Kaleidoscope: Mixed and Multi-Racial Heritage in Therapy

People of mixed and multi racial heritage are the fastest growing demographic in the UK. Whilst there can be much to celebrate about this manifestation of multiculturalism there may also be very complex challenges. Some struggle to find a sense of belonging; others feel confused about their identity if faced with discrimination and rejection from family members and the wider community. All of this can lead to poor mental and physical health, and some will seek therapeutic help.

There are practitioners all over the UK doing a fantastic job supporting these clients. But they are doing so without specialised training or educational materials. They have answered the call to bring together all their knowledge, and expertise at this one-day conference.

Presenters on the day will have ancestral roots from all over the world. They work as counsellors and therapists, social workers, academics, artists, and youth workers. Some presentations will be educational and others experiential.

This conference is open to all professionals working with clients or service users of mixed and multiracial heritage. We hope to see anyone working in social care, education or healthcare. Members of the public are especially welcome, so if you are of mixed or multi racial heritage yourself or are parents, grandparents, or wider family members – please join us.

DOWNLOAD YOUR CONFERENCE PROGRAMME HERE

RECORDING

This conference will be recorded. This will be useful for colleagues who are not able to attend the event live and also for those who attend the event live and want to watch it again.

CONFERENCE ADMISSION

Choose your ticket price. Each ticket provides access to the LIVE event on Zoom AND Recording, along with your CPD certificate. Choose the fee that works for you: £25.00, £37.50, or £50.00.

ZOOM

This conference will be hosted on the Zoom meeting platform where we will use our cameras and microphones to interact with each other as a group.

___________________________

All the colleagues at ONLINEVENTS and the presenters we collaborate with are committed to working in a manner consistent with the BACP Ethical Framework, which can be accessed on the link below. When registering for this event you are agreeing to be present and interact in a manner that is consistent with this Framework.

https://www.bacp.co.uk/events-and-resources/ethics-and-standards/ethical-framework-for-the-counselling-professions/

___________________________

Kaleidoscope: Mixed and Multi-Racial Heritage in Therapy Speakers

Rethinking Trauma and Resilience for Clients of Mixed and Multiracial Heritage – Dr Yvon Guest

Resilience is often thought of as the ability to overcome life’s challenges, to bend but not break or to bounce back. This can be problematic if it places the responsibility on individuals who may be doing their best to survive in environments that are not supporting them. In this workshop I will be drawing on the findings from my PhD on Trauma and Resilience (2015), where I demonstrated the need for a more sophisticated, nuanced way of thinking about sustainable resilience that emphasises the importance of support from family, community, and society.

The clients of mixed and multiracial heritage that seek my support are subjected to identity policing as identified by Karis Campion (2019) they are told they do not belong to groups they share ancestry with. Despite these rejections starting before birth and continuing throughout the life span these are not always recognised as traumatic experiences. I will be using anonymised cases, from my counselling practice, to demonstrate how painful, unprocessed experience become traumatic. I am also presenting artwork created to represent my personal and professional journey.

There will be a 25-minute presentation followed by 20 minutes for reflections and discussion. This is suitable for professionals working in health, mental health, social care, or education. And of course, anyone who is of mixed or multiracial heritage, parents, carers, and relatives.

The workshop aims to:

• Introduce a non-binary, intersectional way of thinking about resilience to understand the difference between ‘survival’ and ‘sustainable’ resilience.
• Consider new ways to think about trauma, for those of mixed and multiracial heritage, when the lived experience is the lifelong policing of one’s identity.
• Identify individual resources that support resilience. These could be inherent qualities such as creativity. Also complex, unconscious, psychological, protective mechanisms such as dissociation (repressing traumatic events).
• Identify external resources, in family, community and wider society. For example, other people with nonbinary identities, and multiracial communities. And access to knowledge that provides context for the mixed and multiracial heritage experience.

By the end of this workshop, I hope you will understand the need to revise the way we think about trauma and resilience for people of mixed and multiracial heritage, that a combination of individual and external resources is required to move, from survival, towards sustainable resilience. And that this workshop has provided a foundation for further exploration.

