White Therapists Research Articles

Using Foucault's “Disciplinary Power” and “Resistance” in Cross-Cultural Psychotherapy

Foucault's conceptualization of power relations provides a theoretical framework for cross-cultural psychotherapy reimbursed by a managed health insurance plan. Utilizing extensive case material from psychotherapy with a White therapist and an African American adolescent, the paper discusses how clinical social workers can operate within, but not be completely of dominant power structures. Applications are also made to supervision, education, and administration.

The Right to be Desperate and Hurt and Anger in the presence of Carl Rogers: A racial/psychological identity approach

This paper attempts to establish the beginnings of a conceptual and theoretical framework for psychotherapists and counsellors to 'work with' racial identity psychologically and psychological identity racially in cross-cultural clients. Using the video presentation - of a black client in therapy with Carl Rogers (in the 1970s) - Right to be Desperate and Hurt and Anger as a case vignette, the paper argues that racial/psychological self understanding is possible in therapy. The therapy sessions are critiqued in terms of race and multi-cultural psychotherapy and counselling. Since the video was widely used in the 1990s and is currently used in counselling and multi-cultural therapy training, it was felt that an examination and analysis of some of its contents would offer clinical possibilities in terms of race, culture and ethnicity. Through the analysis of significant excerpts the paper attempts to show that the conflicts, confusions and tensions that arise between a white therapist and a black client can be used creatively to engender trust, openness and cross-racial therapeutic possibilities.

A White Therapist, an African American Patient—Shame in the Therapeutic Dyad: Commentary on Paper by Neil Altman

A White Therapist, an African American Patient—Shame in the Therapeutic Dyad: Commentary on Paper by Neil Altman

For Whites Only

"Abstract: The following article is largely a stream-of-consciousness reflection on being a racially-conscious white therapist in racially divided America. It focuses specifically on working with African-American patients, addressing such themes as white anxiety, white skin privilege, lack of awareness of whiteness as a socio-political power construct, and white guilt. An illustrative case example takes the reader through how the themes listed shaped the therapist's subjectivity and alternately enhanced and inhibited the therapeutic pmcess. Key words: race relations, crosscultural therapy, whiteness, black-whi te relations, sociology of therapy."

Keeping and Crossing Professional and Racialized Boundaries

In this article we reflect on the process of a white woman researching a Black woman's experiences of engaging in clinical psychology services. This involved interviewing both a Black woman client and her white woman therapist four times over an 11-month therapy period. We discuss issues of identifications and relationships, the interface between research and therapy, and professional and ethical responsibilities of disclosures arising from this particular study in relation to general debates about feminist research. Rather than presuming that feminist research involves identifications between women or the aim of dissolving power relations, we highlight how issues of power and difference form a continuous topic and site of negotiation within the research relationship. We explore how this parallels and informs the therapy process. Despite differences in structural relations of privilege and power and reservations about feminist research practices around disclosure, we argue that fruitful consequences can follow from an explicit acknowledgment of the multiple identifications and institutional positions all participants occupy within research relationships. These include dimensions of difference between women structured around race, class, and professional—client relations.

DIFFERENT LENSES: VARIATIONS IN CLIENTS’ PERCEPTION OF FAMILY THERAPY BY RACE AND GENDER

Race and gender have been given extensive theoretical and clinical attention in family therapy in the last decade. However, little empirical work has focused on their effect on therapy. The present study examines the effect of clients’ race and therapists’ race and gender on male and female partners’ assessments of an initial and subsequent family/marital therapy session. One hundred twenty‐six individuals, comprising 63 heterosexual adult couples, evaluated both the first and the fourth therapy session using the Session Evaluation Questionnaire (Stiles, 1980). Results indicated a strong effect for race, with black females rating initial sessions more negatively than white females when seeing a white therapist. Black men, however, had a more positive response than white men to the initial session, regardless of the race of the therapist. Over time, these differences decreased. The results suggest not only that race and gender may contribute to differences in partners’ perceptions of the same session, but also that these differences are not static.

Significant Influence of Participation in Ethnic-Specific Programs on Clinical Diagnosis for Asian Americans

Asian American clients ( N = 1528) in the Los Angeles County mental health system who were seen at ethnic-specific (Asian) clinics by Asian therapists were diagnosed with significantly lower percentages of psychotic disorders and other major psychiatric disorders and significantly higher percentages of nonpsychiatric disorders than were Asian clients who were seen by Asian and white therapists at mainstream clinics.

Effect of Client Race and Depression on Evaluations by White Therapists

This study examined the effect of client race and depression level on global and interpersonal evaluations by white therapists. Sixty-two white therapists (23 male, 39 female), with at least Master's level training and/or 3 years of experience in individual psychotherapy, viewed a 3-minute segment of a scripted videotaped interaction between a “client” and “therapist.” The “client” was either a black or white female, enacting a depressed or nondepressed role. Each therapist viewed only one of the four conditions. As predicted, therapists held more negative evaluations of depressed versus nondepressed clients, and the combination of being black and depressed led to the most negative evaluations. Unexpectedly, black nondepressed clients were not rated more negatively than white nondepressed clients. Results are discussed in terms of possible explanations for the findings and their implications for therapy outcome.

Transference and Countertransference in Cross-Cultural Therapies

A brief overview of sociocultural influences in Kenya is followed by discussion of the treatment of an African Kenyan male patient by a white expatriate femal therapist, with focus on transference and countertransference aspects involved in cross-cultural therapy. Problems created by racial differences and the feelings of both parties are mutually experienced obstacles to the therapy, but can be of tremendous value to both patient and therapist.

