Unchilding and Racial Bias in Psychotherapy: A Call to Decolonise Care for BIPOC Children

                                                                          Introduction

Psychotherapy and child welfare systems are often assumed to be spaces of neutrality and healing. However, these institutions are deeply embedded in colonial ideologies that perpetuate racial bias and systemic harm against Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) communities. This article examines the intersecting phenomena of unchilding—the denial of childhood innocence and protection to BIPOC youth—and racial bias in psychotherapy, tracing their roots to colonial pseudoscience and contemporary institutional practices (Dumas & Nelson, 2016; Fernando, 2017). Across three sections, the article will explore how these systems adultify, pathologise, and misdiagnose BIPOC children while erasing culturally grounded expressions of trauma (Goff et al., 2014; Kirmayer et al., 2014).

The article critiques Eurocentric therapeutic frameworks that privilege individualism and Western norms, often misinterpreting BIPOC clients’ distress as pathology (Sue & Sue, 2013; Watts-Jones, 2010). It also highlights the urgent need for decolonial approaches, such as cultural humility, community-based healing, and liberation psychology, to disrupt these harms (Hook et al., 2017; Martín-Baró, 1994). By centring BIPOC voices and ancestral practices, the article envisions a transformative mental health paradigm that prioritises justice, re-humanisation, and collective healing (Tuck & Yang, 2012; Gone, 2009).

This work calls for institutional accountability, urging clinicians and policymakers to dismantle colonial legacies and redistribute power to marginalised communities.

1. Colonial Roots of Racial Bias and Unchilding

1.1 Unchilding as a Colonial Legacy

"Unchilding" describes the process by which BIPOC children are dehumanised, adultified, or rendered threatening—effectively stripped of the status of 'child' (Dumas & Nelson, 2016). This is not a new phenomenon but one with deep roots in the racial logic of colonialism.

• Black Children Under Slavery: Enslaved African children were viewed as property, labourers, or mini-adults—rarely as innocents. Their suffering was downplayed as physical “toughness” or stoic endurance (Fanon, 1952; Roberts, 2002). White supremacy relied on denying Black children the right to be seen as vulnerable or grievable (Gilmore, 2007).

• Indigenous Boarding Schools: In settler colonies, Indigenous children were forcibly removed and “re-educated” to eradicate their cultures. Childhood for them was framed as savage and in need of civilising violence (Whitbeck et al., 2004; Grande, 2004). These practices institutionalised a belief that BIPOC children were not entitled to familial, emotional, or cultural continuity.

Today, this legacy persists:

• Disciplinary Bias: Black boys are perceived as significantly older than their white peers and 18% more likely to be labelled as "defiant" or "aggressive" in schools (Goff et al., 2014; Epstein et al., 2017). Similarly, Black girls face adultification, where they are assumed to need less protection, nurturing, or support (Morris, 2016).

• Trauma Misrecognised: Asylum-seeking or refugee children of colour are frequently seen as “resilient survivors,” rather than traumatised minors in need of care (Fazel et al., 2012; Kissoon, 2015). This results in systemic under-referral for psychological support and lower-quality interventions.

The denial of vulnerability is a form of structural and symbolic violence (Bourdieu, 1991): it robs children of legitimacy as emotional beings and undermines their right to support and protection. It creates a racialised hierarchy of childhood, in which only certain lives are deemed worthy of care (Mbembe, 2003).

1.2 Racial Bias in Psychotherapy: A Mirror of Unchilding

Psychotherapy, too, is shaped by racialised and colonial assumptions. The image of the ideal client is often white, verbal, and individualistic—leaving BIPOC clients pathologised or misread when they do not conform (Fernando, 2002; Sue & Sue, 2013).

• The “Strong Minority” Myth: Research shows that clinicians often believe Black and Brown people are more capable of enduring pain or emotional distress (Hoffman et al., 2016). This myth, inherited from slavery-era pseudoscience, has led to underdiagnosis, inadequate treatment, and the assumption that resilience negates suffering (Metzl & Roberts, 2014).

• “Prove Your Trauma” Mentality: Therapists may unconsciously require BIPOC clients to over-justify their trauma before they are believed, while accepting white clients’ distress at face value (Carter, 2007; Sue et al., 2007). The psychological labour of explaining one's pain becomes a barrier to care.

These dynamics mirror the logic of unchilding: where BIPOC individuals are forced to "earn" empathy. The impact is especially damaging for BIPOC children, whose emotions are read as manipulative, dangerous, or deviant rather than valid expressions of pain (Watts-Jones, 2010).

Examples:

• A Somali refugee child may withdraw in grief, but Western clinicians may interpret this as defiance or disengagement (Betancourt et al., 2015; Kirmayer et al., 2014).

