Table Of ContentColin Lago and Divine Charura 1
Praise for Black Identities and White Therapies
This book speaks of the profound need to address the shortcoming of racial
competency in therapeutic training and professional practice. It represents both
a call and an opportunity to challenge the profession on its lack of awareness and
inclusion. It offers contributions from Black, brown and people of colour, providing
a range of thinking on race and ensuring this remains a fundamental element of
professional practice. It offers us the opportunity to change, to progress, to recognise
the vast gaps in our knowledge and to become anti-racist and fit for purpose.
Integral to this book is a recognition of the role of intersectionality and how the lived
experience is reflected in complex identities. This insightful book will hold its value
and usefulness long after the first read, reminding us to challenge exclusion, reflect
on our practice and address our own positions of power and privilege.
Susan Cousins, author of Overcoming Everyday Racism
Divine Charura and Colin Lago have brought together many of the leading
thinkers and practitioners in multicultural counselling to review how we prepare
ourselves to work with racial difference. The truth is that for many of us, this is the
uncomfortable territory of power and privilege, of unsettling lack of knowledge
and experience. As counsellors, we may limit our authenticity through fear of
offending. As tutors, we may lack the sure-footedness to lead our students into this
difficult terrain. This must change.
Janet Tolan, counsellor/psychotherapist, supervisor, tutor and author
This impressive book makes a major contribution to theory and practice in an area
that has been ignored or neglected for far too long. It considers this systemic failure
as well as suggesting ways forward for the profession. A wealth of experience,
diverse trainings and experiences as counsellors/therapists and a multiplicity of
helpful perspectives are presented. It will encourage debate, critical review and
consideration of some long-held assumptions and contribute to ensuring that
Black lives do matter in counselling and training. The book is packed full of
information presented in a clear, accessible and informative manner. It should be
on the bookshelf of every training institution and counsellor.
Rachel Tribe is a chartered counselling and occupational psychologist and
professor of applied psychology at the University of East London and Queen
Mary, University of London
This book carries a bold message that revolves around one word, ‘change’. The
unique contribution of each author lies in the variety of practical, innovative,
experiential and imaginative ways they offer, based on their own research and
practice, to meet the varying needs of racially and ethnically different clients. The
authors invite therapists, trainers and supervisors alike to reflect and question
their practice critically, examine the roots of their values and beliefs and, most
importantly, learn and unlearn continually to change their way of working. This
exceptionally good book will be inspirational and beneficial to both new and
2 Black Identities and White Therapies
experienced practitioners in the field of psychotherapy, a useful guide for individual
therapists and a tremendous resource for trainers.
Shukla Dhingra, counsellor, supervisor and trainer
Black Identities + White Therapies speaks to the urgency of addressing the impact
of racism when training counsellors and psychotherapists. Those who are racially
marginalised are already over-represented as patients in the mental health system
but under-represented as clients in counselling and psychotherapy. Racially
marginalised communities have borne the brunt of the Covid pandemic. If the
profession is to have any hope of meeting the needs of those who are grieving and
suffering long-term illness, burn-out and severe economic stress, on top of the
psychological stress that results from living in a hostile atmosphere, we need to
knuckle down and do the work now. This book could not be more timely.
Rose Cameron, author of Working with Difference and Diversity in Counselling
and Psychotherapy
What an emotive and thought-provoking read! The authors are unapologetic in their
call for accountability, challenging colour-blindness, highlighting implications for
therapists, trainers/trainees, supervisors and therapy organisations. We agree with
the contributors that it would be grossly negligent for us not to critically explore
issues of identity, oppression and race in all therapeutic relationships. These
explorations call upon us to continually consider how we are with our own and
others’ identities, and what this means personally, interpersonally and structurally.
The authors give us guidance on how we might validate experiential realities as
we work towards inclusive models of practice. Their guidance is peppered with
examples and references that resonate on a personal and professional level while
attempting to de-colonise and dismantle hierarchies with the turn of each page.
The sensitive facilitation of these necessary conversations makes this book essential
reading for practitioners.
Kerese Collins, lecturer (counselling & psychotherapy), Keele University, and
co-host of ‘My Wife is a Therapist’ podcast; Sally Chisholm, lecturer (counselling
& psychotherapy), Keele University, and tutor, Metanoia Institute
Yet another splendid book jointly edited by Divine Charura and Colin Lago and
demanding not just a place on our bookshelves, but nothing less than the undivided
attention of the therapeutic community. This book is testimony to the harm caused
by the failure of therapeutic professions to adequately address the complexities
of encounter with diversity in more than theoretical terms. Particularly those
of us who are trainers have the option of jealously guarding our current mode
of teaching or hearing the call of this book to think more broadly and act more
creatively. Collectively, the contributors provide insight and encouragement to face
uncomfortable encounters and difficult conversations in order to traverse a bumpy
but promising terrain and also facilitate a more relevant training environment.
Andrea Uphoff, primary tutor, Metanoia Institute
Colin Lago and Divine Charura i
Black
Identities +
White
Therapies
Race, respect + diversity
Edited by
Divine Charura
and Colin Lago
ii Black Identities and White Therapies
First published 2021
PCCS Books Ltd
Wyastone Business Park
Wyastone Leys
Monmouth
NP25 3SR
[email protected]
www.pccs-books.co.uk
This collection © Divine Charura and Colin Lago, 2021
The individual chapters © the contributors, 2021
All rights reserved.
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or
review, as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, this publication
may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form, or by any means, only with the
prior permission in writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction,
in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.
Enquiries concerning reproduction outside those terms should be sent to the publishers.
The authors have asserted their right to be identified as the authors of this work in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Black Identities and White Therapies: Race, respect and diversity
British Library Cataloguing in Publication data: a catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library.
