This classic text helps professionals and students understand and address cultural and racial issues in therapy with African American clients. Leading family therapist Nancy Boyd-Franklin explores the problems and challenges facing African American communities at different socioeconomic levels, expands major therapeutic concepts and models to be more relevant to the experiences of African American families and individuals, and outlines an empowerment-based, multisystemic approach to helping clients mobilize cultural and personal resources for change.
Important questions face any pastoral counselor when working with African American couples and families. Edward Wimberly focuses on the religious worldview that African Americans bring to their understanding of marriage and family, so that the counselor can learn the assumptions behind the presenting problems. Wimberly's treatment examines the social context of African American families, the separate issues for men and women, intergenerational factors, the impact of the life cycle, sexuality, affairs, and abuse. This wide-ranging book is exceptionally practical for all pastoral caregivers. The purpose of the Counseling and Pastoral Theology series is to address clinical issues that arise among particular populations currently neglected in the literature on pastoral care and counseling. This series is committed to enhancing both the theoretical base and the clinical expertise of pastoral caregivers by providing a pastoral theological paradigm that will inform both assessment and intervention with persons in these specific populations.
The gospel brings liberty to men, women, and children bound by every conceivable sin and affliction. Psychology provides a tool for applying the power of the gospel in practical ways. Drawing on biblical truths and psychological principles, Counseling in African-American Communities helps us---Christian counselors, pastors, and church leaders---to meet the deep needs of our communities with life-changing effect. Marshaling the knowledge and experience of experts in the areas of addiction, family issues, mental health, and other critical issues, this no-nonsense handbook supplies distinctively African-American insights on the problems tearing lives and families apart all around us: Domestic Abuse Gambling Addiction Blended Families Sexual Addiction and the Internet Depression and Bipolar Disorder Divorce Recovery Unemployment Sexual Abuse and Incest Demonology Grief and Loss Schizophrenia Substance Abuse . . . and much more
TABLE OF CONTENTS: Part 1: Family Structures. Chapter 1: African American Families in the Postmodern Era. Chapter 2: The Peripheral African American Father: Is There a Black Man in the House? Part 2: Parenting Concerns. Chapter 3: Parenting: A Community Responsibility. Chapter 4: Racial Socialization. Part 3: Indigenous Social Supports. Chapter 5: Africentric Rites of Passage: Nurturing the Next Generation. Chapter 6 The Black Church: Bridge Over Troubled Water. Part 4: Pulling Things Together. Chapter 7: Implications.
Though important strides have been made in the last three decades in the research efforts on African Americans, there continues to be a lack of significant new understanding about the impact of the African American culture on the therapy process and dynamics. This volume provides an in-depth analysis of the counseling literature pertaining to African American clients. Specifically, the analysis includes a review of the different variables (client, counselor, counseling process, and assessment) that have received the bulk of research attention. This sets the stage for the presentation of a counseling model for African American clients. The authors discuss philosophical premises upon which the model is based and suggest specific counseling strategies and interventions related to the model. Case study material is integrated throughout the chapters, focusing on individual and group approaches. This volume is an important work for counseling professionals as well as for students in social work and counseling programs.
Love, Intimacy, and the African American Couple lays out specific strategies that clinicians can use in their work with black couples, regardless of the clinician's own race or level of experience.
This pioneering work is the most comprehensive book on Black families in therapy to appear in the clinical literature. It is unprecedented in its attention to the cultural diversity among Black families, its emphasis on the utilization of cultural strengths in therapy, and on its application of the concept of clinical empowerment. Dr. Boyd-Franklin also gives thoughtful attention to the therapist's use of self and the subtleties which are often involved in the treatment process. Highlighting the diversity among Black Afro-American families, the author's first five chapters explore a number of cultural issues including racism, racial identification, and skin color; extended family patterns and informal adoptions; role flexibility and boundary confusion; religion and spirituality. Numerous case examples provide rich illustrations of these topics. The latter part of the book further explores socioeconomic differences with specific chapters on poor inner-city, single-parent, and middle-class Black families. An important contribution of this work is its elaboration of the Multisystems Model which allows family therapists to intervene with Black families at multiple levels including the individual, the family, the extended family, church and community networks, and the social service system. Dr. Boyd-Franklin's clear straightforward presentation of this model will allow the practicing therapist to apply it to even the most complex treatment realities. In addition, this Multisystems Model has applicability to many other ethnic groups and treatment situations. For training programs that include ethnicity, culture, and the treatment of Black families in their curriculum, this book provides a comprehensive syllabus. It is essential reading for family therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, medical practitioners, pastoral counselors, educators, and public agency administrators. For students and practitioners in these fields it provides a scholarly, incisive analysis that sets a standard for ethnicity studies in the therapeutic arena.
This book enumerates the unique challenges, barriers, needs, and trauma of being an African American in the United States, and at the same time highlights what needs to be done to improve and foster the mental health healing of this population. This includes practical applications and strategic solutions that work, such as the family togetherness and ardent spiritual beliefs that form the basis for resilient and vibrant mental health among African Americans. This contributed volume features the authorship of counseling professionals, most of whom are African American themselves. Because of their own personal experiences, they are able to emphasize cogent helping strategies for this population, to show how to move forward with encouragement. The book also highlights ways to promote life that is mentally healthy and holistic for African Americans. Topics covered within the chapters include: Mental Health Challenges Unique to African American Children and Adolescents Diagnosis Issues with African Americans Culture of Family Togetherness, Emotional Resilience, and Spiritual Lifestyles Inherent in African Americans from the Time of Slavery Until Now The Trauma of Being an African American in the 21st Century Training, Recruiting, and Retaining African American Mental Health Professionals African Americans and Mental Health: Practical and Strategic Solutions to Barriers, Needs, and Challenges is an essential resource for helping professionals who work with this population, including psychiatrists, counselors, psychologists, social workers, and other mental health professionals. The book also should be of interest to researchers, instructors, and students in Counseling, Social Work, and Psychology.
This exciting new text on counseling African American couples outlines critical components to providing culturally-sensitive treatment. Built around a framework that examines African American couples’ issues as well as the specific contextual factors that can negatively impact their relationships, it: • Addresses threats to love and intimacy for Black couples • Provides culturally relevant, strengths-based approaches and assessment practices • Includes interesting case studies at the conclusion of each chapter that illustrate important concepts. The chapters span the current state of couple relationships; readers will find information for working with lesbians and gays in relationships, pastoral counseling, and intercultural Black couples. There is also a chapter for non-Black therapists who work with Black clients. Dispersed throughout the book are interviews with prominent African American couples’ experts: Dr. Chalandra Bryant, relationship expert Audrey B. Chapman, Dr. Daryl Rowe and Dr. Sandra Lyons-Rowe, and Dr. Thomas Parham. They provide personal insight on issues such as the strengths African Americans bring to relationships, their skills and struggles, and gender and class considerations. This must-read book will significantly help you and your clients.
