7 Ways We Focused on Equity in 2021
Written by Sandra Olarte-Hayes, Director of Equity
As my first year at Colors of Austin Counseling nears an end, I have been reflecting on what we are building. Even though we’ve crunched the numbers, which will be shared in our final newsletter of the year, I realize that so much of what we have created can not be captured by statistics and figures. It lives in the story. The narrative. The process.
A lot has happened that I want you, our community, to know about and so I am starting this monthly blog about our equity initiatives. In this first post, I want to highlight some of the work that has been happening behind the scenes.
Getting Rooted in our Vision and Equity Framework
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) have been central to Colors of Austin Counseling’s mission since Vanessa founded our practice in 2018. This year, we got serious about stepping back and looking at the big picture. Through team conversations in our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Clinical Consultation, Leadership Team meetings, and through individual dialogue, we defined what DEI means to us as therapists and how we want to live out these values in our work. These conversations led to the creation of our Equity Framework which was released this year. Each clinician has agreed to this living document. It is both a commitment and a call to action.
We Transformed our DEI Consultations
In the Summer of 2020, our team decided to be more intentional about supporting one another to practice anti-oppression within and outside of the therapy room. Our Clinical Director at the time, Ryan, launched monthly, DEI-focused Clinical Consultations for clinicians to sharpen their lenses around anti-racism in clinical work. These spaces necessitate great amounts of vulnerability and trust, more than what is usually asked for in the workplace. By bringing in restorative circle practices, container-building rituals, and other methodologies, we were able to deepen the feeling of trust among our team that allows us to do this vulnerable and intense work together. We also built in feedback loops for therapists to share ideas for topics and methods they would like to see utilized and our discussions have grown in meaning.
Launching Collective Healing In Action Groups
Through our DEI Consultation, it became clear that therapists needed affinity spaces in which to support one another and hold one another accountable. Affinity Groups are closed spaces where individuals who share a common identity come together in dialogue to support one another in the personal and collective reflection required for liberation. To prepare to launch these groups in January of 2022, we developed a team of Affinity Leads, clinicians among our team who are uniquely suited to lead their respective affinity groups because of their motivation, analysis, skills, attention to process, and training. We have met intensively over the last 6 months to develop curriculum, teach one another, and prepare to launch Collective Healing In Action groups. This work has been a process and we are excited to offer these groups to our staff and to the Austin community.
Clear is Kind. Unclear is Unkind -Brené Brown
Clear is also equitable. This year, our Clinical Director, Becky, took on the major project of revamping our policies and procedures including our Operations Manual, our Employee Manual, and our informed consent process to bring clarity to our practice’s expectations and processes. Now, therapists know better what they can expect from our practice and what is expected of them and our clients have a better sense of their rights and our responsibilities. We also developed and began to implement a professional development and performance evaluation process to facilitate clearer lines of feedback, communication, and support between our therapists and supervisors.
Deepening Community Partnerships
Working at a group practice affords our staff the autonomy to create their own schedules and guide the course of their work, and yet our staff is deeply committed to working with marginalized communities for whom private therapy may be inaccessible. This year, we worked hard to build and deepen relationships with community organizations like Future Front Texas that fund mental health services for clients with marginalized identities. We started new partnerships to meet community needs and expanded our capacity to do the work we love with communities we care about.
Centering Relationships
We value our staff for more than just what they have to offer as therapists. We were intentional this year about building a culture that values autonomy, wellness, and professional development. We fine-tuned our hiring process to bring on clinicians who are already closely aligned with our mission and we revamped our onboarding processes to give them what they needed to succeed. We focused on bringing on the right people, and intentionally honored our staff who transitioned out of our practice. We also prioritized building a culture of connection and support among our team by expanding our professional development opportunities, restorative offerings, and benefits.
Flexibility and Changing Course
Lastly, we tried some things that did not work and we learned from those experiences. We applied for many grants to fund individual client services and did not receive most of them. We heard the feedback from our clients and community partners that while the individual therapy we were offering was helpful, collective healing spaces and support around how to navigate conflict and transformation in movement spaces was needed. We’ve taken this feedback, sat with it, and we will use it to inform our steps going forward. Giving ourselves permission to try things, to get it wrong, to listen, and to adapt has been an important part of our evolving process.
These are just some of the highlights of what has been happening at our practice. We’re very proud of our work this year and very excited to dive deeper, challenge ourselves, and better serve our community in the new year.
