Chairwork and Social Justice
In March 2019, I had the opportunity to attend a training led by Amanda and Scott Kellog on Chairwork in Melbourne. The training was incredibly valuable in helping me refine my skills as a schema therapist. But what stood out to me the most was Amanda's discussion on social justice issues such as racism, sexism, fertility, and bodily autonomy. Although Amanda is not a schema therapist, she and Scott often present their chairwork training at schema therapy conferences, and the upcoming Melbourne conference in March 2023 is no exception.
My colleague Xi and I recognized the potential for Amanda to lead a separate training for a small group of interested clinicians on using chairwork for individuals impacted by racism and other forms of marginalization. Amanda has identified and written about five core oppression problems that can manifest in various ways for individuals. These include socially induced trauma, internalized oppression, identity conflict, connection to voice, and oppression-rooted coping.
Briefly, socially induced trauma happens when an individual experiences trauma as a result of current and past mistreatment based on their identity. Internalized oppression occurs when the individual internalizes the feelings of being oppressed. Identity conflict happens when an individual's identity is not accepted by the dominant culture. Connection to voice refers to when an individual has learned to suppress their voice for safety. Oppression-rooted coping is the development of unhealthy ways to cope with current or past oppression.
Although these concepts should be familiar to schema therapists, there is still much to explore when it comes to understanding how schema and mode development can be affected by experiences of oppression. This is what inspired Xi and me to create schemXcollective, an initiative that aims to expand on this area of research.
I am eager to hear more from Amanda on how we can apply these ideas to our work as schema therapists and support those who have been impacted by oppression.
To read more about Amanda’s work click on the links below:
https://publicseminar.org/essays/using-psychotherapeutic-dialogues-for-healing-and-liberation/
20th February, 2023 - Written by Dr Nicole Manktelow, Clinical Psychologist, Advanced Schema Therapist and Supervisor
