ABSTRACT
The subject of racism and clinical supervision comes to mind for several reasons. First, comments from some supervisees about not feeling able to take their work with Black clients to white supervisors. This shows that the impact of racism ripples through to the supervisory triad or group and affects the intercultural relationship between therapist and supervisor.
So what then gets transferred to the client–therapist relationship? If this process goes unchallenged the supervisee denies himself or herself an opportunity to work through a parallel rupture in supervision and the client may lose out on the benefits of being fully supported through this challenge.
The chapter will address aspects of this challenge for therapists working with Black clients or white clients who present racialised material, and supervisors or supervisees working with these clinical concerns.
Using case material the chapter addresses some of the above concerns and takes a look at how the challenge of racism arises in the clinical triad and ways that it can be explored. The chapter introduces concepts as a framework for discussion on racism in practice. These concepts the author has named ‘the Black Western archetype’, ‘ancestral baggage’, ‘recognition trauma’ and ‘a Black empathic approach’.
