Beyond the ‘sticking plaster’? Meaningful teaching and learning about race and racism in counselling and psychotherapy training

Abstract

This article is co-written by a counselling and psychotherapy tutor and two students at a university in the North of England. It is both an idea for and a reflection on how the counselling and psychotherapy professions might progress and deepen the way in which race and racism are taught and explored in training. This paper also serves as a follow-up to the article ‘Confronting racism in counselling and therapy training—three experiences of a seminar on racism and whiteness’ in which the authors explore their experiences of delivering and participating in the session and the growth, and learning that came from it. The intention behind trying to do this session differently was to move beyond surface level, cognitive ‘sticking plaster’ approaches to discussing race and racism in society and in the therapy room, and to employ a much more experiential and challenging approach. It was hoped that this would encourage students to reflect on their own identities and their own responses to Black people openly discussing experiences of racism, particularly given it was a majority white cohort. The authors offer their own reflections in the article that was written post-session.