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July is BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Colour) Mental Health Month. For this month’s blog entry, I wanted to write something relevant to that, but the topic is so broad and I wasn’t sure which direction to take initially. Do I discuss the lack of culturally relevant mental health care? Maybe I should address the stigma that exists in BIPOC communities about mental health? Or do I touch on systemic issues like police involvement in mental health emergency calls, especially Black and Indigenous folks? All are important and I hope to address them someday, but for this post I wanted to go a bit more personal. And to do so, I’ll have to take this back to my psychotherapy master’s program.
I was a young twenty-something excited to be taking the next step in my life. Moving towards being able to enter a career where I felt I could make a difference. I had no idea what to expect and for the most part, was pleasantly surprised by how much I was enjoying my program. However, I slowly started to notice that there was something that wasn’t sitting right with me. I feel the best way to convey this is with a series of statements that describe various experiences I had, so just take a moment to read them and notice what comes up for you as you do.
It’s multiple conversations about therapist/client power dynamics having Whiteness as the central factor, without any consideration for BIPOC therapists. It’s a fellow student telling a random, irrelevant story about a negative encounter with a man where she felt it was absolutely necessary to describe him as “coloured”. It’s the fact that I had to express multiple times that Black people are not a monolith. It’s having White Fragility as a required reading. It’s skipping a class where someone was scheduled to come talk to us about anti-Black racism. It’s classmates asking me why I didn’t come to class that day. It’s still having to listen to people’s testimonies of how their “eyes are open now” in that class the following week. It’s a Korean classmate telling me about how in a group project, a White woman shared that she was so glad they had 2 White men in their group because “we never hear the White male perspective”. It’s a White woman casually running her hands through my braids and walking away before I could even process what occurred. It’s deciding to research whether other people are experiencing this in their mental health education programs, and learning that indeed, they are. It’s this being only my experience, and only part of my experience at that.
My intention isn’t to say that my Master’s program was awful, I actually enjoyed it a lot for the most part. However, this revealed to me a few things.
The field has been so White for so long, and discussions of cultural consideration are still quite new. It’s important that any sort of consideration for working with BIPOC clients exists and is more than just one day in the lesson plan. However, at least when I was in school, the conversation still lacked nuance.
The field has been so White for so long, and does not recognize what it actually means to have BIPOC therapists. Training programs are still so White centred that they don’t know how to adequately address people that don’t match their image of what a therapist looks like.
The field has been so White for so long, and instead of accepting that certain modalities don’t effectively address some BIPOC issues, they’d rather try to fit a square peg in a round hole. A hot take: No matter how many times you modify CBT, it just won’t work for some things, and that’s okay.
An important part of BIPOC mental health is the mental health care providers. Having programs that train clinicians with the consideration that BIPOC individuals exist on both sides is important. However, we know that change is often slow and until something is widely recognized as a problem, a solution won't come. So what can be done now? Well, that depends on who you are and your sphere of influence. My goal is to continue existing as a Black woman in this space, as well as informing and educating. Informing and educating the community about mental health and culturally relevant and accessible ways to take care of one’s mental health. Informing and educating colleagues about how to practice in culturally relevant and sensitive ways. Educating myself on the cultures and practices that I don’t know enough about. And informing and educating aspiring therapists about what they need to know about entering and navigating this field. And on that last note, I have something really exciting I can’t wait to share with y’all, so look out for that!
This work is not only mine to take on, but requires action from as many people as possible. So my challenge to you is to consider what you can do to shed light on the importance of BIPOC mental health. And if you’re BIPOC yourself, I encourage you to take some time to invest in your own mental health care, whatever that may look like for you. Thanks for reading!
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