Statement on Anjanette Young, LCSW
As members of the mental health community we stand in solidarity with Anjanette Young, and call for restorative justice from CPD and Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Anjanette Young is not the first and will not be the last BIPOC mental health clinician who was targeted and needlessly traumatized and dehumanized by the police. We affirm our commitment to BIPOC and commit to building an organization that strives for justice, equity, diversity and inclusion. Depth Counseling denounces all forms of systemic oppression. We are re-envisioning group practice so that we can dismantle oppressive systems and practices in psychoanalysis and in our community more broadly.
We acknowledge that we, Depth Counseling, were ourselves silent on the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and countless others this summer, and failed there to raise our voices against the systemic racism plaguing BIPOC. While some group members believed we ought to issue a statement, others felt we would be hypocritical to do so without first addressing the lack of diversity on our staff. The consequence of our internal conflict was silence at a time when our voices were most needed.
As an organization we are now working at every level—leadership, supervisors, colleagues, research initiatives, educational training program, community education/outreach, and therapist/client rapport—to dismantle oppressive systems and structures in our field and our community. We are deeply committed to the work of dismantling white supremacy.