Version date: August 26, 2025

We, the American Academy of Psychotherapists, resolve to become fully anti-racist through unequivocal and continual challenges to ourselves and our community. The following statement is a living document that is iterative in nature, assessed and shaped by the Anti-Racism, Diversity, and Equity Committee.

The Academy’s Mission Statement reflects our collective aim: “to invigorate the psychotherapist’s quest for growth and excellence through authentic interpersonal engagement.” To make this aim a reality for all participants, we must continually examine our distribution of power within this organization. Inequitable distribution of power perpetuates systemic oppression and amplifies the intergenerational trauma negatively impacting our colleagues who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.

We must work actively and diligently to ensure that our anti-racist frameworks are intersectional in nature, attuning to distribution of power and privilege across other domains including gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, disability, religion, etc.

Our vision for AAP is to be an open professional community for all, in which curiosity, experimentation, and collaboration enables us to recognize our commonalities as well as honor our differences.

Since 2020, AAP has instituted several organizational and educational changes to align with our commitment to anti-racism, for example:

1. 2-year anti-racism strategic planning with our elected officials as well as committee chairs
2. Professional Environmental Policy
3. Enhanced Scholarship Program & new member financial support
4. Ongoing Diversity Lunches and creation of Affinity Spaces

Our work is dynamic and ongoing. As of June 2025, some of AAP’s efforts toward holding and implementing more anti-racist structures and spaces include:

1. To examine and restructure aspects of our conferences and create conditions for change
2. Offering educational and training opportunities for members to examine the impact of their own internalized biases on their professional and interpersonal work.