celebrating diversity as a sex therapiset
As an invisible minority, I often find myself “coming out” over and over again. I am invisibly disabled, as well as a sexual minority, a religious minority, and polyamorous. am a white american. I am a cis woman. I come from an affluent childhood. I am very liberal in my political and social justice beliefs. I’m a feminist. I make these things known about myself because it is important for a therapist to be aware of their own role in the cultural temperament of the therapeutic experience (Zimmerman et al., 2015). I come with biases and limiting beliefs and flaws. I also come with creativity and a mind that is as open as I know how to make it.
Whenever there is diversity present, acknowledging it is important. Some models, like Bowen say that clients are on their own to explore their diversity (Calatrava et al., 2022). Other more postmodern models would say that it is the role of the therapist to engage these conversations and bring awareness (Gale et al., 2015). American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) requires us to be “inclusive and affirmative” (Zimmerman et al., 2015) in order to be considered ethical. (Caldwell, 2015).
This means that in order to be therapists that align with our own ethical rules we absolutely must be considering the roles of cultural influences in our work. To do this, we must establish a safe space for our clients to express themselves and their concerns about their own roles and about the diversity statuses of their clients. This involves recognizing the immense power we hold as therapists in the room. Our power as a clinician is strong and admitting our biases and limitations can definitely protect and mitigate the risk of an abuse of power. Additionally, as therapists, we must accept our roles as agents of change in the room. Social justice will not occur without people speaking up and speaking out about the need for change (Zimmerman et al., 2015). We fight because the alternative is too horrible. We fight for equality and for diversity to be celebrated.
Yet, at the same time, being inclusive is not simple. It is not easy. It is a complex ongoing challenge to speak up for and give voice to those without one and we are far from truly inclusive (Hardy & McGoldrick, 2019). We can fight this fight with challenging assumptions that people are like us, and start making the assumption that until we hear differently, they will have their own unique scramble of beliefs and values that can be understood in context of their lives. We can work with negative feelings and an absence of connection to heritage as a possible place for oppression, cut offs, or trauma to flourish. (Hardy & McGoldrick, 2015).
Knowing our own history is more than just a list of facts, like the ones at the top of this article. Knowing history would be like understanding that I am more than those broad strokes. I am also a highly nuanced being with life and stories. Keeping this front and center makes it much harder to dismiss or minimize someone’s experience. Understanding a person’s minority or marginalized spaces may easily come from a place of internalized prejudice, or a place of battle-hardened pride (Hardy & McGoldrick, 2015).
Ultimately, there is an ongoing challenge we face as therapists to not only check our biases at the door, but to also open space for our clients to grow and face their own prejudice and bias and their own doubts and insecurity about their personal culture. No one can check themselves on their own, especially for things they didn’t know were problems. As therapists we can step in and challenge any harmful beliefs and support change in both ourselves, our loved ones, our colleagues, and our clients. This is a big task, and it’s one we will not do perfectly. Nevertheless it is vital for our commitment to ethical and diverse therapeutic work.
References:
Calatrava, M., Martins, M. V., Schweer-Collins, M., Duch-Ceballos, C., & Rodríguez-González,
M. (2022). Differentiation of self: A scoping review of Bowen Family Systems Theory’s
core construct. Clinical Psychology Review, 91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2021.102101
Caldwell, B. E. (2015). Ethics and supervision. In K. B. Jordan (Ed.), Couple, marriage, and
family therapy supervision (pp. 105-120). Springer.
Gale, J., Ross, D. B., III., & McCoy, M. A. (2015). Training the narrative therapist. In K. B.
Jordan (Ed.), Couple, marriage, and family therapy supervision (pp. 289-308). Springer.
Hardy, K. V., & McGoldrick, M. (2019). Re-visioning family therapy training. In M. McGoldrick &
K. V. Hardy (Eds.), Re-visioning family therapy: Addressing diversity in clinical practice
(3rd ed., pp. 477-495). Guildford Press.
Zimmerman, T., Castronova, M., & ChenFeng, J. (2015). Diversity and social justice in
supervision. In K. B. Jordan (Ed.), Couple, marriage, and family therapy supervision (pp.
121-148). Springer.
By Ren Reed 2024
