WHEN THERAPISTS, COACHES AND WELLNESS PRACTITIONERS EXPERIENCE RACISM + DISCRIMINATION FROM CLIENTS.
This conversation has surfaced multiple times for me from racialized practitioners who feel trapped between the deep trauma of experiencing racism from clients - and the dehumanizing deliberation of knowing their practice licenses and ability to work in the career they’ve worked so hard to achieve is at risk if they deny someone treatment, based on “differing beliefs”.
Ethics policies deny racialized body workers from denying treatment to someone with white supremacist tattoos on their body. Ethics policies deny racialized doctors the ability to refuse treatment to clients who call them the “n-word” or request to be “treated by someone whiter”.
THIS. is how SYSTEMIC RACISM shows up. Policies that make it impossible for racialized peoples to live and work freely, free from discrimination, in spaces that enhance equity.
My good friend, Utamika Van Zyl did some revealing work in her masters thesis on the vast number of times that Black, Indigenous and racialized professionals are questioned about our expertise and education.
Racialized individuals are more likely to be mistaken for lower-level labourers and are less likely to be recognized as leaders, CEO’s, professors or upper-level administrators.
This is one way that white practitioners can step into actionable advocacy - to collaborate to enact change on these regulatory boards that require wellness practitioners to treat racist clients. THIS IS TRAUMA. It’s demeaning, demoralizing, disheartening, and paralyzing to have to choose between enduring discrimination or keeping your livelihood.
