When it comes to addressing systemic racism and injustice, “therapy’s not enough,” says trauma expert Mary Jo Barrett. But that doesn’t mean therapists can’t be a part of the effort to create change.
Still, according to Ra Frye, founder of Chicago-based gang intervention process Pride ROC, any therapist who wants to step up needs to understand that in the United States, inequality and historical trauma are so interwoven into communities of color that therapeutic intervention requires “another level of thought and approach.”
So what is a therapist to do?
Barrett and Frye talked to Networker’s senior writer, Lauren Dockett, about just that. Read more about their work in Chicago here.
Mary Jo Barrett, MSW, is the founder and director of the Center for Contextual Change and coauthor of Treating Complex Trauma. Ra Frye is the Founder of Pride ROC, a developmental trauma gang intervention process in Chicago and other violence invested neighborhoods.
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