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Teen Vogue: Why I Need a Woman of Color Therapist
When it comes to race, a degree isn't always qualification enough for a therapist.
In this op-ed, Gloria Oladipo explains why she needs a woman of color as her therapist.
I need a woman of color therapist. I need a woman of color therapist to process the labyrinth of my mental health needs and racialized trauma, who is willing to hold my hand as I sob about anti-Blackness I do and do not understand. Even though I am clear in why I need a therapist of color compared to a white woman, I still receive the recycled arguments of race neutral proponents. They declare race doesn’t matter in therapy. They insist: “A degree is enough of a qualification. Why does it always have to be about race?”
But with my first long-term white therapist, every appointment was an awkward waltz between the two of us. We would open up appointments at an impasse: her trying to find a conversation topic, I not willing to open up to her. On one level, I didn’t have the language of mental health nor the commitment to vulnerability that therapists need from their patients. However, on a deeper level, I felt bizarre talking to her. Trying to communicate my daily problems to my white therapist, many of which involved racism, made me uncomfortable. The power dynamics that I had to actively encounter with white women all my life existed in my therapy session; even though I could put in the work to undo them with her, the emotional labor needed to do so was an extra burden that I had to face during therapy, and a distraction from the other emotional work I had to do. I felt an inherent discomfort being vulnerable with someone systematically more powerful.
That dynamic is why the therapist-client relationship is often about race, but there’s also more to it. For patients of color, trying to contour our needs into a system that tends to view mental health as a “white issue” causes our quality of care and health to suffer. On average, patients of color are more likely to experience racial misdiagnosis from professionals who stereotype certain mental illnesses as “white” problems. Moreover, Black and Brown people are disproportionately over-diagnosed with psychotic disorders; our behaviors are stigmatized and denoted as psychological flaws. Additionally, within today’s mental health system, patients of color, specifically young people, often don't receive mental health resources that cater to the intersection of our cultural and psychological needs. The consequences of these mental health care barriers are widespread and growing: Native American young people have a higher risk of dying by suicide than any other ethnicity, only 2.3% of Black or Hispanic youth seeing mental health professionals compared to 5.7% of white youth, Black youth between the ages of five to 17 dying by suicide at twice the rate of their white peers, among other tragedies.
These deficiencies within mental health treatment make it even more important that youth of color receive proper mental health treatment, inclusive care including therapy that understands racism as trauma, support to fight mental health stigma in our own communities, and similarly specialized tools. Among these demands, a top priority is increased diversity among therapists which offers increased representation within the mental health practice.
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/why-i-need-a-woman-of-color-therapist?utm_brand=tv&utm_source=twitter&mbid=social_twitter&utm_social-type=owned&utm_medium=social
In this op-ed, Gloria Oladipo explains why she needs a woman of color as her therapist.
I need a woman of color therapist. I need a woman of color therapist to process the labyrinth of my mental health needs and racialized trauma, who is willing to hold my hand as I sob about anti-Blackness I do and do not understand. Even though I am clear in why I need a therapist of color compared to a white woman, I still receive the recycled arguments of race neutral proponents. They declare race doesn’t matter in therapy. They insist: “A degree is enough of a qualification. Why does it always have to be about race?”
But with my first long-term white therapist, every appointment was an awkward waltz between the two of us. We would open up appointments at an impasse: her trying to find a conversation topic, I not willing to open up to her. On one level, I didn’t have the language of mental health nor the commitment to vulnerability that therapists need from their patients. However, on a deeper level, I felt bizarre talking to her. Trying to communicate my daily problems to my white therapist, many of which involved racism, made me uncomfortable. The power dynamics that I had to actively encounter with white women all my life existed in my therapy session; even though I could put in the work to undo them with her, the emotional labor needed to do so was an extra burden that I had to face during therapy, and a distraction from the other emotional work I had to do. I felt an inherent discomfort being vulnerable with someone systematically more powerful.
That dynamic is why the therapist-client relationship is often about race, but there’s also more to it. For patients of color, trying to contour our needs into a system that tends to view mental health as a “white issue” causes our quality of care and health to suffer. On average, patients of color are more likely to experience racial misdiagnosis from professionals who stereotype certain mental illnesses as “white” problems. Moreover, Black and Brown people are disproportionately over-diagnosed with psychotic disorders; our behaviors are stigmatized and denoted as psychological flaws. Additionally, within today’s mental health system, patients of color, specifically young people, often don't receive mental health resources that cater to the intersection of our cultural and psychological needs. The consequences of these mental health care barriers are widespread and growing: Native American young people have a higher risk of dying by suicide than any other ethnicity, only 2.3% of Black or Hispanic youth seeing mental health professionals compared to 5.7% of white youth, Black youth between the ages of five to 17 dying by suicide at twice the rate of their white peers, among other tragedies.
These deficiencies within mental health treatment make it even more important that youth of color receive proper mental health treatment, inclusive care including therapy that understands racism as trauma, support to fight mental health stigma in our own communities, and similarly specialized tools. Among these demands, a top priority is increased diversity among therapists which offers increased representation within the mental health practice.
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/why-i-need-a-woman-of-color-therapist?utm_brand=tv&utm_source=twitter&mbid=social_twitter&utm_social-type=owned&utm_medium=social
#WorldMentalHealthDay
