ABSTRACT
Critical Race Theory (CRT) has evolved over time to offer a framework of analysis in the relations of power in a multicultural and postcolonial space. This chapter discusses CRT with a particular focus on its relationship to mental health care and the consequences for the healing project. It presents a critical analysis of a case vignette and discusses how CRT can become a clinical tool in an ethical, anti-oppressive and social justice practice. The cultural history of mental health practices has been infused with negative racial ideologies since its very inception. Through the application of CRT to counselling and psychotherapy it is possible to interrogate the Eurocentric, ethnocentric and individualistic ways in which mental health practices are undertaken. To be sure, issues of institutional and structural racism within the mental health system and society in general may continue to vitiate therapeutic progress and complicate practice despite the best intentions of critically engaged therapists.