___________________________

Unseen & In-Between: The Mixed-Race Experience in Counselling – Natasha Clewley

As a counsellor or supervisor how do we consider the mixed race experience in your work? As counsellors and supervisors questions of identity, belonging, and authenticity are ever-present in personal life and professional spaces. However as a mixed race client or counsellor it may hold true that a feeling of being ‘not enough’ for any one cultural or racialised group is a common but misunderstood trigger into shame, exclusion, and imposter syndrome, particularly in therapy and supervision, where identity is so deeply interwoven with practice.

In the session, we will explore the complexities of the mixed-race identity in therapeutic and supervisory spaces, unpacking the impact of racial ambiguity, micro aggressions, and the internal conflicts that come with ‘fitting everywhere and nowhere.’ Attendees will gain insights into how these experiences shape clinical work and supervision, and how we can foster more inclusive and validating spaces both as a counsellor / supervisor and for clients.”

Key Learning Points

• Shame & exclusion in the mixed-race experience – How cultural ambiguity and societal narratives shape identity struggles.
• Imposter Syndrome & Supervision – How feelings of not being ‘enough’ manifest in professional settings.
• The counsellor’s own identity & its impact – Recognising the unconscious ways identity influences therapeutic relationships.
• Creating more inclusive supervision & therapy spaces – Practical tools to support mixed-race therapists and clients in navigating these challenges.

Delivery Style

• A blend of presentation, discussion, and self-reflection.
• Potential interactive exercise: A reflective prompt on societal discussions about mixed race humans

___________________________

Recognising the Power of Strategy, Ambition, and Courage in Parenting Multiracial Children – Dr Carlene Cornish

This is an interactive workshop session split into different parts.
I. The workshop starts with a short introduction, followed by a presentation on how I was raised, whereby my father intentionally used strategy, instilled ambition, and displayed courage in the face of poverty and racism. He had strategy, and therefore, an end goal in mind: raising three children to become successful, despite growing up in a precarious, gang-ridden community. My mum supported this vision, and we grew up in a loving home. The end goal was accomplished.

II. This talk is followed with a 5 minute group discussion focussed on giving the audience some opportunity to reflect and identify one point that resonates with their experiences and one point of difference. This is shared in their different groups.

III. In this next section, I will focus on my own parenting experiences of raising two beautiful, white-presenting teenage daughters, and the different strategies, race-informed discussions, and activities that we have used to ensure that my daughters know that they are loved. They also have a strong cultural identity and are in an advantageous position to make good career and relationship choices. They also hold strong family and religious values. The use of Powerpoint slides, photos, and perhaps a reflection from Keziah and or Gabrielle (if they consent) would form part of this presentation delivery.

IV. This is followed by a 10-minute group work activity, whereby people discuss and identify three strategies or activities they could use in their circumstances. Stating the reasons why they have chosen these specific strategies.

___________________________

Transforming the Mixed and Multiracial Experience: Reclaiming Wholeness through the Power of Our Own Language and Self-Expression – Namalee Bolle

“Self-designations are important vehicles for self empowerment of oppressed people (Helms 1990a). Labels are powerful comments on how one’s existence is viewed.” Dr. Maria P. P. Root, The Multiracial Experience: Racial Borders As The New Frontier.

How do you self-identify as a multiracial person? Have you ever questioned this or changed it over time? Do you like the way you identify, feel indifferent, or is it simply a label you have inherited from society?

This workshop is an invitation to support mixed and multiracial practitioners explore, unpack and gently re-imagine our expression and the language we currently use to self-describe ourselves with a view to both our individual self-expansion and as a collective.

My forthcoming book ‘The Mixed + Multiracial Guide To Wellbeing: Navigating Family, Identity + Healing’ explores how the language of race describes us through a monoracial lens, rather than our own racially non-binary one and how this might affect us…

Monoracial language emphasises a lack of ‘racial wholeness’ often describing us in fractions with standardised labels like ‘half’ white or ‘half’ Black etc. Reflecting on this is helpful because as mixed and multiracial people we are used to operating within a system of race binary categorisation, which in turn might have become our internalised inner dialogue about ourselves. From a mental health perspective we might ask ourselves: how is describing ourselves as racially ‘less’ or not enough of one or the other affecting our sense of psychological self and wellbeing?

With this binary perspective on our highly multicultural identity, the way we are expected to see ourselves through the binary eyes of others, might feel inexplicably unexpressed or restricted in who we really are in our expansive fullness as mixed and multiracial people.

