Examining whiteness confronts injustices of racism through personal and collective work on white identity, power, privilege and complicity

This is an In-Person event

Aims

We aim to come together to address injustices and inequalities of racism through personal and collective work on the impact of Whiteness.

Agreements

Examining Whiteness is open to and welcomes Psychotherapists and Counsellors from all backgrounds, cultures and ethnicities who want to actively address the injustices and inequalities of racism through personal and collective work on white identity, power, privilege and complicity.

Before attending, white participants need to have taken steps towards learning about their own racialized identity and acknowledging its place in upholding white supremacy via suitable reading, peer, and supervisory discussion, and having attended antiracism courses or workshops. This group is not suitable for white attendees who have yet to begin this work.

In addition, white participants need be prepared to participate in and stay with, uncomfortable and difficult conversations in a respectful environment. Our aim within the group is to de-centre our whiteness, own our complicity as benefactors of racism both individually and structurally, and practice deep-listening and centering of our colleagues of the global majorities lived experiences should they choose to share them.

The group upholds the concept of confidentiality and aims to function with mutual respect whilst offering sufficient challenge and support to allow the work to progress. Participants need to know how to support themselves in this process. As therapists and trainee’s, we need to monitor our own emotional and mental well-being vigilantly as this work takes us into a field of historical, intergenerational, and ongoing trauma. By doing this work together we hope to provide a starting point for dismantling the internal, relational, and structural racism that persists within the profession.

Our intention is to collectively engage more honestly in dialogue that centres race, racism, and whiteness. Our aim is to collectively grow the capacity of the profession for respectful, sensitive, and anti-oppressive relationships with our clients, colleagues, and society at large…. Join us if you share our aims.

Facilitators Statement:

We are facilitating this group because we no longer want to be part of a therapy profession and world where clients, trainees, and global majority colleagues continue to experience oppression, discrimination, racial trauma, and harm; where their experiences are not heard and valued and where white practitioners do not do the necessary internal and relational work to stop this happening.

Facilitators

Psychotherapists and facilitators Maria St Hilaire and Tarun Pamneja will faciliate the December 5th group from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Maria St Hilaire is a Transactional Analysis counsellor and course tutor at The Link Centre. She has engaged in numerous Examining Whiteness sessions and believes in the power of group work. She has been a Social Responsibility Conference speaker, centering on the experience of the global majority in psychotherapy training. Maria is a clinical supervisor having undergone training with an emphasis on anti-oppressive practices in therapeutic and supervision spaces.

Tarun Pamneja is a UKCP Psychotherapist, HCPC Counselling Psychologist and an IGA Groupwork Practitioner. He has worked in mental health settings within the NHS and charitable sector since 1990. In the context of Examining Whiteness, he believes all of us need to examine our thinking and become more conscious of how we affect each other.

Frances Basset is a Transpersonal Psychotherapist, Supervisor, and group facilitator with over 20 years’ experience in private practice in Brighton and is a former Senior Lecturer at University of Brighton where she led courses and modules in anti-oppressive practice across a range of health care professions.

Brennan Holt (he/him)is a Person-Centred Counsellor and course lead on a local BSc degree with a strong focus on anti-oppressive therapy. He has spent many years working in various group settings and believes strongly in their therapeutic potential.

N.B. There will be a maximum of 20 Places at this event. Please direct any further questions to:

Maria, Frances, Brennan or Tarun on email:

maria@shorehamcounselling.co.uk

frances@bassetconsultancy.co.uk and

brennan@sussexcounsellingcollective.co.uk

Tpamneja@gmail.com

N.B. Profits will be donated to Black Psychotherapy (49 Brixton Station Road, London, SW9 8PQ)

(https://www.blackpsychotherapy.org)

tickets – Suggested Price £30-50

No one will be turned away for lack of funds. When deciding on the appropriate fee we do ask that you are mindful of how much people of the global majority already subsidise and support white people in everyday life.

Description supplied by the event organiser.