Inclusive Practices
Our inclusive practices acknowledge that people from various racial, geographic, linguistic, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds have different lived experiences, unique cultural strengths, and resiliency factors, in addition to facing varying types of adversity, discrimination and prejudice, particularly when it comes to historical and current systemic oppression, dimensions of power and privilege, and access to appropriate and respectful medical and mental health care, education, housing, resources, and assistance.
Our services are available to all California residents, as we do not discriminate on the basis of race, ethnicity, color, size, religion, creed, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, ability, marital status, sexual orientation, or military status.
Why we specialize in services for Black and African American people from the African Diaspora
Non-culturally responsive or affirmative services continue to contribute to disparities and how mental health services are sought, viewed, and utilized by people who identify as Black, African American from the African Diaspora, and having African Ancestry, which is why we are intentional in offering culturally-specific offerings for healing that are rooted in Multiculturalism, Afrocentrism, and Black Psychology principles.
In serving people of African Ancestry, it imperative to take into account collective resilience and strengths of the Black/African American Diaspora community, to combat the adverse impacts of systemic oppression, intergenerational trauma, and the residuals history of medical injustice, scientific racism, diagnostic-related ethnocentric bias, racial profiling, and race-based psychiatric diagnoses, that contribute to how people of African Ancestry continue being under and inappropriately served.
Differences in mental health experiences indicate the necessity for culturally affirmative treatment options, that promote strength, unity, validation, liberation, empowerment, and hope.
Offerings of healing for people who identify as BIPOC
The acronym BIPOC highlights the identities of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color from various racial, geographic, linguistic, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds, who identify as Non-White.
“BIPOC” references “Black and Indigenous” people specifically to acknowledge that these communities still bear the impact of slavery and genocide in the U.S., that continues to perpetuate harm, health disparities, systemic racism, cultural erasure, invalidation, discrimination, and oppression of Black and Indigenous individuals in unique ways.
Overall, we validate the fact that not all “People of Color” or Non-White people in the U.S. have the same experiences, and even if the acronym directly references every racial and ethnic group, it could still effectively invalidate individual experiences, so we do not regard BIPOC as a blanket label, and instead view the acronym as an invitation of community and allyship for individuals with lived experience as Non-White and being impacted by racism, oppression, capitalism, imperialism, and White Supremacy.
We are mindful in our efforts to not diminish individual experiences and cultural identities, and not perpetuate the historical minimization of the voices of those who need to be heard.