• A Black adolescent showing signs of PTSD might instead be diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder, due to implicit bias (Wyatt, 2020; Garland et al., 2005).

These misinterpretations are not benign—they reinforce a pipeline of criminalisation and misdiagnosis that isolates BIPOC children from culturally competent support systems.

1.3 Pseudoscience and the Psychiatric Construction of Race

Modern psychology emerged in tandem with colonialism. Racial pseudoscience was often the foundation of early psychiatric and psychological theory (Smedley & Smedley, 2005; Richardson, 2011).

• Colonial Psychiatry: Franz Fanon (1952) described how colonial doctors diagnosed resistance to oppression as psychiatric disorder, portraying colonised subjects as emotionally immature or biologically predisposed to instability. Fanon’s insights remain crucial for understanding how racialised behaviour is medicalised rather than contextualised.

• Diagnostic Gaslighting: For Indigenous communities, grief over land loss and cultural genocide was often framed as individual mental illness, not collective trauma (Whitbeck et al., 2004; Gone, 2009). Eurocentric psychiatry could not recognise cultural mourning as legitimate, instead reducing it to pathological expression.

• Eurocentric Norms: The DSM and other diagnostic tools were developed through white, Western samples, ignoring how distress is expressed differently across cultures (Kirmayer et al., 2014). This results in cultural mismatch and diagnostic inaccuracy, particularly for non-Western or collectivist populations (Summerfield, 2001).

This history reinforces the medicalisation of BIPOC emotion and behaviour, while obscuring the social and historical roots of suffering (Watters, 2010). To decolonise psychotherapy, we must first deconstruct its racialised foundations and re-centre lived experiences of systemic trauma.

2. Racialised Harm in Contemporary Psychotherapy and Child Welfare Systems

Modern psychotherapy and child welfare systems continue to reflect colonial frameworks, often under the guise of “evidence-based” neutrality. These institutions disproportionately harm BIPOC individuals, particularly children, through processes that adultify, pathologise, or ignore culturally grounded expressions of trauma. This section explores how unchilding and clinical racial bias intersect in contemporary practice, revealing the urgent need for a decolonial shift in both theory and care provision (Kirmayer, 2007; Fernando, 2017; Moodley & Palmer, 2006).

2.1 The Adultification of BIPOC Children in Mental Health and Welfare Settings

Adultification bias is one of the clearest manifestations of unchilding today. Research shows that Black and Brown children are routinely perceived as more responsible, aggressive, and emotionally mature than their white peers (Goff et al., 2014; Epstein et al., 2017; Blake et al., 2016). This perception justifies harsher interventions and less protection, both in schools and in therapeutic spaces.

In educational and welfare settings, Black girls are more likely to be disciplined for minor infractions and less likely to be offered emotional support (Morris, 2016). Their expressions of fear or frustration are misread as defiance, and their vulnerability is erased. Similarly, Black boys are often viewed as older and more threatening, resulting in the overuse of restraint, police involvement, or exclusionary measures (Wun, 2016).

Therapists may unconsciously participate in this bias. When BIPOC children present with behavioural symptoms, their pain is often interpreted through racialised assumptions:

• Anger is read as a character flaw rather than a trauma response.

• Withdrawal is interpreted as opposition rather than grief.

• Assertiveness becomes a threat rather than a developmental milestone.

These interpretations uphold colonial constructions of the BIPOC child as inherently suspect—emotionally untrustworthy, in need of discipline, and undeserving of gentleness (Leath et al., 2019). Consequently, mental health responses can mirror carceral logic, pushing children further from therapeutic care and toward punishment systems (Monroe, 2016).

2.2 Pathologising Cultural Expression and Collective Identity

Mainstream psychotherapy often privileges Eurocentric models of selfhood—emphasising autonomy, verbal processing, and individual agency (Sue & Sue, 2013; Kirmayer et al., 2003). This creates clinical blind spots when working with clients from collectivist or spiritually grounded cultures, where healing may involve community, ritual, or nonverbal communication (Gone, 2009).

For BIPOC clients, especially those from Indigenous or migrant communities, expressions of distress may not align with diagnostic norms. A child grieving through silence, storytelling, or spiritual language may be diagnosed with depression, oppositional defiant disorder, or psychosis—depending on the clinician’s cultural lens (Summerfield, 2001; Lewis-Fernández & Aggarwal, 2009).

This mismatch between client worldview and clinician framework becomes a site of epistemic violence (Tuhiwai Smith, 2012; Dei, 2000):

• Cultural idioms of distress are redefined as “symptoms.”

• Historical or structural trauma is reduced to family dysfunction.

• Indigenous or Black spiritual practices are seen as pathological, irrational, or “magical thinking” (Kirmayer, 2007; Patel, 2019).

