Relational Privilege and the P.R.I.D.E. Method, Akilah Riley-Richardson

Among our online therapist courses supporting social justice in psychotherapy, Liberation Psychology Training with Akilah Riley-Richardson, MSW, CCTP is one of the best resources for therapists who are ready to take responsibility for not perpetuating clinical marginalization when working with minoritised people, especially in couples therapy. Akilah uses her unique method informed by Liberation Psychology. 

How do you use Liberation Psychology to navigate relational privilege in psychotherapy?

Liberation Psychology can be used in psychotherapy to help navigate relational privilege by recognizing the power dynamics that exist between clients and therapists. By understanding the client’s unique experiences, values, and perspectives, the therapist can become more sensitive to the client’s individual needs and maintain an equitable relationship. Additionally, the therapist can work to identify and assess their own privileges and use that knowledge to better understand the client’s experiences. The therapist can then use this knowledge to create a space in which the client feels safe and respected and to provide support that is tailored to the client’s unique needs.

Centering Minoritised Couples’ Narratives in Therapy

When working with minoritised couples, it is important that we center their experiences, and their narratives. Sometimes, in therapy, we are guilty of imposing frameworks on clients that they are to follow. This imposition is a form of epistemicide, which refers to the act of displacing, or trivializing another group’s epistemology, or their ways of knowing the world. 

This kind of displacement is a common experience for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) and we as the LGBTQI+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex) community. There is a silencing that they often experience in the world at large, and also in the therapeutic context. 

As therapists, we need to ask ourselves some important questions. How are we to build a therapy practice that is truly liberatory? How can we create an experience that allows those who are marginalized to truly feel seen and heard? The P.R.I.D.E model, as developed by Akilah Riley-Richardson, aims to do just this by creating a space for clients to Pivot, Rumble, Imagine, Develop, and Evolve (P.R.I.D.E). 

Step 1: The Pivot

The first step is the Pivot, and we  must support our couples wholeheartedly during this step. Pivoting involves a turn inward, and there are many strategies within this model to facilitate a “powerful pivot”. The Pivot is a therapeutic and political act. Strategies and micro-movements are created that allow the client, moment by moment, to decenter the voices of those that oppress them or shape their reality and listen deeply to their own, true voice and experience.

This pivoting, when supported well, allows minoritized couples and individuals to privilege their experiences of the world and ways in which marginalization and systemic harm affect their self understanding. They also come to privilege how this has affected their relationship dynamics. 

The pivot within the client will only work if there is also a pivot within the therapist, who must examine her, his or their approach to the client as well. This mutual pivoting is agreement in action toward liberatory work.

Here are some questions you can offer your therapy clients to help them to turn inward and privilege their own direct experience (also helpful questions to ask ourselves as therapists as we also look to pivot):

1. What is happening within me right now?


JOIN a FREE Webinar Training with Akilah Riley-Richardson

Liberation Psychology Training with Akilah Riley-Richardson

In this free webinar, you will:

Learn how systemic trauma shows up in relationships.

Gain a deeper understanding of Relational Privilege and the difference it makes in couples work.

Discover the A.R.T. of building a Liberatory Connection in couples therapy.

Consider how your own Relational privilege affects your work so you can help your clients even more.

Watch Now!

Akilah Riley-Richardson, MSW, CCTP, RLT, is a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional, a Brainspotting Therapist and a Certified Relational Life Therapist and Facilitator. She has received training in various areas including Somatic Experiencing, Playback Theatre, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, Neuroscience, Compassion Focused Therapy, and Internal Family Systems Therapy. Akilah strives for: Authenticity, Alignment, Attunement and Abundance. She is a woman who knows both joy and pain in her personal life. She knows to treat all emotions with the dignity they deserve. Akilah is a mother, partner, researcher, social worker, advocate, educator, facilitator, therapist, and person. She brings all of who she is to the spaces that she serves.