silence perpetuates the abusive cycle, as does handing
the client sole responsibility for introducing the issues of race and culture into the
therapy room.’

Chapter 11
‘Today’s world map is shaped by the consequences of colonialism, in which borders
were marked out with little or no regard for local contexts and realities. With their
own aspirations, colonisers… imposed new identities that were neither appropriate
for nor in line with existing communities. This debilitated self-esteem, self-agency
and community and national development. The global borders of colonialism
symbolise the markings of historical pain and oppression.’

‘The structures themselves bind people into roles they did not necessarily choose
and then, before comprehension emerges, they’ve unconsciously internalised
racial bias and used that as racial banter. Such processes create great anxiety among
people of colour. Some experience a desire to not be like their peer and social
group; they try to somehow hide their own colour while being it, or they victimise
their own culture while breathing it, effectively internalising learned structural bias
and oppression. This results in being one’s own oppressor; we are left with both the
external and internalised battles of racism.’

Chapter 12
‘Yet, [the] consequences [of these projected social-political attitudes and labels]
frequently create a misrepresentation of the totality of a refugee’s inner resources
and capabilities, neglecting how resilient, adaptable, tenacious, courageous and
motivated they are to establish or re-establish meaning in their lives, despite the
uncertainty and chaos they may have faced.’

‘I have often found that non-Western refugees regard religion as fundamental to

their belief systems and meaning structures, considering God to be the creator of the
world and their religion as providing their ethics and guide to purpose in life and the
228 Postscript

activities worth pursuing. When life and its inherent meaning become arrested, and
in turn self-identity is called into question, the task of the therapist may be to become
more active in therapy, in order to consider the ways in which a more enlarged sense
of self and meaning may re-emerge.’

Chapter 13
‘Identity and identity processes are deeply complex. Intersectionality plays a
vital role in understanding this complexity and is an important part of any
deconstructive–reconstructive dialogue. We need to explore and discover with
our clients the ascriptions, formations, attachments and disavowals that they have
experienced in their socio-cultural and other identifications and bring our fullness
of attention to how we are part of such processes.’

Chapter 14
‘I view racism as traumatic because it is an experience that overwhelms the
individual’s capacity to process, digest or contain it. The clients who come to see
me are having difficulty processing traumatic experiences around their mixed-race
identity. In terms of inner-outer world traffic they are struggling to process both
the racism that the white community projects onto them and the shadism and
colourism projected from the Black community.’

‘All the mixed-race clients who I work with will, at some stage, have been coerced
into a Faustian pact around their racial identity. This metaphor comes from
European mythology. The core idea is that an individual enters into a bargain or
pact in which they surrender something, knowingly or unknowingly, that is far
more valuable than what they gain: for example, in the classic case of Dr Faust
(Faustus), exchanging his soul for material gain. The mixed-race individuals I
work with have been coerced into taking on the identity of whichever community
they are raised in and forsaking the other, without understanding what is at stake.’

Chapter 15
‘Therapists who are unable to deal with the issue of race cause damage to their
patients by not engaging with these aspects of their lives. If race and difference is
not worked through, the patient (trainee) will be ill-equipped as a professional and
will repeat their own experience of therapy with their patients.’

‘Self-esteem and self-worth can be seriously affected by what powerful groups in

society tell the less powerful, explicitly or otherwise. This happens on a daily basis
in fiction and the media. Reversing hundreds of years of internal colonisation is
both a political and a psychological act and should be a function of good therapy if
therapy is about restoring self-love and good mental health.’
 Divine Charura and Colin Lago 229

Chapter 16
‘There are several reasons for the avoidance and neglect of addressing the effects of
racial trauma in therapy. One of the main factors that underpin this avoidance is
the idea of colour-blindness in racial attitudes; the idea that race does not matter…
To some extent, this is further perpetuated by the concept of post-racism: that we
have overcome or moved beyond racism. Yet, we are still in an environment where
Black, Asian and minority ethnic therapists are under-represented in the profession
and where race and cultural related issues… continue to go unrecognised or
unacknowledged.’

‘There is an oversimplification in the conceptualisation of black identities that

fails to recognise the intersectionality of the multiple identities of the black
individual. These are not to be understood not as separate identities but in relation to
the diversity of individual experience and how variations in race, culture, ethnicity,
gender, socio-economic status, religion and other variants come together to make
a unique self-concept that includes the individual’s internalisation of experiences
of marginalisation and oppression.’

Chapter 17
‘Simply put, a decolonised research curriculum is not just about inclusion of a
diverse range of research sources/references in the reading list but is an active way
of engaging with research and reflexivity. It is about challenging how Eurocentric
ideas are used to inform research and pre-eminence is given to Western models
of viewing mental health/ill health in psychotherapy/counselling theories and
Western psychology perspectives when they don’t always apply to other groups.’

‘Decolonising the education curriculum is an expression of the shift in the

geopolitics of knowledge in which modern epistemological frameworks for
knowing and understanding the world are challenged. It is about no longer
accepting Eurocentric research approaches, evidence and curricula perspectives as
the universal and best ways of understanding the world.’

Chapter 18
‘Black majority churches have long been cited as places of safety and sanctuary,
providing spiritual and practical support and promoting self-progression,
strong identity, purpose and connectedness. All of these positively contribute
to wellbeing… However, churches have also been associated with being hostile,
punitive and unsupportive environments for individuals with mental health
difficulties (and sometimes for those with none); as places where a person cannot
be themselves but is expected to conform or risk being alienated. This abuse of
power and control often has devasting and long-lasting effects.’

‘The traditional suspicion of religion within the psy-professions and counselling

230 Postscript

does not serve the Black community well. Therapists, too, need to be better
informed about the role of Black majority churches in the lives of their Black and
minority ethnic clients, as well as the importance of faith and how it impacts
interpretation of problems and help-seeking behaviour. If we are to support the
mental health of the Black Christian client in a holistic and culturally sensitive
way, a genuine person-centred approach and a joined-up, respectful partnership
between church and community services is the only way forward.’

Chapter 19
‘… tutors require a safe place to be able to move from a place of comfort to a place
of manageable discomfort, which would mature and develop their multicultural
skillset. Too much comfort means we’re not growing, so it is necessary to be able
to challenge and explore different ways of thinking in order to be effective when
teaching students. If tutors are unwilling to become uncomfortable as part of the
learning process, how can we teach or expect students to do this?’

‘The personal toll and subsequent emotional exhaustion experienced by tutors who
take on the race discussion is massive and overwhelming, and they need a place to
debrief after training. Both the institutions that employ the services of tutors and
the tutors themselves are in the business of confronting, addressing and working
through the historic psychological and emotional pain of others. How effective are
we being as a profession if tutors (and the institutions that employ them) appear
too afraid to tackle the very real and difficult pain presented by ethnically diverse
groups?’

Favourite quotations
Our chapter authors also sent us many inspiring quotations, some of which we
have included here.

