Racism and Discrimination in School.
During my many years as a student, I had the privilege of gaining experience through many different practicum placement settings. In one of these settings, I had the unfortunate experience of being faced with ongoing racism that resulted in me being wrongfully dismissed when I tried to advocate for a more inclusive space. Many clients I had at the placement were BIPOC, queer, connecting with a counsellor for the first time, healing, and experiencing therapeutic safety for the first time. These clients were not treated with care by my supervisors. These clients were dehumanized, belittled, and the supervisors at the placement had no knowledge of lived experience outside of their own social location. I started to feel like I had to protect these clients from the supervisors. This led me to feeling unsupported as a student and stifled in my growth as a counsellor.
After multiple meetings with my school, the practicum placement decided to wrongfully (and unethically) terminate my placement early. They had done so without any proper procedures outlined by the school, and the placement agency. I was left stunned, angry, confused, and insulted. Worst of all, I mourned the sudden, unethical termination of the therapeutic relationship I had with the clients I was seeing. I was not able to meet with any of the clients I was seeing to let them know what was happening. They were notified by someone else from the agency that I was no longer at the agency and another counsellor can be assigned to them. I cannot imagine the crash of emotions these clients experienced. They had trusted me with their stories, traumas, secrets, and healing journey. I was forced to break my promise to be there for every single client and treat them with care. What happened goes against everything the counselling profession is about.
The fragile ego of the supervisors was protected over the care of students and clients. During the many meetings I had with them regarding how to be a safe space for marginalized communities, they were not interested in hearing feedback. They were interested in being praised for their empty promises. I had said, you cannot just put a pride sticker on the door and claim to be a safe space without doing any work to make it an actual safe space. If you had not told me you want marginalized communities to feel safe here, I would have not known because nothing is being done; it’s only being talked about. Every semester, many marginalized students are not being accepted here to complete placement, yet you claim to strive for more representation in the agency. Hire more than one marginalized student every semester so that student does not feel alone.
The phrase, “goodness of fit” was thrown around a lot. I was wrongfully and unethically dismissed due to me not being a “good fit” for the agency. Many other marginalized students were not accepted for a placement because they were not a “good fit.” The insidious thing here is, they’re not wrong. Marginalized students are not a good fit for an agency that prioritizes whiteness and preformative activism. This also means that the agency is unethically advertising themselves as a safe space for clients of all lived experiences to access services. A phrase that stand out to me is, “nothing about us, without us.”
If you were a client of mine and our sessions ended abruptly and without any warning or explanation, I am sorry. Please feel free to reach out to me.
In the next part, I will discuss what to do if you are a student experiencing discrimination while completing a practicum placement.