We will explore:

• Racially non-binary self expression and why it’s important to identify seeing ourselves and eachother through our own multiracial lens
• Current language used to describe mixed and multiracial people and how it’s internalised by us
• Fractions, splitting ourselves into parts and how it affects our self concept and what we may like to use instead
• Finding freedom beyond societally imposed labels of mixed heritage identity

I will use a transpersonal and trauma informed approach with a combination of presentation slides and interactive exercises that helps the participant to explore how they self-describe and explore new possibilities of expression that feel helpful.

___________________________

Beyond Categories: A Black French Guianese Perspective on Identity, Culture and Belonging – Myriam Ferreira

As a Black French-Caribbean therapist from French Guiana, my journey has been shaped by the complexities of race, culture, and belonging. With Black, Chinese, and Caribbean heritage, and having built my life in England, I have experienced the shifting nature of identity across languages, cultures, and social expectations.

In this workshop, I will explore the nuances of multiracial and multicultural identity, drawing from both my personal experience and my work as a therapist supporting clients on similar journeys. Through reflection and discussion, we will examine how identity is shaped, the challenges of visibility and belonging, and the strengths that come from embracing multiple cultural influences.

This session is open to practitioners, individuals of mixed heritage, and anyone seeking a deeper understanding of multiracial identity. Together, we will explore how to move beyond fixed categories and embrace the richness of lived experience.

___________________________

Shame & Shadeism – Victoria Dada

Shadeism, Shame and the Mixed-Race Experience: Understanding Intra-Racial Bias in Therapy

Shadeism is a global issue, impacting communities across continents — from Asia to Africa to the Americas. Rooted in colonial history and reinforced by media, beauty standards, and societal hierarchies, shadeism creates psychological wounds that often go unseen — especially for those with mixed or multilayered heritage.

This workshop explores the emotional, cultural, and relational impact of shadeism through a therapeutic lens, with particular focus on how it affects clients who are of mixed-race backgrounds. These individuals often face conflicting messages from different sides of their heritage: from being “not Black enough” to “not white enough” — or seen as privileged and problem-free because of proximity to whiteness. These projections can lead to internalised shame, fractured identity, and a disrupted sense of belonging.

We’ll consider how shadeism shapes self-esteem, identity, and mental health, and how therapists can support clients navigating this complex terrain. Through case reflections and discussion,

we’ll explore:

• The psychological and emotional effects of shadeism
• How intra-racial dynamics affect mixed-race clients
• The link between shame, cultural projection, and identity fragmentation
• Tools for supporting clients affected by shadeism
• Ways to challenge unconscious biases in ourselves as therapists

By unpacking the subtle yet powerful ways shame operates within and between racial communities, this session invites us to think more critically and compassionately about the nuances of race, heritage, and identity in therapeutic work.

___________________________

Systemic Approaches to Working with Mixed Heritage Families – Dr Yvonne Ayo

In the workshop I will present some systemic ideas which are useful when working with families. The cultural genogram forms an important part of our work and I will discuss the various ways in which I use this to explore different contexts, belief systems, values, relationships between family members, communication styles and the impact these ideas have upon identities. Cultural differences will also be addressed in the use of the Social GGRRAACCEESS, (Burnham, 1993) an acronym which includes gender, race, religion, abilities, culture, class, education, ethnicities, sexual orientation. The ways in which identities are invisible/unvoiced/visible and voiced will also be discussed. These ideas will be linked with clinical practice which I hope will increase understanding of systemic approaches to complexities within families.

___________________________

Holding the Paradox of the Multi-Heritage Experience in Our Nervous Systems – Janine Miller

What does it mean to hold so many things at once—oppression and privilege, belonging and otherness, visibility and invisibility? The multi-heritage experience is layered, full of contradictions that shape how we move through the world, how others see us, and how we come to see ourselves.

In this experiential workshop, we’ll take a deep breath and drop into the body. we’ll explore where these tensions live in our nervous systems – how they show up in our relationships, in the spaces we navigate, in the ways we carry ourselves every day.

Through guided somatic practices, reflection, and discussion, we will:

• Recognise how the experience of being multi-heritage is held in the body and nervous system
• Explore where oppression meets privilege in our personal and professional lives
• Learn three tools for grounding and self-regulation when faced with identity-based confusion or external projections
• Validate the importance of supporting ourselves and our clients in navigating racial identity beyond rigid categories and constructs

This is a space for reflection, connection, and embodied learning. Come as you are—curious, open, willing to explore what it means to hold all of who you are.

