Description
Practice & Politics: An Essential Reader For Social Workers & Therapists
Edited by Rahim Thawer, MSW, RSW
Publication Date: December 1, 2025
About the Book
Is it appropriate for a therapist to be politicized? Can you be anti-oppressive as a psychodynamic therapist? What are the clinical implications of working with clients who request you as a queer or racialized therapist?
Practice & Politics: An Essential Reader for Social Workers and Therapists is a conversation-in-book form that explores these questions with depth and nuance. Edited by Rahim Thawer, MSW, RSW, this collection brings together the voices of queer and racialized clinicians who examine the intersections of identity, politics, and care within the fields of psychotherapy and social work.
This first volume foregrounds the political nature of clinical and community practice. It emphasizes that therapeutic work never occurs in isolation but is continuously shaped by systems of power, privilege, and oppression, including colonial histories, racial hierarchies, capitalism, heteronormativity, and ableism. Readers are invited to reflect on how these forces influence both their clients and their own professional choices.
Through essays, case examples, and critical conversations, Practice & Politics helps practitioners develop the vocabulary and conceptual tools to identify how systemic dynamics show up in therapeutic, organizational, and community settings. It encourages readers to move away from neutral or depoliticized approaches and toward more ethically engaged, reflexive, and socially attuned practices.
Essays and Contributors Include:
- Foreword by Pratyusha Tummala-Narra, Ph.D.
- On Being a Politicized Practitioner by Rahim Thawer, MSW, RSW
- Challenging Monogamy in Relational Sex Therapy: A Social Justice Approach by Carm De Santis, LMFT
- Field Placements and Clinical Programs Must Integrate Anti-Oppressive Perspectives and Psychodynamic Theory. Here’s Why by Rahim Thawer, MSW, RSW
- Bathhouse Counselling, or the Relevance of Psychoanalytic Interventions in Clinical Social Work by Marco Posadas, PhD, RSW
- Can You Be Trauma-Informed If You’re Not Thinking About the Unconscious Processes in Your Practice? by Rahim Thawer, MSW, RSW
- The Narcissistic Abuse Industrial Complex: De-Centering Narcissism Within the Discourse on Relational Abuse and Trauma by Tanya Gaum, LMFT
Practice & Politics invites readers to see therapeutic work as both relational and political. It offers a framework for connecting individual suffering to broader structures, prompting practitioners to approach care as a form of ethical and collective action.
Additional Information
- Categories: Psychology | Social Sciences | LGBTQ+ studies
- ISBN: 978-1-967633-00-5
- Trim Size: TBD
- Publisher: Blue Cactus Press
About The Politicized Practitioner Series
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- Practice & Politics – Foregrounds the political dimensions of helping and the myth of neutrality.
- Practice & Pitfalls – Examines common missteps and challenges in anti-oppressive work.
- Politics & Paradigms – Imagines new frameworks for ethical, equitable, and liberatory care.
About the Editor
Rahim Thawer, MSW, RSW is a psychotherapist, clinical supervisor, organizational consultant, educator, and writer exploring the intersection of mental health, power, and identity. His work integrates queer-affirming, psychoanalytic, and anti-oppressive approaches, drawing from years in community-based, healthcare, and educational settings. Rahim has published, lectured, and facilitated internationally, with a focus on helping practitioners link care to justice and systems change.
His leadership spans community organizing and systems innovation, from over a decade with Salaam Canada—a volunteer-run organization supporting LGBTQ Muslims—to the 2025 launch of Canada’s Queer & Trans Therapists (CQTT) directory, which improves access to affirming care. His leadership and teaching have been recognized with multiple awards, including the Distinguished Leader Award from the Ontario Association of Social Workers (2024) and the Mary Smith Arnold Anti-Oppression Award from the American Counseling Association (2025).
Rahim is the author of The Mental Health Guide for Cis and Trans Queer Guys (New Harbinger Press, 2025), and co-editor of both Any Other Way: How Toronto Got Queer (Coach House, 2017) and Queer and Muslim: On Faith, Family, and Healing (University of Regina Press, 2026).
About the Contributors
Carm De Santis, LMFT
Carm De Santis, MSc, RP, RCFT, is an Assistant Professor (Teaching Stream) in the Department of Sexualities, Relationships, and Families at St. Jerome’s University in the University of Waterloo. She maintains a private relational and sex therapy and supervision practice. Carm’s teaching and research focus on systemic thinking, social justice, inclusivity, and anti-oppression, supporting learners in translating these principles into meaningful therapeutic interventions. Her work interrogates colonialism, white supremacy, and patriarchy while promoting accessibility and diversity in clinical education. Her current research explores consensual non-monogamy, inclusionary practices, and the construct of pleasure.
Tanya Gaum, LMFT
Tanya Gaum, M.Ed., M.A., LMFT, specializes in healing and recovery from relational abuse and trauma. She approaches her work through a womanist, decolonizing, and LGBTQIA+ affirming lens, drawing from Humanistic, Narrative, and Family Systems therapies as well as psychoanalytic and queer theoretical frameworks. One of her greatest joys is witnessing people recognize their own strength and resilience. Tanya is queer, Canadian, and Jewish, and maintains a Los Angeles–based private practice offering therapy, coaching, and professional consultation.
Pratyusha Tummala-Narra, Ph.D.
Dr. Pratyusha Tummala-Narra is a Professor of Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology at Boston College. Her research focuses on immigration, trauma, and culturally informed psychoanalytic psychotherapy. She is an Associate Editor of Psychoanalytic Dialogues and the Asian American Journal of Psychology, and serves on the Holmes Commission on Racial Equality in American Psychoanalysis and the Board of Directors of the Psychotherapy Action Network (PsiAN). She is the author of Psychoanalytic Theory and Cultural Competence in Psychotherapy (2016) and editor or co-author of multiple APA titles on trauma and multiculturalism.
Marco Posadas, PhD, RSW
Dr. Marco Posadas is a psychoanalyst, clinical social worker, and licensed psychologist based in Toronto, Canada. He is a member of the International Psychoanalytical Association, the Canadian and Mexican Psychoanalytic Societies, and the inaugural Chair of the IPA’s Gender and Sexual Diversity Studies Committee, where he led the organization’s first sexual and gender diversity strategic plan. Dr. Posadas has been recognized with multiple awards, including the OASW Inspirational Leader Award (2013) and Distinguished Social Worker for Toronto (2022). His teaching and scholarship focus on advancing psychoanalytic approaches that serve marginalized communities.
