Racism in Therapy: Red Flags your Therapist has more work to do
We cannot always know what a therapist believes internally. We can know that all of us have been raised in, exposed to, exploited by, and for some, profited from being in a white world. What you can pay attention to is their behaviour and how they respond when harm is named in the room.
From Bek’s perspective, some warning signs include:
Treating whiteness as neutral. A therapist’s cultural worldview shapes their practice, even when they do not acknowledge it.
Overlooking race when it matters. For example, discussing difficult family systems dynamics without acknowledging the impact race/racism has when more than one racial identity makes up a family.
Minimizing experiences of racism or becoming defensive when these realities enter the conversation. For example, if the therapist says, “I wonder if that’s actually what they meant by that…” or “could it maybe be more related to your…?”. This puts the onus on the Person of Colour to defend their experiences and is dismissive and harmful of the therapist.
Using unwanted or outdated identity terms and resisting correction.
Expecting you as a client to be their primary educator on your cultural and/or racial identity.
Failing to acknowledge harm, apologize, or change their behaviour after a misstep.
The words “evidence-based” also deserve a conversation. Bek encourages attention to whose experiences are represented in research, whose are missing, and how an approach may or may not fit the person seeking care.
And let’s name it for what it is. Much of the counselling world and many of its therapy models have been developed within whiteness. Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour deserve to be centered, not just adapted too. And the work to make that a reality in the mental health field is ongoing by many incredible BIPOC therapists, advocates, and researchers. In the meantime: One useful question to ask is: “How do you adapt this approach to my cultural context and lived experience?”
You deserve an answer that goes beyond naming a therapy model.
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Nothing like a defensive therapist when feedback is given.