The IAPT Workers Café is an online community of IAPT practitioners from around the UK who discuss ongoing trends and issues within IAPT. On the 25th September, the group released an open letter to the IAPT national team that suggests several changes which could move us towards an anti-racist culture in IAPT services. Images of both letters are included in this post.
To support this exchange four IAPT practitioners who attend the Café offer this reflection on their own journey towards anti-racist practice and some solid action points that practitioners and teams can adopt. This conversation was supported by the earlier posts from Sheeva Weil who wrote powerfully about the current picture of racism in IAPT services here and here. The authors said: ‘This is what we have learnt, we might have made mistakes and we are interested in feedback if you have any after reading this.’
You can reach us on Twitter @IAPTworkers and @notapwpguru or use the comments and contact form on this site to let us know what you think.
Who the authors are
Atom I work as a CBT Therapist and Mindfulness Instructor in Devon
Martin I am a Humanistic & Integrative Psychotherapist and work in an IAPT service in the South East of England
Sandro I work as a PWP in Hertfordshire
Sarah I work as a CBT Therapist and counsellor in an IAPT service in London
The Why: journeys to anti-racism
Atom
A South African Asian friend of mine was hurt by the police. This made me question the role of law enforcement and who got protected and who didn’t. I grew up during the time of the Anti-Apartheid movement and Sus laws, and this made me question the oppressive, invasive interpersonal and institutional power relationships from White to Black people – in the world at large and at home in my family. I saw local and global differences around me – where people lived, the language used to label and describe, the educational and employment opportunities offered, and the incomes earnt. (Hall,1978,1980, 1981) These unjust differences were subject to the influences of race, class and gender; during my life this has erupted in protest and calls for social justice a number of times (Akala, 2019). I saw how different communities were discriminated against, and that White people always benefitted and that this was a deliberate construction (Olusoga, 2016). I also saw riots and the rise of the Carceral State. (Foucault 1990, Alexander 2019). Over the years I’ve seen these same dynamics play out over and over again – Black Lives Matter is a new chapter in a much longer story. (Scene On Radio 2018, Khan-Cullors and Bandele, 2018). I read the words from the people on the sharp end of White supremacy. (Eddo-Lodge, 2018, Wallace 1978, SBS Collective 1990, Newton 1973, Fanon 1952, 1961). I also rejected the politics of my family which was fascist in nature. I’ve moved beyond teary-eyed, liberal hand-wringing and immobilising white guilt; White supremacy makes me angry, and that spurs me into considered, reflective, collaborative Black-led collective action.
As a queer non-binary person racialised as White, I know I can move through the world with a lot of privilege, although sometimes that privilege is contingent on where and who I find myself with. Black and Brown people don’t have this luxury, race always precedes social interaction and my Whiteness is rarely problematised: this comes into the therapy space too. I benefit economically from being employed as a mental health worker, so I try and redress that as best I can for example by supporting Black Minds Matter who connect Black therapists with Black clients. The personal is political and this means that therapy practice carries a lot of cultural power to define “what’s normal and what isn’t” and it’s often these political and historical intensities around race, class and gender, that are in play when a distressed client is sitting in front of me as a PWP or now as a CBT Therapist. (Frosh 1999, Spong and Hollanders 2003, Totton 2006, Proctor 2008)
How: Self Reflection
- Read/listen to what BAME people are saying – really pay attention. Ruth King’s “Mindful of Race” is a helpful pointer on how to do this.
- Learn to be quiet, but be aware if you’re using silence as a tactic to dismiss or minimise. As an introvert, this is something I struggle with all the time – when to speak, when not to speak, but also sometimes the assumption from others that I should speak: it’s an ongoing process.
- Notice when you are individualising, minimising or dismissing accounts of racism and discrimination – what’s really going on here? What underlying assumptions are being activated for you?
- Find the others: alliances with other people you work with will help manage the stress of staying connected to an anti-racist perspective. Don’t increase the emotional labour of people of colour around you though, they aren’t here to comfort you, make you feel better or even welcome you. You have to prove that you’re in this for the long haul.
