Humanising psychotherapy training in the UK: Views on Decolonising Eurocentric frameworks in trauma-informed care for Black queer men

This paper explores the importance of integrating decolonial perspectives into therapist education, emphasising the need to challenge Eurocentric frameworks that marginalise diverse worldviews, healing practices, and lived experiences. Drawing on research findings from a study of therapists’ discussion of trauma-informed care for Black queer men, this paper examines their reflections on their early training and experiences in psychotherapy. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine practitioners who reflected on their views on the dominance of Eurocentric frameworks in UK psychotherapy training. Reflexive Thematic Analysis was used to analyse the interviews. Findings underscore that decolonisation of UK psychotherapy training is a critical step towards reimagining therapy as a truly inclusive and human-centred discipline. We advocate for a model of counselling and psychotherapy training which consciously and overtly discusses epistemic injustice and implicit colonial knowledge systems. Additionally, we articulate a model of pedagogy in higher education (HE) which embraces relational aspects of counselling and psychotherapy training, utilising the ‘human’.