An EDI Lens to Psychological Practice |

An EDI Lens to Psychological Practice was created by Dr. Ann Braithwaite, public member of the PEI Psychologists Registration Board, 2021.

EDI – or equity, diversity, and inclusion – is a commitment to consistently work towards creating spaces and practices that are more just and more fair for a greater number of people. An EDI lens allows us to identify the ways in which everyday taken-for-granted actions and assumptions can inadvertently perpetuate the exclusion of some people/groups of people—and moves us to work towards altering those. An EDI lens recognizes that equity and inclusion are not finite goals to be attained once and for all, but are an always ongoing process of examining and re-examining how “just the way things are done,” even in professional spaces, might result in inequitable consequences.

A focus on equity, diversity, and inclusion asks us all to become aware of how assumptions about gender, race, sexuality, disability, and national identity (among other identities) are embedded in the structures, languages, and knowledges we use everyday. The following list is not meant to be exhaustive or to itemize all possibilities. Rather, in providing a list of some considerations, it is also meant to encourage all of us to constantly look at psychological practice through an EDI lens. Indeed, it can be continually added to, and these additions are part of the process of bringing an EDI lens to all of our everyday practices.

This list also recognizes that practicing psychologists are also members of these identity groups, and that many people are already bringing an attention to inclusion and exclusion to their practice. It is meant to serve as a series of educational prompts to raise collective awareness about the process involved in focusing on EDI.

Although “EDI” has become, in many places, the convenient shorthand for a desire to think more deeply and carefully about greater inclusion, other acronyms include “EDID” (equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization; note that there is a separate Indigenous Cultural Safety checklist available too), and “IDEA” (inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility).

A brief list of EDI resources follows this list of questions.

EDI for Psychological Practice

In reading the statements below, think about whether A, B, or C is most appropriate for your response. There are no “right” answers, but looking at how many of each option you select can help you think more deeply about how to alter spaces and actions to be more inclusive of more people in your practice.

A = Things I do frequently
B = Things I do occasionally
C = Things I do rarely or never

Structure of space

The aim in this section is to recognize how something as seemingly neutral as the physical arrangement of meeting spaces can silently signal to people whether they ‘belong’ there or not, simply by how they see themselves reflected—or not—in the arrangement of that space.

_____ I recognize that how our meeting space is organized can impede access and movement for some people (e.g., spacing of furniture, size of chairs or chairs with armrests, height of tables, etc.)

_____ I recognize that the kinds of images and decorations in our meeting space can reflect assumptions about gender, sexuality, race, disability, and national identity. For instance: pictures of families that are only of heterosexual couples and/or include children and/or are predominantly white/suburban, etc; images, photos, and other decorations that reflect stereotypes about other countries and peoples; magazines and videos that perpetuate dated or demeaning perceptions of particular groups of people, etc.)

_____ I recognize that people approach space differently, and may not be comfortable with the way that the furniture is organized, opting to move it, avoid it, lie on the floor, etc., and I ask myself if I need to know why they are doing so for our relationship

_____ I ensure that any food or drink options I might make available reflect the variety of cultural, national, religious, health, and ethical practices of clients

_____ I ensure that any physical artefact I use (toys, games, images, etc.) reflects the diversity of people in the world; for instance, that figures reflect a variety of racial, gender (including non-binary), and ability identities.

_____ I avoid lights, colours, and sounds that might aggravate a range of sensory responses from clients that impede our meeting: e.g., bright or flashing lights, fluorescent lights, wavy patterns (on walls or in images), music, etc.

_____ I recognize that people may identify in ways that aren’t necessarily visible to me, and thus might account for how they move around or occupy our meeting space. For instance, hearing or visual impairments might result in particular stances or seating arrangements, sensory differences might mean avoiding some lights, etc., and I ask myself if I need to know this for our relationship

_____ I avoid (as much as possible) scents in our meeting space, including personal care products, but also cleaning products, candles, etc. I recognize, though, that sometimes this may mean negotiating and making difficult choices: with Indigenous clients who may want to smudge before a meeting, for instance.

Knowledge and language

The aim in this section is to reflect on everyday assumptions that are taken for granted in the world around us, and how those might only reflect particular groups of people and their ways of being. Thinking about ‘how we know’ and ‘what we know’ means becomes more able to recognize the differences among people and not assume that there is a ‘problem’ with them.

_____ I recognize that people identify culturally in a variety of ways that make a difference to their lives and how they approach our relationship. Culture here means any set of activities and practices that reflect how and with whom people identify, even if I don’t necessarily recognize those as a culture. For instance, many people identify “disability” (physical, sensory, developmental, etc) as culture, not as individual deficit.

_____ I recognize that everyday language and expressions can reflect particular viewpoints, however inadvertently. For instance: mankind/policeman/mailman, etc.; ‘he’ as the generic pronoun; phrases such as ‘that’s insane’ or ‘that’s lame;’ etc.

