You describe something racist that happened to you. The response is:
“Are you sure that’s what they meant?”
“That doesn’t sound like them.”
“Could there be another explanation?”
Before long, you are explaining, softening your words or reassuring someone that you do not think they are a bad person. The original experience disappears. Their discomfort becomes the focus and you are left carrying both.
Racism in the counselling room
This can happen in counselling and therapy too.
Therapy is not separate from the society in which it takes place. Counselling and psychotherapy in the UK remain a largely white profession, shaped by Western and colonial ideas about health, identity and human development. As a result, therapy can misunderstand racialised experience, or locate the problem within the client rather than the world around them.
The hidden work of staying safe in therapy
Black and Global Majority clients may find themselves assessing what can safely be said, whether their counsellor will become defensive, and how much educating or reassuring they will be expected to do, often before they can begin talking about what brought them to therapy in the first place.
Understanding racialised trauma
Racialised trauma, sometimes called racial trauma or race-based trauma, is not only about what happens, but can be deepened by what follows: disbelief, minimisation and the pressure to make racism more comfortable for others to hear.
Black History Month 2026
This Black History Month, counselling organisations and practitioners must look beyond simply improving access. We must examine what needs to change within our profession so that Black and Global Majority clients are not left to manage racism, defensiveness and othering within the very spaces intended to support them.
At Highgate Counselling Centre offering services in North London and online, we are committed to inclusion. If you would like to talk to someone, you can find out more about counselling with us here.
