Ally is a Verb

Ally is a Verb

Curt and Katie chat about how to engage in ally work. We look at white fragility, helpful and harmful responses during times of crisis, and how to leverage privilege appropriately to work to address systemic racism and oppression. We encourage people to step beyond keyboard warriorship and focusing on ourselves to taking actions that can impact real change.

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.

In this episode we talk about:

• Latest incidences of systemic oppression (George Floyd, Christian Cooper) and how they have impacted the current conversations about racism, ally work, and therapy
• White Fragility and how it can show up during times of crisis
• How white women in distress distract
• ALLY (from Kayla Reed):
• A- always center the impacted
• L- listen & learn from those who live in the oppression
• L- leverage your privilege
• Y-yield the floor
• The need to identify positive ways to do anti-racist, ally work
• Assessing your motivation to say things publicly
• The lure of taking actions that only check a box or make us feel better
• Discomfort and pain that we must sit in, if we’re going to really do the work
• What can actually move the needle for systemic change
• Amplifying voices versus shifting the focus or stepping in front of people who need to be heard
• Bullying and bystanders
• Learning and researching on our own, versus requiring clinicians of color to do the emotional labor of teaching us
• Myths of being an ally
• Therapists who are invested in the status quo and the white washing that happens when those types of comments are erased
• The importance of acknowledging history (including racism) and whiteness
• The difference between “all racists are bad people” and we are in a racist system and thus are all racist
• The damage done when denying the past, gaslighting communities of color
• Showing up as a white therapist with a client who is in a marginalized community
• The need for cultural humility and awareness of what is going on
• Recognizing reality and how we cannot just “cope” hard enough to make this goes away
• Crisis management when you are working with risk factors (suicidality, homicidality, abuse) and the importance to understand the additional risk calling police or other government agencies on your clients within the black community
• Alternatives for managing risk, looking at community resources
• The challenges of doing ally work as a therapist
• The slow and arduous process of treating overtly racist clients: listening to fears and perspective