Black and white racial identity: theory, research, and practice

Preface Theory and Measurement of Racial Identity Introduction: Review of Racial Identity Terminology An Overview of Black Racial Identity Theory The Measurement of Black Racial Identity Attitudes Toward a Model of White Racial Identity Development Development of the White Racial Identity Inventory Psychological Correlates of Racial Identity The Beginnings of a Diagnostic Model of Racial Identity White Racial Identity Attitudes and Cultural Values The Relationship between Black Racial Identity Attitudes and Cognitive Styles Practical Applications of Racial Identity Theory Counseling Attitudinal and Behavioral Predispositions: The Black/White Interaction Model Does Race or Racial Identity Attitudes Influence the Counseling Process in Black and White Dyads? Black Racial Identity Attitudes and White Therapist Cultural Sensitivity in Cross-Racial Therapy Dyads: An Exploratory Study Applying the Interaction Model to Social Dyads Generalizing Racial Identity Interaction Theory to Groups Interventions for Promoting Better Racial Identity Development Appendices Author Index Subject Index

White Feminist Therapists and Anti-Racism

The tenacity of White racism is analyzed and a model for active anti-racism is presented. The daily, on-going effects of White Privilege are also explored, including their impact on a White feminist therapist's work with her clients. Recognizing that an individual's personal anti-racism is never completed, the author discusses the necessity of individual feminist involvement in cognitive and affective domains in exploring Cultural Literacy and White Privilege. The importance of both external and internal motivators are also emphasized and suggestions given for developing external motivators when necessary. Applications of external motivators for anti-racism in therapy and community involvement, the personal and the political, are discussed.

Reciprocity of Self-Disclosure: Breakdowns of Trust in Cross-Racial Dyads

The reciprocity effect (self-disclosure by Person A to Person B resulting in B's self-disclosure to A) was explored in the context of biracial counseling interviews to determine if disclosure by a White therapist would facilitate a Black client's self-disclosure. Thirty-three Black women interviewed with a female therapist whom they believed to be either White or Black and who exhibited either high or low levels of self-disclosure. A reciprocity effect was obtained for Black therapists, but a reciprocity breakdown was obtained with White therapists (higher therapist disclosure led to no greater client disclosure). Five explanations for reciprocity breakdowns were considered, and the findings seemed most congruent with a trust explanation.

Diagnostic judgments as a function of client and therapist race

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the process of differential evaluation of clients as a function of client and therapist race. It was hypothesized that race of client and therapist would interact, influencing the judgments of client psychopathology, appropriateness for therapy, verbal facility, and likelihood of treatment success despite standardization of the clinical stimuli. Graduate students in clinical psychology and with varying levels of training (i.e., 1 to 5 years) were asked to rate videotaped interviews of clients in which race of the client and level of psychopathology (i.e., normal, neurotic, and psychotic) were systematically varied. There were significant differences in ratings as a function of race of client, race of therapist, and level of psychopathology observed. Black clients were not rated differently on degree of psychopathology but were rated as less verbally skilled and less appropriate for treatment but more likely to benefit from treatment than white clients. Contrary to expectations, white therapists tended to underrate the pathology of black clients. On the other hand, black therapists tended to overrate the pathology of white clients and made mixed judgments of black clients. The implications of these findings are discussed.

An approach to working with black youth in cross cultural therapy

The purpose of the present article is to supplement clinical literature that focuses on cross-cultural therapy. The author examines societal impacts on therapy, while emphasizing the mutuality of therapy between patient and therapist. A number of specific strategies for white therapists working with black families are offered.

White therapist and female minority clients: Gender and culture issues.

White therapist and female minority clients: Gender and culture issues.

Problems in diagnosing schizophrenia and affective disorders among blacks.

In this country schizophrenia has been consistently overdiagnosed and affective disorders underdiagnosed, particularly among blacks and lower socioeconomic groups. The general causes of such misdiagnoses include overreliance on the classic thought disorder symptoms as pathognomonic of schizophrenia and, for affective disorders, lack of clearly defined boundaries between normal and abnormal mood and failure to realize that patients with affective illness can manifest cognitive symptoms. In addition to the above factors, misdiagnosis among blacks results from such factors as cultural differences in language and mannerisms, difficulties in relating between black patients and white therapists, and the myth that blacks rarely suffer from affective disorders. Clinicians and researchers must pay more attention to the effects of cultural differences on diagnosis, and baseline behaviors and symptomatology for blacks must be established.

Self-disclosure, paranoia, and unaware racism: Another look at the Black client and the White therapist.

Self-disclosure, paranoia, and unaware racism: Another look at the Black client and the White therapist.

Self-disclosure, paranoia, and unaware racism: Another look at the Black client and the White therapist.

Self-disclosure, paranoia, and unaware racism: Another look at the Black client and the White therapist.

Pseudo-transference in interracial psychotherapy: An operant paradigm

Justifiable, defensive reactions of the black client in psychotherapy often are triggered by unconscious racist behaviors and stereotyped attitudes in the white therapist. Paradoxically, the therapist may misinterpret and label this pseudo-transference phenomenon on the part of the black client as pathological. An operant paradigm is employed to illustrate this sequential interaction. Implications in four critical areas are discussed: theory explication, research methodology, assessment models, and graduate training.

Considerations in the treatment of Black patients by White therapists.

Considerations in the treatment of Black patients by White therapists.