Session Five - Racism and Colonial Oppression
Content Level: Advanced

Contributors: Su Baker, MEd, with Joan Turkus, MD, Emma Sunshaw, PhD, Rachel Sage, LCSW-C | Reviewer: Victor Welzant, PhD

Session Description
This class will study the traumatic impact of the history of enslavement, colonial oppression and cultural abuse as it continues to be perpetuated today in forms such as racism and group marginalization, and will follow with evidence-based best practices to address these deep wounds, at micro, mezzo and macro levels. Racism and ongoing colonial oppression is stressful and significantly traumatizing by its nature. It is not sufficient for the clinician to maintain a neutral stance toward it, she/he/they must have a broad understanding and knowledge of both the history and impact of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), living in current climate of increasing race-based hatred. The clinician must have an anti-racist approach built within the foundation of their therapeutic practice and approaches, whether cognitive, psychodynamic, systems, or any other theory in the 

treatment of trauma and dissociation. The readings cover a variety of approaches, tied together by the underlying principal that racism and colonial oppression must be explored overtly within the framework of therapy for post-traumatic and dissociative syndromes. Further, therapists must acknowledge that their perspective arises from predominately white and colonial perspectives, and actively confront their earned and unearned privileges by developing proactive, interactive, and clinically appropriate reactive approaches for addressing trauma within an anti-racist framework.

Readings

1. Williams, M. T., Holmes, S., Zare, M., Haeny, A., & Faber, S. (2023). An evidence-based approach for treating stress and trauma due to racism. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 30(4), 565-588.
2. Adames, H. Y., Chavez-Dueñas, N. Y., Lewis, J. A., Neville, H. A., French, B. H., Chen, G. A., & Mosley, D. V. (2023). Radical healing in psychotherapy: Addressing the wounds of racism-related stress and trauma. Psychotherapy, 60(1), 39.
3. Alvarez, A. J., & Farinde-Wu, A. (2022). Advancing a holistic trauma framework for collective healing from colonial abuses. AERA Open, 8, 23328584221083973.
4. Asher BlackDeer, A. (2023). Violence, trauma, and colonialism: a structural approach to understanding the policy landscape of indigenous reproductive justice. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 24(4), 453-470.