What Does Social Justice Have To Do With Therapy? Critical Conversations in Clinical Supervision Can Help Reclaim Social Work’s Mission

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Photo credit: BigStockPhoto/Grandbrothers

Stand Up for Justice

by Priscila Norris, RYT, LCSW

     We have never talked about mental health so often and openly as we are now. Social media platforms, books, and blogs are overflowing with information about mental health and helping to break stigma. Such is the case with a recently published op-ed in Afropunk, titled Black Men Don’t Cry: How Black Men Actually Cope With Depression, which offered an honest and vulnerable peek into the unique “relationship” Black men have with depression.

     Though we have heard the stats, they bear repeating. Nearly one in five Americans struggles with mental health symptoms. But the stats that social workers in mental health practice areas often fail to consider are just as alarming and reflect the unique experiential issues of Black Americans and other marginalized individuals. For example, although Black Americans are just as likely as white Americans to experience psychological distress, their episodes tend to be more severe, longer, and more debilitating than those of any other racial group. Additionally, the psychosocial stressors faced by racial and ethnic minorities such as poverty, unemployment, and racial discrimination, are linked to poor general and mental health outcomes. Race-based inequities are also barriers in fulfilling gender role expectations.

     However, Black men tend to seek help at a much lower rate than white men. The reasons are complex, but they reflect cultural and attitudinal differences, as well as the many racial, socioeconomic, and health disparities faced by Black Americans. For instance, the disparity in mental health treatment utilization is directly linked to lack of access to health insurance coverage.

     What does this have to do with psychotherapy? Our code of ethics defines that the mission of social work is to enhance the well-being of all people, in particular the vulnerable and oppressed, by challenging social injustices. Clinical practitioners are not exempt from this mission. However, much of the social justice focus has remained within the macro practice areas while those in clinical practice often lack the skills to bridge therapy modalities and anti-oppressive approaches. Clinical supervision can offer this bridge.

     Supervision is essential to the professional development of social workers and aims to improve service outcomes and competence in practice. As clinical supervisors, we must examine our own positionality and roles in perpetuating oppressive systems. We should build a safe, supportive, and collaborative supervisory relationship that serves as the backdrop for critical conversations about power, privilege, and oppressive practices that may cause harm to both clients and supervisees with intersectional or marginalized identities.

     It may be time to examine clinical supervision from a social justice lens. Resisting dominant culture narratives that perpetuate marginalization and stigma, examining biases and privilege through critical reflection, and identifying and confronting systemic oppression within our own approaches are all practice behaviors that begin in supervision and expand to therapy. From this standpoint and with renewed commitment to “meeting clients where they actually are,” we can fully reclaim our profession’s mission within the clinical arena.

Priscila Norris, RYT, LCSW, is a psychotherapist in private practice and certified clinical supervisor at Thrivemind Counseling and Wellness in Eastern North Carolina. She is a doctoral candidate at the University of Kentucky College of Social Work, where she studies social justice-informed social work practice and supervision.