Racism Is A Mental Health Issue
Racism Is A Mental Health Issue
Jun 8
Written By Erin Wheeler
An examination of systems of supremacy (and the structural violence that comes with it) is an essential component of a therapist's trauma-informed lens. As a white therapist, I must do my own work to dismantle behaviors and beliefs that are a legacy of my privilege in this system. As a white therapist, it is my job to help other white people examine their narratives about racial privilege, and develop a greater awareness of how the scarcity mindset of white supremacy not only harms others, but leads to an ego strength that only exists in the context of holding more power than others. As Toni Morrison so famously pointed out, "If you can only be tall because somebody is on their knees, then you have a serious problem."[1]
It is my role as a white therapist to provide a safe place for healing for people of color who have endured radicalized trauma. To provide a safe environment for clients who are BIPOC (Black, Indeginous & People of Peope of color), I must work outside of sessions to seek educational opportunities to enhance my understanding of the impact of racism on mental health. I have to find resources to challenge my own internalized racism, which might cause me to reiterate the dynamics of supremacy in my therapeutic relationship with BIPOC clients. I must simultaneously recognize that this self-education is itself a privilege of whiteness. As a white therapist, I do not have to deal with the experience of racism directly, so I am free of having to process my own racial trauma whenever I am engaging in discussions about dismantling racism, either in trainings or conversations with white clients.
It is my job as a white therapist who is passionate about perinatal mental health to call out discrimination and inequity in medical care, which makes Black birthing people two to three times more likely to die from pregnancy-related causes than white birthing people. [2] I must also build relationships with and support groups who are providing services to Black mothers in the perinatal period, groups such as Health Connect One here in Chicago.[3]
As a white therapist, I must refuse to see racism as irrelevant or secondary as a mental health concern. I must reject the suggestion that I should only speak about race if my client has brought it up first. I am obligated to challenge others who argue that interventions with white clients around racism equate to "racial profiling" or "reverse racism." I must publicly dispute ideology within our field that idealizes the notion of clinical objectivity and shames more in-depth discussions of racism and privilege as a threat to that objectivity.
Systemic racism and other forms of oppression are toxic for our individual and collective psyche. We can only heal society if we do this healing within ourselves, and this healing involves white therapists examining our role enhancing racial equity and justice in the therapy room. At Inner Resource Counseling, racism will always be treated as a mental health issue.
[1] PBS iInterview with Toni Morrison (1993) https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a28621535/toni-morrison-white-supremacy-charlie-rose-interview-racism/
[2] CDC Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Pregnancy-Related Deaths — United States, 2007–2016
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/68/wr/mm6835a3.htm?s_cid=mm6835a3_w
[3] Health Connect One https://www.healthconnectone.org