Such misdiagnoses not only harm individuals but actively erase the legitimacy of BIPOC worldviews—repeating colonial practices that dismiss non-Western knowledge as inferior or delusional.

2.3 Misattuned Trauma Work and the Burden of Translation

BIPOC clients often bear the burden of educating therapists about racism, colonialism, and cultural trauma. This expectation to translate pain into white-acceptable narratives undermines the therapeutic alliance and retraumatises the client (Comas-Díaz, 2006; Williams, 2020).

In child therapy, this is especially harmful. A Palestinian child grieving the loss of a home may be met with questions about “attachment styles,” while a Congolese teen fleeing militia violence is diagnosed with conduct disorder rather than recognised as a survivor of war (Betancourt et al., 2015; Mahendran, 2007). These children must reshape their stories to fit Eurocentric schemas in order to receive empathy.

Moreover, BIPOC clients are frequently steered toward evidence-based practices that ignore racial trauma, such as CBT or solution-focused therapy, which aim to correct “distortions” in thinking. These modalities may inadvertently frame structural realities like discrimination or state violence as irrational beliefs (Moodley & Palmer, 2006; Hook et al., 2017). The result is psychological gaslighting:

• The client’s accurate perception of racism is reframed as paranoia.

• Collective grief is treated as personal dysfunction.

• The desire for justice is pathologised as anger management failure.

In this way, racial bias in therapy not only fails to heal—it deepens the wound and places the responsibility for systemic harm onto those already most affected.

2.4 Clinical Silence and Institutional Complicity

A core feature of racial bias in psychotherapy is institutional silence. Many therapists, particularly white clinicians, are trained to avoid “political” discussions, including topics of race, colonialism, or systemic oppression (Helms & Cook, 1999; Hardy, 2013). This avoidance masquerades as neutrality but often reinforces the racial status quo (Sue et al., 2007).

Clinical silence becomes a form of violence when it prevents clients from naming the realities that shape their lives. For BIPOC clients, the inability to discuss racism, police brutality, or immigration trauma with their therapist can fracture the relationship, reinforcing the message that their suffering is unspeakable (Watts-Jones, 2010; Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005).

This silence extends to the institutional level:

• Few therapeutic models centre racial trauma (Comas-Díaz et al., 2019).

• Training programmes often relegate race to a single “diversity” module.

• Supervision rarely addresses how whiteness informs countertransference or clinical blind spots (Nayak, 2006; Thompson & Neville, 1999).

Thus, racial bias is not only individual but systemic, embedded in how mental health knowledge is produced, taught, and applied. Without structural change, therapy will remain complicit in reproducing harm.

3. Decolonising Psychotherapy – Reclaiming Healing, Voice, and Justice

The urgent need to decolonise psychotherapy lies in its historical complicity with systems of racial violence and its present-day failure to account for the lived realities of Black, Indigenous, and racialised communities. Decolonising mental health is a radical process of undoing colonial harm, rehumanising BIPOC experiences, and restoring culturally grounded practices of care. This section outlines key principles and strategies for decolonial practice, offering a vision for transformative and liberatory mental health care (Fernando, 2017; Moodley & Palmer, 2006).

3.1 Shifting from Cultural Competence to Cultural Humility and Solidarity

Conventional models of “cultural competence” risk reducing BIPOC clients to checklists of cultural traits—flattening identities, ignoring structural violence, and leaving whiteness unexamined (Tervalon & Murray-García, 1998). In contrast, cultural humility is a lifelong commitment to self-reflection, accountability, and learning from clients as experts of their own experience (Hook et al., 2017).

Therapists must recognise the limitations of their training and the centring of Euro-Western values in clinical education. Decolonising care requires not only cultural awareness but political awareness: an understanding of how racism, imperialism, and capitalism shape mental health (Crenshaw, 1989; Fanon, 1952). Therapists must shift from neutral observers to allies in struggle—willing to bear witness to injustice, name systems of harm, and use their role to resist them (Watkins & Shulman, 2008).

This includes:

• Naming whiteness and privilege in the therapeutic space, not just “diversity” (DiAngelo, 2018).

• Attending to the intersections of race, class, gender, migration, and disability (Collins, 2019).

• Acknowledging the ongoing impact of colonialism, slavery, and displacement on BIPOC mental health (Gone, 2013).

3.2 Integrating Community-Based and Ancestral Healing Practices

Decolonising psychotherapy means recentring Indigenous, cultural and diasporic healing traditions that predate and challenge Western models. These include storytelling, rituals, drumming, prayer, community gathering, herbal medicine, dance, spiritual guidance, and embodied knowing—modalities long dismissed as “unscientific” by colonial psychiatry (Kirmayer, 2007; Watters, 2010).

