When the Hate Comes From Inside: Internalized Oppression

Chairwork therapist Amanda Garcia Torres shares insights on how self-dialogue heals.

Schema therapy is an integrative therapy, meaning it pulls together concepts and techniques from many therapeutic schools, including psychodynamic, emotion-focused therapy, CBT, psychodrama, and chairwork. A goal of this blog is to incorporate and honor the work of other clinicians and therapeutic approaches. A colleague recently referred me to a powerful Public Seminar article written by Amanda Garcia Torres, a therapist and trainer specializing in chairwork. She uses chairwork to address trauma and identity issues as well as social and racial justice in a therapeutic setting. Amanda was kind enough to spend some time with Flipping Out for an interview.

My understanding of chairwork is that, simply put, it’s a therapeutic technique where a client sits in one chair, often across from an empty chair, and plays out a dialogue, either with another person imagined to be sitting in the empty chair or with a part of the client’s self in that chair. Could you talk about the power of chairwork, and what drew you to it? Also, share a bit about your practice and the training you do?

Chairwork is intensely experiential psychotherapy where patients engage in imaginary encounters or give voice to internal parts. What I love about chairwork is the way it forces us to be present, direct, and truthful. So often, I hear patients tell me that they know what their struggles and feelings are, but do not know what to do with this awareness. Chairwork creates that bridge from the head to the heart—and from that place, healing can occur. I practice chairwork as a stand-alone form of psychotherapy, however, it can be used in conjunction with virtually any other therapy modality. I have been in private practice since 2017. I have some folding chairs in my office that I use for chairwork, and all my patients can tell by the look in my eye when we are about to use them and get some work done.

My journey with chairwork started in 2013 at a workshop given by my mentor and colleague, Dr. Scott Kellogg. I volunteered for a demonstration and was amazed by the experience. I continued attending workshops and after some time, Dr. Kellogg gave me the opportunity to study and train with him one-on-one. Of course, I said yes! That is how I became a certified chairwork psychotherapist and a trainer with Dr. Kellogg’s organization, the Transformational Chairwork Psychotherapy Project.

We offer three-day intensive training for clinicians in NYC and abroad. The training is experiential, and participants practice chairwork with each other and also witness live chairwork psychotherapy sessions conducted by Dr. Kellogg or me. It’s wonderful to be able to share our work in such an open and intimate way. As far as I know, we are the only therapists in the world who do real, live, unrehearsed therapy session demonstrations. Due to the pandemic, we have been offering short online webinars and we’re excited to begin offering a course this fall.

Could you tell us about Chairwork y La Raza? I know you mentioned your parents were involved in the United Farm Workers movement led by César Chavez and Dolores Huerta. This must be a really important connection for you.

I wrote the Public Seminar article to share how chairwork can be used to support historically oppressed populations, specifically Hispanic, Latino, Afro-Latino, Chicano, and Tejano populations. The directness and strength of chairwork give therapists like me a way to support patients who are faced with issues related to injustice, discrimination, identity conflict, and ambivalence.

My maternal grandparents were involved with and supportive of the UFW's work for civil rights and justice for farmworkers. As a boy, my grandfather earned money by picking crops, so I think this cause was especially close to his heart. They often brought their kids with them to rallies and my mother has memories of being a little girl and handing out UFW flyers.

During my childhood, my mother made it a point to teach me about social justice and the importance of helping others. I feel very passionate about POC rights and empowerment and doing chairwork allows me to actively integrate these things into my clinical work.

Could you talk about how you understand internalized oppression based on your experience?

I see it as the way that oppressed persons can take in or “buy in” to the negative labels and mistreatment created by and maintained via oppressive systems. This impacts self-perception, self-confidence, and wellness. For example, colorism is an issue in Mexican and Latinx cultures and is a result of internalized racism. That means that lighter skin is valued and desired, while brown or dark skin is seen as inferior and undesirable. This is difficult when, like me, you have naturally brown skin. I actually have childhood memories of becoming upset because I got a tan after a day at a water park with friends! Pretty sad. This memory is a simple example of how internalized oppression can play out in someone’s life.

I’ve found that it can be pretty depressing for both the therapist and patient to spend a therapy session just naming and identifying systems of harm and oppression. Chairwork gives me the gift of being able to go beyond naming oppression. I can do something about injustice by supporting patients in reclaiming their sense of empowerment.

You’ve been doing social justice and racial justice in chairwork for a while. The pandemic, economic crash, and institutional racism, in general, are putting even more of a burden of harm and injustice on the communities of BIPOC. Could you talk a little about how the recent protests for racial justice have impacted your clients and your practice?

The BLM movement and civil rights protests have mostly been encouraging for me and the people I work with. However, the heightened focus and media exposure of police brutality and attacks on black and brown people have been rough. Sessions have been heavy. It has been emotionally painful to have so much injustice and suffering being shown and shared on TV and social media 24/7, especially because for myself and most of my patients, we were already intimately aware of the racial injustice in the U.S.

On a personal note, could you share with our readers how you take care of yourself these days? Do you actually do any kind of chairwork with yourself? Can you share any tips?

I do a few things to care for myself. Right now, I stay physically active and spend lots of time outdoors, I keep in touch with loved ones via phone and social media, and I bake. I also make sure to have regular sessions with my therapist.

Yes, I do actually practice chairwork with myself, and in fact, I’ve used it in moments in my life when I have faced major difficulty. Humans are very well-suited to chairwork because most of us are in dialogue with ourselves all the time! We think about conversations we’ve had or want to have, we weigh pros and cons, and we hear our inner critic—for better or for worse! I think that everyone could benefit from it, and I would recommend that a person begins by simply imagining themself in their mind, and saying a few kind, affirming words.

I know from my own work with schema therapy and treating trauma that out of pain comes a great potential for healing and goodness. Can you leave us with some words of inspiration from your experience as a chairwork clinician?

I’d like to encourage therapists to be courageous and assertive in their work. If you believe in what you are doing, stand firmly in it. It is our duty to push patients to go into darkness and do the painful work. If they resist and we relent, we have failed. Patients can and do get through the darkness when they trust that we are willing to go through it with them.