The therapy room is not always a safe haven, especially when it echoes the unconscious biases of our society
“Sometimes, a lot of the conversations may not have to do with racism. However, your perception because of racism may not be caught by a white therapist. I know that good work can be done with a white therapist, but some people – they feel heard, held, understood in the space where you [the therapist] just get it.”, provides further anecdotal support for a lack of racial and cultural awareness.
According to Jeawon, a common complaint is exposure to the “repeated denial of the client’s experience as a person of colour in an Irish context”. This experience is familiar to many Irish people whose skin tone deviates from the majority, and has been eloquently captured by Irish-born author and academic Emma Dabiri in a 2016 Guardian: “Whiteness is ‘pure’ and doesn’t extend to brown girls, even those who can trace their Irish ancestry back to the 10th century.
Although an increasing number of black people in Ireland identify as ethnically Irish, the categories of “black” and “Irish” continue to be taken as mutually exclusive, both inside and outside the therapy room. These unconscious biases persist in spite ofresults, which showed that one in every three people in Ireland of African descent were born in Ireland.
The problem with it all is that you’re going through a training curriculum which is designed based on Western research and which is delivered predominantly by Irish-born white peopleto make up 17.8 per cent of the Irish population, there is a need for perspectives to be updated. As the Irish population grows more diverse, it is important for counsellors and psychotherapists to be aware of the unique social challenges faced by marginalised communities in Ireland.
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