A Call to Honor the Past and Shape the Future of Therapy

This troubling moment in world history calls for therapists to help Black clients in a way that may look vastly different than the training that was provided in many traditional training programs.

What is happening in the world IS happening to all of us, albeit in different manifestations and at different rates. While we close out Black History Month in the spirit of honoring Black voices, contributions, and stories, I hope therapists are also taking inventory of the current moment and how to relevantly assist our Black clients for the present moment and future.

If there was any time to consider Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, it is now. With more than 300,000 Black women having lost their jobs or laid off in the last year, the needs of the Black community are rapidly changing and collectively impacting our emotional, intellectual, financial, and community well-being.

I’m hopeful that the therapeutic conversation is different than “neutral, open-ended questions.” (Whether any questions are truly neutral is a different conversation for a different day).

I suppose this Black History Month newsletter is more of a Call to Action for clinicians working with Black folks. A call to step away from traditional, clinical neutrality, that traditional training programs often espouse to mitigate transference and countertransference, and to consider the following therapeutic stance:

- Allow yourself to share space with your Black clients as a fellow community member.

-As a fellow community member, permit yourself to provide more transparency, disclosure, and use of self to mitigate power differentials. In a moment where secrecy is being used to harm people, therapists need to lessen the use of the therapeutic “poker face.”

-View any type of cultural mistrust among Black clients as a healthy reaction and survival strategy in the context of an unhealthy society.

I believe that Black people have an ancestral memory of how to survive during the present and impending moments. Let’s amplify the pre-existing strengths of Black clients by fostering authentic, real, inclusive spaces for healing work and growth