Optimal Theory case conceptualisation: An African-centred therapeutic approach with Black LGBQ clients

Abstract

ABSTRACT Historic, systemic, and institutional oppression has created various forms of inequality that are of urgent interest to critical psychologists. One area of continued concern is the use of Western, psychological frameworks to address mental health issues for individuals whose experiences lie at diverse intersections of race, gender, and sexuality. This manuscript highlights an alternative framework grounded in an African-centred theoretical approach using optimal psychology. Optimal psychology, also known as Optimal Conceptual Theory (OCT), provides a cultural responsiveness framework for understanding the behaviours, thoughts, feelings, and worldviews of oppressed populations, such as individuals of African descent in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer (LGBQ) community. This framework facilitates an affirmative psychological process of examining varying worldviews and their impacts on psychological functioning. By presenting a US-based case study, the authors demonstrate the use of an affirmative psychological framework, OCT, and discuss culturally-affirming interventions, in the clinical setting that also challenge ‘WEIRD psychology’.