On this week’s episode of Notice That, Bridger interviews special guest, David Archer, an anti-racist EMDR therapist.

David Archer, an anti-racist psychotherapist

Anti-Racist Psychotherapy & EMDR

  • Always had an interest in mindfulness meditation 
  • However, as an addictions counselor in a native community, mindfulness alone wasn’t working. 
  • So, after trying other therapies, David eventually found EMDR
  • He appreciated that the approach didn’t require the therapist to be the expert. 
  • Rather, it places therapist and client in an equal partnership
  • Additionally, EMDR doesn’t need to be followed rigidly
  • Allowing for more freedom and creativity.
  • This has resulted in David’s ability to see patterns beyond the individual.
  • Finally, through EMDR, David desires to change the experience of suffering.

Anti-Racist Psychotherapy

 “Depending on your social identity, you are more likely to have certain types of trauma history items than if you came from a different identity” (23:36)

  • Anti-Racism is beyond the idea of knowledge acquisition.
  • Rather, anti-racism is about the structure that we find ourselves in.
  • Importantly, race is one of the primary ways of organizing our experiences.
  • While white individuals are often unaware of their race, others don’t have that privilege.
  • This is because the way we talk and teach it is always assumed you’re speaking of a white person.
  • Anti-racist psychotherapy is about bringing the unconscious to the conscious
  • Even when it’s uncomfortable.
  • With the hope of bringing long term changes to internalized oppression 

“The danger is that if we don’t think about our countries in these ways, if we don’t think about our therapy in these ways, we will continue with the short-sighted perspectives on advancing individual interests over collective interests” (33:50)

  • Currently, most therapists and professors are white 
  • We need to start considering the identity of the client when thinking about therapy
  • And stop preserving the dichotomy and comparisons between black and white 
  • We can expand ideas of EMDR to apply to our communities and countries 

Binary Complex Trauma Cycle

  • On one end of the spectrum is white supremacy 
  • The other end is black suffering 
  • White people are the first victims of anti-racism 
  • Because the ideas of racism are so deeply rooted in our institutions 
  • Hypocritical ideas validate the idea of black suffering 
  • Further, they validate whiteness 

Did you know?  After full completion of Beyond Healing Institute’s Somatic Integration and Processing training, each participant can receive 21 NBCC hours. 

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  • 100% of the proceeds donated to the Burntout Educator will provide therapy for a child in the public school system. 
  • Not therapy capped at a certain number, but an open-ended relationship with a highly qualified therapist in the BHC network. 

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Credits 

Executive Directors: Jennifer and Ryan Savage, Melissa Bentinnedi, Bridger Falkenstein
Hosts: Jennifer Savage, Melissa Benintendi, and Bridger Falkenstein
Filmographer: Tyler Wassam
Podcast Producer: Jamie Eggert
Original Music Composers: Bridger Falkenstein and Caleb Boston
Show Notes: Jordan Murray-Harper