‘Pedagogical Perspectives to Ponder’: Engaging With Social Justice—An Integrative Pedagogy of Discomfort and Love in Psychotherapy

Abstract

Background: The purpose of this perspective piece is to illuminate the urgency of focussing on pedagogical approaches that facilitate social justice and anti-discriminatory practice. We propose novel experiential activities for the classroom, which can then be applied to the diverse contexts and communities where trainees live. Aim: The aim of this paper is to propose a pedagogical prime to be utilised by psychotherapeutic training educators, to help trainees to engage with the use of anti-discriminatory and socially just practices early in a their academic training. Materials and Method: A pedagogical prime of experiential learning activities for social justice and anti-discriminatory practice is proposed. Examples of engaging with an integrative pedagogy of discomfort and love in psychotherapy training are presented as a method for facilitating a depth of reflective practice. Results: The process of engaging with this pedagogical prime has a powerful impact on self-awareness, reflective and reflexive practice. These facilitate the trainees' personal and professional development, and integration of theory and practice. The pedagogical prime activities also serve to develop culturally informed, anti-oppressive and relational attributes as part of a firm commitment to social justice. Discussion: Attainment of these attributes in social justice and anti-discriminatory practice enable trainees not only to develop into professional psychotherapeutic practitioners, but also into global citizens with an awareness of social justice. As educators, we have a responsibility to continue to work to decolonise the curriculum, starting at the grass-roots level with how we engage pedagogically with anti-discriminatory, socially just language in the classroom. As psychotherapeutic practitioners, we are also ethically required by law to engage in anti-discriminatory practices whilst serving diverse populations, yet we often lag behind in training approaches which aspire towards social justice. Conclusion: This paper advocates for further research into the proposed pedagogic prime, utilising an integrated pedagogy of discomfort with a pedagogy of love. It also advocates for early lessons on language in psychotherapeutic and psychological training programmes, shifting the focus of social justice and anti-discriminatory practice to the forefront of trainees’ consciousness from the start of training.