WE ARE HERE TO CREATE CHANGE AND INSPIRE YOU TO JOIN US!
Our story
Vision
Our campaign aims to encourage people from minoritised backgrounds to enter the field of Psychology and see themselves making it into Clinical Psychology. We would like to make the field more inclusive, diverse and representative of the clients we see within the mental health system. We hope to tackle some of the barriers those in services have named as the reasons they may not engage with mental health services, such as; communication barriers, understanding the impact of race, discrimination and stigma, and also taking into account cultural differences in mental health experiences . We would be keen to hear others’ stories and identify/recognise barriers of which we may not already be aware of.
We also hope to involve professionals within the field in our campaign, to become allies, to help us think collaboratively about these issues in a broader context and help us challenge practises within the field, that do not match the ever-growing diverse society in which we live . This would include having a diverse interview panel for the Clinical Psychology Doctorate programmes, seeing more diverse faces within the field in the hopes of encouraging generations to come to view Clinical Psychology as career option. Ultimately, we hope to build and continue to develop an inclusive workforce that considers the needs of all, including psychological models becoming more culturally inclusive.
The Team
Annie Phiri
I am passionate about creating a space where people from all races and cultures can find healing. Diversity in Clinical Psychology is important because it will allow the field to become more culturally adaptive and give access to services that reflect different cultures and personal identities. Traditional talking therapies may not be fully representative of cultural needs or create environments where people can feel understood and seen. Creating diversity in the field will help to bring greater understanding to issues faced by marginalised communities.
Rufus May
I have worked in Mental health as a psychologist since 1998. I am passionate about making psychology more accessible and relevant to people from different social and cultural backgrounds. My experiences of being a service user in Hackney Hospital when I was 18 made me aware of the over representation of black people in mental health services and the need to find and support approaches that address this.
Uzair Javid
I’m passionate about making Clinical Psychology more diverse and accessible to minoritised communities. I hope being involved in this journey can be a way of having more open and honest conversations around systemic racism, oppression, and social inequality and how this can impact on difficulties with mental health. I want the field of Psychology to take into consideration the narrative of people’s experience of culture, race, and religion when finding meaning and creating understanding.
Kate Porter
Our lives and the paths we take are shaped by the stories we tell about ourselves. I am passionate about supporting people to tell and retell the stories of their lives that are in line with their preferred identity, their culture and what they give value to. My involvement with this project is based on a hope that Clinical Psychology honors and acknowledges that people’s lives are multi-storied, are rich and diverse and that these stories can be told in a variety of ways.
Yvonne Young
My own experiences of feeling different within the world of psychology because of my social class drives my passion in this project. I hope to see more people from socially disadvantaged and marginalised communities be given more opportunities to be included and welcomed into a profession that needs diversity. I believe that without a diverse workforce, we are not representing the people we support. We run the risk of service users of different backgrounds not connecting with the majority of psychologists who are white, female and middle class. Without connection, there is limited hope for engagement in the care that is needed, leading to further health inequalities. Let’s face this change, together.
Adrian Lawrence
I am passionate about cultural representation. In my own spoken word band I had made a point of trying to find players across various cultures and was determined to have gender also represented. As a black male welding ‘exotic’ alloys, I have yet to see the representation in engineering that I sought out within my band. I look forwarding to helping usher in change.
