Author Warda Farah

Short Course alumna Warda Farah is a Social Entrepreneur, Speech and Language Therapist, Writer and Lecturer. We were delighted when she took time out of her busy schedule to answer our questions about the path to publication of her groundbreaking  book, White System, Black Therapist.

EP: You took our Fact Based Storytelling course while working on White System, Black Therapist. How did thinking about storytelling techniques help you approach your book, and what did you discover about making complex ideas accessible?

Warda Farah: Fact-Based Storytelling helped me really find my voice. Listening to others share their writing  stories about their work, families, and personal journeys showed me how powerful it is to write with a specific audience in mind. Before that, I was mostly writing for myself, thinking about what I’d like to read. But that made my writing too emotional and a bit ambiguous. Once I started thinking about who I was writing for, everything shifted. I began shaping my words to create images in the reader’s mind to make complex ideas feel vivid and real. Because my book deals with some really heavy and uncomfortable themes, I also wanted to keep it engaging  to weave in moments of lightness, humour, and warmth. The course helped me see that accessibility isn’t about simplifying ideas; it’s about connecting with people through story.

EP: You studied Speech and Language Therapy at City St George’s before returning years later to take our Fact Based Storytelling short course. What was it like coming back to City in a different capacity?

Warda: When I studiedSpeech and Language Therapy, everything was very structured and scientific. There wasn’t much room for creativity or individuality, and my natural writing and speaking style often felt out of place. I learned how to meet expectations, but not how to express myself. The Fact-Based Storytelling course changed that. It gave me space to experiment, to take risks, and to find my voice without apology. For the first time, my style  the rhythm, warmth, and emotion in my words  was recognised as something valuable. That shift helped me see how easily we label some ways of speaking as “wrong” or “unprofessional,” whether in education or therapy. It’s something I explore in White System, Black Therapist — how systems often judge language instead of listening to it. The course reminded me that an authentic voice isn’t something to edit out; it’s what connects us.

EP: You’ve described writing the book ‘in a very personal way’ to reach a wider audience interested in language, race, disability and systemic racism. What were the challenges of bridgingacademic rigour with personal narrative, and how did you find that balance?

Warda: Balancing academic rigour with personal storytelling was never just a writing challenge — it was political. White System, Black Therapist looks at the contradictions within a profession that’s often seen as caring and corrective, yet is deeply entangled with the legacies of eugenics, standardised testing, and the biopolitical control of bodies and voices. Speech and language therapy has a history of deciding which ways of speaking  and, by extension, which kinds of people are considered “normal.” That history is both racist and colonial, even when wrapped in the language of science and objectivity.

As a Black, female, neurodivergent therapist and writer, I’ve lived those contradictions. I’ve seen how people use the language of “evidence-based practice” to silence perspectives that challenge the norm. One of the most painful experiences during the writing process was having a Professor of Developmental Language & Communication Disorders in the field try to censor my work behind my back calling it “politically toxic” and “not evidence-based.” It showed me how power operates quietly in academia: not always through overt racism, but through the gatekeeping of what counts as valid knowledge. And how when we complain directly about what we have experienced, institutions where these individuals work will dismiss you and this emboldens those individuals to feel untouchable.

That’s why I chose to write in a hybrid style  blending academic analysis with personal narrative. Traditional academic writing can be restrictive; it often demands that you strip away emotion and story, the very things that make knowledge human. Writing this way allowed me to hold both truths at once: the intellectual and the embodied, the scientific and the lived.

EP: What was the journey from recognising the need for this conversation to actually sitting down and committing it to the page? Was there a specific moment when you knew this had to become a book?

Warda: Deciding what personal stories to include was definitely something my editor helped me navigate. I’m naturally quite open, but this book required care — not just for me, but for the people and families I’ve worked with. We had to think about what could make others identifiable and, just as importantly, make sure the personal moments didn’t overshadow the message. The book isn’t really about me; it’s about us. We’ve all been shaped by education systems, by moments of belonging and unbelonging. My role isn’t to be the heroine or the saviour, but a witness, someone reflecting on what she’s seen and learned along the way.

There were times I had to remind myself that the book isn’t a diary or a place to vent — it’s a story written for readers, not for my own therapy. The families and children whose experiences informed my work are sacred to me, so I was very intentional about how I shared those stories, always seeking consent and reflecting carefully on what felt ethical and respectful. In the end, the personal elements were never there for shock or sentiment — they were there to humanise the ideas, to remind readers that these systems don’t just exist in theory, they live through people.

EP: You’re challenging traditional approaches and systemic biases in your field. Did you face any resistance during the writing or publishing process, and how did you stay committed to your message?

Warda: Yes — and not just in the writing process. What I’ve learned is that a lot of people’s egos are deeply tied to their work. When you speak out about injustice, there’s always an unintended consequence for those who benefit from the system you’re challenging. That was fascinating, and at times painful, to navigate. I realised that for many academics and speech language therapists, the work isn’t always about the people they claim to serve it’s about them, their research, their reputation. When you question their framework, you’re not just critiquing their ideas; you’re unsettling their sense of self.

There were individuals who went as far as reporting me to my professional governing body questioning my fitness to practise  simply because I said that standardised testing has roots in eugenics and that we should think twice before using it. Imagine that. My partner often reminds me that there will always be haters, and there are  but they’re mostly noise. Still, when people try to threaten your livelihood, it stops being abstract and becomes deeply personal. That’s the part no one prepares you for. What kept me grounded was the message itself. The attempts to silence or censor me only confirmed that what I was saying mattered  and that it needed to be said even louder.

EP: Routledge is a prestigious academic publisher. Can you talk us through your path to publication? What advice would you give to aspiring authors hoping to publish with an academic press?

Warda: I never wrote because I wanted to publish, I wrote because it helped me make sense of my world, it allowed me think more clearly and I was on my own journey, this book came to be not because I had a desire to write it but because the message had to be shared.

The reason why there is a lot of interest in this book is because over the years I have shared so much of my own content freely on blogs etc, if you want people to be excited about your work, connect with them though your writing, build that relationship organically, take people on a journey. I do think if you don’t have samples of your writing I would just start writing the book and then think about contacting editors, make relationships with people.

EP: For our students working on their own non-fiction projects – whether memoir, professional writing, or advocacy work – what’s the one piece of advice you’d give about writing a book that challenges the status quo?

Warda: Remember you are not writing for you, you are writing for them and they matter so anytime it gets challenging remember the audience. Also writing the book is only the beginning. The real job of being a writer is about promoting the book, ensuring it gets in to hands of readers. Be brave!

Thank you so much, Warda! We wish you every success with this important book.

White System, Black Therapist will be published in March 2026 with Routledge. You can pre-order a copy here.

Our next Fact Based Storytelling course begins in January 2026. You can book a place here.

For all our writing short courses, visit our home page here.