Hi there! I’m Dr. Esther.

I’m a psychologist who’s passionate about translating what we know about the human condition to build a more antiracist world.

What I Do

I’m currently a psychologist at a community mental health center in Colorado, where I get to provide individual and couples therapy, clinical supervision, and work on organizational innovation projects.
I have also spent the past several years researching and writing about the intersection of white racial identity and antiracism. Over time, I have increasingly observed parallels between the healing process of therapy on an individual level and the healing process of building a more antiracist and just world on a community level. As such, my work consists of connecting the dots between the two.
Growing up in a racially diverse town, I have long been interested in race and how racism impacts our world. And as a white person, it was important for me to gauge where my voice within an antiracism movement was most effective.
Over time, I’ve become fascinated with understanding how folx with privileged identities can effectively, sustainably, and appropriately belong to activist movements. And more specifically, how can white folx show up and keep living a life that defies racism, when we benefit in other ways to not show up?
I consider my work white facing, meaning that while I do focus on the particular responsibility of white folx in building an antiracist world, the resultant benefits are for everyone.
Additionally, because I also use psychology to look at these topics through the lens of the human condition, I believe that anyone, regardless of their race or positionality to this work, can find some benefit from this work.

“Being on the receiving end of harmful oppressions is decidedly and specifically horrible. But wielding them has its own corrupting and denigrating impact on the imposer. This is important to understand, not because it makes those who hold privilege and power ‘victims’ or somehow as equally harmed as those who experience racism, sexism, and classism.

It’s important to understand because the work of dismantling systems of oppression that you benefit from isn’t altruistic work that just helps others; it is about your own liberation as well.”

-Mia Birdsong