Black Men, Trauma and Therapy

This uniquebook is the first UK-published text to showcase the pioneering work of Blackmale therapists with Black male clients today. The leading Black malepractitioners gathered here describe the thinking, theories andconceptualisations of Blackness and masculinity that underpin their practiceand how they apply these in their meetings with clients: cishet, trans, gay andstraight. Weaving these chapters together is the fundamental belief that howBlack men are perceived and perceive themselves, how they behave and how theyrelate, is fundamentally shaped by the attitudes, expectations and assumptionsof others. They are further impacted by Whiteness and the legacies of colonialism,migration and slavery, as well as their personal and intergenerationalhistories and heritages. Black men are disproportionately represented in ourcriminal justice and mental health systems, yet are the least likely group inUK society to access therapy, due to both internal defences and external structuraland cultural barriers. Taking an intersectional approach, the book's contributorswrite about anger, power, pride, silence, sexualisation, hypermasculinity, identity,shame, fear, love and loss. They draw on European psychotherapeutic theory andsocial constructionism, but they also, most powerfully, reach to Africanancestral beliefs, traditions and healing practices, and bring the stories oftheir clients to illustrate their work. These chapters show what therapy can dowhen the therapist is able to speak
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