Filipino American Therapists and White Supremacy: Training as a Filipino American Therapist Whilst Navigating the Model Minority Myth and Colonial Mentality in Graduate School

Date of Award

2023

Document Type

Doctoral Research Paper

Degree Name

Psy.D.

Organizational Unit

Graduate School of Professional Psychology

First Advisor

Lavita Nadkarni

Second Advisor

Mallaree Blake

Third Advisor

Nai Chieh (Geri) Tien

Keywords

Filipino American, Colonial mentality, Model minority myth, White supremacy, Multicultural supervision

Abstract

Asian communities continue to gain visibility, but Filipino American narratives remain underrepresented in the psychological literature. While commonalities exist between different Asian subgroups, Filipino Americans have a unique relationship with White supremacy through the constructs of the Model Minority Myth and Colonial Mentality that reflects the Philippine’s history as an Asian country colonized by both Spain and America for centuries. Moreover, White supremacy affects Filipino American therapists similarly to other clinicians of color, so thorough multicultural education and multicultural competent supervision within graduate school training are imperative to ensure the effectiveness of treatment interventions for developing Filipino American clinicians in graduate school. Thus, this research project discusses how the Model Minority Myth and Colonial Mentality can impact Filipino American therapists in graduate school. More specifically, this autoethnography explores my narrative as a Filipino American clinician in a doctoral program to consider how the Model Minority Myth and Colonial Mentality hindered my work with a White-identified client in addition to how both my graduate program’s multicultural curriculum and my supervisors’ expression of multicultural competence in my supervision did not sufficiently foster my development as a Filipino American clinician affected by White supremacy. It is my hope that the discussions presented in this research project add to the collection of literature focused on Filipino Americans and White supremacy while also serving as a guide to graduate school programs and supervisors moving forward so they can better support Filipino American training clinicians in light of their histories and intersecting identities.

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. Permanently suppressed.

Extent

48 pgs

This document is currently not available here.



Share

COinS