Moncton Counselling Business Offers Free Webinars On Race And Privilege
MONCTON – Growing up, Kayla Breelove Carter had first-hand experience of the systemic racism and discrimination against racialized people. The clinical traumatologist, who also has a background in nutritional psychology, now wants to help others understand how trauma and racial injustices are tied together through a series of free webinars.
Carter is the founder and owner of Breelove Counselling out of Moncton. The business, founded in 2012, works in partnership with non-profit organizations and others, offering a trauma-informed approach to counseling.
“This project ties in with my personal experience, being a racialized person, and my knowledge around trauma and racial injustices,” said Carter.
Originally from the U.S., she moved to Canada when she was little. Surrounded by white family members, she could see their subconscious privilege and biases, even though they meant well.
“My own personal experience of being able to connect with my own culture and feeling a sense of my culture being welcome in my community, that was really difficult,” she recounted. “Even within our school system, we never learned about black history or Canadian-Africans historically…when you’re struggling with that internally and then externally you’re getting all these messages of sort of like you’re not wanted, it makes it really hard to keep pushing through.”
She says the combination of her professional knowledge and personal experience gives her an opportunity to help break down stigmas and foster conversation.
“I’ve never really had that opportunity to share my platform, and share my knowledge. Even when I did, I don’t really feel that people are listening or taking it seriously. I feel that now there is an opportunity.” she said. “Because at the end of the day, it is about education, it is about informing people.”
She’s hosting three free webinars to do just that. The first one, Understanding Race and Privilege, will take place Friday, June 12 at 2 p.m., to set the foundation. Attendees will examine their roles in relation to race and privilege, and there will be a discussion on how racial injustices affect food security and housing, among other things.
The second one will explore the history of white privilege, and Carter recommends attending both the first and second webinars to get a good foundation.
“We’re going to be looking at the history but will also focus on now. There’s a lot of psychological aspects to white privilege now because it is so subconscious,” she said.
The last one will tackle racial diversity in the feminist movement. She says although issues like gender equality are intersectional, often those who claim to be a feminist or have a black family member may think they can’t be discriminative or have privilege over others.
“I want to break those stigmas down so that people don’t feel necessarily guilt or shame, but they can say, ‘ok, now I know, I can do better.’ “
She says she’s very proud to be a black woman and a professional, and she wants to be part of the change.
“People might think that given that it is systemic, this machine is so big, what can I do? I’m trying to get to that grassroots [level], to having the conversations of these are the things we could do. Even if you’re not feeling like it’s making a huge difference, collectively it does,” she said.
At Breelove, Carter works with a facilitator and an art therapist, as well as students, to offer mental health solutions. That includes a free community counselling program for those in need, group sessions through a partnership with the Canadian Mental Health Association’s office in New Brunswick, as well as trauma-informed training for professionals in sectors ranging from education to healthcare and the correctional system.
Since the pandemic, the telephone, video and chat care system the company has put in place years ago to reach those in rural communities and those with acute mental illnesses, have seen increased use, allowing the team to serve more clients across New Brunswick and P.E.I. Now, Breelove is waiting for approval to practice in Nova Scotia and Ontario, as well.
“People reach out that way and it became more the norm. And going forward I think it will continue to be the norm,” Carter said.
But in her eight and a half years of practice, she says she hasn’t seen much understanding about race and trauma in the community, professional or otherwise. That gap can lead to someone with underlying traumatic stress responses being misdiagnosed with borderline personality disorder, for instance.
“I think people mean well but there’s a lot of work that needs to be done,” she said. “Some people may disagree with me and say we’ve come a long way. But to be honest, I think it has only manifested in different ways. It’s become more subtle.”
Understanding trauma would also help people understand racial injustices. And with the world now more connected than ever, instances of injustice are no longer contained within a community. People across the world can connect on shared experiences.
“There are a lot of opinions out there about people destroying things…but if we think about it on a trauma-informed basis, black people and other racialized people have gone through so much trauma historically and that is embedded into our genes,” she said, referring to the work of Dr. Bessel van der Kolk. “So sooner or later those traumatic stress responses are going to come out.”
The good thing is, Carter does see that people are more open to learning about these issues, and so more resources are beginning to be developed.
“I think that human beings are good. We’re taught ignorance. We’re taught to make those blindspots a part of our norm and our society, and the structures there,” she said.
“So I try to come in with the view of being compassionate towards other people and giving the benefit of the doubt that if I can provide an avenue where we can have conversations about things that are really uncomfortable, and the space and information, and sort of break down stigmas and assumptions, that’s the least that I can do.”
She encourages people to continue challenging their thoughts and beliefs and to continue self-educating.
“We’re in this together and there’s a lot that we need to work through…somethings are going to hurt, somethings are going to be shameful, but that’s okay. We need to be able to work through those emotions and we need to trust the process,” she said.