Addressing White Privilege in a Session

A little while back, Pat Ogden, PhD was talking about resentment, and she made a key distinction.

You see, there’s resentment that stems from an event that is now over. But then there’s resentment fueled by something that’s ongoing – like systemic oppression.

So how does this impact the way she works, particularly with members of marginalized communities who continue to suffer systemic injustice?

In the video below, Pat will get into why she addresses her white privilege head on with clients from marginalized communities, and share the exact language she uses – with two very important cautions. Have a listen.

Click here for full transcript

Dr. Ogden: So, when I think about resentment, I think that it’s a reaction to something that feels unjust. Like, it’s an injury or it’s indifference and these words, “It’s not fair,” that I’ve heard so often with people who feel resentment, the thing of it is that resentment can often be motivating to action, so, resentment isn’t necessarily a negative thing. It can motivate you to take action in the name of justice. If there’s no action to be taken, that’s when it kind of takes hold of the body and mind. How I would work with resentment is different based on where it’s coming from. Like, if I’m working with a client who is resentful of injustices from their history that are now over, that would be somewhat different from working with, say, an African American individual who’s dealing with systemic oppression and the legacy of slavery in this country. I think those would be very different ways of working. I mean, many marginalized group members learn very early on that life is not fair for them. They see in their school that the members of the dominant culture get more privileges, they get more opportunity than they do, and they often learn this very young. I think that it’s very important, as a white therapist, to acknowledge that and acknowledge my own privilege and acknowledge the privilege-oppression dynamics in that therapeutic dyad. Without that, we can’t really address those dynamics. I know that many people that I’ve talked to, who are white, are still kind of rooted in that “colorblindness”, where there’s, “I don’t see color, we’re all the same and we can work because we’re all connected, we’re all the same,” but that’s not true. One of my colleagues sent me a quote that I like very much. It was from, I think it was an African American woman said, “If you don’t see my color, you don’t see me and you certainly don’t see how I see you.” We need to acknowledge that that difference. From there, I think it’s complicated. I mean, we work a lot in sensorimotor psychotherapy with somatic resources to help people stay grounded and stay centered. With marginalized people, I feel that somatic resources can be very beneficial to deal with the dysregulation that can come with the ongoing injustice. It can’t take away the injustice, but it can help arousal return quickly to a window of tolerance so that someone doesn’t live in prolonged dysregulated states. This is a very important element of working with marginalized people, I feel. Accepting the immensity of the issue and being able to acknowledge the hugeness of it, not just even in this lifetime, but with the trans general transmission and the historical imprint of historical trauma and community trauma and slavery, etc. I would acknowledge I have a lot of privilege; I’m white, I’m educated, I’m middle-upper socioeconomic status, I live in a great place, etc. My only marginalized status is that I’m a woman and I would acknowledge that, I would just say, “These privilege-oppression dynamics are all over in society and they’re going to show up in our relationship as well.” When I’ve done that, I’m thinking of one client, call her Jaime, it came up in the very first session, and acknowledging that really helped her feel seen and it opened the door to us to continue to acknowledge those dynamics. It opened the door for us to be able to contextualize some of the issues that came up within a larger socio-cultural context, and we talked about what it was like for her to work with a white woman. So, it’s good to have it on the table. But I have two cautions about that: One, if a white person hasn’t done their homework, and it’s just words for them, that could really do more harm than good to try to talk about it because you need to know what white privilege is and study it and acknowledge all the benefits that we’ve gotten as white people just because we’re white, not from our own merit. And the other caution is that if a client doesn’t want to talk about it or isn’t interested in it, you have to drop it. So tracking is critical here. There’s probably a lot of detrimental effect from a white therapist trying to campaign for social justice when that is not the goal or the concern of a marginalized person who comes to see you for therapy.

Now we’d like to hear from you. What are your biggest takeaways from the video? Please let us know with a comment below.

If you found this helpful, here are a few more resources you might be interested in:

Moving from Cultural Competence to Antiracism

When Staying Neutral Isn’t the Best Approach

Working with the Trauma of Racism

93 Comments

Shola Charles, Psychotherapy, Boston, MA, USA says

Very well put and so important. Thank you. It is very important to educate oneself about what what privilege actually means and be able to reflect on it and and convey an understanding of how it might play a role in people’s lives and affect the therapeutic relationship

Siobhan B, Social Work, AU says

I agree in order to create safety in the therapeutic relationship where resentment and race are entwined it is vital to acknowledge your white privlidge as a therapist in order to demonstrate your consciousness and authenticity. Thanks for posting this.

Becky Moore, Psychotherapy, GB says

Hi
I have just watch your session in the embodiment summit and thought I would check out your website. I watched this film as I acknowledged that my body feels very defensive when thinking about white privilege. I will be thinking about that to further, to explore and further understand my bodies response and emotional response to this which I believe is the first step so thank you for posting this 🙂

Lynne Lacock, Counseling, GB says

Having lived in North London and seen racism – individual and institutional – in action (I am white by the way) I would beg to defer that everybody gets on. Acknowledging privilege which has been conferred by the institutions within which we live and work does not equate to thinking you are better than someone else. There are all sorts of other privilege – and disadvantage- which have nothing to do with race and colour but acknowledging the privilege of whiteness is not a bad thing!

Clancy McQuigg, WOODBRIDGE, VA, USA says

Jealousy is corrosive, the idea of white priv seeds feelings of jealousy. lack of candor(e.g., I only see your humanity) makes it worse. You have to admit to yourself that you worked your ass off over the years to reach your current position, and your whiteness had very little to do with it since most of your competition on the way up was probably white (although probably not as bright as you).
There are plenty of poor whites whose whiteness did not and does not help them compete in life.
Being smart, willing to work hard and getting educated not necessarily whiteness makes the difference.

- Kim O’Neill, Nursing, USA says
  
  I respectfully disagree. We do not “work our ass off” in a vacuum. Systemic racism is a living condition for people of color. The stress factor alone puts black people at a disadvantage, wouldn’t you agree? The “hard work” argument is just another white code insinuating that people of color are lazy.
  
  - Sara M., Other, NL says
    
    Hi Kim, this not meant as an attack or criticism and of course with respect for your (and anyone’s) sharing their opinion without the invite of a conflict like you did, but you are the one here that actually linked ‘people of color and lazy’, not Clansy. And on top even blamed Clansy of ‘insinuation’ which actually is an assumption you yourself created about a total stranger. And I’ve never heard of the term ‘white codes’ before, anywhere I can find these actual so called codes? Or was that another assumption you created. That said, I fully agree with you on ‘Systemic racism is a living condition for people of color. The stress factor alone puts black people at a disadvantage.’ As does poverty and living up a ghetto. I understand your best of of intentions, but actually ‘linking people of color and lazy’ and blaming a white person for ‘insinuation’ and bringing up some mysterious ‘white code’ – all you words – could perhaps actually fuelling even more division maybe…

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