By Matt Harrington, BCBA · Behaviorist Book Club · April 2026 · 12 min read

Comprehensive Guide to Using ACT for Addressing Unconscious Racism in Professional Practice

Overview & Clinical Significance

The intersection of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and anti-racist professional development represents a critically important area for behavior analysts. As Katelyn Kendrick articulates, white participation in anti-racist discussion and demonstrable commitment to action is imperative for progress. Yet white individuals often disengage from this work precisely because it is uncomfortable, painful, and requires committed perspective taking. ACT provides a behavioral framework for understanding why this disengagement occurs and, more importantly, for developing the psychological flexibility needed to remain engaged in this essential work.

The clinical significance of this topic extends far beyond personal growth. Behavior analysts serve diverse populations, and the quality of services they provide is directly influenced by their ability to recognize and address their own biases, engage respectfully with individuals from different racial and cultural backgrounds, and create inclusive treatment environments. When practitioners avoid examining their own racial biases, those biases inevitably influence clinical decision-making in ways that may harm clients. Research across healthcare fields demonstrates that implicit racial bias affects diagnostic accuracy, treatment recommendations, the quality of the therapeutic relationship, and treatment outcomes.

ACT's framework of psychological flexibility provides a particularly useful lens for understanding the avoidance that characterizes many white practitioners' relationship with anti-racist work. Psychological flexibility involves the ability to contact the present moment fully, to be aware of thoughts and feelings without being dominated by them, and to persist in or change behavior in the service of chosen values. When applied to anti-racist work, psychological flexibility means the ability to sit with the discomfort that arises when confronting one's own racial conditioning, to observe defensive thoughts and rationalizations without acting on them, and to take committed action toward anti-racist practice even when doing so is difficult.

The concept of experiential avoidance, a key process in ACT, explains much of the resistance that white practitioners experience when engaging with topics of race and racism. Experiential avoidance occurs when an individual attempts to avoid or escape unwanted internal experiences such as guilt, shame, anxiety, or defensiveness. In the context of anti-racist work, the internal experiences that arise, including guilt about privilege, shame about complicity in racist systems, and anxiety about saying the wrong thing, can be intensely aversive. Avoidance of these experiences leads to disengagement from the very conversations and actions that are needed to address racism in professional practice.

For behavior analysts specifically, this topic has particular urgency. The field has been criticized for its historical lack of attention to racial diversity in its research participants, practitioners, and leadership. The behavior analytic community is beginning to grapple with these criticisms, but meaningful change requires individual practitioners to engage in the personal work of examining their own biases and developing anti-racist practice habits.

Background & Context

The application of ACT principles to anti-racist work is grounded in the broader framework of contextual behavioral science, which views all behavior, including the behaviors that maintain racism, as products of context rather than inherent character traits. This contextual view is consistent with behavior analytic principles and provides a foundation for approaching racial bias as learned behavior that can be understood, addressed, and changed through environmental and contextual interventions.

ACT was developed as a behavioral approach to psychotherapy that addresses the role of language and cognition in human suffering. Its theoretical foundation, Relational Frame Theory, provides a behavioral account of how humans learn to derive relations between stimuli, including the relational networks that constitute racial categories, stereotypes, and prejudices. From this perspective, racial bias is not a moral failing but a predictable product of verbal learning in a society where racial categories are pervasive and where relational networks linking race with various attributes are continuously reinforced through media, social interaction, and institutional structures.

The concept of internalized racism is central to this discussion. Internalized racism refers to the acceptance by members of stigmatized races of negative messages about their own abilities and intrinsic worth, as well as the internalization by white individuals of messages about their own superiority and the inferiority of others. For white practitioners, internalized racism manifests not necessarily as conscious prejudice but as a set of deeply learned relational frames that influence perception, judgment, and behavior in ways that may operate below conscious awareness.

Katelyn Kendrick's approach emphasizes that engaging with anti-racist work is not just an intellectual exercise but a deeply personal one that involves confronting uncomfortable truths about one's own participation in racist systems. The ACT framework provides tools for this confrontation by helping individuals distinguish between the content of their thoughts, which may include racist stereotypes, defensive rationalizations, or minimizing narratives, and their relationship to those thoughts. Rather than trying to eliminate racist thoughts, which is both impractical and paradoxically counterproductive, ACT teaches individuals to notice those thoughts without being controlled by them and to choose values-consistent behavior regardless of what their mind is telling them.

The behavior analytic community's engagement with issues of race and racism has accelerated in recent years, driven by both external social movements and internal advocacy from practitioners of color who have long called attention to the field's diversity challenges. This engagement has included discussions about diversifying the behavior analytic workforce, examining racial disparities in service access and quality, and developing culturally responsive assessment and intervention practices. The ACT-based approach to addressing internalized racism in white practitioners complements these systemic efforts by targeting the individual-level behavioral processes that sustain racial inequity.

