WHAT IS DISRUPTING WHITENESS?

 We are group analysts who see a pressing need for white therapists to come together to understand and make sense of our 'whiteness' and what it means to be socialized into a white body in a society built and sustained on structural racism. As therapists and as human beings, we feel it is incumbent upon us to reflect upon our own identity and how we are positioned in perpetuating a system that maintains our privilege and causes harm to black and brown bodies.  

 In our work we draw on a wide range of texts and media, from a variety of sources, which include historians, critical race theorists, intersectional feminists, psychoanalysts/psychotherapists/group analysts, and social commentators and activists. We look at the history to understand how we came to be 'white' and how that social designation impacts our external and internal worlds. We use our own emotional responses to the material, noticing what our physical and emotional reactions are telling us about how racism lives within us. We aim to create a non-judgemental, supportive but challenging space within which we can develop new perspectives about ourselves and others and the world we live in. In doing so we can bring more awareness to our actions, our ways of relating and our thoughts, so that real change is possible. We have found that doing this work has made sense of things happening around us and that understanding what it means to be 'white' is a crucial part of looking at the world through an intersectional lens.