- Be patient and allow yourself to feel vulnerable
Martin
I have to start on a personal note, realising the immense complexity of my experience around race, and also how well-hidden it is, how it becomes ‘part of the wallpaper’. In a relationship with my partner from Ghana, West Africa, since 1990, and in a step-father role to her daughter, then 11, now 40, there are times when I am intensely aware that my partner and I come from different cultures – a group/family oriented matrilineal society, and my individualistic, white middle-class patriarchal heritage. Equally, there are times when the colour of her skin, the difference in the colour of our skins, becomes irrelevant and immaterial. I am also mindful of the fact that this personal circumstance does not make me immune to unconscious racism, or being part of a wider society where institutionalised racism is pervasive.
Relevant here too is my family and inter-generational history; my late 18th and early 19th century Scottish ancestors were slave-owners with plantations in Jamaica. My great-great-great grandfather’s will mentions two illegitimate mixed-race sons to whom he was leaving legacies of £100 and £50 respectively; any daughters he sired would not have featured at all! From the ‘Legacies of British Slave-ownership’ database, I have found three claims totalling of £2487, corresponding to £325,380 in today’s money, for estates within the wider family.
Professor David Olusoga’s excellent two-part documentary ‘Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners’ powerfully makes clear that it was not just plantation owners like my ancestors who benefitted from the 1834 compensation agreement (totalling £20 million in 1834, equivalent to £17 billion currently, and only recently paid back by you and me!) but thousands of ordinary citizens, so embedded at all levels of society was the legacy of the slave-trade. You can check the database linked to above to see if any of your ancestors received compensation payments. No slaves were compensated, only their owners.
Turning to my profession as psychotherapist, and IAPT Counsellor based in an area with a high proportion of inhabitants from varied ethnic origins, I feel familiar with the practice of inter-cultural therapy, sometimes mediated by interpreters. However, this does not make me immune to interventions which have links with the unconscious racism in all of us, sometimes uttered from a consciously benevolent standpoint, but hurtful nonetheless. I remember, before finally qualifying in 1996, that I was working with a black client of Caribbean origin, who was embarking on a counselling training herself, and concerned about whether she would find a place. I wondered whether her ethnic background might actually be an advantage in this regard; the client patiently underlined how she wanted to be accepted on her own merits, and not just to be the token black candidate.
Thank you for taking the time to contact the IAPT programme.
We agree there is a need for robust and urgent antiracist action to improve access experience and outcomes for both patients and staff in mental health services, and we want to join forces with others to take this action (e.g. services, special interest groups, professional bodies). Thank you for the considered suggestions in your letter.
The national IAPT Team commissioned and supported the development of the IAPT Black, Asian and minority ethnic service user good practice guide, which is a leading contribution to antiracist action in mental health services. We continue to promote the good practice guide through national and regional events, support its adoption by all services and will continue to press for this. We stand against racism and want all IAPT staff who experience it to have the right support to call it out and take action against it.
We know there is a need to do more. We have a newly expanded IAPT Expert Advisory Group with advice on Black, Asian and minority ethnic inclusion within its terms of reference. Our plans will therefore be shaped through this group, and your letter is a helpful trigger for a review and renewed push on this. Significant broader work on Black, Asian and minority ethnic workforce equity is also being led within the mental health teams at NHSEI and HEE, and we will connect and integrate our action with that broader work programme.
The Advancing Mental Health Equalities Taskforce – an alliance of experts by experience and profession – is overseeing a wider programme of work being delivered by NHSEI with an explicit focus on advancing equalities in access, experience and outcomes in mental health. One of the priorities the Taskforce is overseeing is the development of the ‘Patient and Carers Race Equality Framework’, as recommended in the independent review of the Mental Health Act. The Framework will support trusts to undertake a structured and co-productive approach to improving BAME experiences of care in mental health settings, with BAME patient and carer feedback at its heart. This will support more robust and BAME-specific community-partnered actions in mental health service provision, beyond the existing commitments to advance equalities outlines in the Phase 3 COVID-19 Response letter to health systems in England.
Thank you again for your proposals in this area. We look forward to working with you to implement change.