_____ I don’t assume I know how people identify themselves based on their appearance or name. This includes gender, religious or cultural identifications, race, sexuality, or disability.

_____ I use the pronouns and names by which people refer to themselves, recognizing that they know how they identify themselves.

_____ I introduce myself with my own pronouns too, recognizing that this gesture is important for us all to do, since not everyone uses the pronoun that might seem more usual based on assumptions about appearance or name.

_____ I avoid saying things like ‘that’s an interesting name’ or ‘I love your hair,’ recognizing that as well-intentioned and ice-breaking as those comments can be, they can also reflect long histories of how some groups of people have been ‘othered’ and made to seem ‘exotic.’

_____ I recognize that there are many ways of knowing in the world, informed by people’s national and cultural identifications as well as by their life experiences and how they are positioned in the world. I know these make a difference both to how they see the world—including ideas about “normal” and “health”—and, potentially, to our relationship.

_____ I recognize that my knowledge and expertise must be in conversation with these other ways of knowing too, and that clients bring different knowledges to our relationship. For instance: the anger of racialized people towards white dominant society is not necessarily an individual emotional response, but a collective knowledge borne out of lived experience and survival.

____ I recognize that some of my clients may be communicating in a second (or third, or more) language, while others—for any reason—may be less adept at oral expression, and that this might make a difference to what they’re saying or how they’re saying it. I don’t assume that language skills are reflective of anything else about them.

_____ I recognize that the many gender, race, sexuality, disability, national and cultural, and religious (among other) identifications of people are not deficits to be fixed, but ways of being in the world to be valorized. This may make a difference to why they are seeing me and to our relationship.

EDI Resources: a short list

The resources listed below aim to get us all to think about inclusion and equity beyond being only about individual behaviours and actions. Instead, these (mostly) short articles all emphasize an approach to EDI that focuses on identifying how “invisible” norms of identity (gender, race, disability, sexuality, etc) are embedded in the everyday world around us. Those of us who “fit” those norms often don’t notice them: hence the “invisible.” To other people, of course, those embedded norms are very visible. These readings ask us all to consider how the structures and systems around us, of which we are all a part, perpetuate norms that work to include some people while excluding others.

Iqbal, Nosheen, “Academic Robin DiAngelo: ‘We have to stop thinking about racism as someone who says the N-word’.” The Guardian, Feb 16, 2019. Includes short video of DiAngelo (author of the book, White Fragility) explaining different definitions of racism):

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/16/white-fragility-racism-interview-robin-diangelo?fbclid=IwAR2V5yNGh6lsI5np_IDzfSG_GvReN82JgSmmb7MEsRFC6_7oZsUiI5ld5q0

This article from The Guardian (the British newspaper, not the PEI version), in addition to a short video of DiAngelo talking, introduces Robin DiAngelo’s work and explores the difference between thinking about racism as individual (conscious, deliberate) acts, and racism as structural and systemic.

McIntosh, Peggy, “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.” 1989:

https://nationalseedproject.org/Key-SEED-Texts/white-privilege-unpacking-the-invisible-knapsack

This oft-cited and circulated article focuses on the ways in which ideas about whiteness as norm are so deeply embedded in ordinary practices around us that “we”/white folks often don’t notice them. McIntosh asks us to reconsider who benefits and how from these “invisibilized” norms.

Peace, William. “An Unexpected Humiliation at a Conference on the Humanities, Disability and Health Care.” Bad Cripple. 2013:

http://badcripple.blogspot.ca/2013/11/an-unexpected-humiliation-at-conference.html

Peace’s blog post about attending a disability-themed conference that was inaccessible to him, a wheelchair user, doesn’t just highlight organizers who didn’t notice this lack of accessibility, but points to all the ways in which the built structures of the world reflect presumptions about what kind of bodies access them.

Spade, Dean. “Some Very Basic Tips for Making Higher Education More Accessible to Trans Studies and Rethinking How We Talk about Gendered Bodies.” Radical Teacher no 92 (2018):

http://www.deanspade.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Radical-teacher-essay-Tips-gendered-body-parts.pdf

While the focus of the article is on teaching scenarios, the content is applicable to a wide range of other contexts too. Note how the list of suggestions for changing personal behaviours also points out how embedded ideas about gender are around us, and thus also, how easily we all fall into and perpetuate them.

Tanaka, Ken. “What kind of Asian are you?” video, 2:20mins. 2013:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWynJkN5HbQ

This short comedic video makes really clear the ways in which assumptions about national identity, language, and “who belong here” are so easily made, based on appearance and stereotypes. It recognizes how even well-intentioned “niceness” might perpetuate “othering” and exclusion.

Women and Gender Equality Canada (formerly Status of Women Canada; the website still has this older name). Gender-Based Analysis Plus:

https://cfc-swc.gc.ca/gba-acs/course-cours-en.html

This online course introduces the federal government’s policy on gender-based analysis, explaining “intersectionality” and taking people through different scenarios that help identify everyday workplace-related applications of that concept.