Anti-Racism Psychotherapy: What is It and How Does It Work?

In this brief blog post, I want to draw attention to what I feel is a very interesting, engaging, and important, interview I conducted some time ago for my podcast that I feel is (sadly) just as relevant today as it was when I first interviewed my podcast guest at that time, David Archer.

Breaking Down Anti-Racist Psychotherapy

David Archer is a psychotherapist from Montreal, Canada, with a unique approach on a societal issues that needs long-term addressing beyond the superficial.

He is the author of “Anti-Racist Psychotherapy,” “Black Meditation,” “Racial Trauma Recovery,” and “Black Mountain.”

You can read his books and get in touch with David at his site.

Some of the topics and questions we addressed are listed below, followed by links to the video and audio versions of our interview.

Anti-Racist Phsychotherapy Questions and Topics:

1. Let’s start with your experience and professional background. What motivated you to want to become a therapist?
2. How is a therapist different for lay people form a psychologist, psychiatrist, and counselor? How does the social work approach differ from the psychological treatment approaches?
3. What is EMDR in layman terms and how does it work in coordination with therapy and does desensitization at some point deaden emotions? Is that the intention?
4. How long have you been in practice in Canada and what made you eventually turn to topics such as understanding diversity from different perspectives such as indigenous groups in Canada?
5. What did you gain from working with them and how did you parlay that understanding toward focusing more on anti-racism therapy?
6. Do you apply anti-racist therapy to other therapists? To patients? To society? The practice of therapy?
7. From a historic perspective, how did racism in all its different forms come to spread across the globe? Was it the dawning of the trans-atlantic slave trade, religious persecution, a combination of multiple factors working together?
8. What needs to be done to address or mediate racism within African American communities and other historically marginalized groups?

For example, how do we address African Americans who are racist towards      other African Americans (colorism). What is the root of this problem of colorism?

9. How should we discuss racism amongst people who deny racism exists in modern society such as in the US recently where Republican politician Linsday Graham said that in his view racism does not exist in America since we had President Obama and now have Kamala Harris as VP?
10. I have a female friend who is African American. She has experienced various forms of racial trauma some of which are related to white people in public life asking her how much she charges to do laundry or asking her what floor she works on in a condo, assuming she is a housekeeper when she is not. She was in fact a resident in the places where she was asked this. This has caused her a sense of anger and frustration. She is a highly educated woman but no matter what she does, some will always see her as subservient to them just because of her skin color. How would you counsel her to help her heal? Secondly to that, what could she do independently of direct engagement with you to facilitate greater healing?
11. How do you help African Americans heal from the core wound and trauma of being treated as inferior and lower caste? This is a worldwide, intergenerational phenomenon, treating dark skinned people cruelly and unfairly. How would you address this with a client who is hurting from this experience?
12. How do you apply anti-racism psychotherapy internationally, politically, globally?
13. To what extent do you feel one-time anti-racism workshops such as the famous “brown eye/blue eye” experiments Jane Eliot conducted effective at establishing true insight?
14. How can business owners legitimately counteract racism and facilitate equitable hiring practices more efficiently? How does racism impact the typical business in terms of turn over?
15. Where do you see racism in general across the globe going? Do you see the world, any countries or nations, turning a corner at some point or progress truly being clearly made?

Is my video interview with David Archer being blocked or has it been removed? Oh, drama, drama, you can also watch it here.

Here is the audio version of our interview for those who prefer to listen to content.