Why we need to decolonize psychology | Thema Bryant | TEDxNashville

What affects your mental health beyond your thoughts, emotions, or biology? The cultural, political, and even economic context of your life influences your psychology. Psychologists and other mental health professionals, need to attend to your individual and collective identity, as well as experiences of oppression, to truly see, hear, understand, and be of service to you. Psychologists need to also honor the individual and cultural wisdom that you carry. Dr. Thema Bryant is the president-elect of the American Psychological Association, the leading scientific and professional organization representing psychology with more than 120,000 members (apa.org). Dr. Thema Bryant completed her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Duke University and her post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical Center’s Victims of Violence Program. Upon graduating, she became the Coordinator of the Princeton University SHARE Program, which provides intervention and prevention programming to combat sexual assault, sexual harassment, and harassment based on sexual orientation. She is currently a tenured professor of psychology in the Graduate School of Education and Psychology at Pepperdine University, where she directs the Culture and Trauma Research Laboratory. Her clinical and research interests center on interpersonal trauma and the societal trauma of oppression. She is a past president of the Society for the Psychology of Women and a past APA representative to the United Nations. Currently she serves as the elected Vice President and Racial Equity Officer for her neighborhood council in Los Angeles. Dr. Thema also served on the APA Committee on International Relations in Psychology and the Committee on Women in Psychology. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

[@gojiberry7201]

As someone who has been in the mental health system for 20 years, I have never been healed. And I came out screwed up by over-medication as well. I've been hospitalized 5 times. You are stuck in a hospital with thin unbreakable windows, and if you cry, you are given medication to shut up. I witnessed an old lady being forced down and injected because she was frightened. I have been traumatized by the Western mental health system, and I'm not even a person of color. When she talked about that story from Rwanda, I cried. If only these questions were asked.

[@starfruitiger]

Thank you for speaking up. i have experienced and know the same. the system was never about healing. if it was, then we wouldn't be scrambling to pay to "fix" or "work on ourselves" .

[@motherofabundance7742]

"Justice is healing: Justice is therapeutic." So true!!

[@starfruitiger]

Amen.

[@meag-ganoreilly4843]

A a gift it would be to watch this family come alive and heal right in front of your eyes. May we kept spreading the empowering news of Liberation Psychology and Decolonize all of mental health.

[@IsChosen33]

I want her as my therapist!!!!❤❤❤❤❤

[@melissaoconnell5648]

Revolution.... sounds like a whisper. O to truly connect and see one another. This is the heart of Creation. Thank you for your song, living dance, storytelling - and therapeutic life PLAY!! We need more of That. 🎶🙌😊👏👏👏💓🌹

[@sababuen6546]

good!

[@taneragreen2782]

Amen to that! Soul affirming!

[@GOne-vj6no]

Decolonization is literally dismantling everything settlers did and their ways of existing on earth.

[@GOne-vj6no]

Relearning to be a human beings again before settlers created this corrupted system. And sickening their minds.

[@Cars4Crazy]

I find that nonBIPOC Therapist do not get us and what we go thru...colonized therapy is not for me...for us.

[@ethanwright752]

Agreed. You need to go be with your own kind

[@EveryoneIsFamily]

EXCELLENT PRESENTATION!!!

[@pocketz2202]

This is the best and important Ted talk I've ever seen

[@GOne-vj6no]

Imagine being a native and having a mentally ill settlers bringing all their corrupted ways from Europe and trying to force their ways on you and the land. That's reality.

[@MrWanguie]

Well done! Very inspirational, practical, and true

[@nathaliemea5604]

Much needed❤❤

[@jacquelinemurekatete1113]

Thank you for this critically important and timely insights. Love you so much and the homecoming podcast is part of my daily bread. Keep rising,shining, singing, dancing, and inspiring and stay blessed. So many of us love you and appreciate you Dr. Thema.

[@pocketz2202]

Land back should be the war cry of every freedom fighter around the world.

[@taatilicious]

I keep coming back to this because wow.. ♥

[@elnaviljoen6699]

Well said. Great

[@saumyaagrawal5734]

that was impactful

[@Leondra72]

I found you when I needed you the most ... thank you ❤

[@PetitePoppaBleu]

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

[@PenalTalk]

Tears

[@jilliehearth6679]

yes

[@ZacandDora]

She is a Queen 👑🙏✨❤️

[@DaninVirginia]

Ok this is great. How do we start? This talk seems performative. Would like the same speaker or follow on speakers, to get into the granular elements of substantive mental healthcare paradigm shifting.

[@jilliehearth6679]

If you look her up you will find all of her very well rounded material. I felt that she brought a much needed breath of fresh decolonized wholly human wind to all that our wellness is if people can be brave enough to face all of it so that we can all heal.

[@Umbrellagasm]

For better or for worse, ted talks are introductions to subjects

[@liliurud2789]

i agree with what others have replied, to get into the granular of ANYTHING takes years, and her point at the end of her talk is for everyone to start somewhere and then keep going.

[@makeupbymelisa11]

Y’all always want people to do the work for you. Figure it out.

[@ellen_3]

💫❤❤❤❤💫🌈🌬..decolonize outcomes💞🧡💞 💥 ❤️‍🔥💥

[@ottabee]

WoW, Dr. Bryant is amazingly healing and powerfully inspiring. Thank-you for sharing.

[@bigredone1030]

definitely

[@AulaPsicologia2013]

Wonderful ! !!!!

[@gabdabs1972]

This is Brilliant!

[@user-ej5gx7ph7q]

This is the key 🙏

[@symonepeltier3524]

As a First Nations person, this resonates with my culture as well. This was a great talk:)

[@tonyareed5083]

Magnificent!

[@jennifersimmons4743]

A tried and true idea under a new name. All psychology programs in the US are supposed to teach the importance of a client-centered approach and have been doing so for decades.

[@liliurud2789]

1. even you used the word supposed. 2. you used an absolute. 3. this goes beyond client-centered approaches 4. if this didn't resonate with you I wonder why?

[@AndyDrudy]

No, that is not what people mean by ''decolonization''. This is a complete misrepresentation.

[@GOne-vj6no]

Stay woke, stay informed, stay intelligent. Well said 👏

[@ethanwright752]

Lmfao. clowns

[@makeupbymelisa11]

This should have so many more views

[@ethanwright752]

It shouldn't even have a video. Useless and pathetic

[@francescos7361]

Con il Duce fino alla fine

[@fr7nkyph7llyj7ne5]

Seek truth ~ & u will not think like this …

[@ethanwright752]

How convenient for her the targets of her criticism are of a different skin color than her

[@johnweb7055]

She is addressing the issues faced and the needs of her indicidual and unique clients based on the school/family/professional/societal pressures and needs. This is very definition of “colonial” psychology. Her claim that this is revolutionary is intellectually dishonest.

[@liliurud2789]

It's not her fault you're not seeing the bigger picture. Also, the current Western definition of psychology is the study of the processes of the psyche. I would say that she is an intellectual being far beyond your comprehension because her deconstructing epistemologies to the point that you will have to unravel your own psyche and your own understanding of colonialism is pretty revolutionary on her part. Be honest with yourSELF.

[@ChannelHandler88]

​@@liliurud2789She's just projecting her own psychological issues and outlook onto everybody else and trying to force society to fix her problems for her. The idea that something is bad because it doesn't account for my specific subjective feelings is hardly a revolutionary concept and is commonly observed in most children.

[@juliandeville3806]

It is revolutionary. Anyone who doesn’t agree benefits from the system that was created to keep those marginalized in the position they’re in.

[@ethanwright752]

@@juliandeville3806 No one is less marginalized in america than so called minorities races who are literally worshipped by woke culture lmfao

[@SpiritVines]

@@juliandeville3806exactly

[@TheRyanDavid]

Sadly, this woman could not be more wrong, let alone more factually inaccurate when talking about psychology. I don’t know how she was able to present a Ted talk on this, let alone become a psychologist, but she is attempting to inject sociological ideologies and approaches into psychology. At the core, psychology is absolutely about the individual, and always will be. She is dismissing the fact that social and environmental factors should and are absolutely taken into consideration in context with individuals by any legitimate psychologist. Attempting to highjack and co-opt the field of psychology with a specific social agenda that is centered on identity is not only wrong and inaccurate, it’s dangerous and problematic.

[@TheRyanDavid]

Great speaker with a compelling story, though.

