In the session, I was asked to hypothetically talk about any concerns that a potential client may raise with me.

"What if your age is an issue Raz? I mean, it can be tough being young," my supervisor asked, supported with an unsettling look which felt neither inquisitive nor empathic, along with a little giggle from the other woman.

Being in the mental health profession, this is a question I have often been asked, but this time it felt very different.

Nonetheless, I attempted to answer the question as diplomatically as I could, only to then be cut off midway and told that what I was saying was wrong.

This happened throughout.

It was my third supervision session and each time I had been, I grew more and more uncomfortable.

However, it wasn't until I got home that I realised just how angry I was.

Later, I spoke to a friend and tried to explain to her how I was feeling. It was only then I became curious about what else was being said between my supervisor and I – or, more to the point, what wasn't being said.

As I reflected back on that look my supervisor gave me, I soon realised that the reason why I found it so unsettling was because, to me, that look said "know your place" and, rather than enquiring, I wondered if she wanted to remind me of how tough things can be for someone my age.

Overall, I felt undermined.

"Maybe what she was really referring to was you being Asian?" said my friend, who loved to analyse things even more than me.

Now I have never been one to use the "race card" to make sense of an uncomfortable feeling, but I do believe that there are long-standing barriers which we don't even know we are conveying in our everyday, western, democratic world.

It's just that, in some cases, they're much subtler than men hurling abuse from across the road.

Whatever card was being played, and whether she knew it or not, was irrelevant. The important thing was that I knew it, which gave me the option of either staying quiet and keeping it to myself or going back in there and just talking about how I felt.

Well, do you really see me sitting quietly and keeping it to myself?