Racial Trauma: The African American Experience _ _______________________________________________
racism so it does not affect their clients. Work, Cropper, and Dalenberg recommend the following approaches to race-related issues [33]: • Tackle the subject of race as theoretically important to therapeutic issues and talk therapy. • Recognize any challenges with verbally communicating racial connections and disparities. • Reflect upon acknowledging racial privilege. • Discover opportunities to enhance racial sensitivity and awareness of cultural stereotypes. • Advance clinical training. • Expand community outreach endeavors. For a variety of reasons, practitioners are often hesitant about introducing racial issues in counseling or therapy [33]. However, providers who openly communicate and display competency for race-related issues are more effective in their work with minority clients. Early conversations regarding the client’s goals and expectations can influence the progression of therapy, offering opportunities to discuss any challenges or concerns and diminishing the power differential. These interactions should particularly refer to the advantages and disadvantages associated with a cross-racial pairing of therapist and client, if present. Acknowledgment of the limited expertise of the provider on cultural differences when establishing rapport offers a safe path for client correction of the provider or recommendations of alternative explanations of behaviors. When discussing race and culture in therapy, it can be challenging for the client to verbalize cultural beliefs or practices that may be shared with or that diverge from those of the provider [33]. It is vital to discuss the indistinctness of culture to those dwelling within it. As discussed, cultural norms about symptoms or belief expressions impact the nature of therapy, and the likelihood that a communication challenge or different perspective may have a cultural bias should be explored. In addition to acknowledging the subject of race, providers should contemplate the therapeutically appropriate timing of addressing racial experiences. A colorblind approach is often ineffective and can impede therapy. This can also be true when the client and provider are both African American. It is vital not to assume a shared belief system or trauma history based only on shared race or ethnicity; however, appropriate sharing or supporting may be more effective in these dyads. If a provider is Caucasian American, verbal recognition of his or her experienced privileges can offer a powerful therapeutic exchange [33]. Multicultural competency is essentially intended to enhance the provider’s knowledge of cultural differences and potential stereotypes, but it is not possible to have an awareness of all stereotypes. Over the course of therapy, the provider should offer the client a safe environment to examine these stereotypes. In these discussions, the goal is for the client to understand the provider’s awareness of the
stereotypes and their potential negative impact on his or her life. By normalizing anxieties and fears in discussions of race and by using role-playing and experiential exercises, practical beneficial gains can be made. In addition, providers may benefit from preparing acceptable language to initially raise the issue of race in the therapeutic relationship. This can be accomplished by seeking experts and/ or mentors in the community and by researching appropriate terminology and approaches. Instead of focusing efforts solely on becoming an expert in a client’s culture, providers should work toward fostering a safe environment to freely discuss disparities and acknowledge a shared discomfort on the subject of racial differences [33]. POST-TRAUMATIC GROWTH STRATEGIES If untreated and unprocessed, the effects of race-based trauma can develop into depression, anger/rage, and a battered sense of self [4]. Mental and behavioral health professionals should strive to uncover, acknowledge, and treat these wounds. Strengths-based, activity driven, and preventive choices are approaches for enhancing African American clients’ engagement in therapy. While providing therapy services to African American clients that address race-based trauma, post-traumatic growth strategies are recommended [4]. Traumatic events challenge a person’s previously held beliefs about the world and can affect how they define themselves and others. Discovering meaning or purpose in the trauma allows individuals to develop effective coping and self-care skills. Although exposure to trauma has proven to have many adverse effects on physical and mental health, the possibility for positive change after hardships, torment, and suffering has long been established [4]. Modern researchers refer to this phenomenon as post-traumatic growth. An opposite extreme to PTSD in the spectrum of reactions to trauma, post- traumatic growth encompasses the resilience and growth that can ensue when a person develops meaning from a traumatic event. In one study, resilience was the most common outcome of potentially traumatic events [34]. The literature is mixed, however, on outcomes of trauma for those who live in contexts of ongoing war and chronic terrorism [35]. Some experts frame post-traumatic growth as a coping technique, while others posit that it is actually an effect of positive coping after a traumatic event [4]. Regardless, individuals who experience post-traumatic growth may display a heightened sense of kindness and empathy toward others, improved intimate relationships, and a genuine appreciation for life. Persons with these types of reactions to trauma report increased levels of independence/self-efficacy, better control over themselves and their environment, more positive interactions, a willingness to grow, improved self-acceptance, and the faith that they have uncovered their purpose in life [4].
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