Reflections on An Audience with Dr Isha

The groups have met twice. This event is a slow builder, but I am pleased that it is happening. I met a prolific artist in Trinidad. who told me that people visit and observe his paintings, but they were reluctant to discuss them with him.

We usually begin the meeting with introductions, I ask people to say their name, professional status and why they attend the meeting. This acts as an ice breaker. I invite them to ask me anything about the book, chapter, including the way I have presented my ideas and experiences. I think that encouraging them to ask personal questions, gives them permission to be transparent and share their own experiences. I felt validated when one participant asked me where are my parents? as I have written a book with out being able to refer to any parental relationship of my own. I felt this parrelled what a therapist or support worker might ask. It is a key question in a black Empathic Approach, and attending to the history of my mixed heritage background. I noticed at that point that participants were practicing their curiosity, in an area where they may. previously have felt silenced.

Below are some  participant reflections .

I approached the audience with Dr Isha Mckenzie-Mavinga with some trepidation. As a white woman I am aware and continue to hear of the anti-black racism experienced by black people in therapy, in training and in supervision as well in life generally.   I feel complicit, and so feeling of shame and guilt were uppermost in my mind before I joined the group. But once I had joined, instead of feeling blamed, I was met by Isha and the group with compassion and a sense of being valued for taking the step to challenge anti Black racism in myself and my work.  I felt that my willingness to engage in the challenge to anti-black racism, however small, is part of a long journey and each step in this direction by all of us is important and worthwhile.  I feel more confident and better equipped to meet the challenge. 

"I'm so grateful to Dr Isha for providing this opportunity for us to connect with her. Dr Isha was caring, patient and warmly empathic. She was curious about who we were and why we wanted to attend: we felt seen and heard.. The monthly audiences with Dr Isha, each month covering one chapter of the book, are an invaluable opportunity to ask questions, explore, reflect and deepen our understanding of the decades of wisdom contained in her latest book: A Black Empathic Approach to Psychotherapy: Growing from Rage to Compassion".

Session 3 Breathing New Life into Empathy will be based on chapter 3.

9^th March 2026 7PM – 8.30PM GMT

Therapists, clients and caregivers exposed either directly or vicariously to the trauma of racism experience a range of powerful related feelings. I named these powerful feelings 'recognition trauma'. This can feel like emerging from sinking sand and disbelief that we have it in us to approach this theme with confidence.

This chapter encourages trust in personal ability to transform a one-dimensional approach to empathy into something more specifically related to the context and concept of a Black Empathic Approach and healing anti-Black racism. This means not taking empathy for granted and not assuming that, as humans, we are naturally empathic or that empathy is essentially generic. A willingness to transform responses to racism for the benefit of anti-racist work is required. The concept of a black empathic approach to psychotherapy offers a framework for working with black issues in the therapeutic process that cannot be matched with a taken-for-granted stance about empathy.