Clinical Implications

The clinical implications of addressing unconscious racism through ACT principles are profound and multifaceted. At the most direct level, practitioners who develop greater awareness of their racial biases and greater psychological flexibility in engaging with issues of race are better positioned to provide equitable, culturally responsive services to diverse client populations.

Implicit racial bias can influence clinical decision-making at every stage of service delivery. During assessment, bias may affect which behaviors a practitioner notices, how they interpret behavioral function, and which assessment tools they select. During treatment planning, bias may influence goal selection, procedure design, and the intensity of services recommended. During implementation, bias may affect the quality of the therapeutic relationship, the consistency of treatment delivery, and the responsiveness of the practitioner to client communication. And during evaluation, bias may influence how data are interpreted and what conclusions are drawn about treatment effectiveness.

ACT-based strategies for addressing these biases operate at the level of the practitioner's relationship to their own internal experiences. Cognitive defusion techniques help practitioners notice biased thoughts as thoughts rather than as accurate representations of reality. For example, a practitioner who notices the thought that a particular client's family is not invested in treatment can learn to observe that thought, consider whether it reflects bias based on the family's racial or socioeconomic background, and choose their next action based on their professional values rather than their automatic assumption.

Mindfulness practices support present-moment awareness during clinical interactions, helping practitioners notice when biased reactions are occurring in real time. Rather than operating on autopilot, which allows implicit biases to drive behavior unchecked, mindful practitioners develop the capacity to pause, notice their internal responses, and make deliberate choices about how to proceed. This pause is the space in which equitable practice becomes possible.

Values clarification, another core ACT process, helps practitioners articulate their commitment to equity, justice, and culturally responsive practice. When anti-racist practice is anchored to deeply held values rather than external pressure or social desirability, it becomes more resilient in the face of the inevitable discomfort that arises. Committed action, the ACT process of taking concrete steps in the direction of one's values, translates anti-racist awareness into observable behavior change.

The implications for supervision are significant. Supervisors who have developed psychological flexibility around issues of race are better equipped to create supervision environments where discussions of race and bias are normalized, where supervisees of color feel supported and valued, and where all supervisees receive guidance on culturally responsive practice. Supervisory conversations about race, when handled skillfully, can be among the most powerful professional development experiences available.

For organizational culture, practitioners who bring ACT-informed anti-racist awareness to their work contribute to environments where diversity is genuinely valued, where racial microaggressions are recognized and addressed, and where equitable practices are embedded in organizational systems rather than left to individual discretion.

Ethical Considerations

The Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts (2022) addresses several dimensions of professional conduct that are directly relevant to addressing racism and bias in practice. Code 1.07 (Cultural Responsiveness and Diversity) explicitly requires behavior analysts to actively engage in professional development related to cultural responsiveness. This is not an aspirational goal but a binding ethical obligation. Engaging with the ACT-based approach to addressing internalized racism represents one important pathway for fulfilling this obligation.

Code 1.08 (Nondiscrimination) prohibits behavior analysts from discriminating against individuals based on race, ethnicity, or other protected characteristics. However, the prohibition against discrimination extends beyond intentional, overt discrimination to include the discriminatory effects of unconscious bias. A practitioner who is unaware of their implicit racial biases may engage in discriminatory practices without intention or awareness. The ethical obligation to not discriminate therefore includes the obligation to examine one's own biases and take steps to mitigate their influence on professional behavior.

Code 1.10 (Awareness of Personal Biases and Challenges) requires behavior analysts to be aware of personal biases that may affect their professional work. This provision directly addresses the issue at the heart of the ACT-based approach to anti-racism. Awareness of personal biases is not achieved through a single workshop or training event. It requires the ongoing self-examination and psychological flexibility that ACT provides tools for developing.

Code 2.01 (Providing Effective Treatment) is relevant because racial bias can directly compromise treatment effectiveness. If a practitioner's biases lead them to underestimate a client's potential, select inappropriate intervention goals, or deliver services with less enthusiasm or rigor than they would with a client from a different racial background, the treatment provided is not effective in the fullest sense. Effective treatment requires not only technical competence but also the cultural awareness and interpersonal sensitivity needed to serve diverse clients equitably.

Code 4.01 (Compliance with Supervision Requirements) has implications for how supervisors address issues of race and bias in supervision. Supervisors who avoid these topics, perhaps because they find them uncomfortable or because they lack confidence in their ability to discuss them skillfully, are not providing the comprehensive supervision that their supervisees need. The ACT framework provides tools for supervisors to manage their own discomfort and engage in these essential supervisory conversations.

