Healing the Spirit of Black Inferiority

August 21, 2013 by vanessa mahmoud, posted in African American Psychology

Healing the Spirit of Black Inferiority

By Edward Gilbreath October 14, 2009 Comments (3)

Enola Aird of the Community Healing Network believes too many Black youth have internalized the myth that their lives are not as valuable as the lives of others — and it’s leading them to act out in destructive ways. She’s out to change that.

The horrific beating death of Chicago teenager Derrion Albert has revived the national discussion about the moral and spiritual collapse of America’s urban communities, and its Black communities in particular. But in our shock, are we asking the right questions?

From her home in Connecticut, Enola Aird watched the Derrion Albert coverage with the rest of the nation. But she was not surprised by Albert’s killing, just sadly reminded of how broken our communities are. Like many activist leaders working on family and community issues in America’s cities, Aird is familiar with the kind of societal breakdown and dysfunction that leads to violent crimes among young people. As the founder and director of Mothers for a Human Future, she fights against society’s “commodification of children” and works to empower mothers to raise responsible, emotionally healthy kids.

In 2006, Aird led the launch of the Community Healing Network (CHN) at her church, St. Luke’s Episcopal in New Haven, Connecticut, one of the oldest predominantly African American parishes in the United States. Though still young, the CHN is already sparking a movement of community renewal in the New Haven area and beyond.

Aird, who’s also the wife of author and fellow Yale Law School graduate Stephen L. Carter, recently spoke to UrbanFaith about the CHN initiatives that she hopes will catch on nationally, including this weekend’s second-annual Community Healing Days.

URBAN FAITH: How did you develop the vision for the Community Healing Network?

ENOLA AIRD: I was privileged to serve on my church’s New Beginnings leadership team and had long been interested in finding ways to help Blackpeople work to overcome the myth of Black inferiority — the myth created centuries ago to justify the enslavement and subjugation of Black people. It says that Black people are not as smart, not as beautiful, not as lovable, and not as valuable, as other people. It is still undermining us.

I approached our then-Senior Warden, Jill Snyder, with the idea of expanding the church’s ministries to create a “community healing” initiative to build a movement for emotional healing and renewal for Black people in the Greater New Haven area. Ms. Snyder and I presented the idea to our rector, Rev. Dr. Victor Rogers, who took up the challenge. In October 2006, the Community Healing Network sponsored its first Community Conversation and Healing Service in association with Christian Community Action, a local inter-faith service agency. We followed that first gathering with additional community conversations and healing services in 2006 and 2007.

How did this local initiative evolve into something that’s now getting national attention?

I was inspired by the wisdom of Dr. Maya Angelou, who has said we need to “take a day to heal from the lies you’ve told yourself and the ones that have been told to you.” Taking that to heart, we issued a “Call to Healing and Renewal” that includes an annual celebration of Community Healing Days to build a movement for emotional healing and renewal for Black people everywhere.

In 2008, I was blessed to renew an acquaintance with Dr. Betty Neal Crutcher and to meet Janice M. Jones, and share our plans with them. Betty is a graduate of Tuskegee University, a senior mentoring consultant, and the presidential spouse at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts, and Janice is a human resources consultant in Montclair, New Jersey. Through their good offices, the idea began to spread — and people in Tuskegee, Alabama, and Montclair joined in the first annual celebration of Community Healing Days.

What are the primary goals of the network?

First, we want to raise the Black community’s awareness of the destructive, present-day effects of the myth of Black inferiority. Second, we want to share the resources of faith to help people in our community free themselves from the burden of this myth, once and for all. Third, we’ve got to create safe spaces for popular education, community dialogues, and story sharing workshops and trainings to help people work together toward healing and wholeness. And finally, we want to foster the development of a nationwide Community Healing Network, a diverse group of individuals, faith communities, and civic organizations working together to promote healing, forgiveness, and reconciliation, so that our community can be renewed.

What kind of Community Healing Network events will be taking place this year?

Well, this weekend people in more than 15 cities will join in the celebration of the second annual Community Healing Days. We have chosen the third weekend of every October for the annual observance.

Also, we have a huge event planned for November. After hearing about our Community Healing Days last year, through our board member Janice Jones, Dr. Maya Angelou agreed to serve as chair of CHN’s Board of Advisors. Together with hip-hop artist Common and national radio personality Tom Joyner, Dr. Angelou will lead what we believe will be a groundbreaking intergenerational gathering on Saturday evening, Nov. 7, at the Riverside Church in New York City. The event will introduce CHN nationally, launch a global movement for intra-racial healing, and call the world to interracial reconciliation.