Best wishes,
The IAPT programme
The response from the national team https://twitter.com/IAPTworkers/status/1315198655725473792
Sandro
I am a white male-looking person. I benefit from this privilege, and I am ashamed of that. I am also Italian, so have experienced racist comments about my accent and my overly expressive behaviour in the UK. I am writing this piece from a place of privilege, vulnerability, and hope.I watched a video from The New York Times about the killing of George Floyd. I cried, overwhelmed by anger and sadness. Coming into psychology because of a desire to help others, I couldn’t imagine that people in authority could be so callous. I didn’t know what to do, or how to help. What could I do, within my own day to day role, to make an impact?
Sarah
As a queer White Irish person living in Britain, I have one particular experience of some daily stresses faced by minoritised groups. Is this a safe place to hold my partner’s hand? What was the intent behind that ‘Paddy joke’? However, even when trying to remain conscious of power relations in a structurally racist society, I can still struggle to immediately identify how my White privilege played out in a particular situation….and then I remember it may have become ‘invisible’ to me…..again. Peggy McIntosh’s work (see the video below) has helped me to understand the continual reflections and adjustments needed to reduce the pernicious impacts of White privilege in my interactions with patients and colleagues.
And why would I want to do this vital antiracist work on myself? Because I got into therapy work to help reduce suffering – and certainly not to perpetuate it by unwittingly sustaining racist structures.
Anti-racist IAPT: Race in the therapy room
Atom
I benefit economically from being employed as a mental health worker, so I try and redress that as best I can for example by supporting Black Minds Matter who connect Black therapists with Black clients. The personal is political and this means that therapy practice carries a lot of cultural power to define “what’s normal and what isn’t” and it’s often these political and historical intensities around race, class and gender, that are in play when a distressed client is sitting in front of me as a PWP or now as a CBT Therapist (Frosh 1999, Spong and Hollanders 2003, Totton 2006, Proctor 2008).
This isn’t about correcting a client’s cognitive distortions, it’s about privileging the clients attempts to survive systemic oppression. As a cognitive worker my role is to help dismantle the systemic factors that separate subjectivity from the material conditions that create it. This is the choice we have as White IAPT workers – to reinforce and promote the pathologisation of poverty, oppression and its location in individual “defectiveness” as we unwittingly practice in the prison system, Jobcentres or schools, or to take up a different position; one that sees, names and then attempts to change those conditions, whilst also supporting and helping Black and Brown clients (and other marginalised folks) to navigate and survive in a set of systems that want to harm or destroy their bodies. For me then, therapeutic work is decolonizing work that roots itself in political resistance. (Mullan, 2020)
The IAPT BAME Best Practice document has been invaluable here, in that it’s now possible to use the discourse and language of IAPT itself to critically interrogate some of its own Eurocentric assumptions. In my one to one work with people I have to remain acutely aware that I am a person racialised as White and this carries a lot of baggage, especially for Black and Brown clients. It’s a tightrope to walk between opening up the space to acknowledge racism as a key aspect of trauma and mental health issues not allowing this to become a voyeuristic, therapist educational session, and also being present; hearing and validating the distress the client has experienced without further pathologizing this using clinical language. (Fernando, 2010)
I can see why Black and Brown people would prefer BAME therapists so this “socialisation” for the White therapist by the BAME client doesn’t need to happen: there will already be shared experiences of racism that are taken as said. As a White therapist I can offer this as an option which also deconstructs the idea of the (White) therapist as “expert.” In conversations with White colleagues this may also include disrupting discourses of psychiatry and psychology that individualise distress by dislocating the client from their social context and/or directly intervening in conversations where racist language or assumptions are being expressed. It’s also about knowing when to be quiet and let others speak, along with knowing that this is going to be an ongoing learning experience for me, and I will often get it wrong, and it will be uncomfortable when I am challenged, but this is part of the journey.
And it’s this discomfort that I think stops White people from becoming allies – from a behavioural point of view the immediate reward of anti-racist work for most White people may not be enough – anti-racist work is going to take a long time and it can be hard sometimes (as well as joyful and beautiful) and if you have the privilege of opting out and all the systems around you are encouraging you to do this, it’s no big surprise that White people take this option; to avoid rather than approach.
