Navigating Race in the Psychotherapeutic Encounter: a Call for Supervision

[...]one undergraduate patient described that he sometimes felt full of rage: “This place was stolen and built on the backs of slaves!” “Almost all your therapists are white!” The reality of being supervised by racially homogenous psychiatrists and psychologists in the context of curricular and supervisory silence on the topic of race produced psychic conflict and sometimes re-traumatization, making it difficult to present this charged material, especially within a hierarchical training program. By omitting the discussion of race from supervision, a colorblind approach to both education and patient care is perpetuated, stifling the growth of the learner, and at its worst, causing harm to patients. Powell, DR. Race, African Americans, and psychoanalysis: collective silence in the therapeutic situation.