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Gibbs, Elliott (2024) “I can't fail, you know, cause my failure is not just mine”. An interpretative phenomenological analysis of how black male counselling or clinical psychologists experience their professional identities. Doctoral thesis, London Metropolitan University.
Background
The difficulties of engaging black men with mental health services and the positive outcomes that can be experienced once black men engage in such services, like psychological therapy, are well documented (e.g., Wade, 2006; Whaley, 2001; Stevenson et al., 2021). However, there is a lack of discussion in the literature regarding how black males experience being psychologists in a predominantly white industry (BPS, 2018). Research has explored the complex concepts of personal, social and professional identity (e.g., Erikson, 1968; Tajfel & Turner, 1979; Ibarra, 1999) and how these can impact individuals’sense of belonging to a profession. However, literature was lacking in understanding how these identities form and are experienced when the individuals in question are black and male.
Rationale and Aims
This research sheds light on this marginalised section of the psychological community. It aims to better understand how black male counselling or clinical psychologists experience their professional identities.
Design and Method
The data gathered via semi-structured interviews of six counselling or clinical psychologists’ lived experiences were analysed using a qualitative methodology, interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) (Smith et al., 2009).
Findings and Conclusions
Three superordinate themes were developed: ‘Lack of belonging to the profession’, ‘Personal identity informs professional identity’ and ‘Representing my community’. These themes were then discussed within the context of existing literature. It was found that the participants experienced a sense of not belonging to the profession due to feeling different from their peers, but they found ways to reduce the negative impact of this difference.
Counselling psychologist participants experienced an additional layer of difference, initially feeling inferior to their clinical colleagues before finding solidarity in their professional identity. Participants expressed an integration of their professional and personal identities, reflecting on how their race and gender have influenced their development, present experience, and future aspirations as practitioner psychologists. Finally, it was found that participants felt there to be importance in representing their community, by being themselves, feeling pressure not to fail and helping those who are a part of their communities.
The research has helped to illuminate one aspect of the experience of being a black male practitioner psychologist. Raising awareness of these experiences can help individuals consider their conscious and unconscious prejudices, validate and name experiences shared with the participants, be used in service development, and generate future research.
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