How: Resources
- Read the BAME Best Practice guidance issued by The BABCP – there’s so much rich information and data there. Offer to do a clinical skills session on it.
- Educate yourself and connect with other professionals.
- There are several blog posts that offer insightful reflections to help you plan your next steps I highly recommend the blog posts from Sheeva, and Saiqa Naz.
- Follow the links in this post and see the further reading list for more resources
In fact anti-racist work asks us as White practitioners to do what we ask our clients to do – think against our ingrained thought habits, assumptions and patterns, and then actively work to change them, and then the world itself. The way in which IAPT places pressures on time so practitioners are not enabled to think or reflect on what they do is also important here. It’s easier to be swept along by the busyness and the driven-doing, rather than going against the stream. I think it’s a big reason why “White silence” often greets us when we raise any issue related to race gender or class.
This is something I think about a lot – how to remain accountable rather than performative, when the temptation is to tune out, close down or simply avoid the difficult questions and feelings. One idea that might be useful is to offer a book/study group around books like “Me and White Supremacy” which offer a supportive framework for “doing the work” that White people can hold each other accountable for. For me, linking anti-racist work with Queer and trans issues enlivens both approaches – I want the world to be a better, safer place for everyone. (Saad 2020, Kendi 2019, Snorton 2017, Mckenzie 2015, DiAngelo 2018)
Martin
Judy Ryde’s excellent book ‘Being White in the Helping Professions: Developing Effective Intercultural Awareness’ has helped me focus on how the dominant white (often male) culture regards itself as the norm, in comparison to which other cultures/groups/minorities are regarded as inferior and less deserving of resources. Written mainly from a Humanistic and Integrative viewpoint, but applicable to all therapy modalities, this book provides very helpful and thoughtful considerations of the pervasiveness of unconscious racism, but also of ways in which differences can be usefully and sensitively bridged, and an understanding developed which crosses cultural boundaries and barriers.
Sandro
As a clinician, I am aware of the impact my words can have on clients. I use Socratic questioning and I try to avoid being too directive during sessions. Nevertheless, racism exists in my field too, in the clinical room as well as at higher levels. Following the death of George Floyd, I had so many questions: what if a client discloses racist views? Do we sit and ignore that? Or do we try to psycho-educate them as we would do with anxiety? Would it be helpful for a client to be aware of their own racism and recognise the links with their clinical presentation? (Drustrup, 2019). How can I acknowledge my bias while also ensuring it isn’t influencing my behaviour and my attitude? How come people in managerial roles are mainly white? How can I take a stand?
Determined to find my answers, I started to educate myself. I read blog posts, followed BAME clinicians on Twitter, read papers, watched documentaries, discussed the topic with colleagues and other IAPT professionals. Then, I came across ‘How to Be an Antiracist’ (2019) by Ibram X. Kendi and reading it was an eye-opener. I was struck by the different ways in which society has established and maintained racism. Finally, I found my answer: I need to act, I need to contribute to change this ubiquitous and sickening racism.
Sarah
It’s blindingly obvious that both overt and structural racism have had a hugely detrimental effect on many of my patients’ lives. Although I witness some decent therapeutic work occurring in IAPT and that’s what sustains me in the job, it’s also possible to see IAPT critically – as a government-sponsored band-aid for stress and trauma inflicted by the same government’s policies: racist and inhumane immigration and asylum procedures; racial profiling by police; precarious working conditions; unequal educational and employment opportunities; lack of safe and decent housing. I feel uneasy about being paid a government salary unless I’m also trying to contribute to some beneficial change at a wider systemic level.