UrbanFaith is based in Chicago, where Derrion Albert, a 16-year-old honor student, was literally beaten to death by other Black students. And, of course, Chicago isn’t the only place where youth violence is happening. What does this kind of incident say about the state of our communities?

It says that our communities, our people, are urgently in need of healing. Joseph Walker, Derrion Albert’s grandfather, told reporters, “I don’t know where all this anger comes from [in] these people today. That’s just too much anger for someone to have in their heart.”

Where does that kind of rage come from? At CHN, we believe that a lot of it comes from living in a world that devalues the lives of Black people. Too many of our children have internalized the myth that their lives are not as valuable and worthy as the lives of other people — and it is causing them to treat themselves and each other carelessly and violently.

How do you speak hope into disheartening situations like the Derrion Albert tragedy?

We can speak hope into seemingly hopeless situations by declaring that it is time to get to the root of what is ailing too many of us and our children. It is time for us to deepen our understanding of the impact of our history on our emotions. We need to come to terms with the fact that our past as a people has a powerful effect on our present. As psychologists Brenda Lane Richardson and Brenda Wade have put it, “our history didn’t just happen to a group of anonymous people. These people were our ancestors and, in many respects, they are part of us.”

So, you believe our African and African American ancestors’ legacy is having a direct effect on our situations today?

Many of the feelings, beliefs, and attitudes of our enslaved ancestors have been handed down to us — like family heirlooms. Much of what they passed on to us is good. Their legacy has enabled the Black community to make extraordinary strides in the 40-plus years since the official end of segregation. But many of the beliefs and attitudes we have inherited continue to hold us back. Even in the year 2009 it is not unusual for a Black person to let slip some statement about “good hair,” or a remark describing light skin far more favorably than dark skin, or some self-deprecating comment about what Black people cannot do intellectually. These and other negative beliefs will not disappear by themselves. We must be intentional about working to free ourselves — and our children –from them.

At this late hour, it’s probably too late for an all-out celebration, but how can people reading this interview participate in this year’s Community Healing Days?

Individuals and churches can visit our website at www.communityhealingnet.org, and click “How?” for ideas on celebrating Community Healing Days. Your celebration does not have to be elaborate.

For individuals, the key is to take the time to take care of themselves — by nourishing their bodies, minds, spirits — and relationships. Faith communities can celebrate by praying for emotional healing and renewal in the Black community, sponsoring special Scriptural studies on healing, and holding special healing services or musical programs. They can launch a community healing book club or movie club with a focus on one of the books or movies listed on our website. We also would be happy to consult with pastors, youth workers, and Christian leaders seeking further information. They can contact us atinfo@communityhealingnet.org.

10 Books To Talk About Skin Color

August 20, 2013 by vanessa mahmoud, posted in African American Psychology

Here are some positive efforts to open positive conversations with children on race…..

Sam Kane's Corner

Here are 10 books to use as spring boards for discussions about skin color. They range from picture books to young adult titles. Hope they help.

PICTURE BOOKS

The Skin You Live In By Michael Tyler, David Lee Csicsko, (Illustrator) Chicago Children Museum, 2005

This picture book uses rhyme to celebrate the range of skin color and the fact that children are simultaneously unique and similar.

skinagain Skin Again By bell hooks, Chris Raschka (Illustrator) Jump at the Sun, 2004

Another good title to discuss differences in skin color but honor that what’s inside is what counts.

Shades of people By Shelley Rotner, Sheila M.Kelly Holiday House, 2010

Echoing the above titles in theme, this title uses photographs to show that skin is a covering that comes in all different shades, even within a family. Yet we have more in common when we move past these…

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In Preparation for Healing From the Wounds of Racism

August 20, 2013 by vanessa mahmoud, posted in African American Psychology

Preparations for Healing

Most people of African descent do not come to psychotherapists seeking help solely with emotional or psychological problems that arise when they have encountered problems with racial “oppression” . They generally come to therapy because of pain and discomfort in other areas of their lives that they are unable to heal on their own. Yet, encounters with racial oppression are embedded in their life stories, memories and everyday experiences. Therapy is not truly complete and often not as effective without also acknowledging and addressing the ways in which racial oppression has and is affecting relationships, emotional problems, addictions and other life challenges.
People who internalize racial oppression do so unconsciously. Messages, images, values and experiences arising from interaction with the dominant culture, penetrate and impact the individual’s internally held sense of self . In African-American fiction, this process has been minutely examined by authors like James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Ralph Ellison and others.
Ellison’s main character, at the end of ‘Invisible Man ‘ said:

The fact is, that you carry part of your sickness within you, at least I do as an invisible man. I carried my sickness, and thought for a long time I tried to place it in the outside world, the attempt to write it down shows me that at least half of it lay within me. It came upon me slowly, like that strange disease that affects those black men whom you see turning slowly from black to albino, their pigment disappearing as under the radiation of some cruel, invisible ray…. though implicated and partially responsible, I have been hurt to the point of abysmal pain, hurt to the point of invisibility… But deep down you come to suspect that you’ve yourself to blame, and you stand naked and shivering before the millions of eyes who look through you unseeingly. That is the real soul-sickness, the spear in the side, the drag by the neck through the mob-angry town, the Grand Inquisition, the embrace of the Maiden, the rip in the belly with the guts spilling out, the trip to the chamber wit the deadly gas that ends in the oven so hygienically clean—only it’s worse because you continue stupidly to life, But live you must, and you can either make passive love to your sickness or burn it out and go on to the next conflict. Yes, but what is the next phase?.

Ellison, in this passage illustrates the dillemma of realizing that one has been wounded by externally imposed processes, and part of the ironic nature of that pain is that it is a buried, invisible wounding. Another component of that pain is that he has no idea what to do with it, certainly not how to heal it.
Racist messages, images, values and experiences may also impact the ethnic culture of the family. Racist information, acts, institutions affect and impact and are filtered by each idiosyncratic mini-culture of the family of origin in which individuals are raised. Individual family members sort, censor, deny, ignore, rage against or otherwise react to these assaults, in attempts to interpret, defend, assimilate or deflect. Young people are sometimes guided by their elders in how to handle these assaults. Sometimes they are left alone to handle these situations themselves with no guidance. .Finally, that information is filtered, analyzed and taken in to the personality and influence the character of the individual, and the choices he or she makes when encountering racism in the future. The acknowledgement of the existence of racism, or the internalization of defenses against racist oppression are not usually experienced as a handicap. It is experienced more often as normal rather than abnormal. When it is seen as normal, it causes no particular problems or discomfort, and if this world view and defenses are consistent with how an individual sees himself, the internalization is considered “ego-syntonic” or consistent with the healthy survival of self.

If an individual’s acknowledgement of racism or his learned internalization of defenses against racial oppression conflicts with self image; his relationships with loved ones; or members of his own ethnic group; the result can be problematic. These conflicts are often indicative of potential ethnic identity issues.Such ethnic identity issues can complicate relationships that are already challenging or difficult. The sense of self, (which is simply the way an individual experiences his own character or personality) may be affected in key areas:

KEY AREAS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL WOUNDING UNDER RACIAL OPPRESSION
A new Cornell study shows how and to what extent racial discrimination affects the mental health of African-Americans. There are two mechanisms that result in measurable effects on the mental health of many black people.
1) The chronic exposure to racial discrimination leads to more perceived experiences of racial discrimination
2) An accumulation of daily negative events affects daily life in all spheres including family life, friendships, financial matters and of course, health.

This combination leads to an increased risk for symptoms of depression, anxiety and “negative moods”
In my practice the key areas of psychological wounding in a person who has experienced racism seem to appear in the following areas:
• The way in which the person thinks, feels , or acts toward himself
• The way in which the person thinks, feels or acts toward people who look like him or belong to his ethnic group (internalized oppression)

• The way in which the person thinks, feels or acts about people whom he experiences as racially oppressive.
• The way in which the person thinks, feels or acts towards others who are not in his group or the group of the oppressor.
• Exacerbation of stress related illnesses

American Slavery Was Born 394 Years Ago on Tuesday | The Philly Post

August 20, 2013 by vanessa mahmoud, posted in African American Psychology

American Slavery Was Born 394 Years Ago on Tuesday | The Philly Post.

Internalized Racism and Academic Success

August 19, 2013 by vanessa mahmoud, posted in African American Psychology

<div style=”margin-bottom:5px”> <strong> <a href=”https://es.slideshare.net/NPEAConference/internalized-racism-and-academic-success-understanding-the-role-of-cultural-racism-in-the-lives-of-young-leaders-of-color” title=”Internalized Racism and Academic Success: Understanding the Role of Cultural Racism in the Lives of Young Leaders of Color” target=”_blank”>Internalized Racism and Academic Success: Understanding the Role of Cultural Racism in the Lives of Young Leaders of Color</a> </strong> from <strong><a href=”http://www.slideshare.net/NPEAConference” target=”_blank”>National Partnership for Educational Access</a></strong> </div>

BLACK MAN HURTING: Do Doctors Fail to Diagnose Depression in Our Men? – EBONY

August 18, 2013 by vanessa mahmoud, posted in African American Psychology, Health Disparities, Individual Therapy, Writing our Stories

BLACK MAN HURTING:

Do Doctors Fail to Diagnose Depression in Our Men?

A recent study shows Black men are unlikely to be prescribed antidepressants. Michael Arceneaux says he knows all too well how doctors miss the boat with Black men’s mental health

By Michael Arceneaux Writer

BLACK MAN HURTING:
Do Doctors Fail to Diagnose Depression in Our Men?

I’m not surprised by the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health survey’s findings that doctors are far less likely to prescribe antidepressants to Black and Latino patients afflicted with major depressive disorder than their white counterparts.

In their findings, race, payment source, physician ownership status and geographical region were all listed as factors that play into whether physicians decide to prescribe antidepressants to patients. Moreover, age and payment source influence which types of antidepressants patients receive. As a result, Caucasians are 1.52 times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants than Black and Latino patients being treated for major depressive disorders.

The disparity in antidepressant usage between Whites and minorities often centers on stigmas within minority communities. It’s about time the focus shifted towards how the role the attitudes of others factor into the gap.

Though I was never treated for a specific major depressive disorder, I have had painful bouts with depression and anxiety through the years – and encounters with careless doctors who bypassed obvious symptoms due to their own silly biases. Less than a year ago there was a period where I feared standing up would invite the kind of pain sure to knock me down. During one week in particular, each new day brought on an even more excruciating headache than the one before. When I did finally manage to stand up, I noticed that I had broken out in several different rashes across various parts of my body. As freaked out as I was about the exterior, I was more worried that I could barely function without needing to lay down every other hour. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me.

via BLACK MAN HURTING: Do Doctors Fail to Diagnose Depression in Our Men? – Wellness & Empowerment – EBONY.

Nigger.

August 18, 2013 by vanessa mahmoud, posted in African American Psychology

ESLEEK

The N word has a history of negative connotations. During the years of slavery the word was used before, during, and after an act of violence toward African-Americans. As time went by, the word became common and seemed to be the norm in American dialogue and literature. Authors such as Mark Twain, Agatha Christie,and Dick Gregory used the word willingly in their books and titles eg; Adventures of Huckleberry Fin,Ten Little Niggers, and Nigger respectively. Although the books may seem controversial, most of them are still in publication to this day.

Those that are not African-American cannot fathom the power the six letter word has over a race that overcame everything imaginable. Although some are not affected by the word, others allow the word to keep their minds in captivity, halting their progression and upward mobility as well as revisiting a sense of oppression. In his 1964 autobiography, Dick…

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Introspection: Too Pretty to Be Black?

August 18, 2013August 18, 2013 by vanessa mahmoud, posted in African American Psychology, Cultural Issues, Ethnic Identity, Writing our Stories

Interesting musings from a woman of color

The History of Racism and Challenging White Supremacy/RBG University

August 18, 2013August 18, 2013 by vanessa mahmoud, posted in African American Psychology

The History of Racism and a Challenging White Supremacy Workshop from RBG Communiversity

August 18, 2013August 18, 2013 by vanessa mahmoud, posted in African American Psychology

Obama as Wounded Healer
Validating the context of racial trauma
Published on August 2, 2013 by Stephen L. Salter, Psy.D. in Ideals in Question
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On July 19th, Barack Obama honored the life of Trayvon Martin by giving voice to the history of racial trauma in the African American community. “It could have been me,” Obama states in reference to Trayvon. The remark reminds me of the old proverb, “There but for the grace of God go I.” Obama’s kinship with Trayvon relates of course to their identities as African Americans.

He delivered a 17 minute off the cuff speech with unprecedented candor, provoking powerful reactions that diverged along racial, political, and personal lines.

For Barack Obama, Trayvon Martin’s death was a trauma. It set off a chain of recollections that were outside of the flow of day to day experience, revealing additional dimension of his character. His recollections pointed toward his personal past, his identity as a black man, and his connectedness to the history of African American trauma.

