Race, culture and psychotherapy

Abstract

I have recently taken up a post as Senior Registrar in Psychotherapy in Leicester where about 20% of the citizens are Asian or Afro-Caribbean. For the rest of this article I shall use the term ‘black’ as synonymous with Asian and Afro-Caribbean. While realising this may offend some readers, I use it in a political sense and know that many prefer it to the equally inaccurate use of the term ‘ethnic minority’. Before being promoted, I was on the general psychiatry registrar rotation in the same city and not surprisingly had a large number of black patients. Now I have none; there are very few referred to the Department, and I gather this is typical of psychotherapy units across the country. I want to consider why this is so, and what, if anything, should be done about it.