Category: Uncategorized

Highlights:

• Salt Lake City’s own Ballet West is featured in a New York Times article about diversity in ballet. Congrats!
• Mental health and discrimination are closely related.                          
• Supporting diversity and inclusion in the community is part of supporting good mental health.
• City Center Psychology is proud to work with Ballet West on diversity and inclusion.

Here at City Center Psychology in the heart of downtown Salt Lake City, diversity and inclusion form the foundation of our practice. We believe that mental health isn’t all in our heads – it’s also in the world we live in and we are committed to making that world a fair and just place for everyone.

Ballet West’s Nutcracker is a beloved holiday tradition in Salt Lake City for so many families. We’re excited to share this post about diversity in the Nutcracker, which starts at the Capitol Theater (right next door to the City Center Psychology office) on December 14.

DIVERSITY AND DANCE IN SALT LAKE CITY

A few months ago, we had the honor of forming a partnership with Ballet West, a pillar of the arts community here in Salt Lake City, to continue their work on diversity and inclusion in dance. We feel proud to have Ballet West in our home town, not only because of the beauty and joy they bring to our community, but also because they do so while showcasing dancers of every color and background. The world of ballet is changing and Ballet West is helping lead the way.

The proof is in the pudding: check out this amazing article in the New York Times about how the ballet community rallying around the movement to banish yellowface, or the practice of using caricature and exaggerated stereotypes to represent people of Asian descent. Featured prominently is Ballet West’s very own Adam Sklute, creative director. Here’s a small excerpt, but you should really check out the whole article.

“Diversity onstage is paramount these days,” said Adam Sklute, the artistic director of Ballet West. “I want to populate my stage with the kind of world I want to live in, which is culturally diverse.”

When Mr. Sklute took over Ballet West about a decade ago,he was immediately troubled by the “Tea” section in the company’s “Nutcracker,”one of the oldest full productions in America, choreographed by Willam Christensen. “There was a lot of head-bobbing and parasol-swirling,smiley-faced action,” he said. “This was something that in 1944 would not have been considered inappropriate, but when I looked at it in 2007, I thought this isn’t right.”

DISCRIMINATION AND MENTAL HEALTH

What, you may wonder, does this all have to do with psychology and mental health? Here are a couple facts about stereotypes, discrimination, and mental health:

• Experiencing discrimination has been found to be closely related to poor mental health for people of color, including increasing anxiety, depression, low self-esteem and thoughts of self-harm
• Sadly, discrimination seems to start its harmful effects on mental health for people of color in childhood
• Asian Americans may be particularly vulnerable to depression and low self-esteem as a result of discrimination, possibly because they are relatively less prepared to face discrimination compared to other people of color

There are many things people need from their communities to be healthy: recognition, respect, feeling valued. But at the heart of all these needs is one that is even more fundamental: the need to be seen. Stereotypes cloud our vision and mask our community’s ability to see people for who they are. When we see stereotypes, we don’t see people. Within this invisibility live far too many people of color even today.

That is why when it comes to mental health, representation matters. Banishing stereotypes is just a step, but it is an important and necessary step to making sure every person is seen and recognized for who they are.

BRINGING DIVERSITY TRAINING TO THE SALT LAKE CITY COMMUNITY

That is why here at City Center Psychology, we see the work we do in diversity and inclusion training and consultation as going hand in hand with our clinical work as mental health therapists. It’s all part of the same mission – helping to support good mental health for the whole Salt Lake City community.

We have loved bringing our diversity and inclusion training to Ballet West and are thrilled to see their efforts in this field acknowledged on a pretty big stage. Congratulations!

If you are interested in bringing diversity and inclusion training or consultation to your business or organization, email us at info@citycenterpsych.com. We’d love to hear from you.

City Center Psychology is proud to announce our collaboration with Taking Back Ourselves for the Night of Healing, which will take place this Wednesday, November 7 from 6-9 PM at the Urban Arts Gallery, 116 South Rio Grand, Salt Lake City, Utah.

In their own words:

Join us as we celebrate the resilience of the human spirit and share our journey of recovery through Art, Music, and our stories of healing.

Whether you have experienced sexual abuse in your family, your faith community, your school, the military, your workplace or elsewhere, we welcome you and those who support you.

The Night of Healing will provide a space for survivors of all genders to join together in lifting the veil of secrecy and shame.

By bringing the issues of sexual abuse and assault out from the shadows, we hope to create an opening for increased awareness and recognition that healing is possible.

To say that the past few years have been instrumental in opening up the conversation about sexual assault is an understatement, but there is still a long way to go. As mental health providers, we at City Center Psychology support any efforts to bring the problem of sexual assault into the light. We are honored to play a role as therapists in helping survivors process their trauma, heal, and move forward.

Staff members from City Center Psychology will be at the event to provide emotional support to survivors. Please join us for this important event.

Here are City Center Psychology, we are passionate about psychotherapy. We have experienced countless times that people have transformed their lives by having the courage to explore their lives and learn. But how does this work? What even is psychotherapy, exactly?

In this blog, we are going to be sharing a lot of exciting things about our practice, ourselves, and our work. But one of the biggest themes will be pulling back the curtain on psychotherapy and sharing what we know about what it is and how it works.

Whether you are a therapist or a client, we hope you’ll treat this is a place to learn, ask questions, and share your own experiences if you want.

Let’s start by asking – what is psychotherapy?

On the surface, there is a simple enough answer. Psychotherapy is talk between a therapist – that is, a licensed mental health practitioner – and client or patient. I think we can all agree on that. But dig a little deeper, and things get dicey pretty quickly.

Next up in this series: What is psychotherapy for? Hint: There is more than one answer…