ISITDBT Anti-Racism
Vision
ISITDBT Anti-Racism actively promotes culturally-responsive and anti-oppressive practices in the Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) community. Our approach and goals include utilizing an anti-racist and intersectional lens, making DBT accessible to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) clinicians and clients, and using DBT to improve DBT.
Values
- We know that racism creates an inherently invalidating environment. As such, we strive for an anti-oppressive, intersectional lens: Anti-racism challenges white supremacy and when done well dismantles structures that oppress all groups.
- We believe that everyone needs the work of this committee (especially white people, and most especially those with privilege and power).
- We center the voices and experiences of the BIPOC community (therapists and clients).
- We strive to apply the work of this committee to all aspects of our professional identities: as clinicians, as colleagues, as educators, as researchers, and as leaders.
- All people suffer. We know that DBT – a treatment that reduces suffering – is not equitably accessible for people of color. To help people of color create the lives they want to live, we must work against the structural and relational racism that presents a barrier to receiving effective treatment.
- We strive for consultation to the system to help reduce racist and oppressive behaviors that pathologize our clients.
- In supporting BIPOC patients and providers, we must all work to 1) dismantle the structural and relational racism that interfere in a life worth living 2) build organization/structures that decentralize and share power amongst and with communities marginalized in DBT.
Goals
- We strive to promote antiracism and culturally-responsive care within DBT
- We strive to use DBT to improve DBT
- We strive to make doing DBT sustainable for BIPOC clinicians
- We strive to help the DBT community embrace BIPOC clinicians and create a fertile environment for all clinicians to grow and learn from one another.
- We also strive to support clinics, and systems to do anti-racist work. White clinicians must do the heavy lifting of anti-racist work.
Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) Providers in DBT Meeting
The ISITDBT Anti-Racism Committee has created a regular space for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) providers doing DBT for the purposes of networking, brainstorming, and connecting with other people who may have shared some of our experiences and are doing similar work. We recognize that there is limited visibility of providers of color in many DBT spaces and it is meaningful to gather together to create a community addressing a variety of issues that we may not necessarily have the space or opportunity to express wherever we work.
The committee also recognizes there are many roles one can fulfill in the DBT community. As such we’ve chosen to include Doctoral and Master’s level clinicians, peer advocates, peer bridgers, care coordinators, clinicians-in-training, and others who play instrumental roles in the delivery of DBT services in a variety of settings. We ask that everyone be mindful and respectful of this diversity as you navigate the shared space.
The meetings occur on the third Wednesday of every month at 9am PST/12pm EST. The exception is the November meeting when we meet on the same day as the ISITDBT Conference:
- If you identify as BIPOC and would like to join: Please fill out the Google Form. We look forward to meeting you and building a community of BIPOC providers doing DBT!
Doing the Best We Can and Doing Better: The Path to Antiracism in DBT
As requested, here is the video of our presentation “Doing the Best We Can and Doing Better: The Path to Antiracism in DBT” from ISITDBT 2020 (some parts have been edited out at the request of clients whose experiences were discussed).
If you are able, please consider making a donation in support of BIPOC clinicians and trainees before you watch. You can make a secure donation here.
Thank you and we hope having this available is useful to you in your continued efforts to improve your interactions, training, and clinical work with BIPOC colleagues, trainees, and clients.
Resources for Anti-Racist Practice
You have undoubtedly encountered some great resources as the National and International conversation about Black Lives Matter and racism has bloomed in 2020. We have pulled together some resources that we think are especially helpful, AND we do not claim this is an exhaustive list! We hope it’s useful.
- A comprehensive website to learn, act, and organize around racial equity
- A far more comprehensive list than ours for anti-racist work
- A google doc (growing always!) for accountability for Black lives
- Discussion of race/oppression as an invalidating environment
- DBT’s own Armida Fruzzetti and Aditi Vijay giving a talk about racism and the invalidating environment
- Introduction to Abolitionism
- Powerful video about “the talk” Black parents have with their kids
- Scaffolded reading list re: anti-racist work
- SURJ: Showing up for Racial Justice (by and for white people to support POC)
Questions for Self-Reflection:
About education (yours and others’)
- Do you teach?
- When you teach, do you include race and racism in your curricula?
- How many books about race, racism, and/or whiteness have you read in the past year?
- How many organizations that work for racial justice have you donated to, volunteered with, or organized within the last year?
- Which of the following terms are familiar to you?
- Antiracism Colonization/Decolonization
- Cultural appropriation Institutional racism
- Microaggression White Fragility
- White privilege White spaces
About structures/organizations
- Does your organization actively and formally address racism?
- If yes, how? In the mission statement? In diversity panels/workshops/committees? In recruitment? In other ways?
At/about ISITDBT
- What barriers to attendance at ISITDBT (in person, not during COVID-19) exist for clinicians of color?
- Do you think of ISITDBT as a diverse space, a white space, neither, or both?
- What resources would you like to see ISITDBT offer to better support people of color?
- What resources would you like to see ISITDBT offer to better educate white clinicians to support people of color (both clients and fellow clinicians)?
- What race and racism-related changes are you hoping to see in the DBT community?
About clinical work
- Do you discuss systems of oppression in your introduction to the invalidating environment?
- If yes, which of the following have you discussed?
- Systemic racism
- Whiteness as “default”
- Patriarchy
- Anti-LGBTQ biases/beliefs
- The carceral state
- Climate justice
- What are other ways you include race and racism in your case conceptualizations?
- How do you discuss race with your clients, your group members, your consultation team?