‘Love is all we have, the only way that each can help the other.’
Euripedes, Orestes.

‘People are just as wonderful as sunsets if you let them be. When I see a sunset, I
don’t find myself saying, “Soften the orange a bit on the right-hand corner.” I don’t
try to control a sunset. I watch with awe as it unfolds.’
Carl Rogers, A Way of Being (Houghton Mifflin, 1980)

‘Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.’

The Dalai Lama, on his visit to Capitol Hill, Washington D.C., March 7, 2014.

‘Humans can no more survive psychologically in a psychological milieu that

 Divine Charura and Colin Lago 231

does not respond empathically to them than they can survive physically in an
atmosphere that contains no oxygen.’
Heinz Kohut, The Restoration of the Self (University of Chicago Press, 2012)

‘Peace is not just about the absence of conflict; it’s also about the presence of
justice… Peacemaking doesn’t mean passivity. It is the act of interrupting injustice
without mirroring injustice, the act of disarming evil without destroying the
evildoer, the act of finding a third way that is neither fight nor flight but the careful,
arduous pursuit of reconciliation and justice. It is about a revolution of love that is
big enough to set both the oppressed and the oppressors free.’
Shane Claiborne, Common Prayer: A liturgy for ordinary radicals (Zondervan, 2010)

‘If I love you, I have to make you conscious of the things you do not see.’
James Baldwin, Conversations with James Baldwin, edited by Fred L. Standley and
Louis H. Pratt (University Press of Mississippi, 1989)

‘A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.’

Jackie Robinson, speaking to teammates on the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947

‘Without a black past, without a black future, it was impossible for me to live my
blackness.’
Franz Fanon, Black Skin, White Masks (Grove Press, 1967)

‘The purpose of life is to discover your gift, the work of life is to develop it, the
meaning of life is to give it away.’
David Viscott, Finding Your Strength in Difficult Times: A book of meditations
(McGraw-Hill Education, 2003)

‘I get angry about things and then go on and work.’

Toni Morrison, The Salon Interview, Salon, February 27, 1998.

‘Teaching is not an imposition of the teacher’s will over that of the pupil, not at all.
Teaching starts with FREEDOM and ends with FREEDOM.’
Vanda Scaravelli, Awakening the Spine (Harper Collins, 1993)

‘Things outside you are projections of what’s inside you, and what’s inside you is a
projection of what’s outside. So when you step into the labyrinth outside you, at the
same time you’re stepping into the labyrinth inside. Most definitely a risky business.’
Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore (Vintage, 2005)

‘If we are thoughtfully trying to understand our tasks as administrators, teachers,

educational counsellors, therapists, then we are working on the problem which
will determine the future of this planet. For it is not upon the physical sciences
that the future will depend. It is upon us who are trying to understand and deal
232 Postscript

with the interactions between human beings – who are trying to create helping
relationships.’
Howard Kirschenbaum and Valerie L. Henderson, The Carl Rogers Reader
(Houghton Mifflin, 1989)

‘Being a patient, rather than a participant in one’s healing process, separates

suffering people from their community and alienates them from an inner sense
of self.’
Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score (Viking, 2014)

‘One standard differentiation between Asia and the West is of collective versus
individualist societies. That distinction helps our understanding of the two regions,
but these terms should not be seen as mutually exclusive… people behave in both
collective and individualistic ways, and operate within both frameworks to greater
or lesser degrees. There is no dichotomy of the two, we are independent and part
of a group at the same time. It is therefore valuable to see collective Asian values as
complementary rather than counter to Western-style individualism.’
Caroline Esame, ‘Collective versus individualistic societies and the impact of
Asian values on art therapy in Singapore’. In Art Therapy in Asia, edited by Debra
L. Kalmanowitz, Sue Mei Chan and Jordan S. Potash (Jessica Kingsley Publishers,
2012)

‘“Blackness”[:] a symbolic program of philosophical “disobedience” (a systematic

scepticism and refusal) that would make the former available to anyone, or more
pointedly, any posture, that was willing to take on the formidable task of thinking
as a wilful act of imagination and invention.’
Hortense J. Spillers, ‘Peter’s pans: Eating in the diaspora’. In Black, White, and in
Color: Essays on American literature and culture (University of Chicago Press, 2003)

‘Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it
is faced.’ James Baldwin. ‘As much truth as one can bear.’ (New York Times, 1962,
January 14)

‘Your conflicts, all the difficult things, the problematic situations in your life are not
chance or haphazard. They are actually yours. They are specifically yours, designed
specifically for you by a part of you that loves you more than anything else. The part
of you that loves you more than anything else has created roadblocks to lead you to
yourself. You are not going in the right direction unless there is something pricking
you in the side, telling you, “Look here! This way!” That part of you loves you so
much that it doesn’t want you to lose the chance. It will go to extreme measures to
wake you up; it will make you suffer greatly if you don’t listen. What else can it do?
That is its purpose.’
A.H. Almaas, Diamond Heart, Book One: Elements of the real in man (Shambhala
Publications, 1987)
 Divine Charura and Colin Lago 233

‘Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am

changing myself.’
Widely attributed to Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Rūmī

‘Those who we label as mad have their moments of normalness, and those who we
think are normal have their moments of madness.’
Lennox Thomas (anecdotal)

‘If you stand for nothing, then you fall for everything.’
From The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs, by C. Clay Doyle, W. Mieder and F.R.
Shapiro (Yale University Press, 2012)

‘And here is what I have to say, finally: Let’s invite one another in. Maybe then we
can begin to fear less, to make fewer wrong assumptions, to let go of the biases and
stereotypes that unnecessarily divide us. Maybe we can better embrace the ways
we are the same. It’s not about being perfect. It’s not about being where you get
yourself in the end. There’s power in allowing yourself to be known and heard, in
owning your unique story, in using your authentic voice. And there’s grace in being
willing to know and hear others. This, for me, is how we become.’
Michelle Obama, Becoming (Viking, 2018)
234 About the contributors

About the contributors

Carmen Joanne Ablack

Carmen is an integrative and body psychotherapist, Gestalt psychotherapist,
group psychotherapist and supervisor. She teaches in the UK and Europe on
diversity and intersectionality, relational body psychotherapy and Gestalt therapy,
including somatic trauma, group work, couples and relationship therapy. She also
offers clinical and non-managerial supervision, training, coaching and mentoring
in diversity, embodied relational practice and mental health. Her publications
include a chapter in Contemporary Body Psychotherapy: The Chiron approach;
articles including ‘Introduction to body psychotherapy’; ‘Body psychotherapy,
trauma and the Black woman client’, and more recently, ‘Finding our intercultural
ground’ (International Journal of Body Psychotherapy 2019/20; 18(2)) and a chapter
in Intercultural Therapy (2019) (edited by B. Ababio & R. Littlewood). Carmen
is current President of the European Association for Body Psychotherapy and a
member of the Black, African & Asian Therapy Network leadership group.

