Racial Trauma in Black Clients

“This book reminds us that for Black people to heal the ruptures caused by chronic exposure to racism, cultural self-affirmation is only one side of the coin. The flip side is recovery from trauma and intergenerational injury. This book highlights the value that culturally informed and competent therapeutic practice can have for healing the impact of racial trauma on mind, body, and spirit. With astute analyses and compelling assertions, this book is a 'must read' for psychologists, counselors, psychiatrists, and all allied mental health specialists who engage in treating people of African descent.”

—Thomas Parham, PhD, President, California State University Dominguez Hills


“Jones-Damis and Moore have provided a highly valuable and practically applicable tool for mental health clinicians across a range of disciplines and levels of experience. The book draws on current research on racial trauma and effective practice with Black clients. Building on fundamental aspects of counseling and psychotherapy, the authors debunk the notion that racial trauma counseling is a specialty practice. As a racial trauma scholar and a practicing psychotherapist, I have no doubt that clinicians will greatly benefit from this volume, and, in turn, the Black clients they work with will gain from the wisdom and healing found in these pages.”

—Alex L. Pieterse, PhD, Department of Counseling, Educational and Developmental Psychology, Boston College; Director, Institute for the Study of Race and Culture


“Given the historical trauma and psychic terrorism endemic to American society, addressing racial trauma is critical. This is especially important for mental health practitioners. This important contribution invites readers not just to think outside the mental health box, but to make a paradigm shift in clinical practice, and with the reemergence of openly toxic white supremacy and racially inspired violence, to consider the wider sociopolitical changes needed to support personal and societal wellness. The authors recognize that, in a sick society, the healer and the healed both need to be restored to wellness.”

—Wade W. Nobles, PhD, Cofounder and past president, Association of Black Psychologists; Professor Emeritus in Africana Studies and Black Psychology, San Francisco State University; Founder and Executive Director (retired), Institute for the Advanced Study of Black Family, Life, and Culture, Oakland, California


“This book will make an outstanding contribution to the mental health field by opening the eyes of clinicians to the many ways in which racial trauma can affect their Black clients. Therapists of all backgrounds will benefit from the illustrations of how therapists can initiate these discussions and incorporate them into therapy, as a response to both direct experiences of racism and vicarious racial trauma. This approach will help clinicians form strong therapeutic alliances with their Black clients and empower them to heal from the effects of racial trauma in their lives.”

—from the Foreword by Nancy Boyd-Franklin, PhD, author of Black Families in Therapy