Antiracist Practices in the Room: An Interview with Dr. Allen Lipscomb

Antiracist Practices in the Room: An Interview with Dr. Allen Lipscomb

Curt and Katie speak with Dr. Allen Lipscomb, PsyD, LCSW about what therapists should consider in working with Black clients, common mistakes, and implementing anti-racist procedures into practice. What can therapists do better? Where is graduate education lacking? How do we respect and explore our Black client’s narratives? Who can work with Black clients? How can therapists help clients heal from race-based trauma?

How can we do better with our Black male clients?

• Black male grief shows up in different ways than other client’s grief might show up.
• When assessing Black males for psychosis or conspiracy theories, ensure that you look at the context of their lived experience before determining psychosis
• The traumatic experiences of racialization, trauma, and mistreatment that many Black people can sound like lead to thoughts that might sound psychotic to an uneducated clinician.
• Listen to the client’s narratives. Question what the themes and patterns are and if the thought is maladaptive to their functioning and well-being.
• Utilize FIDO: frequency, intensity, duration and onset in questioning clients
• If a clinician is unsure if a thought is a conspiracy or legitimate threat, assess for how the client’s community is responding to the client’s narrative
• Ask clients how the session was for them. How was it for you to meet with me? Acknowledge your cultural limitations and create an invitation for the client to let you know when you can do better.
• Be mindful, Black male clients might be minimizing their experiences to be “less threatening.” This is the cultural congruency dichotomy that clients often have to take to avoid further potential trauma.

What does it mean to be antiracist?

• Clients might be resistant to bringing up a clinician’s whiteness in the space.
• Black clients might not think that a white clinician has the capability or desire to talk about race. It is the responsibility of the clinician to actively establish the openness of the space to discuss race and the client’s lived experience.
• This should be a continuous conversation that is led by therapists, to make the topic open until it feels naturally open.
• It’s affirming to have someone who is white in a position of power to say to me – hey I recognize we’re racially different and we could have a different experience how that shows up in this space.
• You can catch moments where anti-racist action could’ve been taken or acknowledged in the next session, if missed during a session.
• The need to revamp our graduate programs to be anti-oppressive and anti-racist
• How to show up as an ally in the room, without centering your own experience

What is Dr. Allen Lipscomb’s BRuH Method?

• The BRuH Method, or BAT, stands for BRuH Approach to Therapy.
• BRuH stands for Bonding through Recognition to promote Understanding in Healing when providing therapeutic services to Black men specifically.
• The approach is modeled off of other therapeutic approaches like CBT and DBT
• Phases include: Bonding Phase, Recognition Phase, Understanding Phase, Healing Phase
• The clinician is always doing aspects of the various phases throughout the course of treatment
• This is not an evidence-based practice but an honoring based practice
• The evidence of efficacy in this practice comes when you see your clients continuously returning to receive more sessions, from the feedback they give you, and the improvements in day-to-day life.

Who can work with Black male clients?

• There can be an urge for white therapists to refer clients of color, especially Black men, to Black clinicians
• These referrals are unnecessary. A therapist of any background, if holding the space correctly and connecting with the client’s felt experience, can work with a client of color, specifically Black men.
• It’s important to be mindful that questions asked to clients are not investigative or for the purpose of educating the therapist.