Fiona Beckford
Fiona is an integrative psychotherapist and clinical supervisor who works in an NHS
CAMHS team as a community mental health practitioner. Before this, Fiona worked
for 12 years in education, providing therapeutic support to both staff and students
at Luton Sixth Form College. She also compiled and delivered reflective practice
sessions to staff at senior, middle and junior management levels, and to committees
and teaching staff, and delivered life-skills training to students, which included a
module entitled ‘The importance of understanding cultural differences’. Fiona is an
accredited member of BACP and team co-ordinator for the mentoring programme
with the Black, African and Asian Therapist Network (BAATN). Having first been
published in the Journal of Critical Psychology Counselling and Psychotherapy (2019)
on the subject of ‘Do we address cultural differences in psychotherapy training?’,
Fiona continues to enjoy studying and writing on topics close to her heart. Fiona
takes great pleasure in gardening and loves exploring different cultures.

Lucia Berdondini
Lucia is a senior lecturer and programme leader of the distance learning MSc in
Humanitarian Intervention at the University of East London, UK. She is also a
 About the contributors 235

BACP-registered Gestalt psychotherapist and has been practising for the past 15
years with individuals and groups in a small private practice. She is particularly
interested in the psychology of disasters and humanitarian projects and has focused
her professional activity on developing counselling training courses in countries
in war and post-conflict, such as Afghanistan, India and Angola. She has been
collaborating with a number of international NGOs (such as Save the Children and
the Red Cross), and she is still very active in the field of humanitarian psychosocial
intervention.

Rachel-Rose Burrell
Rachel-Rose is a BACP-accredited counsellor/psychotherapist with many
years’ experience of developing counselling services in the public and voluntary
sectors and within churches. She is a member of the leadership team at Ruach
City Church and heads a holistic wellbeing service, which she initiated. She
provides bespoke training on a range of topics, including mental health awareness,
conflict management and counselling skills. As a conference speaker, she is
known for combining Biblical and psychological principles to bring about greater
understanding and self-care. She is the founder of Sozo Therapeuo, a resource for
churches promoting mental health awareness and support through education,
training and therapy.

Benjamin Mark Butler

Benjamin is a qualified therapist (MSc Psychology, BSc Counselling) with both
national (London) and international (South Africa) experiences of working
with refugee clients. This interest grew during his time spent in Cape Town,
coupled with his education in and enthusiasm for existentialism, which drew him
towards applying its philosophies and therapeutic framework of practices in the
humanitarian sector. Benjamin is currently using qualitative research methods
to further understand clients’ phenomenological experiences of participating in
existential psychotherapy, as well as continuing to support persons displaced from
their homeland and living in the UK.

Divine Charura
Divine is a full professor of counselling psychology and programme director
for the doctorate in counselling psychology at York St John University. He is a
chartered psychologist and counselling psychologist. He is registered as a chartered
member with the British Psychological Society and as a practitioner psychologist
with the Health and Care Professions Council. Divine is also registered with the
United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy as an adult psychotherapist. He has
co-authored and edited numerous books in counselling and psychotherapy. His
two latest co-edited books are Love and Therapy: In relationship (co-edited with
Stephen Paul) and The Person-Centred Counselling and Psychotherapy Handbook:
Origins, developments and current applications (co-edited with Colin Lago). Divine
is a lover of photography, art, music and outdoor pursuits.
236 About the contributors

Priscilla Dass-Brailsford
Priscilla is a graduate of Harvard University and Chair of the Clinical Psychology
PsyD program at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Washington DC
campus. She studies the effects of trauma, specifically community violence and
other stressful events, and is particularly interested in whether individuals from
historically oppressed or stigmatised groups experience unique stressors or exhibit
culturally specific coping processes. Priscilla has several ongoing research projects
on trauma, ethnocultural violence, community violence and disasters. Prior
to moving to DC, she taught for several years in Boston, MA and coordinated
a community crisis response team for the victims of violence programme that
responded to affected communities in the aftermath of violence and trauma.
Besides numerous other publications, she is the published author of two books:
A Practical Approach to Trauma: Empowering interventions (2007) and Disaster
and Crisis Response: Lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina (2009). Priscilla has
presented both nationally and internationally. She is a Fellow of the American
Psychological Association, in Divisions 17, 35, 45 and 56.

Robert Downes
Robert is a psychotherapist, supervisor, visual artist, educator and student engaged
in a critical psychological study and practice drawing from a range of traditions:
queer theory, Black studies, intersectional feminisms, relational psychoanalysis,
contemporary Marxism, alongside the spiritual teachings and practices of the
Diamond Approach, the music of Björk and a 20-year dialogue with his friend and
co-author Foluke Taylor.

Sandra Grieve
Sandra is an experienced person-centred counsellor and psychotherapist. She has
been in private practice for more than 25 years and in that time has worked with a
wide range of people in a variety of settings. She works creatively with both adults
and children, individually and in groups. She offers a safe environment and works
with warmth and humour to support clients to explore whatever is troubling for
them. Sandra has a diploma in person-centred groupwork, a diploma in person-
centred counselling, an advanced diploma in psychodrama psychotherapy and a
postgraduate certificate in supervision. She is a UKCP-accredited senior trainer
and she has taught previously at the University of Strathclyde and the Sherwood
Institute.

Yvon Guest
Yvon is a psychodynamic counsellor living and working in Bristol. She enjoys
working with a diverse client base, mainly Black and minority ethnic and LGBTQ.
Yvon also worked for many years in the independent sector, where she developed
a passion for facilitating the empowerment of society’s most oppressed and
marginalised individuals. This, along with her own experiences as a care leaver, led
to her undertaking a PhD on the themes of resilience and trauma, which she now
 About the contributors 237

incorporates into her counselling work. In her spare time, Yvon loves going for
long walks, family time, and playing with her grandchildren.

Delroy Hall
Delroy has been in active pastoral ministry for more than 30 years and is an ordained
bishop within the Church of God of Prophecy. He is also a trained psychodynamic
psychotherapist and a lifelong learner. Delroy has a firm commitment and deep
respect for the humanities and the insights they offer in understanding how the
world and its varied relationships impinge on humanity. With that understanding,
he then seeks to further understand, through a theological lens, the role of faith
in the complexities of everyday life. Outside of academic work, Delroy is known
for having a keen sense of humour, keeps fit and loves his role as the chaplain for
Sheffield United Football Club.

Ali Ahmad Kaveh

Ali is assistant professor in the faculty of social science at Herat University,
Northwestern Afghanistan. He got his BA in Persian literature at Herat University
and his MA in sociology from Pune University in India in 2008. He is president
of the Afghanistan Social Research and Development Studies Organization. His
research interest and areas include gender and masculinity, extremism, violence
(especial gender-based violence), mental health and development studies. Ali has
been involved in some national and international research projects focusing on
social and mental health issues in Afghanistan.

