Divine Charura is Professor of Counselling Psychology at York St John University in York, and a member of the British Psychological Society. Colin Lago is an independent counsellor/psychotherapist/consultant and a Fellow of the British Association for Counselling and...
racism
While there is much to celebrate in psychology, Professor Ann Phoenix (UCL) said in her keynote address, some areas have a more troubling history. She suggested that we need to retheorise what we mean by the ‘social’ – to encompass intersectional complexity and recognise that...
One wonders why psychology still endures a reputation as the upstart science given that it was nearly 300 years ago in 1732 that Christian Wolff identified the study as its own science in the publication Psychologia Rationalis.
Perhaps in the UK we had a later...
In the 1960s and 1970s, hundreds of Black Caribbean children were deemed 'educationally subnormal' (ESN). The education system used labels such as 'slow', 'aggressive', 'backward', 'remedial' and 'dunce' to define these children. They were systematically excluded from...
Guilaine Kinouani’s book both expands and strengthens current narratives on race. It is written to the Black experience, tackling the complexity of a life lived while Black. In the introduction, Kinouani describes facing the decision to include personal life experiences in...
You and I met because we both work at Exeter University in various clinical training programmes. How did you get started in your professional career?
I come from a family of therapists. My early ‘training’ as a family therapist started there, perhaps...
The findings of a recent government report into inequality and disparities among people from Black, Asian and other ethnic minority backgrounds were a missed opportunity, the British Psychological Society has said. The...
I was the only black pupil in my year at junior school. I remember being held back in the lowest set for mathematics although my ability was years ahead of the curriculum. My father levelled a series of written objections emphasising my capabilities. His letters went...
Local gangs shaped my childhood. Growing up as a Black man in London, I found myself accustomed and affiliated to ‘gang life’. I experienced firsthand the violence that gang-involved young adults are at increased risk of as victims, perpetrators and witnesses. Now, as an...
You’ve very recently been on the receiving end of racist abuse on Twitter. How did you feel when you first saw those tweets?
Initially, the tweets left me feeling numb. A survivalist mentality kicked in; one that I recognise from a much earlier age....