This pioneering work is the most comprehensive book on Black families in therapy to appear in the clinical literature. It is unprecedented in its attention to the cultural diversity among Black families, its emphasis on the utilization of cultural strengths in therapy, and on its application of the concept of clinical empowerment. Dr. Boyd-Franklin also gives thoughtful attention to the therapist's use of self and the subtleties which are often involved in the treatment process. Highlighting the diversity among Black Afro-American families, the author's first five chapters explore a number of cultural issues including racism, racial identification, and skin color; extended family patterns and informal adoptions; role flexibility and boundary confusion; religion and spirituality. Numerous case examples provide rich illustrations of these topics. The latter part of the book further explores socioeconomic differences with specific chapters on poor inner-city, single-parent, and middle-class Black families. An important contribution of this work is its elaboration of the Multisystems Model which allows family therapists to intervene with Black families at multiple levels including the individual, the family, the extended family, church and community networks, and the social service system. Dr. Boyd-Franklin's clear straightforward presentation of this model will allow the practicing therapist to apply it to even the most complex treatment realities. In addition, this Multisystems Model has applicability to many other ethnic groups and treatment situations. For training programs that include ethnicity, culture, and the treatment of Black families in their curriculum, this book provides a comprehensive syllabus. It is essential reading for family therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, medical practitioners, pastoral counselors, educators, and public agency administrators. For students and practitioners in these fields it provides a scholarly, incisive analysis that sets a standard for ethnicity studies in the therapeutic arena.

Publisher Description

This book describes and documents the existence of the black helping tradition, and offers a theory regarding its origin, development, and decline. The book is based on research operating from the fundamental assumption that a pattern of black self-help activities developed from the black extended family, particularly the extended family's major elements of mutual aid, social-class cooperation, male-female equality, and prosocial behavior in children; and that the pattern of black self-help spread from the black extended family to institutions in the wider black community through fictive kinship and racial and religious consciousness.

This classic text helps professionals and students understand and address cultural and racial issues in therapy with African American clients. Leading family therapist Nancy Boyd-Franklin explores the problems and challenges facing African American communities at different socioeconomic levels, expands major therapeutic concepts and models to be more relevant to the experiences of African American families and individuals, and outlines an empowerment-based, multisystemic approach to helping clients mobilize cultural and personal resources for change.

This classic text helps professionals and students understand and address cultural and racial issues in therapy with African American clients. Leading family therapist Nancy Boyd-Franklin explores the problems and challenges facing African American communities at different socioeconomic levels, expands major therapeutic concepts and models to be more relevant to the experiences of African American families and individuals, and outlines an empowerment-based, multisystemic approach to helping clients mobilize cultural and personal resources for change.

First Published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The problems of a family are often conditioned by the cultural issues its members face, regardless of their socioeconomic background. However, most therapeutic models ignore this important factor. Ariel's book offers a model for diagnosis and therapy that incorporates cultural issues. It provides clinicians and trainees with readily applicable concepts, methods, and techniques for helping families and their members overcome difficulties related to intermarriage, immigration, acculturation, socioeconomic inequality, prejudice, and ecological or demographic change. This approach enables therapists to analyze and describe a family as a cultural system, explain its culture-related difficulties, and design and carry out culturally sensitive strategies for solving these difficulties. The model introduced in this book integrates theories in family therapy in general and culturally oriented family therapy in particular with ideas drawn from many other fields, such as cross-cultural psychology, psychiatry, anthropology and linguistics. The form of therapy presented in this book is integrative, drawing from traditional curing and healing techniques employed in folk psychotherapy and medicine, in addition to more conventional therapeutic models. Every technique is modified to be adapted to the cultural character of the family in question. This book is designed to be a handbook for clinicians and a textbook for students, trainees and researchers. It can be used as a guide for a complete independent method of family therapy and also as a source of ideas and techniques that can be incorporated selectively into other forms of therapy.

This international handbook addresses classic mental health issues, as well as controversial subjects regarding inequalities and stereotypes in access to services, and misdiagnoses. It addresses the everyday racism faced by Black people within mental health practice.

More activities to tap into the strength of your clients’ spiritual beliefs to achieve therapeutic goals. The Therapist’s Notebook for Integrating Spirituality in Counseling II is the second volume of a comprehensive two-volume resource that provides practical interventions from respected experts from a wide range of backgrounds and theoretical perspectives. This volume includes several practical strategies and techniques to easily incorporate spirituality into psychotherapy. You’ll find in-session activities, homework assignments, and client and therapist handouts that utilize a variety of therapeutic models and techniques and address a broad range of topics and problems. The chapters of The Therapist’s Notebook for Integrating Spirituality in Counseling II are grouped into four sections: Models of Therapy Used in Integrating Spirituality; Integrating Spirituality with Age-Specific Populations: Children, Adolescents, and the Elderly; Integrating Spirituality with Specific Multicultural Populations; and Involving Spirituality when Dealing with Illness, Loss, and Trauma. As in Volume One, each clinician-friendly chapter also includes sections on resources where the counselor can learn more about the topic or technique used in the chapter—as well as suggested books, articles, chapters, videos, and Web sites to recommend to clients. Every chapter follows the same easy-to-follow format: objectives, rationale for use, instructions, brief vignette, suggestions for follow-up, contraindications, references, professional readings and resources, and bibliotherapy sources for the client. The Therapist’s Notebook for Integrating Spirituality in Counseling II adds more useful activities and homework counselors can use in their practice, such as: using religion or spirituality in solution-oriented brief therapy “Cast of Character” counseling using early memories to explore adolescent and adult spirituality cognitive behavioral treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder age-specific clients such as children or the elderly multicultural populations and spirituality dealing with illness, loss, and trauma recovering from fetal loss creative art techniques with caregivers in group counseling and much more! The Therapist’s Notebook for Integrating Spirituality in Counseling II provides even more creative and helpful homework and activities that are perfect for pastoral counselors, clergy, social workers, marriage and family therapists, counselors, psychologists, Christian counselors, educators who teach professional issues, ethics, counseling, and multicultural issues, and students.