How counselling psychologists address issues of race with clients from black Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds: A discourse analysis

The prejudiced experiences that Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) clients report when discussing culture, racial discrimination and race has been documented. However, research seldom investigates the practitioners’ interpretations when engaging with clients from non-White ethnic backgrounds. This raises questions about how professionals address individuals' needs in clinical and supervisory practice. Therefore, the present study shed light on the discourses counselling psychologists use to address and discuss issues of race and discrimination when talking with clients in clinical practice. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of six counselling psychologists (mean age 40 years) who had engaged with clients or supervisees from a BAME background. A Discourse Analysis (DA) was employed to analyze dialogue used by participants in discussing race and discrimination in counselling psychology practice. This analysis yielded three main discourses when counselling psychologists described their therapeutic interactions with BAME clients and supervises. These were Systemic Institutional Racism; Legitimizing Racism; and Challenging Systemic Racism. The first two discourses alluded to similar repertoires present in the discussions of white counselling psychologist participants, whereas the discourse challenging systemic racism was constructed by BAME counselling psychologists. Findings indicate that becoming attuned and open to discussing race-related difficulties supports favorable outcomes in practice when engaging with BAME individuals. This research offers valuable implications for service provision across counselling and therapeutic practice.