The recognition that psychology/therapy/counselling sits within political, societal, cultural, prejudiced structures needs to be addressed and highlighted, ironically it needing to be addressed within the very training which doesn't acknowledge it! (1)
Not helped by lack of representation of diversity across all levels of profession (clinical, policy and teaching/training roles) and professional bodies, to address structural inequalities within profession & across society (2)
To sit with any single client in therapy, is to acknowledge their lived experience and therefore their pain, trauma, hurt and distress, within a prejudiced, racist, structurally unequal system. All of us exist along those spectrums whether at the privileged or prejudiced end.(3)
The need for culturally-competent and faith-sensitive therapy is imperative and its delivery on training courses and in therapy services goes hand in hand with greater representation of diverse ethnic and faith practitioners across the higher levels of the profession (4)
This includessitting in positions of CEO's, Chairs, Trustees, Board Members, CCG's, Commitees, across all therapy/ counselling and psychology professional bodies and training institutions, teaching staff teams and higher bands within NHS (5)
Being from a 'community' is not mutually exclusive to being part of the mainstream (6)
#representation #diversity #culturalcompetence #faithsensitive #intersectionality
#representation #diversity #culturalcompetence #faithsensitive #intersectionality
Barriers for Muslim &/or BME practitioners exist at every stage within profession, from entry (course fees, time, access to training), during training (lack of diversity training, lack of skill/understanding/support), post-training (lack of jobs & career pathway) (7)
We get so many emails from prospective trainees who want to train as counsellors/therapists, but with no clear pathway, it's difficult to navigate & creates obstacles for applying for training. We end up explaining the training routes & options! (8)
