Finding a color psychologist shouldn’t be that difficult

Three years ago, like me marriage I was in a state of dissolution, I was in crisis and in desperate need of support. As a Black professional woman, I searched for a Black psychologist in my hometown of Ottawa, Canada—someone who implicitly understood my world without me having to explain the basics of my existence. I couldn’t find one.

My search ended with a compromise: Teletherapy With a therapist hours away in Toronto. Even then, the best I could find was a white psychologist who, fortunately, had the training and insight to understand racism. discrimination I move daily. The research was exhausting and revealed a significant gap in care. Finding a therapist who gets it shouldn’t be that difficult.

My experience, unfortunately, is not unique. And every day, people from racialized communities face the same scarcity. This is not an accident or coincidence. As a psychologist, researcher, and lead author of a new paper in Canadian psychologyI can tell you that this shortage is a direct result of systemic barriers within our profession. The new paper is titled Opening the Gate: A Call for the Inclusion and Representation of Peoples of Color in Canadian Professional Psychology, It carefully examines how these barriers work and what we must do as a profession to tear them down.

The work builds on our findings in our original 2023 article, “Black at the gate“, and provides a useful path forward for a field that fails to reflect the diversity of the community it serves.

Uncovering hidden barriers in psychology

Our research has identified several critical issues that prevent Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) from becoming professional psychologists:

• The numbers tell a stark story: The underrepresentation is not accurate. Our data is from 21 University psychology departments in Ontario It revealed that of the 481 full-time teaching staff, only two were Indigenous and only seven were black. More than half of these departments had no black faculty at all. Current faculty are mentors and gatekeepers to the next generation.
• Ambiguous policies perpetuate exclusion: We have found that seemingly neutral policies and flexible accreditation standards, when lacking tangible diversity metrics, can be used as a weapon to maintain the status quo. Without clear, measurable requirements for fairness, even well-intentioned guidelines can allow bias to flourish.
• You can’t fix what you can’t measure: For many years, our profession has resisted systematically collecting demographic data based on race. This constitutes a fundamental obstacle to progress. When we refuse to measure the problem, we make stark inequalities, as we say in our paper, “invisible by design.”

A clear path to a more comprehensive career

Our goal is not just to identify problems, but to provide clear, actionable solutions. While the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) has noted recent updates to its accreditation standards (CPA, 2025), our analysis concludes that without accountability mechanisms, these changes are not sufficient to dismantle long-standing barriers.

Based on these findings, our professional bodies can take two immediate and essential steps:

• Collect demographic data. We must make the secret group Race and ethnicity Student and faculty data is a benchmark for university programs to obtain and maintain their accreditation. This is the foundational step for accountability.
• Structural diversification command. Real change requires a shift in power. This could be achieved immediately by amending the CPA’s bylaws to create dedicated seats on the Voting Council for members of the organization’s Black, Asian, and Indigenous psychological departments. For context, our analysis found that over the past 13 years, the CPA’s board of directors has been, on average, 87.1% white.

Why is this important to everyone?

This is not an internal and academic issue. The diversity of our profession is directly linked to public confidence and the quality of mental health care. Finding a therapist who understands the client’s cultural background and the real-world impact of racism is often a critical component of effective ethical care.

The health of our communities depends on a psychology profession that is accessible, representative, and fair. To that end, we must move beyond statements of support for justice and begin the real work of sharing power and removing the gatekeepers that have kept so many out of the country for too long.