Three years ago, as my marriage was dissolving, I was in crisis and desperately needed support. As a Black professional woman, I searched for a Black psychologist in my city of Ottawa, Canada’s capital—someone who would implicitly understand my world without me having to explain the basics of my existence. I couldn’t find a single one.
My search ended with a compromise: remote therapy with a therapist hours away in Toronto. Even then, the best I could find was a White psychologist who, thankfully, had the training and insight to understand the racial discrimination I navigate daily. The search was exhausting and it revealed a sobering gap in care. Finding a therapist who gets it shouldn’t be this hard.
My experience, sadly, is not unique. Every day, individuals from racialized communities face this same scarcity. This isn’t an accident or a coincidence. As a psychologist, researcher, and the senior author of a new paper in Canadian Psychology, I can tell you that this shortage is the direct result of systemic barriers within our profession. The new paper, titled Opening the Gate: A Call for Inclusion and Representation of Peoples of Colour in Canadian Professional Psychology, examines precisely how these barriers function and what we must do as a profession to tear them down.
The work builds upon findings from our original 2023 article, “Lions at the Gate,” and provides an instructive path forward for a field that is failing to reflect the diversity of the society it serves.
Uncovering the Hidden Barriers in Psychology
Our research has identified several critical issues that actively prevent Black, Indigenous, and other people of colour (BIPOC) from becoming professional psychologists:
- The Numbers Tell a Stark Story: The underrepresentation is not subtle. Our data from 21 university psychology departments in Ontario revealed that out of 481 full-time faculty members, only two were Indigenous and just seven were Black. More than half of these departments had no Black faculty whatsoever. The current faculty are the mentors and gatekeepers for the next generation.
- Vague Policies Perpetuate Exclusion: We found that seemingly neutral policies and flexible accreditation standards, when lacking concrete diversity metrics, can be weaponized to maintain the status quo. Without clear, measurable requirements for equity, even well-intentioned guidelines can allow bias to flourish.
- You Can’t Fix What You Don’t Measure: For years, our profession has resisted systematically collecting race-based demographic data. This is a fundamental obstacle to progress. When we refuse to measure the problem, we make the glaring inequities, as we state in our paper, “invisible by design.”
A Clear Path to a More Inclusive Profession
Our goal is not simply to identify problems, but to offer clear, actionable solutions. While the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) has pointed to recent updates in its accreditation standards (CPA, 2025), our analysis concludes that without mechanisms for accountability, these changes are not enough to dismantle long-standing barriers.
Based on these findings, our professional bodies can take two immediate and essential steps:
- Demographic Data Collection. We must make the confidential collection of race and ethnicity data for students and faculty a standard for university programs to earn and maintain their accreditation. This is the foundational step for accountability.
- Structurally Diversify Leadership. True change requires a shift in power. This can be immediately accomplished by amending the CPA’s by-laws to create designated voting board seats for members from representatives from the organization’s Black, Asian, and Indigenous Peoples’ psychology sections. For context, our analysis found that over the past 13 years, the CPA Board has been, on average, 87.1% White.
Why This Matters to Everyone
This is not an internal, academic issue. The diversity of our profession is directly linked to public trust and the quality of mental health care. Finding a therapist who understands a 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 just. To achieve this, we must move beyond statements of support for equity and begin the real work of sharing power and removing the gates that have kept so many out for so long.
