What’s this got to do with me? Grappling with issues of decolonisation within a psychotherapy training institute

This paper explores the challenges that the profession faces in addressing the legacies of colonisation. The process of decolonisation is understood to mean challenging Eurocentric frameworks, addressing systemic oppression, promoting greater inclusivity and considering societal, cultural, and intergenerational factors alongside individual experiences in shaping psychic and social life. The author uses their own experience of seeing things ‘otherwise’ to understand how psychotherapy trainings might want to reflect on the epistemologies that inform the current curricula whilst also examining the resistance that institutions and trainers have to owning their own implicated positions. Based on the work of Michael Rothberg and The Implicated Subject, the author calls for a process of ‘unlearning’, expanding awareness of responsibilities and working through defensive states of shame and guilt. This paper calls for a critical reflection and a radical approach to both teaching and clinical practice to address and integrate the ongoing impacts of our colonial histories and their enduring effects.