Introduction: Staff wellbeing has become an increasing priority within the NHS, yet ethnically diverse staff continue to experience disproportionate workplace inequalities, racism, and barriers to psychological support. This study explored therapists’ experiences and practice of providing therapy to ethnically diverse staff within NHS staff wellbeing services.
Method: Twelve psychologists working in NHS staff wellbeing services were recruited on a first-come, first-served basis. Ten were Clinical Psychologists and two were Trainee Clinical Psychologists; ten identified as White and two as ethnically diverse. Semi-structured interviews were conducted online and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis.
Findings: Six main themes were generated: (1) Providing Care from Within an Unequal System; (2) Making Space to Talk About Racism in the Workplace; (3) Leaning into Discomfort: Therapists Navigating Difference and Discrimination in Therapy; (4) Relational Working Across Difference; (5) Therapy Beyond Western Frames; and (6) Carrying Cultural Responsibility in an Unequal System. Participants described navigating organisational racism and mistrust, creating space to validate racialised experiences, working through discomfort and difference, adapting dominant therapeutic approaches, and managing uneven responsibility for culturally responsive practice.
Discussion:
The predominantly White Psychologist sample highlighted needs for training, supervision and reflection around naming racism, professional power and translating awareness into action, while also revealing tensions in participants’ positioning within organisational systems they described as harmful. Culturally responsive and anti-racist staff wellbeing provision requires organisational rather than solely individual responsibility. Future research should include more ethnically diverse therapists and staff receiving support.
