Making the invisible visible: Taking Account of Racial Trauma, Diversity and Power in practice and colleagueship

How do we do truly anti-racist work within mental health systems rooted in white, Western frameworks? What language acknowledges racial trauma without pathologising? Are we unintentionally reinforcing harm by the way we respond to distress—or bypassing structural issues through an individualistic lens? And how often do we pause to examine how our own identity and privilege show up in the therapeutic room?

These are just some of the challenging and necessary questions we’ll explore in a participatory and dialogic session facilitated by Hári Sewell. Grounded in psychological safety and gentle disruption, this webinar invites open, authentic conversation—because if not in a development space, when are we allowed to ask the curious, even clumsy, questions?

We’ll examine the power dynamics embedded in the very concept of race, while exploring unintentional bias, racialised trauma, and the real-life impacts these have on racialised people.

Participant learning outcomes: 

• • Understand the history of race as a concept and how it functions in society today
• • Understand racism(s) in its various manifestations
• • Learn about how the racialisation process is inherently racist
• • Learn about how a racial hierarchy is reinforced in society
• • Learn about the socio ecological model that links individual experience with systemic processes that mean that racism is often invisible
• • Ability to apply learning to specific patterns of racial discrimination in practice and frameworks for addressing them

Date:                   Wednesday 11^th June  

Time:                   5:00pm-8:00pm (Melbourne/Sydney)

Cost:                    GANZ Student Members: $15. GANZ Members: $55. Non-GANZ Members: $95.

About your Presenter:  

Hári Sewell is founder and director of HS Consultancy and is a former executive director of health and social care in the National Health Service in the UK. He has worked for the Department of Health in regulation and policy. Hári is a writer and speaker in his specialist area of social justice, equality, race and culture in mental health. Hári is a Specialist Guest Lecturer at University of Bradford and Visiting Senior Lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church University. Hari is also a Member of the Scientific Board of the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health. Hári has had various books, articles and book chapters published, with new material emerging regularly.