Colin Lago
Colin was Director of the counselling service at the University of Sheffield, UK from
1987 to 2003. He now works as an independent counsellor/psychotherapist, trainer,
supervisor and consultant. Trained initially as an engineer, Colin went on to become
a full-time youth worker in London and a teacher in Jamaica, before becoming a
counselling practitioner. He is a Fellow of BACP. Deeply committed to transcultural
concerns within psychotherapy, he has published articles, videos and books on the
subject. His books include Race, Culture and Counselling: The ongoing challenge (2006),
Anti-Discriminatory Practice in Counselling and Psychotherapy (2010) (co-edited
with Barbara Smith), The Handbook of Transcultural Counselling and Psychotherapy
(2011) and The Person-Centred Counselling and Psychotherapy Handbook: Origins,
developments and current applications (2016) (co-edited with Divine Charura.) His
passions include mountain travel, biking and swing dancing, and he aspires to be an
artist.

Courtland Lee
Courtland is a professor in the counselor education program at the Washington
DC campus of the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. He is the author,
editor or co-editor of seven books on multicultural counselling and three books
on counselling and social justice. In addition, he has published numerous book
238 About the contributors

chapters and articles on counselling across cultures. Courtland is a past-president

of the International Association for Counseling. He is also a fellow of BACP, the
only American to receive this honour, and a fellow and past-president of the
American Counseling Association.

Vedia Maharaj
Vedia is a person-centred practitioner with 22 years in the field. Her specialist areas
of interest are post-colonial racism and working with refugees and those who have
been trafficked, and violence against women and young people. Currently she is the
counselling co-ordinator in a school, overseeing and supervising a team of trainee
and newly qualified volunteer counsellors. She is a clinical group supervisor at
Refugee Action Kingston and group work facilitator at Women and Girls Network
for women recovering from gender-based violence. Vedia is a mentor at the Black
African and Asian Therapy Network, supporting trainee counsellors through
psychotherapy and counselling courses. Vedia has also facilitated PPD groups
at Thames Valley University and has provided training to Place2be trainees on
working with refugee and asylum seekers who are children.

Foluke Taylor
Foluke Taylor is a counsellor/psychotherapist and writer. She works with – and
teaches – creative writing as a relational, psycho-political, therapeutic practice.
Through an always-evolving engagement with Black feminist thought and
transdisciplinary scholarship, she continues to explore the blended ‘methodologies
of fixing’ of therapy, art and activism. These practices offer significant moments of
delight, which are themselves strategies for survival in a world on fire. Foluke has an
MSc in creative writing for therapeutic purposes (Metanoia Institute). Her writing
– various entanglements of fiction-not-fiction – has been shared via professional
journals, anthologies, conferences and live art performances. Her memoir/bio-
mythography, How the Hiding Seek, was published in October 2018.

Lennox Thomas
Lennox was formerly a clinical social worker and the first senior probation officer of
African Caribbean origin in the UK. He worked with children and families, before
training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy and later specialising in child, family and
couples therapy. His continuing passion and commitment were for intercultural
psychotherapy and work with refugees and trauma. He was a training therapist and
clinical supervisor with additional interests in attachment, relational therapy and
organisational consultancy. He was Clinical Director of Nafsiyat Intercultural Therapy
Centre, and Co- Director of the University College (London) MSc in Intercultural
Psychotherapy. He was also a co-founder and consultant psychotherapist at the
Refugee Therapy Centre. Known for his warmth, good humour and intellectual
capacity, he was recognised for his contribution to mental health by the National
African and Caribbean Mental Health Network and granted an Honorary Fellowship
of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy. During his long career, Lennox
 About the contributors 239

wrote three books and more than 20 articles and chapters. His interests were in
gardening and Caribbean literature, having spent the first seven years of his life in
Grenada. He died in April 2020, following a long illness.

Dwight Turner
Dwight is senior lecturer within the School of Applied Social Sciences at the
University of Brighton, lecturing on the PG Dip and MSc courses in counselling
and psychotherapy, and is a PhD supervisor at its doctoral college. He completed his
PhD through the University of Northampton and the Centre for Counselling and
Psychotherapy Education (CCPE) in 2017. His phenomenological and heuristic
study used transpersonal and creative techniques such as visualisations, drawing
and sand-play work to explore the intersectional nature of privilege and otherness.
He is also a psychotherapist and supervisor in private practice and a part-time
lecturer at the CCPE.

Valerie Watson
Val has worked in education for more than 30 years, as a schoolteacher, adult
education lecturer and head of the University of Nottingham counselling service.
She has occupied a range of voluntary roles in the community, including with
Victim Support, Rape Crisis and adoption consultancy, and in the university as
Chair of the BME staff network. Val maintains an abiding interest in issues of race,
ethnicity, the impact of difference on relationships, community action, and the
maintenance of health through the use of and access to the arts for all. Latterly, her
work has focused on the potential of therapeutic work in groups and organisational
reflective practice.

Mark Williams
Mark is a senior lecturer in social work at Leeds Beckett University, with specialist
knowledge in mental health social work practice. Prior to taking up the post with
the university, Mark worked in statutory mental health services in both health and
social care provisions. He was key in developing a multicultural centre for Black,
Asian and minority ethnic people with mental health issues in the late 1990s. At
this time, he worked with Lennox Thomas and colleagues from Nafsiyat to develop
culturally sensitive ways of engaging these communities. He maintains an interest in
the lived experiences of people from those communities in the UK and the impact
on individual mental health and wellbeing, and has gone on to organise a series of
conferences for health and social care practitioners in mental health services working
with Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities. His specific areas of experience
in staff development and training focus on developing skills in stress management
and resilience in the workplace and the use of supervision. Mark has trained in the
foundations of transcultural psychodynamic psychotherapy with Tavistock and
Portman, and previously studied Freudian psychoanalytic studies at master’s level.
He is keen to use this and his broader knowledge of health and social care to further
his approach to teaching and facilitate learning.
240 About the contributors

Billie-Claire Wright
Billie-Claire completed a research study on ‘Internalised racism in Blackness’ for
her MA counselling and psychotherapy studies at the University of East London,
on which her chapter is based. She has worked extensively with primary-aged
children in schools, graduating from Place2Be in 2016 with a PG Diploma in
counselling children in schools. Post-graduation, she worked with secondary
school pupils as assistant school project manager. She currently works full-time
with children, young people and families at Harrow Horizons, a collaboration
involving Barnardos, the NHS and the local authority, which offers client-centred
short-term therapy. She is piloting a new training course that she has developed for
a small, independent counselling organisation, exploring racial identity application
in therapeutic practice, using ideas drawn from areas of her research.

