What is it about?
Some psychology students encounter racism, sexism, and homophobia. This can occur during interactions with other students, with patients they work with, and within the academic system itself. This article uses vignettes to describe what these encounters may look like for some students and offers recommendations for how supervisors and students can cope with such events. As the field of psychology becomes more diverse traditions and systems within academic psychology will need to shift towards multicultural competency and an affirmation of student identities.
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Why is it important?
This paper highlights how supervisors and psychology graduate programs can best attune to the developmental needs of psychology trainees navigating difficult clinical training experiences that unearth issues of race, gender, and sexuality. It outlines approaches taken by supervisors that can be unhelpful, or even harmful, to trainees’ growth. It recommends supervisory practices that prioritize trainees’ developmental levels as well as their rights to physical protection and emotional well-being. The authors cite literature related to professional ethics, discrimination, and multiculturally-competent supervision.
Perspectives
This paper has been so important and meaningful to me. It was one thing to write this paper; the act of writing it allowed me to process my own experiences of harassment, sexism, and homophobia within the academic field of psychology, as well as within the room with my patients during clinical sessions. After writing this paper, as the first author, I spearheaded the seemingly never-ending journey of publication for the very first time. I could not be prouder of the work my co-writers and I have put forth through this article, and I hope you enjoy it!
Martha Bautista-Biddle
University of Denver
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The fallacy of “good training experiences”: The need to protect psychology trainees from harassment and the imperative of multiculturally competent supervision., Training and Education in Professional Psychology, November 2021, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/tep0000353.
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