Thinking about Race in the Therapeutic Encounter

CPD courses for psychologists

In this challenging and illuminating talk, Yvette Esprey offers a framework for thinking about race and racial identity in the therapeutic encounter, suggesting that a relational psychoanalytic framework allows for the consideration of how race impacts on subjectivity of both clients and therapists, and how racial dynamics impact on the therapeutic process. Yvette focuses on an awareness of racial dynamics as an ethical imperative, essential to good practice.

Sections

•     Introduction: The relevance of thinking about race
•     The avoidance of engaging with race
•     The collapse of thinking: clinical vignettes
•     A relational framework
•     The ethics of thinking about race
•     Conclusion

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this talk, participants will be able to:

• Understand how race and racial identity influence subjectivity and clinical dynamics in therapy

• Describe how a relational psychoanalytic approach can support meaningful engagement with racialised processes

• Reflect on the ethical importance of recognising and addressing racial dynamics in clinical practice

• Identify the ways in which unconscious racialised transferences may arise and be worked with therapeutically

• Enhance cultural humility and responsiveness in working with clients from racially and culturally diverse backgrounds

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