By Gabby Rothwell-Blake, CaFI Research Advisory Group Member

Therapy is a treatment that can support people to manage their mental health. Talking therapies are common, but art and creative therapies can also support people with expressing and understanding their experiences. People seek out therapy for a variety of reasons. They usually benefit from receiving therapy before they are at a point of crisis. It can take time for the positive effects of therapy to appear as it isn’t a quick fix.

A therapist is an impartial and confidential person. This can be helpful for discussing experiences that you may not feel comfortable disclosing to friends or family. People can find that talking about experiences such as trauma or loss, or about difficulties in their day-to-day life can be helpful. Therapy can provide you with skills to manage overwhelming thoughts, feelings or situations.

Some talking therapies treat specific mental health conditions, such as dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) for borderline personality disorder (BPD) and exposure and response prevention (ERP) for obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Depending on what you’re struggling with, a generalised or tailored therapy may be helpful.

Therapy is often most helpful when you feel ready to open up about personal experiences, explore your feelings and current coping strategies. You may wish to share things that are difficult to talk about, and this can be a hard step to take. Once you become familiar with a therapist this can become easier. The relationship between you and your therapist is important in how useful you will find talking therapy. If you trust the therapist and feel understood by them, then you are more likely to open up to them and get the most out of therapy. It can take time to find a therapist who you connect with and might take a bit of trial and error. Try not to get discouraged if you don’t immediately find a therapist you click with.

People from an Afro-Caribbean background face unique challenges when accessing therapy. Systemic discrimination can lead to clinicians not routinely offering therapy to Afro-Caribbean people when they would to their white counterparts. Talking therapies may not have been created with Afro-Caribbean people in mind. Lack of cultural diversity when designing and testing different therapies means that clinicians do not fully understand how helpful therapy is for Afro-Caribbean people.

People who have had negative experiences with white professionals, such as doctors, nurses or police, may subconsciously feel guarded or mistrusting of a white therapist and unable to open up to them. Additionally, white therapists may not be aware of Afro-Caribbean clients’ cultural norms, experiences of systemic racism, and microaggressions. This may lead some people to have a negative experience of therapy and not seek it out again, reducing their options for mental health support.

Therapists who have lived experience of cultural diversity or effective training surrounding these unique challenges are necessary to ensure Afro-Caribbean people get the best support for their mental health. More research is needed focusing on Afro-Caribbean individuals’ responses to therapy and therapies designed for them.

The Culturally-adapted Family Intervention (CaFI) is investigating a new talking therapy for African and Caribbean individuals living with psychosis or schizophrenia. CaFI has been co-produced by service users, communities and healthcare professionals to understand the needs of people living with these challenges.

More information about CaFI and other local therapeutic services:

Culturally-adapted Family Intervention
Manchester Psychological Wellbeing Service
Greater Manchester NHS Specialist Psychotherapy Services
Manchester Mind Counselling (ages 15-25)
42nd Street (young people)
Rethink Mental Illness Manchester Peer Support Group

More information about this topic:

Mind – Talking Therapy and Counselling
Rethink Mental Illness – Talking Therapies
Black Minds Matter UK

Connect with Gabby through Instagram or Research Gate. 

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