culture and family against forms of oppression, real or imagined (Richardson Kinewesquao, 2015).


References Akala (2018) Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire. London: Hodder & Stoughton. Combs, G. (2018) White privilege: What’s a family therapist to do? Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, DOI: 10.1111/jmft.12330. Cooper, S., Nicholas, L.T., Seedat, M. & Statman, J.M. (1990) Psychology and apartheid: The struggle for psychology in South Africa. In: S. Cooper & L.J. Nicholas (eds.) Psychology and Apartheid. Johannesburg: Vision/Madiba. Foucault, M. (1973) The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception. London: Tavistock. Foucault, M. (1980) Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977. Brighton: Harvester Press. Frosh, S. (1997) Postmodern narratives or muddles of the mind. In: R. Papadopoulos & J. Byng-Hall (eds.) Multiple Voices: Narrative in Systemic Family Therapy. London: Duckworth. Frosh, S. (2013) Keeping cool in thinking and psychotherapy. In: C. Burck, S. Barratt & E. Kavner (eds.) Positions and Polarities in Contemporary Systemic Practice: The Legacy of David Campbell. London: Karnac Books. Heron, B. (2005) Self-reflection in critical social work practice: Subjectivity and the possibilities of resistance. Reflective Practice, 6:3, 341-351. Richardson Kinewesquao, C. (2015) Acknowledging Metis aspirations: Preparing social workers to support Metis families. In: J. Carriere & S. Strega (eds.) Walking this Path Together: Anti-racist and Anti-oppressive Child Welfare Practice. Winnipeg, Canada: Fernwood. Louis, E. (2017) The End of Eddy. London: Harvill Secker. McGarvey, D. (2017) Poverty Safari. Edinburgh: Luath Press Ltd. Mason, B. (2005) Relational risk-taking and the training of supervisors. Journal of Family Therapy, 27: 298-301. Nel, P.W. (2009) ‘Improving’ access to psychological therapies: It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine). Clinical Psychology Forum, 194, 7-11. Nel, P.W. (2010) Can IAPT help us fulfil our social duties during a time of economic crisis? Clinical Psychology Forum, 207: 11-15. Nell, V. (1992) The case for an independent licencing board for psychology. South African Journal of Psychology, 22: 228-239.


Pieter W Nel is programme director and reader in clinical psychology training at the University of Hertfordshire. He has a broad interest in alternatives to more orthodox approaches to clinical psychology education and practice, including non-pathologising and relational models of working with people in psychological distress.


“The ‘us’ and ‘them’ situation… it’s been a humanitarian failing since the oldest time”: When one’s very sense of self is


a political mat er Victoria Cantons and Lizette Nolte Lizet e invited Victoria to share a piece of art that captured something of Victoria’s


experiences of living as a transgender woman in British society. While considering this image, Victoria and Lizet e shared two long conversations, the second of which was recorded in order to construct this article. Due to word count only short extracts of the second conversation are shared here. However, you are welcome to contact us for more information and we provide some further resources below. T e order of extracts has been slightly altered in places to improve the fl ow of this account.


Lizet e: Could you start by telling us a bit about yourself? Victoria: My parents were immigrants to London in the 1950s and I was an only child. It was a Christian Catholic home. In regards to trans issues, my fi rst sense of myself came in early childhood. In retrospect, I was aware that there was an issue when I was at primary school, so aged fi ve-ish. T ere was already that ‘us-and- them’ grouping happening – on sports aſt ernoon… the teacher would say, “Okay, the boys line up here and the girls line up there” and, when I needed to go to the loo, I wanted to go to the girls toilet, and the teacher said, “No, you go over to that door, this is not your door” and it did not make sense to me. My father was always “my son, my son”, and my mother too, to a lesser extent. And so, I quickly learned that expressing any sorts of questions that I might not be what I was being told I was, might be a mistake. Certainly, the idea of saying, “But I am not a boy, I am a girl”, all of that was a mistake. T ere was an incident when I was around 21. I came [home] on a Saturday evening, and my secret diary was on the kitchen


Context 164, August 2019


table… [My dad and I] had a big shouting match and he said, “Stop being a f eak, you are my son and that is the end of it. We don’t have to talk about this anymore”. So, the whole situation just went underground. And that was the case until my dad died. Lizet e: And aſt er your father died? Victoria: I thought maybe I could fi nd a way to fi nd someone that can make it possible for me to be more feminine and, whatever that ends up being, it would be bet er than what I had now, it would be more acceptable… maybe that more feminineness would be enough that I can just live life more comfortably than just this sense of… for me it was I guess a hybrid… in my lowest moments… abomination. I had episodes where I had taken lots of pills, or where I had cut my wrists… I could be self-destructive. I went through a phase of drinking a lot… Lizet e: T ere is a sense of not being at ease, or not feeling ‘right’ and that seems to be coming from outside of you; from the rules, and restrictions [of our society]? Victoria: I don’t think that is an uncommon thing in minority communities


13


“The ‘us’ and ‘them’ situation… it’s been a humanitarian failing since the oldest time”


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