Neelam Zahid
Neelam is an integrative counsellor and psychotherapist accredited with BACP, a
trainee supervisor, transcultural trainer, mindfulness coach, and an associate at The
Minster Centre. Neelam completed her MA in counselling and psychotherapy at
Regents College, London and has been working as a therapist since 2003. Currently,
Neelam has her own private practice, and worked previously within higher
education as a student counsellor for 13 years. Neelam has delivered a number
of transcultural workshops at conferences for the Association of University and
College Counsellors and BACP, as well as for psychotherapists and trainees in
various educational institutes and voluntary organisations. Neelam has also
contributed to The Handbook of Transcultural Counselling and Psychotherapy on
‘The effects of a Pakistani heritage’.
 Name index 241

Name index

A B
Abu el Magd, N. 4 Babury, M.O. 18, 25
Adames, H.Y. 13 Bahadur, G. 119
Adams, M. 133 Bains, S. 6, 10, 11
Ade-Serrano, Y. 209 Bakkar, N. 116
Adonis, I. 11 Baldwin, J. 90, 91, 231, 232
Afrasibi, S. 22 Barnes, C. 34,
Ahmed, S. 92 Barnes, P.W. 80
Ainsworth, M. 166, 188 Barty, A. 63
Akala, D.K. 12, 70, 71 Basma, D. 130
Akbar, N. 200 Battle-Singer, M. 165
Akesson, B. 23 Beck, A. 185, 188
Akhazemea, D. 203 Becker, E. 135
Akhtar, S. 115 Behar, R. 12
Aldred, J. 202 Bell, C. 27
Alessandrini, A.C. 189 Benjamin, J. 101
Alexander, R. 191 Benson, S. 157, 160
Al-Krenawi, A. 22 Berdondini, L. 19, 20, 21, 23, 24, 25
Alleyne, A. 10, 13, 115, 117 Bergin, A.E. 207
Almaas, A.H. 232 Berne, E. 188
Altman, N. 163 Bezrukova, J. 215
American Counseling Association (ACA) 5, 8 Bhopal, K. 12
American Psychological Association (APA) 23 Bhugra, D. 203, 204
Anderson, A. 202 Bias in Britain 12
Anderson, D.D. 46 Biden, J. 1
Andrew, K. 63 Bignall, T. 201
Ani, M. 67 Bion, R.W. 156, 158
Anti-Oppression Network 74 Bishop, R. 190, 192, 193
Anyiam-Osigwe, C. 155 Black, African & Asian Therapy Network
Apprey, M. 13 (BAATN) 11, 30
Arnd-Caddigan, M. 109 Black & Asian Counselling Psychology
Arnold, E. 166 Group (BACPG) 11
Arnold-Baker, C. 131 Blackburn, S. 194
Arrendondo, P. 5 Boakye, J. 12
Arthur, S. 70 Bogues, A. 63
Association for Black Counsellors (ABC) 11 Bolt, M. 46
Awad, G.H. 192 Bonilla-Silva, E. 57, 80
242 Name index

Bowen, M. 188 Clarke, M, 202

Bowlby, J. 165, 188 Clarke, M.P. 165
Bowleg, L. 82 Clay Doyle, C. 233
Bowser, B. 52 Coates, T.-N. 32, 96
Boyatzis, C.J. 46 Colston, E 1
Boyd-Franklin, N. 5 Comas-Díaz, L. 56, 80
Bragin, M. 23 Cook, C.H. 202
Brand, D. 90 Cooper, L. 202
Branscombe, N.R. 100 Cooper, M. 130, 131, 132
Brewer, M.B. 156 Cooper, N. 209
British Association for Counselling & Corbett, A. 145
Psychotherapy (BACP) x, 3, 4, 9, 11, Corey, G. 188
171, 200 Cornelius-White, C.F. 185, 187
Spirituality Division 208 Cornelius-White, J.H.D. 185, 187
British Psychological Society (BPS) x, 3, 4 Costa, B. 10, 11
Britton, R. 157, 158 Cousins, S. 63
Brondolo, E. 82 Coyle, A. 207
Brooks, M. 83 Cozolino, L. 68
Brooks, O. 168 Crenshaw, K. 67, 100-101
brown, a.m. 96 Criswell, G.E. 108
Brown, R.J. 156 Crocker, J. 56
Bryant-Davis, T. 80, 176, 177, 181 Cross, W.E. 45, 46, 176, 177, 178
Buber, M. 103, 188 Crossley, J.P. 207
Buchan, L. 123 Curry, A.E. 114, 165
Burkard, A.W. 175, 181
Burns, K. 57 D
Burrell, R.R. 11, 204, 208 Dabiri, E. 63
Byrd, Jr., J. 79 Dalai Lama 230
Dalal, F. 99
C Dante, C. 134
Cameron, R, 9 D’Ardenne, P. 6, 189
Campt, T, 90 Darwin, C. 207
Camus, A, 130 Dass-Brailsford, P. 81
Carter, M, 120 Davids, F. 49, 153, 158
Carter, R.T. 5, 13, 53, 63, 78, 174, 177 Davis, A.Y. ix
Casse, P, 63 Day-Vines, N.L. 13, 113
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention DeGruy Leary, J. 68, 166
191 Dein, S. 208
Chang, C.Y. 215 de la Boetie, E. 103
Charman, P, 202 Denzin, N.K. 189, 193
Charura, D, 67, 140, 166, 195 Devakumar, D. 193
Chavez, C, 190, 193 Dhillon-Stevens, H. 3, 11, 114
Cho, S, 100 Dhingra, S. 174
Chouliaraki, L, 128 DiAngelo, R. 4, 12, 32, 52, 57, 59, 63, 68, 69,
Christian Research 204 91, 100, 101, 125, 214
Ciftci, A, 18, 22, 23 Dillsworth, D. 12
Cilia La Corte, P, 131, 134 Djeli, G. 121
Claiborne, S, 231 Dodd, V. 12
Clark, J, 3 Donovan, R.A. 82
Clarke, K.B. 165 Dovidio, J.F. 80
 Name index 243

