Jewish American Heritage Month: A message on Culturally-Competent Care
Annabeth Chickering
On this Jewish American Heritage Month, I want to take a minute to reiterate Inner Choice’s commitment to providing culturally-competent care to the Jewish community. The essence of culturally-competent care is to sit with people without assumption about who they are and what they believe, understand the impact of their culture on their safety responses, not pathologize their coping mechanisms even if they are different from your own, learn about cultures that are different from your own and not require the client to solely educate you, and not assume that a client of the same culture is the same as you.
Antisemitism, like racism, islamophobia, homophobia, sexism, and the myriad of other harmful isms, interrupts culturally-competent care. Antisemitism instead assumes the therapist knows who the client is and what the client believes, often perpetuating old accusations and tropes; it eliminates the cultural context for why the client may be responding to the world the way they do; it often pathologizes the client’s coping responses as unwell, neurotic, dangerous, and violent; it prevents the therapist from learning about the Jewish community, relying on the client to explain themselves and simultaneously not believing them; and it sometimes looks like the therapist believing that the client should view the world as they do.
Antisemitism, and all other oppressive isms, corrode the therapeutic bond. They have no place within a therapeutic setting, and have no place within the literal or remote walls of Inner Choice Psychotherapy.
If you are looking for culturally-competent care for all, please feel free to reach out to us at contactus@innerchoicetherapy.com. We will respond quickly and kindly and help you get the care you deserve.