The Race Conversation Keele Counselling Conference Eugene Ellis The - - PDF document

The Race Conversation

Keele Counselling Conference

Eugene Ellis

The Race Conversation

“We are dealing with a social construct that was not designed to make sense. To the extent that it is the product of design, the race constructs that we live by were shaped specifically by a desire to avoid making

• sense. They were shape for centuries by a need to

rationalise and justify indefensible acts. So when we grapple with race issues we are grappling with something that was designed for centuries to make us circumvent our best instincts. It's a dance partner that is designed to trip us up”

Jay Smooth - How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Discussing Race

The Black Student’s Experience

Hurt

“Is it possible to create safe spaces for the race conversation?”

The Hierarchical Nervous System

• Social Engagement System


(Saftey)

• Active Defence


(Danger)

• Passive Defence


(life threat)
 


Stephen Porges - Polyvagal Theory

Your experience when you think about the race conversation and your personal challenges?

Core Organisers

“Consciously or unconsciously, we are constantly participating in the process of selecting what information we pay attention to and thus how we

• rganise this information internally. To study the
• rganisation of experience, we direct our attention to

the five building blocks of experience called core

• rganisers”


Pat Ogden - Sensorimotor Psychotherapy

Core Organisers

Cognition (The Cortex) Emotion (limbic system) 
 Five sense perception - images and memory - inner eye
 Movement - from trembles to walking
 Inner body sensation - heartbeat, shivers (Brain Stem)

The paradigm shift

• Recognising there is unconscious material present

when race becomes figure (Ancestral baggage)

• Understanding that there is a measure of distress

and feeling physiologically unsafe in becoming conscious (Race Construct Arousal)

• Becoming more competent/comfortable in the new
• paradigm. Staying curious and recognising our

defences

Ancestral baggage

• The unspoken, but evident effects of historical racism that affect

current relationships within black communities and between black-and-white people

• Just as love can create a memory of lasting comfort and

connection, the wounds of historical racism may be so great that they create a memory of lasting discomfort and disconnection

• The emotional and transformative aspect of being affected by

the history of racism

• The sometimes negative feelings that we fear but are not truly

conscious of can be conceptualised as ancestral baggage

Race Construct Arousal

• Feelings but not the words
• Self focus, preoccupation with safety, feelings of

guilt, shame, hurt and anger

• It hits you in the gut and in the mind.
• Communicating non verbally through the

autonomic nervous system that you are unsafe to be with.

Trainers and Therapist Forums

Finding Your Voice

Becoming aware of our behaviour, thoughts and feelings in the spirit of mindful awareness and compassion.

Directed Mindfulness

Directed mindfulness capitalises on neuroscience findings that mindfulness meditation increases activity in the medial prefrontal cortex… and decreases activity in the amygdala, thus facilitating regulation of autonomic arousal.

(Lazar et al., 2000; Creswell, Wade, Eisenberg, and Lieberman, 2007)

Relational Mindfulness

Relational mindfulness: where two people are both being with implicit processes together.

Pat Ogden

Compassion

• A sense of shared suffering
• Requires staying in Social Engagement System in

the dyad to enable both the compassionate individual and the other to feel safe and to be proximal.
 


Stephen Porges

• Articles from a UK perspective


www.baatn.org.uk/articles

• Podcasts


http://baatn.podomatic.com

• Mckenzie-Mavinga, (2009) I. Black Issues in The

therapeutic Process. Palgrave Macmillan.

• Mckenzie-Mavinga (2016) The Challenge of Racism

in Therapeutic Practice ,Palgrave Macmillan.

www.baatn.org.uk eugene@baatn.org.uk