Discrimination
Discrimination is the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, sex, or disability (different ability/difference).
“Discrimination is a traumatic experience that can cause similar symptoms to PTSD, as well as depression and anxiety.”
- Alex Klein, PsyD
You are trying really hard. You know that you have value. Despite trying, you keep facing roadblocks. Others have power over you that harms you and sets you back. You keep trying but you’re powerless to the power. It doesn’t matter how much you believe in yourself or what good intentions you have. When you’re faced with a tidal wall of other people’s ignorance, you’re stuck. It’s not just. It’s not okay. But, there you are - stuck - by other people’s choices.
Discrimination comes in many different shapes and sizes. It can be based upon seen differences such as race, gender, ethnicity, physical impairment, age, . . . or unseen differences such as processing differences/neurodiversity.
When facing discrimination it is important to have safe spaces where your lived experience is validated despite the barriers, daggers, and stonewalling you might be experiencing in “the real world.”
Therapy holds space; it doesn’t fix it. Therapy is a space to not have to be fixed. We will not work on legal issues or resources or advocacy. While these are important, you may experience dead ends with these. Therapy is here to offer support when there is no help. Even when there is help, oftentimes the injury is perpetuated through a person’s attempts to have the wrong-doing addressed and the very systems that are supposedly in place to address discrimination actually themselves create barriers and act in discriminatory ways.
Therapy is about hearing your story, naming the discrimination that IS taking place such that your sense of self and intuition can be restored. It is about providing a place for you to be raw in the pain of what you are enduring with someone who is a witness to your pain without judgement or expectation that you present differently to make things less uncomfortable for others. Therapy is a safe space free from retaliation from naming your experiences, thoughts, feelings, fears, what you have had to endure, and the damage you are experiencing.
I get you. I see you. I can’t make the world a better or more inclusive place. I can walk alongside you witnessing your journey, struggles, barriers, and I can support you in navigating your path around the obstacles. This is a space where you will not be invisible. You may be powerless to have the justice you deserve, yet, here you will not be silenced.