He noted the particularly keen pain felt among African Americans in response to Trayvon’s death. He validated the context of African American trauma and asserted how important it is not to deny that context. His attempt was to make an often misunderstood group of people more understandable.

Of course, shared racial trauma is only one manifestation of the most essential human trauma: death…the reality of our own finitude…the vulnerability from which we inevitably attempt to turn away.

“It could have been me,” could be the unspeakable horror unveiled in the common war trauma: a man watches his buddy shot and killed. After the war, his experiences are unrecognizable by his community back home. The trauma remains sequestered in his mind; unseen, frozen in time, and unwelcomed by the world. Integrating trauma means finding a relational home (Robert Stolorow: Integrating Emotional Trauma) where the experience can be recognized and welcomed. In honor of Trayvon Martin, Obama expressed concern for the welfare and future of black youth, particularly the degree to which they may feel unwelcomed by the nation. By this recognition, Obama offers a welcoming to black youth, at least in part, inviting them into a relational home where painful experiences have been validated.

Some people were disturbed that race itself was so much at the fore of Obama’s speech. After all, there is no clear evidence that George Zimmerman’s motives were racially based. If Trayvon had been white would things have turned out differently? Would he be alive today? I read Obama as having no investment in the psychological disposition of George Zimmerman. He’s aware of the possibility that racism played no significant role in the case. But more importantly, he is interested in validating the context from which African American’s would suspect that it did. It appears the heart of his message is the importance of recognizing and validating the context from which African Americans come to understand the world, not adjudicating any specific instance. Privileging experience–not as absolute truth–but also not negating it– is part of the process by which traumatic alienation find its way home.

Trauma longs to be recognized in a safe environment and put into words. Whether the trauma is born in the context race or combat, it longs for a relational home. When one is listening—when one can hold the great injustice of trauma experienced by another, they affirm that it shall not go overlooked.

There will always be a portion of the population that marginalizes the importance of trauma. There will always be the “Just get over it” crowd that for whatever reason has an aversion to psychological understanding…and marginalizes those who take their psychological well being seriously—seeing them as irrational, overly dramatized, manipulative, weak, self-victimizing, and so on. Often there’s a fear and hatred of vulnerability, a fear of facing one’s own pain, a fear of feeling blamed, or being asked for restitution. Some of these factors may play a part in the strong negative reactions to Obama’s address.

Obama has a fitting response to sentiments of this sort. He says African Americans are looking through a set of experiences and history that does not go away. As Stolorow’s has articulated (see above link), “trauma recovery” is an oxymoron. There is no “getting over it.” It exists. That’s it. What’s left is the possibility of establishing a new relationship with it, one that needs its context validated.

In the final analysis, Barack Obama, President of the United States and Commander in Chief, dared to make the White House a relational home for those who have experienced racial trauma.

How Therapists Drive Away Minority Clients

August 17, 2013 by vanessa mahmoud, posted in African American Psychology

How Therapists Drive Away Minority Clients
Many therapists unknowingly perpetuate racism against their own clients.
Published on June 30, 2013 by Monnica T. Williams, Ph.D. in Culturally Speaking

Racial discrimination is pervasive, and minorities regularly experience it in blatant ways (e.g., old fashioned racism) and subtle ways (e.g., microaggressions). In the US, African Americans experience the most discrimination, followed by Hispanic Americans and Asian Americans (Chao et al., 2012), although discrimination against other groups, such as women and sexual minorities is common as well.
The therapeutic relationship is unfortunately not immune to this problem, despite the best intentions of therapists who think they would never act in a racist manner. One example of this can be seen in the experience of race-based trauma, as many White therapists are dismissive of the impact of racism on their minority clients. Having never been subjected to the minority experience, it may not have occurred to them that racism could be traumatic.These are typically therapists who ascribe to a colorblind approach as their method of choice for working with people who are culturally different. However, colorblind ideology is actually a form of racism (Terwilliger et al., 2013), as it provides an excuse for therapists to remain ignorant of the cultures and customs of their non-White fellow human beings.

