Race & Racism

 

The injustices around race are so under-examined and so pronounced that we hold them to justify their own workstream.

At NGV we offer a number of opportunities for people, organisations and communities to bring experiential methods to and exploration of what race and racial difference means to them.

In this kind of process we will draw on experiential group process to support each individual participant’s awareness of race whilst being in relationship with other group members. In our experience this type of process deepens the awareness of feelings around; the dynamics of racism, privilege, oppression, and allows the potential to discover ways of meeting each other across this divide.

This page offers an overview of some of our main activities and resources around race & racism. The page offers a quick access point to tools & materials found elsewhere on the site.

Race & Racism Process Groups

This group offers a racially diverse environment to raise our awareness of and dialogue around race & racism. Places available in next cycle, please contact Nnandilecointe@yahoo.co.uk

Race & Racism Workshops

We offer bespoke workshops to support experiential enquiry into race & racial difference. E.g. we are currently delivering race workshops for a UK local authority to support its council officers to develop a race & racism strategy.

Email: Nnandilecointe@yahoo.co.uk

Gestalt is Racist Video!

Watch a 7 minute video from our Gestalt in the Hotseat Conference (2019). The video is a dialogue between Ryaja Johnson and Bernadette Latuch on the theme of racism within the gestalt community and approach.

Podcasts
  1. Poetry as Connection. An interview with Rick Dove. Rick is a black, London based poet, who talks beautifully and inspiring about bringing his experience to an audience, managing to impact people with his words about race, or about capitalism, or about what he thinks that could agitate a crowd that needs some agitation :). You’ll hear Rick perform a few of his poems live, and if you want more, you can go to his YouTube channel or his popular Twitter feed. And if you want more, there is more, because he just published his book, Tales from the Other Box, in August 2020. https://anchor.fm/ngv-radio/episodes/NGV-Radio-S2E8—Poetry-as-Connection-e119gj5/a-a5km94m

  2. In our fourth episode of their show on NGV-Radio, Thomas Ameel and John Gillespie meet Nnandi Lecointe, a black UK-based trainee gestalt therapist. Nnandi talks about the legacy of being the daughter of one of the Mangrove 9, as  featured in the recently released BBC/Amazon Prime film.
    Trying to make sense of our male whiteness and our own racism, proved to be hard and sticky on a radio show. So much we could say about it here and so little that wouldn’t be food for projections. So better you have a listen and find out yourself. https://anchor.fm/ngv-radio/episodes/NGV-Radio-S1E4—Addressing-Race-with-a-Descendant-of-the-Mangrove-9-eq68gi/a-a4jfm3o

Please see the following articles
  1. Staying with Ubiquitous Shame, Bernadette O’Koon, Gillian LaRue, Janelle Dixon & Paige Ziegler, New Gestalt Voices, Edition 2, pp. 71 – 78. [http://newgestaltvoices.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/NGV-Journal-Edition-2-January-2018.pdf]
  2. Working with Racial Oppression in Gestalt Therapy, Aliya Amarshi, New Gestalt Voices, Edition 6, pp 15 – 28. [https://newgestaltvoices.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/New-Gestalt-Voices-Edition-6.pdf]
  3. Power and Position: is it time to moderate gestalt’s phenomenological imperialism in favour of a more ‘field humble’ view of self?, John Gillespie, New Gestalt Voices, Edition 7, pp. 58 – 66 [http://newgestaltvoices.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/New-Gestalt-Voices-Edition-7-.pdf]
  4. Thoughts on Microaggressions, Socio-Cultural Trauma and the Phenomenological Field, Bernadette Latuch, Occasional Paper, June 2020 (download from our Library [http://newgestaltvoices.org/library/]