Date of Award
Spring 5-21-2022
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
MA - Master of Arts
Department
Expressive Therapies
Advisor
Sarah Hamil
Abstract
Mental health involves acts of naming and noticing, thus the hypocrisy of harm within mental health programs is explored and discussed through interpersonal and structural means. In a space that is meant for safety and care, inaccessibility, pejorative terminology, pathologizing identity, and exclusionary tactics are riddled throughout the layers of the mental health field. From campus, to literature, to different forms of therapy racism and transphobia work against non-dominant groups through interlocking forms of oppression. The centering of Western, White ideology is harmful to students in these programs, as well as the clients of BIPOC, QTBIPOC, and trans* communities. Mental health professionals are unequipped to work with these demographics, as there is much less research and clinical practices to support them. By not attending to these issues, higher education and its research is complicate in cyclical racial and transphobic harm. Without acknowledging said issues and working towards more expansive forms of care, mental health professionals will continue to harm their clients.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Chabot, Tosh, "Hypocrisy in Higher Education: Racism and Transphobia as Barriers and Harm in Mental Health" (2022). Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses. 617.
https://digitalcommons.lesley.edu/expressive_theses/617
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The author owns the copyright to this work.