___________________________

Only One ‘Side’ of the Story: Working with Positionality in Therapy – Ruth Abban

What emerges in therapeutic work when the mixed heritage clients we work with only visibly present as one ‘side’ of their stories – the people who visually ‘look’ as belonging to just one racialised group, whilst their remaining heritages are ‘unseen’? The experiences of people of mixed heritage are not monolithic, and this session will incorporate anonymised case examples to explore important considerations and nuances in racial identity work.

Outcomes:

• To learn about what positionality is
• To learn about how to consider positionality when working with mixed heritage clients
• To develop more awareness of aspects of racial identity work
• To gain more confidence in working with positionality in therapy

Structure Plan:

In the first 5 minutes, I will introduce myself, learning outcomes will be stated and positionality will be defined. I will also mention that in the context of this presentation topic, positionality and racial identity can contrast and I will use examples (one being a case study of a therapy client who appears ‘white’ but actually also is Black, with a “Black-sounding name”. White father, Black mother and with darker skinned siblings and how this has impacted how she navigates the world. Another one is a case study of a therapy client who appears to the world as “Black”, yet he also is of Eastern European descent with a “European sounding name” (white mother, Arab and Black father) – pseudonyms will be used for this. This session will be interactive, so people are welcome to ask questions throughout.

I will be pulling out key aspects of these 2 examples which include: power and structural advantage that comes with the construct of whiteness, and the structural disadvantage that comes with complexions further from whiteness, intersectional factors (gender, class etc), the cultural significance and identity markers of names, how these clients have moved through society and the impact on their sense of identity and how they “label” themselves (e.g. belonging/displacement), how they responded to me as a therapist who is solely of Black African heritage, and certain interventions I used.

15 minutes will be spent on the first case study and 15 mins will be spent on the second case study. In each study after sharing these parts, I will open the floor for any questions and I will go with the flow of the discussion that emerges in the session.

As there is often a “pressure” for many people of mixed heritage to “pick a side”, I will be constantly emphasising the importance of letting clients define their racial identity for themselves, and for practitioners to not perpetuate further racial trauma by ensuring they remain culturally humble and honour the full range and richness of their clients’ heritages, with additional tools as to how to broach this in therapy. If there is additional time, the remaining 10 mins can be used as a brief Q&A with participants.

___________________________

Psychological Impact of Community and Intra-Familial Racial Discrimination – Leo Cruz

This 45-minute educational workshop is designed for individuals seeking to deepen their understanding of anti-oppressive and identity-affirming practices. The session will explore the lived experiences of mixed-race individuals who have faced racial discrimination from their nuclear families and broader communities. Given that families are often perceived as sources of love, security, and validation, the psychological impact of intra-familial racial discrimination can be profound. When a child’s racial identity is invalidated, or when they are subjected to discriminatory beliefs, it can lead to a range of psychological conflicts and distress.

Workshop Structure and Timing:

1. Introduction (10 minutes)
   – Brief overview of the workshop’s purpose and objectives.
   – Explanation of the significance of the topic.
   – Engaging video introduction (subject to time constraints).
2. Key Themes & Discussion (18 minutes)
   – Internalised Racism & Self-Alienation (5 minutes): Examination of how individuals may internalise negative racial stereotypes, leading to diminished self-worth.
   – Racial Trauma (5 minutes): Discussion on the psychological distress resulting from repeated racial discrimination.
   – Double Consciousness & Code-Switching (5 minutes): Exploration of the psychological toll of navigating multiple racial identities in different social contexts.
   – Transgenerational Transmission of Racism (3 minutes): Understanding how racial biases and prejudices are passed down through generations within families.

   Note: Instead of in-depth analyses, key themes will be introduced concisely, supported by 1-2 illustrative examples.

