Cultural Humility and White Fatigue

An interview with Dr. Sonya Lott about a multicultural orientation to therapy and the work to understand yourself, how you’re perceived, and who the client is in front of you. Curt and Katie talk with Sonya about cultural humility in particular as well as the fatigue (including the concept of “white fatigue”) that can come with this work. We look at self-compassion and education as promising steps for improvement.

It’s time to reimagine therapy and what it means to be a therapist. To support you as a whole person and a therapist, your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy talk about how to approach the role of therapist in the modern age.

Interview with Dr. Sonya Lott, Ph.D.

Sonya Lott earned her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Temple University and has been licensed as a psychologist in Pennsylvania since 1991. She is also a registered in Florida as out-of-state telehealth provider.

She is the founder and CEO of CEMPSYCH, LLC (Continuing Education in Multicultural Psychology), which offers continuing education that supports mental health professionals in cultivating a multicultural orientation, and is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. She also serves on the Advisory Board of Whites Confronting Racism, an organization in Philadelphia that works with White people who desire to challenge the racism within and around them and who are searching for a way to strengthen their work for racial justice.

In addition to this work, she maintains a private practice devoted to helping individuals transform their experience of acute and prolonged grief. She is an associate of the Center for Complicated Grief at Columbia University's School of Social Work, where she completed advanced training in Complicated Grief Therapy (CGT).

You can learn more about her work at cempsych.com and drsonyalott.com.

In this episode we talk about:

Multicultural approach – looking at all elements of cultural identity
Dominance, privilege, and bias
The importance of seeing beyond their lived
The multicultural orientation is a way of being
Cultural Humility – organizing virtue
Recognizing cultural opportunities
Invitation for discussion
Microaggressions in the therapy room
Comfort in making repairs
Being aware of who you are and where you sit with marginalization and with privilege
“Every experience is a multicultural experience” – Dr. Sonya Lott
Know who you are to yourself and to others – it is important to understand how you are perceived by others
The difference between white fragility and white fatigue
With privilege you have an opt-out card
The work of healing marginalization is a felt process
“It’s more than ‘what’s a good book to read?’” – Dr. Sonya Lott
Self-compassion and self-care needed for doing this work
Seeing ourselves as human and recognizing that we don’t have all of the answers
Recognizing what is relevant in the room
Self-Compassion: shared humanity, mindfulness, and loving kindness
“It’s not just for your clients, it’s not just to make a living, it’s to transform your way of being – period – that benefits you and everybody you’re in relationship with.”
Why the therapy profession doesn’t get this right – because they don’t have to.
The fifty years of literature on this topic that is often ignored due to people not being informed, not comfortable, and not having done their own work

Wanton: Powys 'Mr Weston's Good Wine' (1927)