Drakuliç, S. 32 Gentleman, A. 12
Du Bois, W.E.B. 93 Gergen, K.J. 68, 69
Duffield, I. 201 Ghazal, A.N. 128
Durrence, H.H. 82 Gibbons, M.M. 130
DuVernay, A. 57 Gilbert, J. 18
Dyer, R. 63, 91 Gilbert, P. 203
Gillborn, D. 68, 69
E Gilroy, P. 94
Eagle, G. 42 Ginger, S. 23
Eddo-Lodge, R. 12, 63, 70 Giovazolias, T. 195
Edge, D. 204 Goldberg, D.T. 52
Eleftheriadou, Z. 6-7, 111, 113 Goodley, D. 100
Elliott, J. 34 Goosby, B.J. 80, 82
Ellis, E. 33, 63, 209 Gore, J. 222
Ellison II, G. 30 Gorman, A. 1, 2
Epp, L. 57 Grant, G. 12
Equality Act 68 Green, B.L. 53
Erikson, E.H. 156 Greenson, R. 168
Erskine, R.G. 108, 109 Grieger, I. 111
Esame, C. 232 Grier, W.H. 165
Essed, P. 52 Griffin, J. 130
Esses, V.M. 128 Griffith, M.S. 165
Euripedes 230 Grix, J. 186
Evans, A.M. 84 Grof, S. 188
Guest, Y. 159, 160
F
Fanon, F. 93, 99, 102, 154-155, 164, 231 H
Farooqi, Y.N. 22 Halaj, A. 18
Fattahi, Z. 22 Hall, D. 13
Faust 157, 231 Hall, S. 99, 156
Feagin, J. 52 Halmos, P. 65
Fernando, S. 200, 206 Harborne, L. 208
Finlay, L. 187, 196 Hardy, K.V. 58-59, 178
Fletchman-Smith, B. 170 Hartman, S. 34
Floyd, G. ix, 7 Haslam, N. 128
Ford, R. 217 Haugh, S. 63
Frankl, V.E. 129–130, 136 Hays, D.G. 215
Franklin, A.J. 53 Hayward, F. 18, 25
Franklin, J. 59 Helms, J.E. 5, 45, 46-48, 53, 58, 63, 80
Freud, A. 188 Hemmings, C. 60, 84
Freud, S. 99, 167, 180, 185, 188, 206-207 Henderson, V.L. 231
Frosh, S. 99 Henderson, Z. 191
Fryer, P. 12, 121, 201 Hill, L. 93
Hill, L.K. 82
G Hirai, T. 9
Gaertner, S.L. 80 Hirsch, A. 12, 63, 70, 71
Galbraith, J.K. 63 Hoffman, L. 130
Galton, F. 156 Holdaway, S. 99
Gay, C. 179 Holdstock, L. ix
Geller, A. 60 Hollway, W. 153
244 Name index

Holmes, D.E. 165 Klein, M. 154, 181, 182, 185, 188

Home Office 70 Knight, C. 78
Hondius, D. 12 Knox, S. 175, 181
Hook, J. 157 Koenig, H.G. 202
hooks, b. 88, 90 Kohut, H. 14, 188, 230
House of Lords Library 70 Krause, I.B. 6-7
Howard, G.R. 222
Howard, V. 201-202 L
Hunt, R.G. 52 Lago, C. 3, 6, 8, 9, 40, 63, 64, 67, 140, 166,
Huppert, J.D. 18 170, 174, 189, 195
Laing, R.D. 99
I Larty, E. 28
Ifekwunigwe, J. 152–153, 156, 160 Leavey, G. 204
Ingham, H. 35 Lee, C.C. 6, 54, 189
Institute of Race Relations 70 Lee, R.E. 55
Iqbal, S. 22 Le Guin, U. 88
Itkowitz, C. 34 Lemma, A. 177
Ivey, A.E. xi, 6 Lennon, A.E. 12
Liamputtong, P. 185, 186, 189, 192, 193
J Lichstein, K.L. 82
Jackson, C. 201, 209 Lietaer, G. 67
Jackson, F. 182 Lightsey Jr, O.R. 80
Jacobs, M. 99, 206 Linton, S. 119
Jaffrey, Z. 71 Lipsedge, M. 163
Jalonen, A. 131, 134 Lipsky, S. 200
Jefferson, T. 153 Littlewood, R. 3, 6–7, 28, 63, 163, 167, 189
Jenal, S.T. 13 Lochner, J. 207
Jenkin, C. 7 Lodge, D. 128
Jenkins, C. 208 Logan, S. 165
Jha, R. 102 Logie, C.H. 100
Johnson, B. 123, 202 Lorde, A. 100
Johnson, R.H. 156 Lowe, F. 44
Jung, C. 4, 34, 188 Lubin, D. 8
Luft, J. 35
K Lukoff, D. 207
Kagan (Klein), H. 20
Kagan, N.I. 20 M
Kakar, S. 165 MacDonald, J. 163
Kareem, J. 3, 6-7, 28, 63, 163, 165, 167, 170, Mahtani, A. 6, 189
189 Malcolm X 7, 95, 200
Katz, J.H. xi, 63 Malkin, B. 128
Kazantzakis, N. 135 Malott, K.M. 58-59, 60
Keating, F. 185, 186, 195, 206 Maman, Y. 11
Kendi, I.X. 54, 56, 60, 225 Markle, M. 152, 158
Keshen, A. 130 Marrington-Mir, P. 206
King, D. 204 Marriott, D.S. 189
King, M.L. 200 Marsella, A.J. 5, 6, 22
Kinzie, J.D. 131 Maslow, A. 130, 185, 188
Kirkinis, K. 53 Matsumoto, M. 189
Kirschenbaum, H. 231 Mayers, C. 207
 Name index 245

McIntosh, P. 5, 55, 60, 68, 69 Ocampo, C. 80

McKenzie-Mavinga, I. 10, 13, 40-41, 99, 108, Oden, T. 28
113, 115, 141, 149, 170, 189 O’Keefe, V.M. 80, 82
McLean, J.S. 60 Olajide, D. 206
McMurray, A. 189, 192 Oleydemi, M. 152, 153, 156
Mendez, T. 182 Oluo, I. 60
Mendoza, D.B. 185, 186, 192 Olusoga, D. 12, 70
Mental Health Foundation 123, 201 O’Neill, M. 99
Mermon, A. 203 Owen, I.R. 131
Mieder, W. 233 Owen, J.D. 175, 176
Mignolo, W.D. 190
Millar, T. 159 P
Miller, K.E. 18 Pajak, E. 215, 222
Miller, W.R. 203 Palmer, A. 64
Miller-Loessi, K. 189 Palmer, P. 29
Milton, D.E.M 68 Palmer, S. 174, 177
Minuchin, S. 188 Panter-Brick, C. 18
Mitchell, J. 102 Paradies, Y. 79, 80
Moghaddam, F.M. 22 Parker, J.N. 189
Mohammed, P. 100 Patel, N. 64, 125
Mohdin, A. 1, 13 Patterson, C.H. 8
Mohr, S. 202 Payne, I.R. 207
Monroe, J. 191 Pederson, P.B. 4, 5–6, 42
Moodley, R. 5, 8, 10, 64, 68, 130, 174, 177, 195 Peele, J. 34
Moreno, J.L. 19 Perkinson, J. 33
Morgan, H. 192 Perlovsky, L. 213
Morrison, T. 71, 89-90, 92, 231 Perls, F.S. 19, 188
Motora, Y. 189 Perls, L. 188
Moursund, J.P. 109 Perry, G. 116
Mouzon, D.M. 60 Pfefferbaum, B. 82
Muldoon, J. 190 Phillips, R. 96
Murakami, H. 231 Phoenix, A. 156
Pickett, K. 64
N Pierce, C. 78
Nadal, K.L. 60, 80 Pieterse, A.L. 81, 82, 100
Nafsiyat 3, 165–67, 238 Pinker, S. 8
Natiello, P. 24, 67 Pitts, J. 12, 64
National Institutes of Health (NIH) 192 Ponterotto, J.G. 111
National Mental Health Strategy 18 Popenoe, P. 156
National Union of Students 189 Powell, E. 152
Nazroo, J.Y. 179 Powell, J.A. 57
Ndegwa, D. 206 Prince Harry 152, 158
Nicholls, V. 203 Pring, R. 186, 194
Nwoye, A. 67 Proctor, G. 10
Nyoni, J. 185, 186, 190, 195 Prouty, G. 67
Provine, W.B. 156
O Punch, K. 194
Obama, B. 78, 160 Pupavac, V. 128
Obama, M. 233
246 Name index