3. Interactive Component (10 minutes)
   – Case Study or Guided Reflection: A brief real-world scenario will be presented, allowing participants to reflect on the psychological impacts in small groups or pairs.
   – Group Discussion: Selected participants will be invited to share their insights, fostering a collaborative learning environment.
4. Liberatory Framework: Healing & Resistance (8 minutes)
   – Practical strategies for applying identity-affirming and anti-oppressive practices.
   – Closing reflection and key takeaways for participants to consider beyond the workshop.
   ___________________________

Making Multiethnic Matters, Matter: Developing Collaborative Approaches to Multiethnic Support – Dr Rhianna Garrett

Britain has become a global hub of multiculturalism, containing an intricate tapestry of what it means to hold a racialised identity. Yet, multiethnic considerations continue to be overlooked in society, policy, education, and health, where we still experience legacies that traditionally dictated, we are ‘confused’, can’t self-identify, and don’t belong.

This workshop aims to support practitioners pioneering the future of therapy from a multiethnic perspective and develop collaborative approaches to providing multiethnic support. Participants will begin the workshop by introducing themselves in a shared Padlet, providing any information they might want to disclose to collaborate with others in the future. Next, I will present my positionality and literature in multiethnic studies, exploring the key issues multiethnic people appear to be facing in society today. Then, as a group, we will discuss how these issues align with issues practitioners have identified in their practice and collaborate on new ways to approach these problems. From this, participants will gain a more nuanced understanding of Britain’s multiethnic experience and develop a connectedness in their approaches to multiethnic therapy.

By the end of the workshop, participants will gain new tools to support multiethnic clients explore their sense of self in a monoracial society and facilitate effective collaboration between participants to reflect on practice and develop new methods to advocate for multiethnic considerations in clinical practice.

___________________________

Asking For More: What Can We, as Mixed Race People, Expect from Professionals? – Ailsa Fineron

This workshop is aimed at empowering mixed race and multi-heritage people to ask for and expect excellent care when working with professionals. Through an experiential workshop, we will explore the power disparity between client and practitioner, what our current expectations are, and what might be holding us back from expecting more and/or speaking up when someone lets us down.

The workshop will be focussed on therapeutic relationships but also take into account and be relevant to other relationships in wider contexts.

Though aimed at mixed race individuals, the workshop will also be of benefit to white practitioners wishing to learn more about how to work in a validating and non-defensive way with mixed folks.

___________________________

The Internal World of Mixed-Heritage/ Mixed-Race, Multi-Racial /Multi-Heritage Children: Navigating Identity and Society – Kimberley Fuller

In this 45-minute presentation, we will explore the complex internal experiences of mixed-race and multi-racial children, with a particular focus on how these children navigate their sense of self and their relationship to society. Drawing from both my work as a psychotherapist and my experience within children’s services, including working with children in care, I will discuss the psychological challenges faced by these children and the impact of their mixed racial identities on their sense of belonging and self-worth.

Children of mixed race often find themselves positioned between multiple worlds—racial, cultural, and societal—and this can create a unique psychological landscape. These children frequently feel like they are bridges between two (or more) identities, which can lead to a complex, fragmented sense of self. The question of where they truly belong can manifest as both an internal struggle and an external challenge as societal perceptions and expectations shape them.

This presentation will dive into several key themes:

1. The Internal Struggle for Integration:
   – The difficulty of integrating diverse racial and cultural parts of their identity.
   – How psychotherapy can help create space for these children to honour all parts of their identity.
   – The tension between feeling “not enough”
2. Society’s Commenting and Its Impact:
   – How societal labelling and stereotypes impact their sense of self-worth.
   – The psychological toll of feeling constantly scrutinised, misinterpreted, or marginalised.
   – The notion of “feeling like a bridge” between multiple lands and how it can lead to internalised isolation.
3. Feelings of Guilt and Disempowerment
   – The pressure to feel they don’t have the “right” to claim their mixed-race experience and the burden of having to explain or defend their identity.
   – How mixed-race children sometimes feel invisible in spaces that are heavily racially defined.
4. The Specific Case of White-Passing Children
   – The particular impact on children who are perceived as white, despite their mixed-race heritage.

___________________________

Shape-Shifters & Bridge-Builders: Archetypes of the Mixed-Race Experience – Jamilatu (Jamila) Andersson

This 45-minute lecture and discussion explores the Mixed-Race Archetypes as a powerful framework for understanding and integrating racialised identity. Participants will be introduced to four key archetypes—the Outsider, Chameleon, Bridge-Builder, and Trickster—to help make sense of the roles they have played and the internal “splits” they may have experienced.

