The term 鈥渃olonizing鈥� defines practices that reproduce the existing conditions of oppression, and perpetuate deficit-based views that maintain the disenfranchisement of marginalized individuals and communities, said conference organizer TC鈥檚 Prerna Arora, Assistant Professor of School Psychology, in her opening remarks. And change, Arora said, 鈥渂egins with decolonizing ourselves鈥� so that 鈥渨e become more prepared to train a new generation of providers, who can repair the silencing and oppression of minoritized individuals and communities.鈥�
Speaker , UCLA psychologist and co-author of Clinical Supervision: A Competency-Based Approach, underscored that point in a conversation moderated by Marie Miville, Professor of Psychology & Education and Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs.
Watch a conversation between Carol Falender and TC's Marie Miville.
鈥淔rom my perspective, clinical supervision is tremendously under-addressed, and as a function of that, multiculturalism, social justice, social action and racial justice are all dramatically under-addressed in clinical supervision,鈥� Falender said. Social justice training is 鈥渘on-existent鈥� in many clinical psychology programs, she said, and 鈥渢he majority of supervisors have not [even] had training in clinical supervision. Those that have typically took 鈥渁 course with no active, experiential component, no feedback, no sense of competence or integration of the multiple aspects that are ascribed to clinical supervision.鈥�
As a result, 鈥渢here鈥檚 a pervasive sense that self-disclosure is not acceptable and is contrary to theory, and that鈥檚 a very delimiting factor when it comes to decolonization,鈥� said Falender, who introduced herself as 鈥渁n older, small, White, Jewish, Midwestern woman 鈥� a Hoosier, now living in California; heterosexual, privileged.鈥�
Many such missing practices, Falender said, result from a failure to understand or implement the foundations of clinical supervision, including:
- being attentive to one鈥檚 own attitudes and the attitudes of one鈥檚 supervisees;
- engaging in a respectful process supervisees, regardless of the content;
- collaborating with supervisees, listening to and valuing what they say, and reflecting on it;
- respecting other cultural world views while expressing one鈥檚 own;
- enacting cultural humility 鈥� the lack of certainty that one is always right.
In response to an audience member鈥檚 question about how change can occur when supervisors themselves are not driving it, Falender underscored the power of students.
鈥淭here鈥檚 such a strong desire for change amongst students, and that drives changes,鈥� she said. 鈥淎dministrations are sensitive to what students want because they need students to enroll in the institution and pay tuition.鈥� She urged students in the audience to 鈥渂e active, inform the administration, work with the administration to ensure that all the people higher up in the university or other settings are aware of these decolonizing actions and what kinds of things in this particular setting are colonial and how this is not going to be acceptable to continue.
鈥淯niversities are only as good as the students who enroll in them,鈥� Falender concluded. 鈥淪o, there is power there.鈥�
[Read a story about how the 鈥淒ecolonizing Psychology鈥� event was inspired by change within TC鈥檚 School Psychology program asked for by students.]