Mini Workshop 15 - Racism as an Extreme Invaliding Environment

Racism is pernicious, with harm resulting from both racist structures and through judgments and invalidation. It is also a public health issue (APA, 2020). Characteristics of any social environment affect a person’s ability to function effectively within it. A validating response legitimizes a person’s valid experiences (emotions, thoughts, behaviors, identity, etc.) while an invalidating response delegitimizes those same valid experiences. An invalidating response is not necessarily “mean” or judgmental, but still misses, diminishes or dismisses a person’s experience. Invalidating responses have multiple negative effects on people, in particular their emotion (Shenk & Fruzzetti, 2011).

Traumatic invalidation occurs when an individual’s social environment repeatedly or intensely communicates that the individual’s experiences, characteristics, or emotional reactions are unacceptable or invalid. This can occur when the invalidation is repeated or when immutable qualities of a person (e.g., race, ethnicity, culture) are invalidated or when someone’s essence or worth as a human is devalued. Invalidation of the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) experience is all too common (e.g., “He did not mean it that way”, “It was a joke”, “You are too sensitive”). Thus, racism creates an extreme invalidating environment for BIPOC. These issues are present in clinics, hospitals, organizational environments and treatment teams; it affects patients and colleagues of color. It can affect clients who drop out of treatment prematurely as well as staff retention.

The session will present a model of invalidation related to racism and racist behaviors. This provides a framework for DBT clinicians to reflect on our own clinical practice. We will use this framework to guide a discussion on how to incorporate this information as clinicians, colleagues and supervisors thus adopting an active antiracism stance. We will offer strategies to move towards more validating responses toward BIPOC and create a more genuinely inclusive DBT environment. We will utilize DBT skills to offer a path to being able to stay regulated to have necessary, sometimes uncomfortable conversations to improve our own clinical practice and create inclusive places to work.

Outline:
• Introductions and Overview
• Systemic and social/environmental racism and its impact on BIPOC
• Overview of validating and invalidating social environments
o When does invalidation become traumatic?
• Racism as Traumatic Invalidation
o Framework of invalidating responses related to race and racism
o Before trying to validate: Openness, observing and describing
o Ways to be validating
• What can you do? Implications for Clinicians, Supervisors and Mentors