When IAPT is Political
Martin
Not having considered myself in any way a ‘political animal’, I nevertheless felt encouraged by the IAPT Workers’ Cafe group and Sheeva’s and Saiqa’s blogs to ask for links to these blogs to be included in a periodic email ‘newsletter’ of current events and issues (often administrative management issues). The response by the manager I wrote to was to reproduce a national blurb about racism being repudiated within the NHS, and then to give my contact details, in case anyone wanted to contact me about the information I had. I expressed my disappointment to the manager that the links had not been included, as now an extra step had been introduced, requiring readers to contact me, rather than being able just to click on a link. The manager’s reply was telling: “I followed the links myself and realised that the views expressed in the blogs were particular to those individuals who had experiences of racism. I don’t think the step 3 brief is the right forum for sending out sensitive material which may not be representative of the whole spectrum of views on racism.”
I have been given permission by Atom to include here their analysis of these comments by the Senior Manager. I think Atom’s insights here are helpful in understanding the kinds of resistant responses we may encounter when raising issues in the workplace as White allies. I also note that my professional organisation, UKCP, has also produced a specific statement on institutionalised racism. I am now considering negotiating with one or two colleagues from the BAME community to set up a Teams group specifically to discuss these issues, in the hope that a safe enough space can be created to support and learn from one another.
How: Committed actions
- Offer physical and financial resources where and when you can: I am drawn to BIPOC Trans organisations because of the intersectional struggles around race, gender, sexuality, medicalisation, migration, mental health, domestic and interpersonal violence and homelessness.
- Foreground research carried out by BAME practitioners – what are the common themes? Keep intersectionality in mind; how do issues of race, class, gender, disability, culture, age, intersect regarding the client in front of me?
- Boost the social media signals of BAME people and organisations where and when you can, but be aware of the potential to retraumatise people if you simply repost or retweet news material.
- Disrupt White solidarity – challenge racist comments and jokes especially “back-stage” when we’re in all-White company.
- Get involved as much as you can. Take up opportunities to join reflective/equality groups in your IAPT service or in your Trust. Attending Trust network groups can be a good way of reflecting back to IAPT the need for ongoing antiracist initiatives.
- No need to reinvent the wheel! Check that your colleagues and Clinical Leads know about the BABCP’s IAPT Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Positive Practice Guide . Engage with management and other relevant platforms to discuss where your service is at in implementing it.
Atom
1) “the views expressed in the blogs were particular to those individuals who had experiences of racism” – I am sure that point could be countered by referring the manager to the IAPT BAME Positive Practice Guide which is choc full of research based systemic reflections of those individuals’ experiences. It feels like the manager is trying to reduce the argument to “racism is just nasty people being nasty to other people and we’re all basically nice so there isn’t really a problem because these are just isolated incidents and not representative of how things really are” which is a classic white fragility tactic.
2) “Sensitive material” – sensitive to who I wonder? Or is this more about “uncomfortable material” especially for white people? I do accept though that there is a risk of triggering BAME people who might be traumatised already, if someone just randomly clicked the link, but a trigger warning would sort that out. Also, my understanding (based on written accounts from BAME people) is that this is not new information for people with lived experience of racism, who I am sure (based on the same written accounts) will have developed extensive self care and self protection skills already to survive more than reading a short article about racism in the workplace. I suspect the “real” issue is the dissonance for the manager going “off-piste” recommending links to a blog that is critically reflective of the IAPT project!
3) “may not be representative of the whole spectrum of views on racism” – well, the BABCP anti racism statement says “We recognise that as well as being abhorrent, racism in itself has a marked and significant negative impact on the mental health of Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic (BAME) communities that our members are part of and that members serve as therapists. We recognise that racism can be both overt, as in the case of the murder of George Floyd and other people of colour, and covert in the form of oppression, aggression and systemic bias. We recognise that systemic racism has contributed to there being fewer Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic therapists, and to therapy being less accessible to BAME communities. We are committed to trying to improve this.”
The IAPT Positive Practice Guide also states on page 22 “There is compelling evidence to suggest that experiences of racism have a cumulative effect in terms of increasing the risk of someone developing a mental health problem (Wallace et al. 2016). Racism and discrimination can take the form of direct verbal or physical aggression, institutional racism such as unequal access to education or career opportunities, discrimination in terms of treatment by the criminal justice system, unequal access to resources such as housing, and what are referred to as micro-aggressions, that is, subtle and discriminatory social interactions.”