Q Schaefle, S. 58–59, 60
Quattrini, P. 25 Schmid, P. 67
Schwarz, B. 121
R Seacole, M. 160
Race Awareness in Counselling Education Segal, H. 181
(RACE) 3, 11, 200 Selden, S. 191
Raja-Helm, P. 13 Serning, N. 194
Ramaswamy, C. 9 Shams, T. 78, 80
Rankine, C. 69, 88 Shannon, B.E. 165
Ratts, M.J. 8, 54, 58, 60 Shapiro, F.D. 233
Raval, H. 10 Shapiro, K. 191
Raynar, M. 130 Sharpe, C. 70, 90-91, 94
Reid, O.G. 166 Shrieve-Neiger, A.K. 202
Richard, H.W. 45, 46, 48, 49 Shukla, N. 70
Richardson, J. 60 Sinason, V. 163
Ridley, C. 5 Smets, K. 128
Riley, J. 166 Smith, B. 9, 63
Rimmer, A. 206 Smith, L. 56
Rizvi, A.A. 22 Smith, T.B. 202
Roberts, G. 111 Sodowsky, G.R. 8
Robertson, J. 165 Solange, 92–93
Robertson, J. 165 Solnit, A.J. 165
Robinson, J. 231 Spalding, B. 174
Roger, V.L. 82 Spanierman, L.B. 52
Rogers, C.R. 19, 22, 67, 109, 185, 187, 188, Spillers, H.J. 232
230 Spinelli, E. 130, 131, 132
Rogers, N. 188 Stack Sullivan, H.S. 8
Rollock, N. 68, 69 Steffen, P.R. 80
Rose, E. 171 Sterling, A. 34
Rosenberg, J. 32–33, 35 Stickle, M. 109
Rothschild, J. 83 Stokes, D. 190
Rousmaniere, T. 31 Stolorow, R. 188
Rowe, W. 179 Storer, R. 1
Rūmī, J.D.M. 232 Straker, J. 13
Rwigema, M.-J. 100 Strous, M. 42
Ryde, J. 10, 64, 68, 69, 215 Sue, D.W. 5, 6, 8, 13, 54, 57, 84, 176, 177-178,
225
S Sumner, C. 189
Sabisky, A. 123 Sweep, T.G. 135
Sabnani, H.B. 179 Szasz, T. 206
Sachs, W. 167
Saghar, L.N. 20, 22 T
Said, E. 99 Talhite, A. 64
Saini, A. 12 Taylor, T. 48
Salter, D.P. 207 Taylor-Smith, H 31
Saramango, J. 131 Tervalon, M. 13
Sartre, J.P. 5 Thachil, A. 203
Sayed, D.G. 19 Thomas, A. 30–31, 20
Scaravelli, V. 231 Thomas, L.K. 13, 166, 171, 233
 Name index 247

Thomas, S.M. 102 Walker, R. 156

Thompson, C.E. 13 Warner, M. 67
Thompson, J. 3, 6, 170, 180, 181, 189 Watson, J. 191
Thorne, B. 203, 207, 208 Watson, V. 10, 32, 50, 222
Tillman, L.C. 187, 190, 192, 193, 196 Watts-Jones, D. 43-44
Tizard, B. 156 Wekker, G. 12, 64
Torabully, K. 120 Welsing, F.C. 215
Totton, N. 144 West, C. 27
Tribe, R. 10, 209 West, L.M. 83
Trump, Jr., D. 128 West, W. 10, 68
Tuckwell, G. 10, 64 Wilderson, F. 90
Tudor, K. 67 Wildt, H. 18
Turner, D. 2, 9-10, 13, 30, 32, 38 Wilkinson, R. 64
Turner, E.A. 60 Willcox, G. 111
Tuskegee University 191 Williams, D. 3
Tyrrell, I. 130 Williams, D.R. 179
Williams, J. 155
U Williams, M.J. 119
Unigwe, C. 12 Wilson, A. 123, 156
United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy Winbolt, B. 28
(UKCP) x, 3, 4, 171 Winer, R. 180
University of Herat (Afghanistan) 19 Winnicott, C. 166, 171, 188
University of London 190 Wollants, G. 144
University of Strathclyde 19 Woodward, K. 156
US Census Bureau 84 Worrall, M. 67
Utsey, S.O. 42, 43, 50, 80 Wright, B.-C. 6, 13, 39
Uwahemu, A. 171 Wright, K. 100
Wright, T. 100, 128
V Wynter, S. 95
van der Kolk, B. 135, 232
van der Veer, G. 132 Y
VanderWeele, T.J. 203 Yancy, G. 89, 94, 226
van Deurzen, E. 130, 131 Yalom, I. 130
van Kaam, A 135
Van Praag, H.M. 202 Z
ViceNews 55 Zaborowski, R. 128
Viscott, D. 231 Zahid, N. 206
Vitali, D. 130 Zeichner, K. 222
von Franz, M.-L. 103
Vontress, C.E. 4, 5, 13, 57, 68, 130
Vos, J. 130

W
Wachtel, P. 195
Waddell, L. 73
Wagner, J. 82
Walcott, R. 68, 119, 130, 195
Walker, A. 155
Walker, K. 94
248 Subject index

Subject index

A C
acculturation 47, 112 caste system 100,153–55
African diaspora 216, 232 Christianity 28–29, 80, 199, 203–05,
Afropessimism 90 229–30
ancestral imagination 96 civil rights 4, 78
anti-racism 1, 63, 92 classical theory 169–70
anti-racist cognitive dissonance 214–22
counselling 52–65, 89 collectivism 46–48
school of thought 56, 225 colour blindness 47, 174–82
apartheid 78, 226 Commonwealth Immigrants Act (1962) 122
arts (therapeutic use of) 20, 73, 143 community
assimilation/ist 46–47, 54–56, 122–23 access to, 11, 137, 201
asylum seeker(s) 132–135 Black, 155–59
attachment 10, 94, 165–66, 238 involvement of, 141
avoidance sense of, 203
anxiety 66 working in, 22–24
coping 83 continuous trauma 13
issues 13–14, 74 core conditions 24, 199
cross-cultural counselling 53, 181
B cultural
bias appropriation 66–68
media, 12 beliefs 21
racial, 123–125 competency 54, 58–60
structural, 124 dysthymia 57, 59
unconscious, 13, 107–108, 116, 150 empathy 24
Black exploitation 66
British 38–39, 199, 213–14 heritage 79, 159
client 42–44, 66–74, 155, 226 humility 13, 157, 176
counsellor 11, 31, 50, 72 norms 22–23
empathic approach 11–13, 113–16 oppression 6
identity 45–46, 152, 175–78 power 192
inferiority 54 racism 79–80, 226
majority churches 201–05 rituals 80
psychology 191 values 21–22
visibility 70–72 culturally sensitive practice 187, 192–96,
Black Lives Matter 1, 7 210
British Nationality Act 1948 121–22
 Subject index 249

