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Welcome to BeREAL’s very first live episode! To celebrate our 50th episode, Diana and Ednesha went live a few weeks ago with guests Dr. Nathalie Edmund, Veronica Vaiti, Lyrica Fils-Aime, and Kerrie Mohr. The roundtable is here to discuss anti-racism in therapy practices.
Kerrie Mohr has focused her career on seeking out solutions to individual, family, and community problems through clinical work, policy reform, organizing, managing teams, and building nonprofit social service programs.In addition to her 1:1 clinical work with psychotherapy clients, she supervises and coaches clinical social workers; facilitates professional development and training groups, and oversees all aspects of care, training, and fidelity to A Good Place Therapy’s various models of service delivery. She also volunteers for Sidewalk Talk, A Community Listening Project, as the NYC chapter leader.
Nathalie Edmond, PsyD, RYT-500 is a licensed clinical psychologist and experienced yoga teacher who takes an integrative perspective to her consultations and trainings. She believes that transformation happens when we integrate mind-body-spirit and have an embodied dialogue. She is trained in multiculturalism and intersectional feminism and takes a trauma informed approach to her work. She believes that anti-racism work includes addressing all marginalized groups and identities and working towards liberation of all beings. She regularly leads anti-racism and diversity trainings for clinical practices, libraries, school districts, corporations, nonprofits, activism groups and yoga communities.
Veronica Vaiti, LCSW-R, CCATP is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Bhava Therapy Group, a group private psychotherapy practice with offices in Midtown Manhattan and Riverdale, NY and now also providing Teletherapy. Veronica deeply values and respects the unique life journey each and every person she encounters is on. Whether working with a couple, an individual or a team of professionals at an organization, Veronica provides a safe and open space in which her clients can explore their truths, gain clarity around core issues and discover new, healthier ways of relating to themselves and the others in their lives.
After the group introduction, these amazing women get right into the discussion of anti-racism in the workplace. As social workers, these women organize trainings for predominantly white businesses on how to make the workplace more accessible and mental health positive for BIPOC co-workers.
This conversation sparks a realization in some of the practice owners, and the conversation shifts to focus on anti-racism in therapy practices. Veronica discusses her experience hiring therapists for her practice and how she has and has not incorporated anti-racism practices in these interviews. One thing the women touch on is what an all white practice truly reflects. It may reflect you as a leader, but more importantly it reflects the mental health field as a whole. The barriers to entry to the mental health field are very high and costly, something that many BIPOC cannot afford due to institutional racism.
Focusing in more on the importance of cultural competence in the mental health field, the women begin discussing education. Teaching anti-racism in therapy settings means teaching the curriculum to address many different dynamics; there could be a BIPOC clinician with an ignorant patient, a white clinician with a BIPOC patient, or a BIPOC patient with a BIPOC clinician. Although this may seem like a lot to learn, it is crucial to move the mental health field in a positive direction. The ladies give excellent examples of what can happen when people invest themselves in the curriculum as well as the downfalls that could occur if people choose to ignore the curriculum.
To finish off the discussion, the women discuss the current state of the mental health field. They address how perceptions of anti-racism in therapy have shifted since the murder of George Floyd as well as address what still needs to be accomplished. Lastly, they offer advice to out their energy into teaching potential allies instead of investing time into people who refuse to admit racism exists no matter what they are told.
Thank you so much for tuning into the rebroadcast of BeREAL’s first live event. Be on the lookout for a brand new episode next Tuesday, and in the meantime make sure to catch last week’s episode with the Black Women Be Whole Takeover!
For more information on this episode’s many guests, visit the links below:
Kerrie’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a_goodplace/
Kerrie’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/agoodplacetherapy/
Kerrie’s Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/a_GoodPlace/
Kerrie’s Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/a-good-place/
Kerrie’s Website: https://www.agoodplacetherapy.com/
For more information on BeREAL (our psychotherapy podcast) and BeWELL (our psychotherapy office in Midtown Manhattan) visit the links below:
To schedule a therapy appointment text BeWELL to 484848 today
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Be.WELL.Psychotherapy/
