Silenced By Privilege, by Sahar Dorani, M.A.

In the field in psychology, I find that we are constantly being trained to be culturally aware and sensitive to the needs of underserved members within our communities. I have found that many times, our multicultural training focuses heavily on issues affecting non-American or nonwhite individuals and groups. While I clearly understand the importance in this, I did not realize until recently that there are many clients in need whom may get overlooked perhaps due to the assumed privilege that may accompany the lighter-skinned Caucasian individual. When working as a therapist in an outpatient drug treatment center for recently incarcerated males, my Caucasian clients tended to be the minority in our treatment program. One of my American clients approached me after group therapy and brought to my attention his feeling of invisibility in our group sessions and in the treatment center milieu. I noticed that this particular client tended to stay silent when uncomfortable; voicing his grievances was incredibly unlike him. Hence, when he spoke, I listened a bit more intently.

As a 34 year-old homeless male recovering from drugs and desperately seeking shelter and stability, he would often spend eight hours a day at our treatment center, which far surpassed his court-mandated five hours a week that accompanied his probation requirements. It felt nice to see this client doing behavioral therapy homework, applying for jobs, and making doctor's appointments from the secure couches within our building. As I would report to the treatment center a few times a week, there was certainly comfort in knowing that one of our clients chose to be safe by spending his free time in the treatment center, as opposed to panhandling outside three blocks away in front of the subway station (as many of our clients would do- even immediately after exiting the building/therapy/treatment check-ins). This client would make requests at times for psychiatric treatment, government funding, legal assistance, case management, GED courses; these are all resources encompassed within our free outpatient treatment program. For some reason, however, this client found it difficult to obtain such resources as efficiently or timely as other clients. He approached me on several occasions, voicing his opinion that: because he "is White, decently literate, is not physically detoxing from drugs, and is able-bodied, that other clients and case managers assume he does not need therapy or resources as direly as everyone else, thus consistently overlooking [him and his] psychological needs."  

I felt incredibly stuck, as the most I could have offered within my capacity as an intern therapist was multiple weekly therapy sessions (and urging case managers to follow up on his requests). This client became very angry after a few months and began distancing himself from the treatment center. Although I did not want to necessarily believe it, I did begin to notice how this particular client’s high level of functioning almost created stumbling blocks for him in this setting. As most of the clients traditionally served through our program are severely mentally ill, it did in a way seem that there was this attitude amongst the treatment staff that he is ‘okay enough’ and that other clients’ needs may be ‘more immediate’ than his. As my therapeutic relationship with this client came to an end, I continued to think about his unmet needs within our program and if any reason could have been attributed to his cultural identity. 

(Photo by Kamil Porembiński)