Rather than a one-way presentation, this session will be a dynamic and interactive exchange. Blending a transpersonal lens with creative imagination techniques, it offers a holistic approach to identity exploration. Participants will be invited into guided reflection and discussion, using the archetypes to deepen their self-awareness, make meaning of their mixed-race experiences, and begin to move toward a more cohesive sense of self.

The Origin of the Mixed Race Archetypes

This work arises from a desire to shift the narrative around mixed-race identity. Much of the discourse focuses on what is ‘lacking’—casting mixed-race individuals as ‘marginal’ or ‘groupless’—which pathologises multiplicity. Like Root (1996), I take a different view: I focus less on exclusion and more on the creative, connective spaces mixed-race people build (Parker & Song, 2001).

The framework I share in this workshop emerged from my personal and clinical experience as a mixed-race therapist. Caroline Myss’s Archetype Cards informed my interpretation of four core archetypes—the Outsider, Chameleon, Bridge-Builder, and Trickster—which reflect patterns I’ve witnessed in myself, my clients, and the wider multiracial community.

These archetypes are informed by:

• Jungian archetypal psychology (Jung, 1969) offers universal templates for psychological experience.
• Multiracial identity theory (Root, 1996; Rockquemore & Laszloffy, 2005), particularly the concepts of identity fluidity and social pressure, is widely used.
• Transpersonal psychotherapy (Assagioli, 1971; Rowan, 2005) supports the integration of fragmented self-states through symbolic, creative, and ancestral processes.
• Maria Root (1996) argues that distress in multiracial individuals stems not from their identity itself, but from external environments shaped by internalised racism and rigid social categories. Rather than fitting into fixed boxes, many seek recognition of their full, complex heritage. Recent scholarship moves away from identity ‘resolution’ toward understanding identity as fluid and shaped by social, familial, and historical forces. This mirrors the purpose of my archetypes—they serve as symbolic tools for exploring internal conflict and identity survival strategies, opening pathways to deeper integration.

Who This Workshop is For

• This 45-minute session is for both practitioners and mixed-race individuals seeking language, insight, and tools for identity integration.
• For Practitioners: Understand how racialised identity splits can show up in therapy. Presentations of anxiety or depression rooted in cultural erasure or racial ambiguity. Code-switching in the therapy room to gain validation.
• For Mixed-Race Individuals: Reflect on survival patterns through the archetypes, Begin reweaving a narrative of wholeness, fluidity, and empowerment

The workshop is designed to engage practitioners in meaningful learning while creating space for participants on their own understanding.

Mixed-Race Archetypes

These archetypes are flexible, context-sensitive patterns—not rigid labels, but living forces shaped by experience. Jung (1969) described them as currents within the collective psyche.

• The Outsider – Holds the pain of misrecognition. One participant said, “I’m seen as exotic or invisible—never just human.” The gift: piercing insight into the race construct. (Root, 1996)
• The Chameleon – Adapts to survive, but may lose self. A client told me, “I mirror the room so well, I forget who I am alone.” (Adekoya, 2021)
• The Bridge-Builder – Weaves connection across conflicting identities. Often feels responsible for helping others understand their complexity. (Guest, 2021)
• The Trickster – disrupts binaries through humour and creativity. One participant joked, “I’m like racial tofu—I absorb whatever flavour is around.” (Ellis, 2022)

Participants will explore which archetypes have led or been silenced in their lives. This reflection deepens awareness of personal survival strategies—and mirrors patterns that may appear in therapeutic work.

What Participants Can Expect

This workshop is a space of inquiry, not performance. Archetypes are not answers but pathways into the unconscious patterns shaping identity. By engaging with them symbolically and reflectively, participants can begin to name their ways of being, uncover hidden dynamics, and reclaim parts of themselves.

Potential Outcomes:

An awareness of archetypal identity patterns as expressed through emotion, behaviour, and inner dynamics. A beginning framework for mixed-race self-integration. Practical tools for reflection and clinical application

___________________________

Processing Mixed Heritage Trauma with EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing): A Case Example – Amal Wartalska

• Discussing intersectional experiences of mixed heritage people and different types of socially inflicted trauma they encounter in their lives.
• Exploring the impact of this type of trauma including unconscious negative self-beliefs, emotions and physical sensations.
• Discussing how the trauma can be processed using EMDR: presentation of a case example.