Rather than viewing these practices as “alternative” or “complementary,” a decolonial framework positions them as legitimate and primary—rooted in collective memory, resistance, and survival (Gone, 2009). For example:

• Ubuntu-based approaches in Southern Africa emphasise relationality and communal healing (Mkhize, 2004).

• Curanderismo and limpias in Latinx traditions attend to soul wounds through energy, nature, and ancestors (Comas-Díaz, 2006).

• Indigenous talking circles centre shared voice and consensus rather than hierarchy and diagnosis (Archibald, 2008).

Therapists can work in solidarity with traditional healers, cultural elders, and community leaders to support holistic, localised mental health systems—particularly for children and families who have been failed by statutory services (Kirmayer et al., 2014).

3.3 Reframing Diagnosis and Healing from a Liberation Lens

Western psychiatric categories often individualise suffering, disconnecting mental health from structural oppression (Summerfield, 2001). Decolonising practice requires a fundamental reframing of what constitutes trauma, dysfunction, and wellness (Martín-Baró, 1994).

A liberation psychology approach recognises that many so-called disorders are natural responses to dehumanising environments. Depression, anxiety, and dissociation in BIPOC clients may be symptoms of racism, displacement, or generational grief, not internal deficits (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005; Carter, 2007).

A decolonial therapist asks:

• Who benefits from this diagnosis? (Metzl, 2010)

• What histories are being erased in this formulation? (Tuhiwai Smith, 2012)

• How might healing require collective justice, not just personal coping? (Watkins & Shulman, 2008)

This shift expands the goals of therapy beyond adjustment and symptom relief, toward agency, resistance, and transformation (Comas-Díaz et al., 2019).

3.4 Child Liberation and Rehumanisation as Therapeutic Praxis

Unchilding dehumanises BIPOC children by stripping them of innocence, softness, and the right to protection (Dumas & Nelson, 2016). To decolonise child therapy, practitioners must actively rehumanise racialised children—honouring their play, emotion, creativity, and truth without pathologising their pain (Epstein et al., 2017).

This includes:

• Believing Black and Brown children when they express fear, sadness, or joy (Goff et al., 2014).

• Refusing to medicalise normal responses to violence or discrimination (Wyatt, 2020).

• Working with families and communities, not against them, especially in social care settings (Whitbeck et al., 2004).

Rechilding becomes a decolonial praxis—a reclaiming of childhood as a sacred, protected space, rather than a battleground of racial projection (Leath et al., 2019). Therapists must advocate for BIPOC children’s right to softness, curiosity, and silliness—qualities often denied them in systems that frame them as dangerous or deviant (Morris, 2016).

3.5 Institutional Change and Collective Responsibility

Individual transformation is not enough. Decolonising psychotherapy demands institutional accountability: a restructuring of training programmes, funding priorities, research frameworks, and regulatory bodies (Fernando, 2017).

This means:

• Embedding anti-racist, decolonial education in core curricula—not just optional workshops (Sue et al., 2007).

• Hiring and empowering BIPOC faculty, supervisors, and researchers (Nayak, 2006).

• Investing in community-led services rather than reproducing white-led hierarchies (Gone, 2013).

• Reassessing diagnostic manuals and evidence-based models through a postcolonial lens (Kirmayer et al., 2014).

Professional bodies must acknowledge their historical role in upholding racial violence and take responsibility for dismantling it. Decolonisation should not be a symbolic gesture, it should be the return of voice, land, dignity, and power to those from whom it was stolen (Tuck & Yang, 2012).

Conclusion: Toward a Decolonised Future of Care

Unchilding and racial bias in psychotherapy are not isolated issues, they are symptoms of deeper colonial logics that have long defined who is seen as fully human, who deserves protection, and who is afforded the right to heal (Mbembe, 2003). From the adultification of Black and Brown children to the erasure of Indigenous knowledges in clinical spaces, the mental health field has mirrored and reproduced the violence of empire under the guise of science and care.

Decolonising psychotherapy requires far more than cultural sensitivity or diverse representation. It demands a fundamental reorientation: toward humility, historical accountability, and the re-centring of community-led and ancestral healing. It calls therapists to move beyond neutrality, to act as witnesses and co-conspirators in the struggle for justice, and to return voice and agency to those who have been silenced and pathologies.

Healing, in a decolonial framework, is not merely the absence of symptoms—it is the reclamation of dignity, identity, memory, and belonging (Gone, 2009). It is the act of restoring childhoods that were stolen, bodies that were criminalised, and stories that were rewritten by others. In this way, the work of decolonising psychotherapy becomes an act of resistance and a form of liberation.

The path forward must be collective. Institutions must confront their colonial inheritances and redistribute power; practitioners must commit to lifelong unlearning; and communities must be at the heart of both problem and solution. Only then can we begin to imagine a future in which care is not a tool of control but a practice of freedom.

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