WELCOME TO THE NWEB WEBINAR

In keeping with the central dynamic of trauma as described by Herman (1992), a core conflict when attempting to work psychologically with racism is between the drive to tell the truth and the wish to deny the reality of it. In the end, the direction taken is usually determined by who has most power. Perhaps for that reason, little progress has been made with regard to developing psychological theories and practice for working psychologically with racism and its impacts. After all, the psychological therapies retain strong white power bases and arguably, practitioners are more likely to pathologize those oppressed and even traumatised by structural racism than they are to validate their experiences or bear witness.