These two key sources – our professional organisation and the national IAPT team both seem to suggest a pretty similar, coherent view on racism – what it is and where it comes from. So the question is, what is this spectrum of views mentioned by the manager and how do individuals expressing these views accommodate them within the professional and practice guidelines that constitute good practice? This feels more like avoidance from the manager because the subject matter is so challenging to discuss… which it is, but that’s the whole point.
How: Stay resourced to be an ally over time
- Breathe deeply and remember why you became a therapist.
- It’s OK to get things wrong – accept feedback when it comes (and it will!), apologise, learn from it and move on
- Remember that more hands and heads together make lighter loads, more thinking space, more support, and more energy for action. Keep on connecting with likeminded others – inside and outside of IAPT services. Take the little snatches of sustaining and creative interactions wherever possible. Colleagues, friends, social media, trade union membership, Zoom meeting groups like the IAPT Workers’ Cafe and CPD. COVID-19 makes this harder (no tea breaks or chats while walking to the train) but also easier (Zoom; attending live webinars from my sofa).
- Make the most of bursts of free time and energy and momentum whenever they bubble up. Rest and recharge when you need to.
- Nurture realistic hopes: Small steady steps can eventually cover great distance.
- Remember regardless of outcome, it’s always better to have genuinely tried to take antiracist actions – especially when the alternative is to do nothing at all. If nothing else, trying results in new learning and connections, and hopefully, also, new routes forward.
Sarah
Our IAPT workplaces were not set up to sustain standing up in solidarity to take antiracist actions at a systemic level. Exhibit 1: the radio silence in response to emails sent with suggestions and resources. Exhibit 2: Reflective groups and chat discussions fizzling out after an initial burst of energy. And yet, there is still such a great desperate need for us to dream up ways to resist racism and to work towards changing our workplaces from the inside out.
I’ve been reflecting on the reasons as to why it’s such a struggle. One is my overwhelming experience of IAPT as a never-ending, all-consuming daily hectic juggle – to meet targets, manage risk and a multitude of quick-but-complex interactions with colleagues and patients. Little time or energy or ‘bandwidth’ left for reflecting on incidents or different ways to do things.
And another is fear. Of standing up. Of putting neck above parapet. What if I get labelled as ‘the difficult one’? How I can speak up about contentious and difficult issues without alienating colleagues and management? Worries like this are certainly a substantial obstacle I find myself having to wade through.
The ‘busyness’ and these worries might not traditionally be considered ‘political’. But they certainly are in the sense that they can impede me from taking antiracist actions in a racist society.
Finally
Sandro
Being an antiracist is not a sprint, it is a marathon. As racism wasn’t established overnight, it won’t be solved overnight. Being an antiracist is not a tick-box exercise, it is a constant commitment that you have with yourself and the community at large. Sometimes, feelings of frustration, impatience and tiredness can show up. It is ok, try to let them pass, like clouds in the sky. Maybe have a break if it gets too much or ask for support from colleagues or family members.
Acceptance is another important part of the attitude. The likelihood is that you have been racist in the past – I certainly have. It’s important to acknowledge this. Being an antiracist is about recognising that we all have bias and we might make mistakes, but we are also willing to make up for it by trying to create a more equal world.
Sarah
Remember that more hands and heads together make lighter loads, more thinking space, and more energy for action. Keep on connecting with others – inside and outside of IAPT services. Take the little snatches of sustaining and creative interactions wherever possible. Colleagues, friends, social media, trade union membership, wider NHS Trust networks, Zoom meeting groups like the IAPT Workers’ Cafe and CPD. COVID-19 makes this harder (no tea breaks or chats while walking to the car park) but also easier (Zoom; attending live webinars from my sofa).
Nurture realistic hope: Small steps can start to cover distance.
Atom
Look after yourself – it’s OK to take breaks for self-care, to quote a well-worn phrase this is a marathon not a sprint. Remember intentional joy – dance, sing, be creative, laugh, eat cake, it’s something I’ve heard Tarana Burke and Nova Reid talk about, (echoing Audre Lorde): cultivating intentional joy is a radical act of self-preservation. As adrienne maree brown writes, there is such a thing as Pleasure Activism!
