‘Reflections on ensuring that Reflective Practice in a Psychologically Informed Environment (PIE) is responsive not racist’…

09.07.2021: For this week’s PIE blog, as the lead for Psychologically Informed Environments (PIE), at the national youth homeless charity; Centrepoint, I am continuing last week’s theme of giving space to other voices in the organisation. I am therefore delighted that Kemi Bakare (Project Officer — Centrepoint Works / Communications Officer — Equity Group) and Sadie Odeogberin (Head of Operations: People, Skills & Employability — South / Chairperson –Equity Group) on behalf of the Centrepoint Equity Group have taken over this week’s PIE blog. This group (formally the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnicity — BAME — Group) have now been in existence for a year. It was formed after the organisation was challenged to respond proactively to the Black Lives Matter movement that came to public awareness following the murder of George Floyd by American Police last summer (c.f. see previous PIE blog: https://drhelenmiles.medium.com/blacklivesmatter-a-psychologically-informed-reflection-b7feff427706). #BlackLivesMatter is a global movement that campaigns against racism, discrimination, and violence towards black people (c.f. https://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/opinion-and-blog/blacklivesmatter-beyond-hashtag).

I think that Kemi and Sadie have written an important piece about how we must ensure that in our day-to-day PIE work, specifically within the context of reflective practice sessions, we ensure that we are exploring, recognising and challenging our perceptions, unconscious biases and privileges around the issue of race and culture. This is particularly important work to undertake if we are not from a BAME background, for we cannot and should not assume that our BAME colleagues can carry the emotional load of such work by themselves. Indeed such work can be retriggering or re-traumatising for those who have suffered the impact of personal, relational, structural or institutional racism.

Consequently, I would suggest that this is work, long overdue, that we ALL need to undertake, whatever our ethnicity or background to be an active and productive member of our modern society. For example, in my own personal reflections on the #BlackLivesMatter movement, I have found the following text helpful, as well as challenging, in exploring these issues: https://www.meandwhitesupremacybook.com/. I am far from getting it ‘right’ as a white person but I am committed to the journey of understanding and I continue to push for change when and where I can. It is important that our PIE at Centrepoint is responsive not racist, and therefore I welcome this week’s PIE blog, and the challenge therein. So over to Kemi and Sadie, and a big thank you to them for highlighting and exploring this issue this week…

“To be responsive you have to be continually changing, growing, understanding because our society is continually changing, too” Suyemoto (2019)

A Psychologically Informed Environment (PIE) “… is one that takes into account the psychological makeup -thinking, emotions, personalities and past experience [of its staff and young people] in the way that it operates” (c.f. https://www.rocktrust.org/working-at-the-rock-trust/). By applying a psychological understanding of why people behave the way they do, we can better respond to their needs. Within Centrepoint, our Health and PIE Team(s) has given us new insights that deepen our understanding in the field of diversity, equity and social justice as well as relation to other cultures through our social identities whilst paying attention to the diverse population and their specific needs (e.g. https://www.blackmindsmatteruk.com/). For example, major incidents including a death in service with racial undertones, which in the past might have been treated as ‘another day in the office’ are now being openly discussed in reflective practice sessions. The PIE team has also on more than one occasion equipped staff with knowledge and advice on how to manage challenging situations both within services as well as with other professionals outside Centrepoint.

Whilst Socrates is reported to have said that the ‘unexamined life is not worth living’, the 19th Century philosopher William James also argued that the ‘unlived life wasn’t worth reflecting on’. Of course, both responses are true when we consider such concept as reflective practice in our work with the young people here at Centrepoint. However, the question remains; is it possible to think back to situations objectively or is it retrospective reality, which in hindsight loses some of its accuracy? Is it possible to be honest and consistent in thinking back on such events without colouring or clouding them? Can we critically and objectively self-examine our own attitudes and behaviours? Moreover, is reflective practice merely “rhetoric”, or is our practice in any field really affected by reflecting on it? All the above questions will include directly or indirectly experienced racial biases, social injustice and favouritism. We must bear in mind that the more open and honest we are in reflective practice, the better and more useful it will be because it will lead to solutions that are more productive and create improved working relationships with one another as well as the homeless young people we support.

Therefore, we must try to objectify our experience, and see the actual experience from the outside and understand it in that context. We must start recording our genuine feelings and thoughts on the experience regardless of our own attitudes and behaviours. A more challenging but worthwhile question may be ‘is reflection practice merely an intellectual exercise; does it really lead to action or are we merely verbalising a theory?’ Consequently, it is important to consider within a reflective practice session further questions such as; ‘what am I doing here and now in this activity and what would I like to change? For example, quotes such as ‘white silence is violence’ and ‘if you’re silent, you’re part of the problem’ are all over the media. How can we therefore ensure that we are not silent, that we are verbalising and taking action where we can to support our colleagues and our young people in a way that is helpful and productive, not dismissing, minimising or assuming of their experiences?

Reflective practice is a forum to address such issues whilst not reducing it to a tick box exercise and or a platform for arguments. Reflection and evaluation are arguably not the same thing. Reflection is subjective and spontaneous; it can be both intellectual and emotional. Moreover, it is often deeply personal and of course involves our own particular experiences. As a result, not only our reflections on what has happened, but also any consequent learning resulting from reflection is influenced by these. Evaluation on the other hand involves re-examining the experience in the light of what you already know and what you intended for the experience, and aims to add new knowledge. It is objective, factual, deliberate, logical, measurable and relative to an occurrence.

Our challenge is therefore to highlight the importance of, and advance a concept of ‘race reflection in cultural contexts’ within our reflective practice sessions offered to all Centrepoint staff. Consequently, race and culture should not be a topic we shy away from in reflective practice sessions. Rather it should be open and explored both as a factor influencing our thoughts, feelings and behaviours (as well as those of the homeless young people we support) and as having a systemic influence on the work we do. We need to create safe spaces within sessions that mean the discussion is comfortable, open and meaningful, not a superficial or a ‘here we go … what now’ type process, and there is no fear that if we raise race or cultural influences we will be indirectly punished or bullied.

Reflective practice should be a learning or improving forum wherein we feel able to challenge racism or micro-aggressions in the moment. It can also be a safe space to acknowledge our own unconscious biases and be willing to ‘step inside the shoes’ of other races to understand how they feel. We can be ‘allies’ of others when we take time to involve ourselves with them and hear their perspective. One example of this is within our own Equality Group where one member is White but has used their presence in the group to learn more about racial and cultural differences (e.g. in behaviour and communication styles) in order that they can improve their support to others.

Finally, we believe that such an approach will improve racial and cultural mismatches between staff relationships as well as within the relationships staff have with the homeless young people they support. Relationships being of course, central to the development of and key to the success of any psychologically informed environment. Using race reflective journaling, setting staff racial reflective learning assignments to feedback to others on, encouraging the engagement of everyone in racial dialogue discussions and considering activities that engage staff in reflection on these sometimes-difficult topics (both within and between reflective practice sessions) is crucial. It is only by opening up these responsive and reflective discussion spaces that staff will be lead into a deeper understanding around race and culture that might otherwise be ignored, misunderstood, misrepresented or misinterpreted.