We stand against the ongoing brutality in this country toward Black persons and other people who are not clearly white, rich, male, straight, cis-gender, and well-connected. We stand against institutional racism and its tolerance and encouragement of violence toward anyone deemed as other.
Our work as therapists positions us to witness a close-up of the effects of systemic racism. We see how societal problems are so often the cause of personal suffering. We know these systems often rob the people we serve of education, family wealth, access to jobs, dignity, safety, and security. This makes room for problems in people’s lives, like “depression” and “anxiety." We stand against the popular discourse/stories in our society and understand they encourage us to understand problems as located in the individual, a personal deficit, or failing.
As Narrative Therapists, we believe that therapy is social action. A large piece of narrative practice is investigating the effects of these dominant discourses on a person's life. We hope to shine a light on these dominant stories and give people the agency to choose how they want to be in relation to them.
We believe it is of the highest importance to recognize the power differential inherent in the therapeutic relationship. Therapists are positioned to push discourses and influence meaning-making. We are committed to working to counter the ways therapist voices are traditionally prioritized by centering the people we serve as experts in their own lives. We recognize that who we are (white, cis-female, middle class…) comes into our therapeutic conversations. It is our responsibility to recognize and be transparent when our bias comes into our work.