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Racist remarks by therapists

Even among therapists who have received multicultural training, racism often inserts itself unwittingly into the counseling process. Here are a few examples of actual statements made by therapists to African American clients. I explain why a person of color might find each of these remarks offensive.
“I don’t see you as Black. I just see you as a regular person.” I’ve commented previously on this type of remark (see my article on circular stereotypes). It tells the client that the therapist finds the client odd or irregular in some way, due to their Blackness. It is as if something is wrong with being a person of color and the therapist is going above and beyond the call of duty to politely ignore inconvenient differences.
“I’m not sure we need to focus on race or culture to understand your depression.” This illustrates the therapist’s own discomfort with the idea that racism and mental health are linked (Chae et al., 2011; Chao et al., 2012). Furthermore, how can the therapist possibly know if racism is cause the of the client’s mental health problem when s/he won’t even take the time to listen and learn? The client quickly discovers this therapist will not take him/her seriously.

“If Black people just worked harder, they could be successful like other people.” This shows that the therapist has uncritically accepted the pathological stereotype that African Americans are just plain lazy. By extension, the client is also lazy and would be successful and happy with a bit of good hard work. It also ignores social forces, such as institutionalized racism and other barriers that make it harder for minorities to be successful.

“Don’t be too sensitive about the racial stuff. I didn’t mean anything bad/offensive.” Gottcha. The therapist made a racist remark and this client was brave enough to call it out. Does the client get an apology from the therapist or even a discussion of the occurrence? No, in a typical blame-the-victim fashion, the client is accused of being hypersensitive. After all, the therapist meant well. Right.

Do no harm

I took these remarks by therapists directly from a journal article (Constantine, 2007), but I have heard such statements made by therapists many times. Constantine (2007) describes these as racial microaggressions, and they were in fact found to be the largest predictor of dissatisfaction with counseling by African American clients. Clients subjected to such comments were understandably less satisfied with the counseling experience. They believed that such therapists were less competent and, unsurprisingly, the therapeutic alliance suffered.

Insensitive remarks can be particularly harmful to vulnerable clients, who may already feel stigmatized and exposed by even attempting therapy. Minority clients may find it difficult to respond to racist comments in counseling situations due to self-doubt and power dynamics. These problems contribute to feelings of distance from the therapist, unwillingness to disclose sensitive information, and early termination from treatment. Thus clients may be unable to overcome the condition for which they sought help due to undesirable therapist factors, creating a barrier to treatment. The degree of harm therapists may cause in this way is unknown and likely underestimated.

Why do therapists make these mistakes? One of the main reasons is stereotypes. No one is immune from the effects of the myriad of pathological stereotypes that cast disadvantaged groups in a negative light. These are false or incorrect ideas attributed to members of a group, based on illogical reasoning and social status. Stereotypes represent unfair generalizations that do not change in the face of accurate information. When we uncritically accept these social messages, racism follows, even from people who mean well.

Can conscientious therapists perpetuate racism?

This article covered some of the more blatant types of microaggressions against clients, and these are likely to committed by therapists without proper multicultural education. There are also a number of mistakes made by more egalitarian therapists who genuinely want to avoid offending clients and may work hard to prevent being racist. Errors made by such therapists may be in the area of patronization, idealizing the client’s culture, and excusing dysfunctional behavior as culturally normative. We will discuss these types of microaggressions in my next article.

Dr. Williams offers a monthly webinar for therapists on understanding and connecting with African American clients. Visit TZK Seminars to learn more and/or register (6 CEUs).

References

Chae, D. H., Lincoln, K. D., & Jackson, J. S. (2011). Discrimination, attribution, and racial group identification: Implications for psychological distress among Black Americans in the National Survey of American Life (2001-2003). American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 81(4), 498-506.

Chou, T., Asnaani, A., & Hofmann, S. G. (2012). Perception of racial discrimination and psychopathology across three U.S. ethnic minority groups. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 18(1), 74-81.

Constantine, M.G. (2007). Racial Microaggressions Against African American Clients in Cross-Racial Counseling Relationships. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 54(1), 1-16.

Sue, D. W., et al. (2007). Racial microaggressions in everyday life: Implications for clinical practice. American Psychologist, 62(4), 271-286.

Terwilliger, J. M., Bach, N., Bryan, C., & Williams, M. T. (2013). Multicultural versus Colorblind Ideology: Implications for Mental Health and Counseling. In Psychology of Counseling, A. Di Fabio, ed., Nova Science Publishers. ISBN-13: 978-1-62618-410-7.

Have you experienced a microagression from a therapist? Have you made such a blunder as a therapist? I’d love to hear about your experience. Make a comment below. Please be sensitive and respectful.

Author: vanessa mahmoud