If you are seeking to create a more intersectional, anti-racist, and inter-cultural approach to therapy, this edited collection emerging from the Black, African and Asian Therapy Network is an invaluable resource for your practice.
This collection covers topics such as the psychological trauma of racism, the various barriers to accessing support for mental health and the lived experience of Black, African, or Asian people in a profession that is still dominated by Eurocentric perspectives, training, and practice. Each contribution further reinforces the importance and benefit of having an intersectional, anti-racist, and inter-cultural approach to your therapeutic practice and contains insight from 27 experts in the psychological arena.
This book is split into four sections - the first focusses on colour, creativity, and anti-racist reflections. Part two covers training in the psychological field in the past, present, and future. Part three discusses CPD, supervision and self-care with a specific focus on mental, spiritual, physical, and emotional health and lastly, part five centralises therapeutic needs and psychological wellbeing within the context of identity, culture, and belonging.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements
Preface by Eugene Ellis
Introduction by Karen Carberry
SECTION I - COLOUR, CREATIVITY AND ANTI-RACIST REFLECTION
1. Adaptations to Psychotherapy for Effective Treatment of Black and Minority Ethnic People - Lennox K. Thomas
2. The Racist Gaze: Bearing Witness - Narendra Keval
3. Can the Image Bridge Our Differences? - Ann Boxill
4. An Encounter Between a White Patient and a Black Psychotherapist - Wanderley M. Santos
5. Counsellor Training and Beyond... A Practical Application - Kiren Khosla
SECTION II -TRAINING IN CONTEXT OF PASTS, PRESENTS AND FUTURE
6. Two Black Tutors! - Pat Marie Coleman & Paulette Gibson
7. Misery Loves Company, but There's No Need to Walk Alone - Lydia Puricelli-Culverwell
8. Myself as Therapist, Trainee, and the Power of Creativity - Symone Stephens-Morgan
SECTION III - CPD: SUPERVISION AND SELF CARE - OUR MENTAL, SPIRITUAL, PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL HEALTH
9. Conversation about co-supervision with two Senior African Heritage Therapists - Dr Isha Mckenzie-Mavinga & Arike Grant
10. Sitting With Discomfort or Embodying Joy? - Moriam Grillo
11. Embodied Ancestors: Inter And Intra Psychic Reactivations Of The Colonized Self In Psychotherapy And Supervision - Roshmi S. Lovatt
SECTION IV - THERAPEUTIC NEEDS AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING: IN CONTEXT OF IDENTITY, CULTURE AND BELONGING
12. Transracial Adoption: Keeping Race on the Agenda - Anthea Benjamin
13. The Power Of A Name - Umaa Thampu
14. Belonging: Who Decides? - Karen Minikin
15. Embodied Experiencing: Relational Learning - Carmen Joanne Ablack
16. The impact of racism and culture on identity: A Psychoanalytic Intercultural approach - Gita Patel
17. Character Work - Shirani Situnayake
SECTION V: CELEBRATING OUR INTERSECTIONALITY: ANCESTRAL CONSELLATIONS - AFRICAN HEALING CONTEXTS, TRADITIONS AND ORIGINS
18. A Queer Love Letter: The severing and redeeming power of Eros in psychotherapy - Joel Simpson
19. African Healing Ritual with a Therapeutic Edge - Sonya Welch-Moring
20. A journey in decolonising therapy - Oye Agoro
21. Effective Anti-racist Practice in Counselling and Therapy Training - Tonia Mihill
Epilogue: Selah by Kris Black
About the Editors
About the Authors
About the Author :
Dr Isha Mckenzie-Mavinga is a Transcultural Psychotherapist, supervisor, lecturer, writer and Reiki Master. She is the author of 'Black Issues in the Therapeutic Process' (2009) and 'The Challenge of Racism in Therapeutic Practice' (2016).
Kris Black (they/them) is a psychotherapist, intersectional feminist, activist, and trainer and has served on the BAATN Leadership Team for many years. Kris has served on the editorial and management boards of a number of grassroots campaigning organisations and charities furthering the liberation of racialised and marginalised GSRD communities.
Karen Carberry is a Consultant Family Therapist for Orri; Executive Director and Deputy Chair of The Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice (AFT). She is a Lecturer, an accredited Systemic Supervisor; Fellow of the Asian Academy of Family Therapy (AAFT), and co-editor of The International Handbook of Black Community Mental Health (2020).
Eugene Ellis is the Director and Founder of The Black, African and Asian Therapy Network (BAATN), Honorary Fellow of the United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) and Editorial Board Member of the journal Psychotherapy and Politics International. He is the author of 'The Race Conversation: An essential guide to creating life-changing dialogue' (Confer 2021).
Review :
These are Therapists of Colour from across the generations, who have come together to present some of the most interesting and far-reaching thoughts and clinical ideas that counsellors of colour have had maybe for a generation. A book like this, is a bit like a rare event. It therefore deserves to be both witnessed and read and studied.
Therapy in Colour is a brilliant teaching for practicing clinicians, psychoanalytical students as well as members of the general public. The heart of the book is the intense and personable way each author writes about raciality, racism and the need for introspection into the patient as well as the therapeutic process. It appears as an act of love in motion, giving language to all those places within our psyche that has been hungry for racial understanding of Afrocentrism culture, within the field of psychology. The writing within this book is a gift to inspire us all.
This new book deftly navigates readers through a path that deeply analyses Eurocentric 'givens and perspectives' on issues relating to mental health and trauma. A core tenet is the reconfiguration of therapy by taking stock of Black communities' historical lived experience and drawing upon their cultural traditions to enrich therapeutic practice. If you are interested in anti-racist therapeutic practice, this book is a must-read.
"Ellis writes that this is the book the members of the BAATN leadership team 'would have liked to have available to us when we were students' - it is hoped it will become a core text. Reflecting on my own training, I can only endorse that hope. This book would, I believe, have made a difference for all of us in my cohort and our future clients. I am grateful for the opportunity to learn from it now".
