If you’re like many of the BIPOC professionals I’ve served, you’re likely familiar with the following issues working in majority white (or even sometimes nonwhite but other-majority) spaces:
The discomforting isolation and loneliness of being “the only one”, especially when your lived experiences are misunderstood or disregarded. Or, hypervisibility that comes with being the “only one” where your cultural difference not only seems to get pointed out, but every misstep or action you take feels way more scrutinized and magnified than your white colleagues.
Feeling the constant need of performing and code switching when all you’re trying to do the job you’re good at and live your life. It seems like you can’t even just be without all that damn pressure to adjust your speech and tone, put in more effort when it comes to appearance, or change what makes you who you are just to fit in with the dominant culture, lest you get labeled as stereotype that might be weaponized against you.
Barriers when it comes to you trying to work your way up, including being overlooked for roles you’re qualified for due to favoritism and biases.
Microaggressions in the form of assumptions about your intelligence, leadership potential, capabilities, where you’re from, you being the spokesperson of your entire culture…I’m sure we can go on with this point!
Feeling as if you must overachieve ten times more just to prove that you’re able and worthy of the dignity and respect it takes to feel like you belong in this career.
Experiences patterns of being pit against other BIPOC and feeling as if you have to “compete” with them in order to belong in the workspace.
·Insensitivities, ignorance, and straight-up racist beliefs when it comes to societal issues that are affecting your community – and in some cases, speeches about those beliefs being accepted and seemingly protected.
Poor boundaries within the systems that seems to drain you - but out of fear of loss, retaliation, or judgement, you keep saying yes to things you don’t want to or feel fearful of reporting incidents where you were wronged.
As you can see and probably already know, working under white supremacy-fueled systems is one hell of a mountain to climb. But as a BIPOC professional, these aren’t the only common issues you’ve likely faced, either. There can be so many other layers, including:
Cultural expectations and pressures within your own cultural context placed onto you that feels like way too much to deal with.
Expectations put on yourself, either as being a first-generation professional who finally “made it” or even being someone who’s struggling with processing the shame of their own past sufferings that got you to this point of desperately chasing security in “success” within your career.
It's no wonder that many professionals of color are often faced with burnout, motivation to keep going on, feeling constantly unsettled due to overthinking and over worrying non-stop, fatigue and lethargy, hopelessness, sadness, and stress that creeps into your non-career related parts of your life as well, including your relationships that mean so much to you. Trying to just be and pursue a career that you value doesn’t feel like you’re simply showing up to work in your best dressed – it often feels like you got to bring on all this extra old-fashioned armor and swords to just protect yourself and stay guarded, working ten times as hard compared to others just to feel secure.
It’s hard to stay focused and present when our experiences have taught us that we got to stay alert, right?
After therapy, your life may look like:
Understanding your triggers more when you’re feeling burnout, discouraged, and overworked
Gaining confidence in your sense of self, worth, dignity and respect again
Having a healthier relationship with your emotions so that if you’re not feeling well emotionally or mentally, you know exactly what it is you need to do to take care of yourself
An improved and fair, balanced outlook on the source of your sufferings, how that’s impacted you, and what that tells you about your best course of action
Your relationships with others improving – especially in ways of boundaries, communication, and being present with the people you love and value
Improved confidence on how to live your valued life and act accordingly
Feeling reconnected to your passions that brought you to your chosen career in the first place – and along with this, decreasing unhelpful beliefs on how much career defines your dignity, worth and purpose as a person.
If you’d like to know more in-depth information on how therapy can help, read about why therapy can be beneficial to you.
If any of the above resonates with you, let’s take the next step! Contact me so we can schedule a free consultation to confirm if I’m the right fit, and we can start up on your journey to a more hopeful future!
If you resonate with the above, you’re absolutely not alone and I get how exhausting it all is. You’re likely not too far from being at your wit’s end (if you’re not there already) so I once again commend you for taking the time and energy to look for help with the remaining energy you do have.
And I want to help you find your way out of this exhausting cycle!