___________________________

Quantum Ghost: Tending to the Underground Feedback Loop – Libita Sibungu

I am a multidisciplinary artist drawing on my British-Cornish-Namibian heritage to make discursive works that explore the entangled personal histories, and colonial legacies inscribed in the body and land. My ongoing research explores the conditions that create displaced rocks in reference to deep time, alongside the afro-diasporic experience, within the British context. I will present my body of work ‘Quantum Ghost’, (which toured Gasworks London and Spike Island, Bristol, 2019, UK), as a way to frame my thinking through this. The project comprised an immersive sound installation, and a series of large-scale photograms. Which mapped a journey through archives and territories related to my heritage. Tracing my family tree across different mining regions and colonial geographies of extraction, I reconstructed the paper trail left by her late father, a member of SWAPO (South West Africa People’s Organisation, the political mass movement that fought for Namibia’s liberation from Apartheid South Africa) who went into exile in the 1980’s and studied mining engineering in Cornwall. Grounded in these sites of memory and testimony, my research unearthed the subterranean histories and political undercurrents connecting the mining regions of Namibia and Cornwall. The installation formerly took the shape of something like a cave, mine, and or ear canal. Poetically the message was carried through a love song / lament – both an expression of grief and healing.

This project framed and shifted my practice up to the present day. Supported by therapeutic practices, I have found multiple ways to express the complexities of the multi-racial experience. Which more recently tends to the whiteness within, asking the question what are we / I performed by? From here I propose a space for collective healing with the more-than-human through artist-led methodologies that move through embodied practices connected to place. I have been bringing a group of black and mixed-heritage women together in West Cornwall since 2023, to emerge dialogues about complex racialsied identities in relation to our environment. Questioning the possibility / impossibility for racial fluidity inspired by the imagined journeying of igneous rock; from its erupting liquid magma birth to becoming multi-mineral abundant granite.

I propose to share these complex processes of thought through images, words, and sound as a type of decolonial feedback loop — which wanders through these geological processes guided by ancestral wisdom and my personal living archive of the multi-racial experience.

___________________________

Mixed Feelings: The Mixed-Race Therapeutic Experience – Tracy Rowberry

Workshop Aims

• Being Us: Mixed-race as a research topic
• Being heard and seen Co-researcher experiences and research findings
• Being alongside: Therapy with a mixed-race client

Being Us: Exploration of the small-scale research project I undertook in the final year of my MSc: Being Us: What are the mixed-race person-centred therapists’ experiences of their conditions of worth affecting the therapeutic relationship? . Highlighting the distinct lack of UK-based research exploring the experiences of the mixed-race community from a therapeutic perspective, as it centres itself on mono-racial/ single race aspects of race and racial identity. Why I set out to explore the experiences of mixed-race therapists and focus specifically upon how their mixed-race identity may affect their therapeutic relationships with clients.

Being heard and Seen: Exploring my research findings using the lived experiences of my co-researchers. Considering how their experiences offered their self-worth (conditions of worth) around their mixed-race identity impacted their client work. Touching on the themes of external factors, self-concept and therapeutic relationship, indicating a complex, on-going and multi-layered nature of the mixed-race therapist and their relationship with their self-worth. Use of a creative piece of artwork I produced as part of my research, allowing attendees to consider their perceptions of the mixed-race individual, and reflect their own, or any therapeutic relationships with mixed race individuals.

Being alongside: Exploring how the mixed-race community can be perceived or assumptions made as to their ethnic and cultural identities and the impact this could have on client-therapist relationships. Considering the hinderances and benefits a dual ethnicity can be present for mixed-race clients. Acknowledging prejudice from both aspects of a person’s ethnic heritage and how an acceptance of parts of self can be growthful.

Time has been allowed for introduction, Conclusion and delegates Q&A

___________________________

Multi-Racial and Mixed-Race Clients: A Person-Centred Approach – Lisa Broni

This workshop will discuss the following:

• The multi-racial and mixed-race experience from a personal perspective
• The person-centred theory and approach when working with this client group
• From theory to clinical practice and the ways that a societal structural approach can be integrated with person-centred therapy

___________________________

Cultivating Cultural Collateral – Lydia Puricelli

Cultural Collateral (Mckenzie-Mavinga, 2009) refers to the cultural experiences, values, and beliefs that shape an individual’s identity and influence one’s mental health. This workshop will use guided meditation to unblock the throat chakra to help participants express more about their unspoken experiences of suppressing their culture. There will also be an active exercise on uncovering more about their cultural and ethnic characteristics and reflection how they don’t always align, especially from a mixed perspective.