[@objectreborn.artsewing]

A primary facet of decolonization is recognizing that the individual exists within many overlaying systems, socially and politically. Westernized psychology has only considerably recently started taking into account the inner worlds of patients, and the influence of their family relations. A main point of decolonizing is to acknowledge that many different kinds of people exist, within one or several dominant systems. Different kinds of people will have experienced very different internalized messages throughout their lives, depending on their gender, ableness, skin color, etc. This is why the conversation often involves those who are oppressed via limited rights and unnecessary disadvantages, politically and socially. The people who do not value this truth are often the ones who see themselves as the default kind of person, who have default style experiences in their culture. This limited, self centered, and inherently xenophobic mentality is extremely prevalent and problematic. The people who usually have that mindset in the US are white and cisgender straights. And often neurotypical or undiagnosed, and physical able in all socially expected ways. Does that sound like you? Cheers 🩵✌️

[@TheRyanDavid]

@@objectreborn.artsewing that's a lot of buzzwords and popular talking points, but respectfully, all nonsense that has nothing to do with psychology, or my original point. Psychology is about the individual, and considering the individuals circumstances is or at least should be common sense when working with anyone -regardless of any of their infinite identities that one could hyper focus on. This take is another strawman to push a narrative that is absolutely delusional. Decolonization is just the latest word (excuse) to be used to undermine the concept of the individual. An intelligent person not consumed by an ideology would be more concerned about my education and my understanding of the mind and human behavior than my identity. However, a virtue signaling pseudo social warrior in the comment section on YT couldn't care less about expertise, and is just looking for an excuse to talk in circles with buzz words. This sound like you? Hope you find a psychologist worth thier own salt to help you work through that self hate. Cheers 👍🏽

[@objectreborn.artsewing]

@TheRyanDavid Called out the straight white guy 😆✔️

[@jeffreyhoy1670]

So the lesson is to be attuned to the clients and not preemptively prescriptive... just sounds like good therapy to me.... then the bit about inferring the clients' problems are all because of race.... unethical, pushing a narrative that is YOURS, the therapist...

[@luiscrawford1249]

How did this person get elected with these ideas?!?!

[@karinaamaya6239]

This is not a conversation for you

[@jilliehearth6679]

So you're a licensed therapist and you don't want to try to learn from this great wisdom that the industry needs more of? Are you actually wanting to ignore all of the actions for the last few hundred years that have created all of this unwellness? Tell me this isn't your white male privilege being triggered.

[@arnoldcantu9583]

@@karinaamaya6239 Way to be inclusive

[@Umbrellagasm]

All therapists have narratives regarding their clients - unless you mean to suggest that the narrative of intergenerational racial trauma is without evidence, and therefore an unsupported narrative, which seems an extraordinary claim to make in the face of the literature

[@psyskeptic9979]

This is pure narcissism and identity politics. She talks a lot about herself and her heritage, and very little about distinguishing cause from effect in psychology research.

[@liliurud2789]

1. what is she supposed to talk about, YOURself and YOUR heritage? 2. if you couldn't make the connection to distinguish for yourself cause and effect in real-time then you couldn't possibly understand how she does this instantly, constantly through her profession, personal life, and spiritual practices.

[@makeupbymelisa11]

You GOTTA be a white person lol How you gone come COLONIZE her talk and speak on what she needs to speak on. Get off your tail and find the research yourself. She used her time wisely and you didn’t.

[@ethanwright752]

@@liliurud2789 Selfish unblanced people only talk about themselves, Im not surprised you relate to that because it's all a broken person like you would know. Idiots talk about themselves. Smart people talk about ideas

[@ZacandDora]

Every psychologist knows the art of projection, mirroring, and reflection. Maybe a factor in this perspective as well as deep wounding, discrimination, and prejudice. Me thinks you need more Dr Thema and Dr Jaiya John in your life.

[@SpiritVines]

SHUT UP FOR ONCE JESUS ALL WHITE PEOPLE DO IS MAKE EVERYTHING ABOUT THEMSELVES

[@markus98h66]

I didnt understand anything she said so far

[@WE__BTS]

watch the whole talk and try to learn something, Mr Impatient lol

[@StellaChilinharova]

Same thought

[@arnoldcantu9583]

It's gobbledygook

[@anakides]

It’s because it’s nonsense insanity. It only resonates with people who are already in the cult.

[@liliurud2789]

@@anakides everyone is susceptible to cults. name yours.