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Content contributed by: Matthew Evans, Randi Gottlieb, Leanne Nettles, Tina Cacho Sakai, Marvin Whistler, Jenni Villegas Wilson, and members of the Diversity Committee
The LA-CAMFT Diversity Committee (DC) was founded in 2017 out of a desire and need to increase ethnic and racial diversity within LA-CAMFT. Our membership, leadership, and programming are strengthened by the DC’s yearly presentations and outreach efforts, and, most significantly, by the free Therapists of Color Support Group (TOCSG) the committee offers to members and nonmembers. The TOCSG provides a safe place to receive peer support and to process experiences of racism, discrimination, implicit bias, racist injury, aggression, and microaggression, as well as other experiences that therapists of color encounter. Click here to read more.
Following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, it became apparent that LA-CAMFT needed to do more to support Los Angeles-area mental health professionals in becoming active anti-racist healers, while better serving and supporting our colleagues and clients of color. Responding to both member concerns and external calls for racial justice, LACAMFT’s Board and DC collaborated with members of the community in identifying attainable action items during a virtual forum titled “Therapist Roundtable: Anti-racism as a Movement, Not a Moment.”
The Anti-racism Roundtable (ARR) was open to anyone interested in having difficult conversations about systemic racism and discrimination within our field. Through brainstorming in breakout affinity groups and larger group discussions, leadership identified five key areas to which LA-CAMFT might devote resources: 1. Education and training 2. Support groups 3. Mentorship 4. Outreach and accessibility 5. Policy change
This article will cover some of what LA-CAMFT has done since then as part of our Mission of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
The first ARR revealed community interest in forming a Black Therapist Support Group (BTSG) to process the unique additional experiences that therapists of African descent encounter in the field of mental health. Soon after, the DC invited LA-CAMFT member Baaba Hawthorne to help lead the endeavor. The BTSG launched in April 2021, attracting attendees from around the world. Baaba took the role of the group’s first facilitator, and the time and energy she’s contributed have been essential to the ongoing success of the group. The BTSG is free and meets online monthly.
During the second ARR in April 2021, LA-CAMFT leadership sought to engage and encourage white therapists interested in gaining the skills for effective and affirmative anti-racist work. Leadership understood that we should not ask our colleagues of color to further take on the practical and emotional labor of becoming teachers. Instead, DC member and former president Randi Gottlieb led the charge of actualizing a no-cost White Therapists Anti-racist Group (WTARG) as a subgroup of the LA-CAMFT DC. Although the WTARG would be “housed” within the DC, its work would be in service to the Board, with the intention of moving the needle of consciousness within all white therapists in our chapter.
In preparation, Randi recruited other white-identified LA-CAMFT leaders who were willing to participate in an established course of study before becoming group facilitators. To start dismantling racism in our practices and in our community, it is imperative that we create a safe space for folx to express and explore the discomforts they feel around their white identity and to process the white fragility that manifests as shame, defensiveness, and denial. The WTARG began in June 2021 structured as a combination of study and experiential practice. Group members are challenging themselves to face their white privilege and recognize how it’s embedded in every aspect of the social, educational, financial, political, medical, and mental health systems. Since this kind of work is best done in small groups, LA-CAMFT plans to replicate them so that a greater number of interested therapists have an opportunity to participate. Read more.
LA-CAMFT understands that the mental health field has historically disenfranchised certain racial groups and dissuaded them from entering and developing in the field; the high costs of graduate school and pre-licensure life have been especially prohibitive. In response, former president Matthew Evans spearheaded the TOC Grant Award project, an action item from the first ARR:
Applicants are eligible based on the following criteria:
Triannually, two applicants will be awarded the following:
The online application and selection processes are designed to remove human bias and decrease activation of trauma histories: The name
In January 2021, 2022 President-Elect Christina “Tina” Cacho Sakai formed a committee of licensed and prelicensed therapists of color to design the LA-CAMFT Therapists of Color (TOC) Mentorship Program. The first of its kind among CAMFT chapters, this program is meant to ensure that therapists of color receive quality mentorship from therapists of color. The committee thoughtfully devoted significant time to drafting the program’s purpose statement, guidelines, interest form, and marketing. The TOC mentorship program intends to help bridge the racial gap by:
The TOC mentorship program launches in January 2022.
The strength of LA-CAMFT leadership owes a lot to the Diversity Committee; many current and future Board members were DC members first. The more our chapter embraces the beautifully diverse identities that our membership brings to the table, the more we grow— in knowledge, understanding, and numbers. Though we respect that not every chapter serves a population as diverse as LA-CAMFT’s, we’re always excited to share our experiences and brainstorm solutions while adapting initiatives to your specific membership. Please reach out to DiversityCommittee@LACAMFT.org or President@LACAMFT.org if you have any questions or feedback.
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