Introduction
Given the current race-relations in the United States, with racially motivated hate crimes, divisive rhetoric, and political fearmongering occurring almost daily, ethnic-minority families are at an increased risk for the development of negative mental health outcomes. One such outcome that clinicians should be mindful of and assess for is the development of trauma symptoms, such as fear, anxiety, avoidance, and helplessness, as a result of directly experiencing or witnessing racist incidents or discrimination. This is also referred to as racial trauma.
Description
Racial trauma has been defined as “an emotional injury motivated by hate or fear of a person or group based on their race or ethnicity; a racially motivated stressor that overwhelms the capacity to cope; a racially motivated, interpersonal stressor that causes harm or threatens one’s life; or a severe...
References
Bryant-Davis, T. (2007). Healing requires recognition: The case for race-based traumatic stress. The Counseling Psychologist, 35(1), 135–143.
Bryant-Davis, T., & Ocampo, C. (2006). A therapeutic approach to the treatment of racist-incident-based trauma. Journal of Emotional Abuse, 6, 1–22.
Carter, R. T. (2007). Racism and psychological and emotional injury: Recognizing and assessing race-based traumatic stress. The Counseling Psychologist, 35, 13–105.
Contrada, R. J., Ashmore, R. D., Gary, M. L., Coups, E., Egeth, J. D., Sewell, A., et al. (2001). Measures of ethnicity-related stress: Psychometric properties, ethnic group differences, and associations of well-being. Journal of Applied Psychology, 31, 1775–1820.
Fisher, C. B., Wallace, S. A., & Fenton, R. E. (2000). Discrimination distress during adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 29(6), 679–695.
Hardy, K. V. (2013). Healing the hidden wounds of racial trauma. Reclaiming Children and Youth, 22(1), 24–28.
Lee, L. J. (2005). Taking off the mask: Breaking the silence – The art of naming racism in the therapy room. In M. Rastogi & E. Wieling (Eds.), Voices of color: First-person accounts of ethnic minority therapists (pp. 91–115). California: Sage.
Utsey, S. O., & Payne, Y. A. (2000). Differential psychological and emotional impacts of race-related stress. Journal of African American Men, 5, 56–72.
Utsey, S. O., Chae, M. H., Brown, C. F., & Kelly, D. (2002). Effect of ethnic group membership on ethnic identity, race-related stress, and quality of life. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 8, 366–377.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer International Publishing AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Reynolds, J.E. (2017). Addressing Racial Trauma in Therapy with Ethnic-Minority Clients. In: Lebow, J., Chambers, A., Breunlin, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_931-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_931-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-15877-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-15877-8
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences