What is an Anti-Oppressive Therapist?
Author: Asasia Richardson
If you’ve taken a look around a therapist’s bio, come across a mental health Instagram page or TikTok account, or maybe even done some other reading about therapy online, you might have come across the term “anti-oppressive.” Most commonly you may find this term included in a clinician’s description of their approach or specialties. However, mixed in with so many other therapy terms like CBT, mindfulness, or psychodynamic, you may be unsure of what this means or maybe even why anti-oppressive practice would be relevant to therapy. So let’s talk about what anti-oppressive practice (AOP) means and why it matters.
Anti-oppressive practice is an approach with roots in social work, so you might often find it referenced by therapists who are social workers. However, anti-oppressive practice goes beyond any single profession. AOP is an approach that is social justice-oriented and aims to challenge and dismantle oppression, but especially that which can be reinforced within the context of social work or therapy. AOP is informed by many different social justice movements and schools of thought including anti-racism, feminist theory, queer theory, liberation psychology, decolonization, disability justice, and more.
At its core, AOP includes:
Recognizing and understanding how forces at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels impact an individual and contribute to marginalization and oppression. This includes environmental, social, and cultural factors such as family, religion, school systems, neighborhoods, sexuality, gender, race, ethnicity, policies and laws.
Breaking down unequal power within the therapeutic relationship by treating the client as an active participant, and an expert of their experience.
Tending to the way that systems and social structures shape the individual, and their mental health.
Practicing critical self-awareness of the therapist’s role, identities, and experiences.
So what does this look like in therapy? A therapist who uses the AOP approach will be conscious of their clients’ social location - the different social identities a person may hold that determine their experience in society (gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability/ability, class, age, religion, immigration status, etc.) and how that is impacting their individual experiences. Further, the therapist will also practice the same consciousness of their own social location and how this may affect therapy, their relationship to their client, their understanding or biases that may influence how they interpret their client, and so on. An anti-oppressive therapist will take care to consider how social location and any associated oppression is interacting with the issues a person brings to therapy, to better understand how these challenges might actually be more external or structural, rather than just internal.
Essentially, although an AOP therapist will be aware of these many factors, they will also be aware of the individual nuances. For example, a therapist may see five different people who all identify as queer but what this means to each individual may vary, and their experiences as a queer person can also be incredibly different and diverse. An important part of anti-oppressive practice is balancing awareness with not making assumptions. This requires continual curiosity and openness. A common myth about anti-oppressive practice is that it over-emphasizes identity and oppression in a way that generalizes individuals. Another misconception is that anti-oppressive practice downplays mental health diagnoses and instead blames everything on external factors in a manner that is disempowering. However, AOP is truly about being open-minded and thoughtfully treating each person as an individual, while also recognizing that the individual developed within the context of their social conditions, culture, and systems which inherently impact who they are and the challenges that they may bring to therapy.
Another important quality of anti-oppressive therapy is the effort to reduce unequal power in the therapeutic relationship. Many people may see therapy as hierarchical - the therapist is an expert and the client is someone seeking their help or advice and should accept direction. Therapists also hold institutional power including the power to diagnose or make referrals. There may also be other aspects of unequal power by way of social location; for example a white therapist and a Black client or a transgender client who needs a letter of support from a cisgender therapist in order to be approved for a gender-affirming surgery. Anti-oppressive practice means dismantling this unequal power as much as possible by including the client as an active participant who has agency in the process. This means the client is empowered to say no or express negative feelings about something a therapist says or suggests, and also act as an active collaborator in their own treatment.
Anti-oppressive practice can take many forms. Each therapist may have a slightly different background or framework, and their personal identities also play a role in how this practice may be applied. This can show up in the overall philosophy and perspective the therapist takes when working with clients, but it can also present in more specific therapy interventions.
For example, if a BIPOC client is experiencing social anxiety, a common approach is addressing anxious thoughts as cognitive distortions that are irrational. However, an anti-oppressive therapist may take an approach that considers the previously mentioned systemic and structural forces, and realize the social anxiety is influenced by the individual’s experiences around race and racial difference. With this understanding, anxious thoughts may be treated not as irrational, but as rational. However, these thoughts may still be unhelpful, distressing, and overwhelming so a therapist can focus on how to reduce this negative impact. Each therapist may have a different way to address it from here, but some approaches may include more trauma-informed techniques or coping strategies that are based more on the body or behaviors, rather than challenging the thoughts.
If any of this sounds helpful or interesting to you, an anti-oppressive specialized therapist may be a good fit! Many therapists include this information in their bios, but if not you can always ask! Some questions you may want to ask include:
What are your views on social justice and how are they applicable to your therapeutic approach?
Do you have experience working with people of [insert your identity/background here]?
What is your comfort level and experience working on topics including discrimination, systemic oppression, and privilege?
No matter who you are or what specific needs you are coming to therapy with, working with an anti-oppressive therapist can be useful for receiving care that sees your whole self in context.
