Racial Trauma: The African American Experience _ _______________________________________________
SOCIAL SUPPORT Social support is defined as access to individuals who offer compassion, solidarity, and coping support [4]. In the African American community, social support often involves sharing encounters and occurrences as a method of coping with racism. Social support systems may include family members, friends, neighbors, colleagues, ministers, or more formal social or activist groups. For clients with specific mental health needs, support groups, 12-step programs, and group therapy may be appropriate sources of support. These supports provide an adaptable shield against stress and are an opportunity to promote diversity and healthy coping. Individuals with good social support report a sense of connectedness and mutual understanding of racist encounters. Contentment with social supports has been correlated with increased post-traumatic growth and reduction of PTSD symptoms in war veterans [42]. Furthermore, a strong, healthy support system may further contribute to the safety of self- disclosure. As such, social support has a clear role in promoting post-traumatic growth, with impact on a client’s coping style, cognitive processing, and meaning-making expression [4]. Professionals should focus on identifying environmental supports as opposed to barriers. Meeting a client in a relaxing community-based setting, welcoming supportive individuals to therapy sessions, and encouraging discussions with social communities are all advantageous. RELIGION AND SPIRITUALITY Some have argued that religion and spirituality in African American culture are shaped by political and social contexts, particularly issues of race/racism, slavery, oppression, justice, and liberation [43; 44]. Notions of being freed from bondage, as espoused in Christian tenets, resonated with many slaves. It is important to remember this historical backdrop and how it continues to influence the views and coping mechanisms of African Americans today. Spirituality for African Americans has been referenced in the following manner [45]: Faith in an omnipotent, transcendent force, experienced internally and/or externally as caring interconnectedness with others, God, or a higher power; manifested as empowering transformation of and liberating consolation for life’s adversities; and thereby inspiring fortified belief in and reliance on the benevolent source of unlimited potential. God, Allah, and figures of a higher being are viewed as conquerors for the oppressed. Consequently, religious and spiritual orientations are often used among African Americans both to deal with and construct meaning from oppression and promote social justice and activism [43].
solution-focused methods may be particularly valuable for African American male clients, as these offer problem-focused interventions consistent with typical male preferences for therapy [4]. It is vital that people individually evaluate the traumatic event and recognize and accept that their response to it is normal. Clients experiencing an increased awareness of harm or danger during the event may be better able to access post-traumatic growth. This association may be the result of increased self- awareness and sense of control. Some have suggested that in order for growth to occur, trauma has to be substantial enough to cause the individual to question earlier viewpoints, triggering rumination and reflection. If a viewpoint is not challenged or is reinforced by the traumatic event, post- traumatic growth may be less likely [4]. Mental health practitioners should consider providing strengths-based assessments and therapeutic interventions that focus on maladaptive thoughts (i.e., thought-stopping techniques and cognitive restructuring) to all individuals presenting with race-related trauma. By concentrating on strengths and positive cognitions, practitioners can help African American clients practicing resilience exercises evaluate individual experiences and potential coping techniques. Psychoeducational strategies, justification of the client’s encounter, and collaboratively encouraging and supporting the individual can improve service delivery. CREATING A SAFE ENVIRONMENT Addressing race-based trauma and post-traumatic growth requires practitioners to have training in and comfort with discussions of racism, discrimination, and race-based trauma [4]. Caucasian practitioners in particular may consider incorporating techniques to aid in creating a safe environment for race-based conversations with minority clients. Practitioners have a responsibility to recognize and identify trauma and should work to help process the trauma in the absence of rationalizing, correcting, or altering the viewpoint of the client. Clients assessing and exploring the importance of experiences of discrimination and racism benefit from talks centered on coping, resilience, and meaningful living without minimization of the experienced trauma. Practitioners may further help their clients with pinpointing useful coping strategies and promoting positive emotional functioning. Some individuals will relate feelings of invisibility, pressures of gender norms, and self-fulfilling prophecies. While it is important to recognize and validate this experience, practitioners should help clients identify skills that are gained through processing pain and distress. This can include exercising empathy for all victims of oppression and discrimination and becoming a change agent for future generations of African Americans.
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