The role training and therapy setting plays in the intersectional identities of therapists who identify as Black and gay.

Abstract

This study examines the lived experiences of men who are Black and gay. The context is therapeutic education/training and workplaces. The research base that explores the experiences of people juggling marginalised intersectional identities is limited. This is particularly seen when looking at populations such as therapists, who rely on/ build from self within their anti-discriminatory practice. Four gay, Black therapists completed semi-structured interviews that explored their recollections of lived experience of being Black and gay in their counselling training, placements or places of work post training. Thematic analysis yielded three over-arching themes: feelings engendered by Blackness, structural boundaries and giving and receiving. Thematic analysis determined subthemes, which include “difficult moments”, “anger”, “timeliness”, “rules and feedback”. The findings were discussed in the context of respondent’s feelings about structural racism in both classroom and workplace, prejudice as well as a felt unfair requirement to teach their white counterparts what it is to be anti-racist alongside well understood heterosexism. Managing experiences related to sexuality did not appear as predominant as race, race equality and racism.