No Racial Elephants In The Therapy Room

Do you avoid asking Black clients certain questions because you're embarrassed about something you think you "should" know about "Black culture" or racism? Are you hesitant to have conversations about race or racism with Black clients because you're afraid you'll look ignorant or unintentionally offend them? Do you believe that if a Black client doesn't mention race-related issues as a presenting concern, then it's not worth bringing up at all? The reality is that although many Black clients will not zero in on the impact of racism in their lives, ignoring the issue of race in therapy leaves a very large elephant in the room. And you can't build rapport with elephants in the room. So what do you do? In No Racial Elephants in the Therapy Room, Dr. Rheeda Walker, author of the bestselling The Unapologetic Guide to Black Mental Health, provides the answers to this question. With her no-nonsense and unapologetic style, she provides useful language, tips, and guidance that will allow you to: - Navigate the first session with Black clients who are wary about working with you - Create case conceptualizations without missing well-disguised emotional distress - Feel more comfortable talking about race, racism, and what it means to be Black - Move beyond cultural competence to assume an attitude of cultural humility - Use CBT to reframe unhelpful thoughts without minimizing a client's experiences with racism - Integrate religion and spirituality into therapy given its value in the Black community - Avoid common pitfalls and not to-dos when working with Black clients Mental health care isn't designed with Black people in mind. If you truly want to meet African American clients where they are, you will have to confront the sometimes deafening, and surely distracting, elephant in the room.

An unapologetic exploration of the Black mental health crisis—and a comprehensive road map to getting the care you deserve in an unequal system. We can’t deny it any longer: there is a Black mental health crisis in our world today. Black people die at disproportionately high rates due to chronic illness, suffer from poverty, under-education, and the effects of racism. This book is an exploration of Black mental health in today’s world, the forces that have undermined mental health progress for African Americans, and what needs to happen for African Americans to heal psychological distress, find community, and undo years of stigma and marginalization in order to access effective mental health care. In The Unapologetic Guide to Black Mental Health, psychologist and African American mental health expert Rheeda Walker offers important information on the mental health crisis in the Black community, how to combat stigma, spot potential mental illness, how to practice emotional wellness, and how to get the best care possible in system steeped in racial bias. This breakthrough book will help you: Recognize mental and emotional health problems Understand the myriad ways in which these problems impact overall health and quality of life and relationships Develop psychological tools to neutralize ongoing stressors and live more fully Navigate a mental health care system that is unequal It’s past time to take Black mental health seriously. Whether you suffer yourself, have a loved one who needs help, or are a mental health professional working with the Black community, this book is an essential and much-needed resource.

Part One is the author's analysis of the nature of race and racism, and insights from philosophers, ethicists, and social thinkers on this problem and its equally pernicious outliers, tribalism and xenophobia. Part one is shaped to be the single best book available for courses on racism. Part Two collects texts from papal and conciliar teaching and from bishops and church bodies from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, and Oceania. Each document has a pithy introduction and, whenever they are available, an internet address where the full text and related materials can be found. Book jacket.

Get a unique perspective on the female biracial experience! Biracial Women in Therapy: Between the Rock of Gender and the Hard Place of Race examines how physical appearance, cultural knowledge, and cultural stereotypes affect the experience of mixed-race women in belonging to, and being accepted within, their cultures. This unique book combines empirical research, theoretical papers, and first-person narrative to address issues relevant to providing therapy to biracial women and girls, helping therapists and counselors develop a treatment framework based on sociocultural factors. Researchers, practitioners, and academics provide insight into the biracial reality, taking multiple aspects of clients' lives into account rather than looking for simple hierarchies of well-being based on race. Biracial Women in Therapy is a building block for mental health practitioners in the construction of theory and practice in working with biracial females. The book examines how a biracial women's racial/ethnic identity intersects with her gender and sexual identity to affect her sense of belonging and acceptance, addressing issues of appearance, social class, disability, power and guilt, and dating and marriage. Topics addressed in the book include: the complexities of multiple minority status how ethnic differences affect biracial adolescents issues encountered by biracial women from a sociohistorical context biracial women's attitudes toward counseling stereotypes of marginalization and identity confusion a multicultural feminist approach to counseling and a first-person narrative of one author's racial and sexual identity development Biracial Women in Therapy: Between the Rock of Gender and the Hard Place of Race is a one-of-a-kind resource for counselors, therapists, researchers, and academics seeking insight into unique issues of mixed-race women.

Welfare Racism analyzes the impact of racism on US welfare policy. Through historical and present-day analysis, the authors show how race-based attitudes, policy making, and administrative policies have long had a negative impact on public assistance programs. The book adds an important and controversial voice to the current welfare debates surrounding the recent legilation that abolished the AFDC.

Presence and the Present: Relationship and Time in Contemporary Psychodynamic Therapy offers an applied perspective on psychodynamic psychotherapy relevant to contemporary practice. Emphasizing the therapeutic relationship and the dimension of time, it grounds the discussion i...

A landmark volume in the field, Bisexuality presents a state-of-the-art glimpse of what is known and what remains to be known about bisexuality. Editor Beth A. Firestein gathers together an impressive group of researchers, activists, educators, theorists, and clinicians to offer insight into this understudied sexual orientation. Written in a scholarly but accessible style, this noteworthy collection of essays provides a focused, comprehensive introduction to research, theory, and practical clinical knowledge about bisexuality. The contributors agree that, given recognition and validity, the study of bisexuality can extend what we know about sexual orientation and sexual identity as well as shed light on previously unexplored aspects of sexuality. This insightful volume explicates the emergence of bisexuality as a phenomenon requiring a paradigm shift in sexual-orientation studies and discusses the implications of this shift. Bisexuality makes accurate, high-quality information about the subject available to professionals and students in lesbian/gay studies, gender studies, sociology, family studies, and human sexuality. The book also brings current clinical perspectives together in a user-friendly volume for practitioners in social work and clinical/counseling psychology.

Using the 2012 Delhi Nirbhaya rape case as a case study and keeping gender discourses at its core, this book explores the use of digital media for gender activism in India demonstrating how it has formed an alternate platform for dissent.