All
Anti-racist practice is good practice – it’s not an optional add on. Keep going.
References and further reading
Akala (2019). “Natives: race and class in the ruins of empire.” London: Two Roads.
Alexander, M. (2019) “The new jim crow: Mass incarceration in the age of colourblindness.” London: Penguin
Diangelo, R. (2019) “White fragility: Why it’s so hard for white people to talk about racism.” London: Penguin.
Drustrup, D. (2020). White therapists addressing racism in psychotherapy: an ethical and clinical model for practice. Ethics & Behavior, 30(3), 181-196.
Eddo-Lodge, R. (2018). “Why I am no longer talking to white people about race” London: Bloomsbury.
Fanon, F. (1952). “Black skin, white masks” New York: Grove Press.
Fanon, F. (1961). “The wretched of the earth.” New York: Grove Press.
Fernando, S. (2010). “Mental health, race and culture: third edition” London: Red Globe Press.
Foucault, M. (1991). “Discipline and punish.” London: Penguin.
Frosh, S. (1990). “The politics of psychoanalysis.” London: Macmillan.
Hall, S., Stuart, C. Critcher, T. Jefferson, J. Clarke, B. Roberts (1978). “Policing the crisis: Mugging, the state and law and order.” London: Macmillan Press.
Hall, Stuart (1980). “Race, articulation and societies structured in dominance.” In: UNESCO (ed). Sociological Theories: Race and Colonialism. Paris: UNESCO. pp. 305–345.
Hall, Stuart; P. Scraton (1981). “Law, class and control”. In: M. Fitzgerald, G. McLennan & J. Pawson (eds). Crime and Society, London: RKP.
Kahn-Cullors, P. and Bandele, A. (2018). “When they call you a terrorist: A black lives matter memoir.” London: St. Martin’s Press.
Kendi, I. (2019) “How to be an antiracist” US: Penguin, Random House.
Maree brown, A. “Pleasure activism: The politics of feeling good.” US: AK Press.
McKenzie, M (2015) “Black girl dangerous: On race, queerness, class and gender.” US: BGD Press.
Newton, H.P. (1973). “Revolutionary Suicide.” US: Penguin Books (reprint, 2009)
Olusoga, D (2016). “Black and British: a forgotten history.” London: Picador.
Olusoga, D. (2015). Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners. 1. Profit and Loss. BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b062nqpd/britains-forgotten-slave-owners-1-profit-and-loss
Olusoga, D. (2015). Britain’s Forgotten Slave Owners. 2. The Price of Freedom. BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b063jzdw/britains-forgotten-slave-owners-2-the-price-of-freedom
Proctor, G. (2008). “CBT: the obscuring of power in the name of science.” European Journal of Psychotherapy and Counselling Counselling and Health (3):231-245 DOI: .1080/13642530802337975
Ryde, J. (2009). Being White in the Helping Professions. Developing Effective Intercultural Awareness. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Saad, L.F. (2020). “Me and white supremacy: How to recognise your privilege, combat racism and change the world.” London: Quercus.
SBS Collective (Southall Black Sisters) (1990). “Against the grain: Southall black sisters 1979-1989, a celebration of survival and struggle. London: Southall Black Sisters – self published.
Snorton, C.R. “Black on both sides: A racial history of trans identity.” B US: University Of Minnesota Press; 3rd ed. Edition
Spong, S, and Hollanders, H (2003). “Cognitive therapy and social power.” Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 3 doi: 10.1080/14733140312331384382.
Totton, N (2006). “The politics of psychotherapy.” Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
Wallace, M. (1978). “Black macho and the myth of the superwoman.” London: Verso Books (reprint, 2015)
Wallace, S. (2016). “Cumulative Effect of Racial Discrimination on the Mental Health of Ethnic Minorities in the United Kingdom”, American Journal of Public Health 106, no.7 (July 1, 2016): pp.
1294-1300.
Website: https://www.psychotherapy.org.uk/ukcp-news/midweek-mindset/ukcp-statement-racial-injustice/
Website: Legacies of British Slave Ownership. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/
Not a Low Intensity Guru 