Learning outcomes:

• Enable marginalised all ethnic groups to connect and reflect on their own Cultural Narratives and celebrating their identity.
• Exploration of ‘cultural constriction’ and evoke curiosity to cultivate cultural collateral.
• Learn practical pointers and self care strategies on how to deal with external and internal oppression stressors.
• Develop personal action plan and steps to continue the ongoing commitment to cultivating cultural collateral.

___________________________

Revisiting A Mixed-Race Story of Therapist Burnout: A Black Feminist Healing Perspective – Claudia Coussins

In this workshop, I am returning to a piece of narrative research I conducted on trainee psychotherapists of colour who had experienced burnout. I will focus on the knowledge co-created from the relational storytelling process between me and a mixed-race participant/co-narrator called Bella. Using a Black feminist healing perspective, I will re-story the narrative to both critique and create mixed-race notions of Blackness and wellness. Although there is a growing body of work about mixed-raceness and therapy, this work responds to a gap relating specifically to the wellbeing of mixed-race psychotherapists as opposed to the clients or therapist-client relationship.

___________________________

Mixed Faces in Mixed Places – Steven Russell

Mixed Faces in Mixed Places Transformational Talk, Seeking Connection in a Disconnected World

Mixed Faces in Mixed Places is an engaging and impactful talk that uncovers the lived experiences of children navigating the care system. Led by Steven, who draws on his personal story, this session highlights the emotional and social challenges faced by children adapting to ever-changing environments, communities, and routines.

The talk focuses on the effects of constant change on a child’s identity, sense of belonging, and feelings of isolation. It explores how children become chameleons, altering themselves to fit in and feel safe while grappling with the conflict between who they are and who they must appear to be.

Through Steven’s poignant storytelling, participants gain meaningful insights into these experiences and are encouraged to reflect on their role in creating spaces where children feel secure and supported. This workshop offers practical guidance while inspiring action, helping practitioners build deeper connections with children in care.

Perfect for educators, foster and kinship carers, and social workers, this is more than just a talk—it’s a chance to transform understanding and become a force of positive change.

___________________________

Understanding Mixed heritage Identity – Emily Mitchell

A course is designed for therapists, social workers, and professionals working with individuals from mixed heritage backgrounds. Racial identity is a core part of a person’s sense of self, yet the unique experiences and nuances of being mixed heritage are often overlooked in professional practice. A lack of understanding can lead to identity confusion, cultural isolation, and emotional distress for individuals navigating multiple racial and cultural influences.

Through this training, participants will explore:

• The complexities of mixed heritage identity and why it requires specific consideration.
• The impact of racial identity/Socialisation in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood.
• How professional biases and systemic gaps can affect support for mixed heritage individuals.
• Practical strategies to create inclusive, identity-affirming spaces in therapy, social work, and other professional settings.

___________________________

Internalised Racism Through Attachment Theory and Psychoanalysis – Mohini Murti Gulati-Olapoju

The workshop will examine internalised racism through the frameworks of attachment theory and psychoanalysis. It will focus on how early attachments experiences and societal racism influence the internal narrative and self-concept, particularly in relation to the internalisation of racial views, beauty standards and self-worth. The workshop will explore the unconscious defence mechanisms, such as splitting where individuals may idealise one racial identity whilst devaluing another, leading to a fragmented sense of self. Practical tools will be offered to address the psychological effects of internalised racism both personally and professionally to support with the development of a more integrated and authentic sense of self.

___________________________

Therapy Harm for Mixed & Multi Racial Heritage Individuals & Communities – Rema A Begum MBACP BA Hons

This is an interactive 45 minute session, led by Rema A Begum, to explore the concept of therapy harm and its specific risks for mixed and multiracial heritage individuals and communities. Attendees will hear about real world case studies, engage in discussions and gain best practices to encourage culturally responsive environments.

Through reflection exercises and activities attendees will learn to recognise and mitigate therapy harm by validating complex identities, avoiding racial stereotyping and practicing cultural humility. This workshop equips mental health and public health professionals with practical tools to enhance inclusivity and provide affirming care for diverse clients.

___________________________