What is it about?
Similar to musicians and athletes, psychotherapists can practice skills on how to collaborate with their clients. This kind of practice is helpful for unfamiliar or uncomfortable topics such as the impact of racism on health and well-being. This paper offers two exercises for psychotherapists to increase their ability and comfort to discuss the consequences of racism with clients.
Featured Image
Photo by Duy Pham on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Psychotherapists need active and experiential ways to learn how to discuss the consequences of racism with their clients. This paper is unique because it has two exercises to practice basic skills. Practicing psychotherapy skills is different than listening to lectures, reading articles, and discussing with experts. Practicing skills is different than long-form role plays, watching videos of experts, and delivering clinical services. All these forms of learning are necessary, including deliberately practicing skills.
Perspectives
This paper was a meaningful collaboration with my doctoral students during a time of increased race-based discrimination in our society. I hope this work offers a complement to how psychotherapists can be transformed and equipped to serve a diverse population who suffer for social stressors. Also, I hope this is an encouragement for others to adapt and develop more exercises to train psychotherapists on how to compassionate with clients.
Joel Jin
University of Washington
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Deliberate practice in anti-racist psychology., Training and Education in Professional Psychology, August 2024, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/tep0000447.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
