With a queer-feminist and postcolonial perspective, it becomes clear, not least through social movements as well as through current and past crises and wars, that the democratic promise of freedom and equality is far from being valid for everyone in the postmigrant society in Germany. Social relations of inequality with intersectional experiences of discrimination and privilege that change over time and across geo-political contexts are reflected at levels of experience, thought and behavior of individuals and groups. Therefore, we understand intersectional experiences of discrimination and privilege as psychological issues that also play a crucial role for the therapeutic setting.
In the therapeutic setting, with sufficient sensitivity, psychological suffering triggered by social inequalities, among others, can be alleviated (#coping strategies, #affirmative witnessing, #empowerment, #allyship). Also, the therapeutic setting as well as therapeutic training can be a site where inequality experiences are reproduced - both for clients and therapists. Therefore, we propose to further expand the analytical paradigm of intersectionality from the Black women's movement for therapy and counseling for a psychotherapy that does justice to the complexity of lifestyles and life realities and includes a constant self-reflection and reflection of social conditions and one's own responsibility within them.
Especially in the English-speaking psychological-therapeutic area, it has been widely documented that experiences of discrimination can have serious negative effects on mental health (#minority stress model, #microaggressions, #(re)traumatization), but can also provide resources that promote resilience, e.g. through community approaches or cultural heritage.
In German-speaking countries, too, research by Prof. Dr. Paul Mecheril, Grada Kilomba and Dr. Amma Yeboah, among others, or by psychosocial counseling services such as LesMigraS is increasingly contributing to illuminating the psychological effects of discrimination as well as research and care gaps in this regard. In the German-speaking world, the connection between intersectionality and psychology/psychotherapy is often assigned to gender studies, social sciences or pedagogy. With this conference, we would like to make clear that intersectionality-informed psychotherapy, as has long been common practice in the English-speaking context, is a clear case for psychotherapy and thus also for psychotherapy training.
Migrant queer psychosocial counseling with specialized services have been noticing for years that only a few psychotherapists are familiar with multiple discrimination and take sufficiently critical positions, and that psychosocial counseling is reaching its capacity limits due to high demand. That is, we urgently need more intersectionality-informed therapists who act sensitively and self-critically as allies regardless of their own intersectional identity dimensions. There is also a need for intersectionality-informed psychotherapy training, supervisors, and diagnostic manuals. Rarely is intersectionality a topic in local therapeutic training, so that those interested either introduce the topics themselves or have to rely on (expensive, time-consuming) additional training. Foundations are, of course, important works and recommendations for action from (inter)cultural psychotherapy as well as therapeutic guidebooks on individual dimensions or intersections. These include, for example, works on sexual orientation in psychotherapy and counseling by Magret Göth and Ralph Kohn, psychotherapeutic work with trans* persons by Marie Günther, Gisela Wolf, and Kirsten Teren, or racism, gender, and psychoanalysis from a critical whiteness perspective by Martina Tißberger. All of these foundations are blueprints that can, of course, be critiqued and expanded intersectionally with new life and work experiences.
Many students and therapists form initiatives, their own learning and reflection groups. The German Council of Science and Humanities also recommends that "diversity in psychotherapy" and "culturally sensitive psychotherapy" be given greater consideration in psychotherapy training. In addition, the new Psychotherapists Act in Germany explicitly states that psychotherapeutic care should "include risks and resources, the concrete life situation, the social, cultural or religious background, the sexual orientation, the respective life phase of the patients as well as competencies for recognizing signs of sexual violence and its consequences." The board of the Federal Chamber of Psychotherapists also regularly obliges its members to "actively stand up for democracy and the observance of human rights: for peaceful coexistence and against racism, hatred, violence and discrimination".
We consider such demands and their implementation to be more than overdue - especially in times of the digitalization of therapy and the associated challenges and opportunities with regard to anti-discrimination. With this conference on intersectionality-informed therapy and counseling, we would like to stimulate a transnational exchange across different schools of therapy in German-speaking countries on different levels:
