Day 66 – Self-reflexivity

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Day 66 – Cultural humility, self-awareness, and self-reflexivity are discussed in the Zerbe Enns, Bryant-Davis and Díaz (2021a) article entitled, Transnational Feminist Therapy: Recommendations and Illustrations. They write,

 

Cultural humility is informed by self-reflection, flexibility, patience with ourselves and others, tolerance for ambiguity, empathy, and awareness of power dynamics. It requires regular exploration of our co-existent points of privilege and marginalization, as well as how our points of view can be affected by implicit, nonconscious biases that may resist change. The power of Northern hegemony is often subtle, and Minority World mental health workers who have experienced higher levels of financial and social capital, as well as White privilege, may have greater difficulty, compared to their counterparts with less privilege, with the tasks of recognizing insidious biases within themselves and the discipline of psychology. (p. 213)

 

Critical, feminist, and social justice approaches all require that we, as clinicians, do this work of self-reflexivity. As a teacher and writer in this field I hold a certain “power” to name things and to define things and to “produce knowledge.”  I need to think about this process from a culturally humble place – to reflect on my own experiences and identity as a self.  I must be flexible and patient with myself and others.  I must tolerate the ambiguity – in this case of feeling both privileged and insecure. I must approach my writing with empathy for myself and others, even as I am aware of the power dynamics.

 

I keep trying to consider the ways that the dominant narratives and cultural dominance of “Western civilization” subtly influences the way I see things and experience myself and others. Most recently, as I said goodbye to a client yesterday (who I hope to see again in the fall) who immigrated from another country several years ago, I was reminded of the many ways I do not completely understand their experience of goodbye. I tried to embrace a cultural humility.  I tried to recognize insidious biases and to recognize the ways that the “discipline of counseling and psychology” have influenced the ways I think I “should” say goodbye!

 

In a bookend article to the previous article, these same writers wrote:

 

Reflexivity within the transnational context includes exploring, critiquing, and deconstructing how Northern of Euro-centric knowledge, including psychological knowledge, is produced and disseminated, with an emphasis on how this process is relevant to gender-related experiences (Canetto, 2019; Yakushko, 2020). It also entails self-examination of how we consciously or unconsciously support oppressive patriarchal systems. Practicing deep levels of reflexivity not only informs our knowledge of how cultures shape us as individuals but how we may be viewed by persons from other cultural contexts. Decolonized reflexivity moves us beyond awareness to active collaborative engagement in dismantling systems of oppression within us and around us. (Zerbe Enns, Bryant-Davis and Díaz, 2021b, p. 13)

 

 

Zerbe Enns, C., Bryant-Davis, T., & Díaz, L. C. (2021a). Transnational feminist therapy: Recommendations and illustrations. Women & Therapy, 44(1/2), 212–233. https://doi.org/10.1080/02703149.2020.1776021

 

Zerbe Enns, C., Díaz, L. C., & Bryant-Davis, T. (2021b). Transnational feminist theory and practice: An introduction. Women & Therapy, 44(1/2), 11–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/02703149.2020.1774997