Why Therapy Needs More Voices from Marginalised Backgrounds

I’ve recently written a very personal (and quite exposing!) piece about my journey training as a therapist, and it’s been published in The Big Issue. It touches on some of the barriers people from working-class and marginalised backgrounds (like me) face in this profession, and why that really matters for the future of therapy.

Built on the ideas of privileged men, psychotherapy is now propped up by underpaid women. The founders were once hailed as visionaries. But today’s workforce is expected to absorb endless emotional labour under the guise of vocation – the old curse of ‘caring work’. Training is prohibitively expensive, takes years, and often requires unpaid placements. Without financial safety nets, working-class and minority trainees are systematically excluded.

The result is an industry that claims to be about empathy but too often lacks practitioners who have lived through the realities of poverty, racism, or housing insecurity.

I never imagined I’d be calling for it, but therapy needs more men – especially for children and young people who long to see themselves reflected in the person listening or need access to positive male role models, as I once did. It needs more people of colour. More people who have known poverty first-hand, not just those from relatively privileged backgrounds.

When therapists share some of the life experiences of their clients — whether that’s poverty, racism, housing insecurity, or other forms of exclusion — it can deepen trust and empathy. That doesn’t mean only those with lived experience can help. But it does mean that diversity within the profession matters for creating a more inclusive, compassionate, and effective mental health system.

You can read my full article here: Therapists shouldn’t all be white and middle class. We need more from marginalised backgrounds.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. What barriers have you seen in therapy training or access? And how do you think we can build a profession that truly reflects the people it serves?