Therapy Chat 392: Meeting Shame On the Journey to Anti Racism with Xanthia Johnson
Welcome back to Therapy Chat! This week, returning guest Xanthia Johnson, a DC area psychotherapist, talks about a coaching program she co-founded called the Compassionate Anti-Racism Project. Xanthia shares how she works with individuals, groups and organizations, describing how the program is designed to prevent the emotional flooding of shame interfering with white bodied people's progress toward their goals. As black integrative neuro-psychotherapists with extensive post graduate professional training in trauma-focused therapy and expressive arts, Xanthia and her co-founder Christian are primed to help others realize the emotional and intellectual awareness needed to understand racism, so the journey to ani-racism can begin. They compassionately support white people and organizations who are ready to have courageous conversations about race and learn how to leverage their privilege to humbly support people of color.
In this conversation you'll hear Xanthia explain what she means when she says that she doesn't believe in micro-aggressions. She explains how internalized racism shows up in everyday interactions between white-bodied people and People Of Color, using examples from her daily life. When it came up in our interaction and I did harm, she compassionately supported my reflection and invited me to reconsider my actions in real time, modeling how her program would work with a similar situation. The work of becoming anti-racist requires building tolerance for the cognitive dissonance that arises when we white bodied people are confronted with aspects of ourselves we are ashamed of.
Learn more about the Compassionate Anti-Racism Project here.
Visit the website for Xanthia's group practice, Urban Playology, here.
The Cleo Wade poem Xanthia shared is called "How to Breathe When You Want To Give Up." Her website can be found here.
The Lucille Clifton quote Xanthia shared is from her poem, "won't you celebrate with me," from Book of Light (1993).
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