Exploring whiteness in the context of antiracist psychotherapy education: a narrative inquiry into therapists’ experiences

Despite years of commitment to diversifying and becoming more inclusive, the psychological professions remain dominated by white members with ongoing problems of recruitment and retention of people of the global majority as a concern.

A long history of inequity in training, practice and psychotherapy research has shaped these problems. Concerns about racism were illuminated following the onset of the Covid 19 global pandemic, the racist murder of George Floyd on 25th May 2020 in the USA, and the re-surgency of the Black Lives Matter movement. At this time, all the professional bodies re-committed to tackling racism within the profession.

In an effort to deepen understandings of whiteness, and building on an initial survey, an in-depth narrative inquiry was undertaken to explore counsellors’ and psychotherapists’ experiences of whiteness within antiracist psychotherapy education, a markedly under-researched area within psychotherapy.

From a starting point of critical realism, and with a focus on social justice, qualitative, semi-structured interviews were carried out with six culturally diverse, experienced counsellors/psychotherapists from varying modalities.

Using Gilligan’s (1982) Listening Guide as a method of data analysis, responses to experiences of whiteness produced fourteen ‘contrapuntal’ voices across the group of six participants. The white researcher included reflections on her own growth and learning about white racialized identity. Themes associated with the different experiences of whiteness were evident with the most significant being ‘whiteness as violence’ experienced by all participants of the global majority. Whiteness as hegemonic orientation, whiteness as ambivalence, and a theme of needing to conscientize whiteness were also evident.

A major finding is that voices that resist, expose, acknowledge and disrupt whiteness are linked to hope, whereas voices of compromise, assimilation, ambivalence, and ‘pushback’ are associated with hopelessness. It follows, therefore, that the importance of ending the violence that colleagues of the global majority experience cannot be overstated. Specific recommendations for psychotherapy education are offered.