D trauma 187, 191–95

decision-making 81, 130 homophobia 99, 141, 171
decolonised/decolonising humanistic
curriculum 34, 88, 183, 189–91, 194–95 psychology 188, 207
internal 166 therapeutic approach 19–20
psychotherapy 186–88, 192–93 theories 21–22
structures 122–23 humiliation 143–44
deconstruction/reconstruction 145, 150, 228 hypervigilance 80–81
dehumanisation 128
delegitimising experience 142–45 I
diversity training 89, 117, 126, 171, 215 immersion-emersion 47–48
dominant culture 52, 70, 79, 112 indenture 119–22
double consciousness 93–94 inner-outer world traffic 153
dual integrative psychotherapy 58, 108–10
heritage 153 intercultural
world 171–72 awareness 18
clashes 20
E counselling training 23
embodied experience 157–58 therapy 28, 163–70
embodied-relational exchange 144, 234 intergenerational trauma 166
empathy 22–24, 68–69, 181 internalisation-commitment 177
epidermalisation 155 internalised
epistemology 186, 190–95 colonisation 126, 155
eurocentric devaluation 30, 56
counselling 6, 187 oppression 13, 65–68, 124, 200
curriculum 187 racism 38–39, 43, 125, 158–59
perspectives 186–96 interracial relationships 157–58
existential intersectional
crucifixion 13 privilege 103–05
meaning 129–37 understanding 149–50
philosophy 5, 22 introjects 93, 164
therapy 130–32
external world 152–53, 163–64 L
latinx 79
F lies (of whiteness) 89–91
false self (see also proxy self) 171
Faustian pact 152–60, 228 M
fourth force 8 macroaggression 78–79
marginalisation 52, 79, 150, 179
G mentalisation 91–93
Gestalt 20–22, 188 metaphors (in therapy) 20, 24, 69, 70, 73
microaggression 65–69, 78–79
colour blindness 174–83
H racial 59, 72, 144
heteronormative 95, 99–101, 165
miscegenation 156–60
historical
hostility 5, 57
oppression 167–71
N
narcissism 94, 101–02
research 190–91
250 Subject index

O self-
ontology 130, 186, 194–95 actualisation 23, 68
otherness assessment 65
anti-semitism 32 disclosure 115–16
and privilege 99–103 esteem 80, 119, 156, 169
racist, 178 perception 68
repressed, 104 sexism 99, 141
shame of, 226 shadism 155, 228
shame 73, 80, 101–04, 126
P slavery
patriarchy 88, 99–100 legacy of, 120–22, 160, 169
person-centred approach 21–24, 68–69, 74, survival 68, 159, 166, 207
107, 199, 210 social
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) 129, constructs 156
135, 177 identity 174
power and authority 140–43, 150 sociometry 24
pre-encounter 46, 177 splitting (Klein) 96, 113, 154
projection 154 stigma
proxy self 13, 171 Black, 177
psychosocial approach 8, 54–55, 153, 160 mental health, 18, 22–23, 201–04
psychoanalytic supervision (therapy) 140–52
practice 163–64
research 164, 174 T
theory 168–70, 183, 192 taboos 20–21, 24, 32, 43, 141
thinking 152–54 therapeutic trust 10, 21, 66, 73, 113, 145
psychodynamic therapy training curriculum 88–98
practice 107–111, 163, 182 traditional healing 5–6, 10, 65, 68–70, 206
theory 28, 167–68 transgenerational
psychopathology 82, 175–77 hatred 13
psychosis 164–67, 202 history 90, 95
trauma 13, 70, 214
R transcultural therapy 7, 108–10, 177
racial transference
bias 80, 123–25, 175–76 counter-, 105–07, 114–16, 168–69, 182
discrimination 53–54, 78–84 pre-, 114–16, 175
identity 38–50, 156–59, 174–79 trauma
power and privilege 55 continuous, 13
segregation 54, 168 historical, 187, 191–95
superiority 52 intergenerational, 166
tensions 44, 159 transgenerational, 13, 70, 214
reflexivity 65, 70, 196 triads 21, 40
refugees 18, 128–37, 228, 238
relationship-based therapy 163–64 U
religion unconscious
and health 135–36, 199–206 bias 107–08, 116
and psychology 206–09 privilege 98–105
processes 109, 166, 227
S
schizophrenia 200
 Subject index 251

V
vertical power 24
visual culture 128

W
white
anger 217–18
complicity 125–26
fragility 57, 69, 91–94, 101, 125–26
privilege 39–43, 55, 65–69, 186–87,
216–17
supremacy 88–93
Windrush 155–57, 202, 213–14
 Subject index 253
Also by PCCS Books

Drop the Disorder!

Challenging the culture of
psychiatric diagnosis
Edited by Jo Watson

ISBNs Paperback 978 1 910919 46 0

ePub 978 1 910919 50 7

In October 2016, the very first ‘A Disorder for Everyone!’ event took place in
Birmingham and launched an ongoing, national campaign dedicated to exploring and
exploding the culture of psychiatric diagnosis.
How and why does psychiatric diagnosis hold such power? What harms does it do?
What are the alternatives to diagnosis, and how can it be challenged?
This book brings together psychologists, counsellors, psychotherapists, and users
and survivors of services to propose answers to these questions. The contributors
represent a wide range of expertise built through experience, research, campaigning
and activism. All seek to offer an alternative vision for how we respond to those in
extreme emotional distress.
It is an essential book for every one of us who looks beyond the labels.

‘Anyone who wants to deal with the epidemic of distress and despair in our society
should engage deeply with Jo Watson’s work and this massively important book.’
Johann Hari, journalist and writer; author of Lost Connections: Why you’re depressed
and how to find hope

‘Drop the Disorder! is a clarion call for change.’

Robert Whitaker, author of Mad in America and founder of madinamerica.com

‘Challenging, insightful and often controversial… a truly innovative and valuable

book that functions both as a learning resource and an ardent call to arms.’
Dr Eleanor Longden, Psychosis Research Unit, Greater Manchester Mental Health
NHS Foundation Trust

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