Yvette Esprey's talk offers South African psychologists a vital framework for understanding how race and racial identity shape the therapeutic encounter. Explore how a relational psychoanalytic lens can illuminate racial dynamics, ethical imperatives, and unconscious transferences for enhanced clinical practice and cultural humility in a diverse South Africa.
In this challenging and illuminating talk, Yvette Esprey offers a framework for thinking about race and racial identity in the therapeutic encounter, suggesting that a relational psychoanalytic framework allows for the consideration of how race impacts on subjectivity of both clients and therapists, and how racial dynamics impact on the therapeutic process. Yvette focuses on an awareness of racial dynamics as an ethical imperative, essential to good practice.
Sections
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this talk, participants will be able to:
Understand how race and racial identity influence subjectivity and clinical dynamics in therapy
Describe how a relational psychoanalytic approach can support meaningful engagement with racialised processes
Reflect on the ethical importance of recognising and addressing racial dynamics in clinical practice
Identify the ways in which unconscious racialised transferences may arise and be worked with therapeutically
Enhance cultural humility and responsiveness in working with clients from racially and culturally diverse backgrounds