ISBNs Paperback 978 1 910919 89 7
ePub 978 1 910919 90 3
Cover design Jason Anscomb
Colin Lago and Divine Charura iii
Contents
Preface ix
Colin Lago and Divine Charura
1 Race, culture and ethnicity: A systemic failure of attention in the 1
psychotherapy profession?
Colin Lago and Divine Charura
2 The cultural complexity of training counsellors abroad: The case of 18
Afghanistan
Lucia Berdondini, Ali Ahmad Kaveh and Sandra Grieve
3 Can you talk about race without going pink or feeling 27
uncomfortable?
Delroy Hall
4 Exploring the racial self in counselling training 38
Billie-Claire Wright
5 An anti-racist counselling training model 52
Courtland C. Lee
6 ‘Look in the mirror... and just below the surface’: Critical reflection, 65
personal stories and training implications
Valerie Watson
7 ‘Where are you from?’ The effects of racism and perceived 77
discrimination on people of colour
Priscilla Dass-Brailsford
8 Re-imagining the space and context for a therapeutic curriculum – 88
a sketch
Robert Downes and Foluke Taylor
9 Twin tribes: Exploring unconscious privilege and otherness in 98
counselling and psychotherapy
Dwight Turner
10 Lifting the white veil of therapy 107
Neelam Zahid
11 The legacy of colonial history and the ongoing challenge to 119
therapist training and practice
Vedia Maharaj
iv Black Identities and White Therapies
12 Towards the re-emergence of meaning: Existential contributions to 128
working with refugee clients
Benjamin Mark Butler
13 Who is transforming what? Ideas and reflections on training, 140
practice and supervision in radical mode
Carmen Joanne Ablack
14 Negotiating the Faustian pact: A psycho-social approach to 152
working with mixed-race people
Yvon Guest
15 Developing a diversity-sensitive psychoanalytic and 163
psychodynamic psychotherapy: Personal and professional
reflections
Lennox K. Thomas
16 Colour blindness as microaggression: Perspectives on race and 174
ethnicity in counselling and psychotherapy training and practice
Mark Williams
17 Towards a decolonised psychotherapy research and practice 185
Divine Charura and Colin Lago
18 Religion, therapy and mental health treatment in diverse 199
communities: Some critical reflections and radical propositions
Rachel-Rose Burrell
19 Race and cognitive dissonance: Could supervision be a way of 213
connecting tutors to students?
Fiona A. Beckford
Postscript 224
Divine Charura and Colin Lago
About the contributors 234
Name index 241
Subject index 248
Colin Lago and Divine Charura v
Dedication
This book is dedicated to the memory of Lennox Thomas,
who sadly passed away while it was still in preparation.
Some months previously, Lennox had enthusiastically responded to our
invitation to contribute a chapter and, right on time, he delivered a first
draft, professional as ever.
As his chapter in the book demonstrates, from a young man onwards, he was
always deeply motivated and concerned that all psychotherapists – indeed,
all caring professionals – should pay great attention to their work with
people from all communities. He was one of the early pioneers in the UK to
stimulate thought, reflection and, subsequently, training in this arena.
He is sorely missed.
vi Black Identities and White Therapies
Colin Lago and Divine Charura vii
Acknowledgements
Our thanks go to Catherine (Jackson, our commissioning editor), who has been an
enthusiastic and committed supporter of this book, to Pete and Maggie (Sanders,
of PCCS Books), who have long championed the publication of critical texts in
counselling and psychotherapy, and to all the PCCS Books team.
As you will have noticed on the Dedication page, we were deeply saddened
by the passing of one of our chapter writers as we were preparing the final text.
Lennox Thomas has been a distinctive voice in the professional field of counselling
and psychotherapy for more than four decades and we both deeply respected and
valued his continued commitment to effective and sensitive therapeutic practice
with clients of all diversities. He is sorely missed by his family, friends, immediate
colleagues and all those privileged to have been taught and known by him.
We are, of course, deeply grateful to all the colleagues who have contributed
their thoughts and experiences to this volume. While committing enthusiastically
to the project, some authors remarked on the anxiety and fear they experienced in
writing their critiques and developments. Growing beyond our inherited theoretical
models and daring to envisage and publish modified and radical developments
based on our own clinical and life experiences is a courageous and valuable act. We
thank you, the authors.
Colin writes: Working with Divine on this project has been such a source of
stimulation and joy. Since first meeting at a weekend training seminar in 2006,
we have co-operated on several training programmes, various writing projects
and even made an academic visit to Cambodia in 2019, where we lent support
to the first university-based, two-year counselling training programme there. At
the time of writing, Divine has recently been appointed to a Chair in Counselling
Psychology at York St. John University – a position that fully reflects and merits his
professional commitment and passion to the mental health and therapeutic needs
of others. I am deeply grateful for his friendship, support and enthusiasm. He is a
joy to be with and to work with. Thank you, Divine.
As always, I am continually grateful to my wife, Gill, who puts up with my
absence on many evenings while I am trying to write. To my immediate family –
James, Rebecca, Martin and grandson Luke – I am indebted for their support, love
and care.
In the preparation of this project, I have inevitably cast my mind back to the
early days of my career (the 1980s), in which I became involved with dear colleagues
like Jean Clark, Joyce Thompson, Roy Moodley, Josna Pankhania, Bill Hall, Shukla
Dhingra, Christine Rowe, Shantu Watt (and many more), in the Race and Culture
Sub-committee of what was then the British Association for Counselling. Since
then, I have enjoyed co-operations with many colleagues in the field committed to
diversity sensitivity. I hope they forgive me for not mentioning them all by name,
but their spirit, dedication and commitment continue to sustain me in this pursuit
of enhancing and improving our therapeutic activities across the wide range of
diversity within society.