The ethical principle of justice, while not articulated as a specific code provision, permeates the Ethics Code's emphasis on equitable treatment and nondiscrimination. Justice in behavior analytic practice means that the quality of services an individual receives should not be influenced by their racial identity. Achieving this standard requires practitioners to actively address the biases that threaten it, making the ACT-based approach to anti-racism not merely a personal development exercise but an ethical imperative.

Assessment & Decision-Making

Assessing one's own racial biases and the extent to which they influence professional practice is a challenging but essential undertaking. Unlike many areas of professional competence, racial bias is an area where self-assessment is particularly prone to inaccuracy, because the very nature of implicit bias means that it operates outside conscious awareness. Multiple assessment approaches should be used in combination to develop a more complete picture.

Self-reflection is a necessary starting point, even with its limitations. Practitioners can begin by honestly examining their emotional responses to discussions of race. Do they feel defensive? Do they minimize the significance of race? Do they experience guilt or shame? Do they tend to intellectualize racial issues to avoid emotional engagement? Each of these responses provides information about the experiential avoidance patterns that may be interfering with anti-racist engagement. From an ACT perspective, these responses are not problems to be eliminated but data to be observed and understood.

Feedback from colleagues, particularly colleagues of color, can provide valuable information about how one's behavior is perceived across racial lines. This feedback must be sought with genuine openness and a commitment to receiving it without defensiveness. It is important to recognize that seeking this feedback places a burden on colleagues of color, who are often asked to educate white colleagues about racism at the expense of their own time, energy, and emotional wellbeing. Practitioners should balance the value of direct feedback with respect for colleagues' boundaries and should seek formal learning opportunities that do not depend on the unpaid labor of people of color.

Behavioral self-monitoring can be applied to specific practice behaviors that may be influenced by racial bias. Practitioners might track whether they spend equal time and effort in assessment with clients across racial groups, whether their treatment recommendations vary by client race, whether their communication style changes when working with families of different racial backgrounds, or whether their supervision interactions differ based on the race of the supervisee. These data, while necessarily approximate, can reveal patterns that warrant further examination.

The decision to engage in ACT-based anti-racist professional development should be approached as a long-term commitment rather than a one-time event. The relational frames that constitute racial bias have been built over a lifetime of learning in a racialized society. Developing the psychological flexibility needed to act against these frames, consistently and in the face of discomfort, requires sustained practice. Practitioners should consider how to integrate ACT-based anti-racist practices into their ongoing professional development, whether through regular self-reflection, participation in anti-racist learning communities, or engagement with ACT-based exercises designed to increase flexibility around racial topics.

Organizational decision-making is also important. Organizations that provide behavior analytic services should assess the extent to which their hiring practices, promotion criteria, service delivery models, and organizational culture support racial equity. ACT-based approaches can be integrated into organizational development efforts, creating environments where psychological flexibility around race is modeled by leadership and supported through organizational structures.

What This Means for Your Practice

If you are a white behavior analyst, this work is directly relevant to your professional practice and your ethical obligations. The ACT framework provides you with tools to engage with anti-racist work in a way that is behaviorally grounded, psychologically sustainable, and practically actionable.

Begin by noticing your own avoidance patterns. When topics of race come up in professional contexts, do you change the subject, minimize the issue, intellectualize to avoid emotional engagement, or disengage entirely? These avoidance behaviors are understandable responses to aversive internal experiences, but they prevent you from developing the awareness and skills needed to serve diverse clients equitably.

Practice cognitive defusion with your own racial biases. When you notice a biased thought, such as an assumption about a family based on their race or a stereotype that influences your clinical judgment, practice naming it as a thought rather than a fact. Notice it, acknowledge it, and then choose your behavior based on your professional values rather than on the content of the thought.

Clarify your values related to equity and justice in your professional practice. Write them down. Identify specific, observable behaviors that would represent committed action toward those values. Then begin taking those actions, even when they are uncomfortable, even when your mind offers reasons to delay or avoid.

Seek community. Anti-racist work is difficult to sustain in isolation. Find or create spaces where you can engage in ongoing discussion, learning, and mutual accountability with other practitioners who share your commitment to equitable practice. These spaces provide both support and challenge, helping you maintain your commitment over the long term.

Remember that this is ongoing work, not a destination. There is no point at which you will have fully addressed your racial biases. The goal is not the elimination of bias but the development of sufficient psychological flexibility to act in accordance with your values despite the presence of bias. This is a practice, in the fullest sense of the word, and it will serve you and your clients for the entirety of your career.