Black Keys on the Piano

Someone recently sent me one of those blast emails with this title. Turns out that it was about some concert at Carnegie Hall, but my mind went directly to the most recent derogatory statements made against primarily Black populated countries such as Haiti and African nations. “Black Keys on the Piano” is the perfect illustration of how integral and necessary these countries are to our world, along with the people living in them or those who are from them. Without their history, we’d have deep depletion of culture and humanity in a far more inferior world.

But the suggestion that this segment of our human population is not worthy of our consideration is severely troubling on its own. Yet this very pretext plays out every day.

Within the realm of therapy, it is noted that the African-American population is vastly underserved by mental health services in this country. Trust is one of the largest barriers to such services, along with the lack of financial resources.

Trust is critical to any therapeutic positive outcome, yet it seems to be undermined so frequently in a myriad of ways. Very often, it is missed without intention or forethought. The purposeful attention to the existence of racism in our society and the permeated value that it has in each of our lives is the only way we have to counter its damaging effects in our current interactions at work or in our personal lives.

This paradoxically means that we need to be able to trust others as well. Our own vulnerability is required to genuinely trust, and our ability to take the step toward trusting those in our midst is required in order to be trusted.

I believe that we owe it to ourselves, our clients, and to our greater global community to rigorously investigate any and all strands of bias or other blockades we hold that impair trust in either direction. To do this takes courage, strength, and untarnished honesty within ourselves to be able to delve deeper and present our most authentic selves in the most trustworthy manner possible.

 

Respect-Focused Therapy (RFT) is a foundation on which all modalities and techniques used in therapy can be strongly grounded, in order to produce sound, effective outcomes. This approach offers clients the opportunity to gain experiential understanding of being respected, possibly for the first time, from the therapeutic relationship and then be able to heal old wounds by creating more respect for self and others in the therapeutic process.

Multicultural Counseling: Working with People of Color

It is well-documented that working with minority populations can be challenging for therapists, especially for white therapists, largely because of trust and specific cultural issues. Because the current, if not ongoing, issues of racism and bigotry have been brought into the spotlight so starkly once again, I find it to be important and timely to look at these challenges more deeply, so that we, as therapists, can more effectively be part of the solution rather than contribute to the problem.

Williams and Levitt (2007)¹ studied the differences between the values of therapists and clients as they relate to multiculturalism. They found substantial evidence supporting the fact that real value differences exist between therapists and clients and, “therapists cannot be value-neutral and that they routinely convey their values with clients.” (p. 256) Therefore, they say, “the potential exists for therapists to consciously or unconsciously influence clients to become more like themselves.” They point out that most therapists are unaware of the potential negative effects of sharing such values with the client, because they do so intending to benefit the client. Within a multicultural context, there is a higher probability of alienation, shame and/or indoctrination for the client in ways that either shut down the treatment or is counter-indicated for real progress to be gained.

According to the research, among the most prominent ethnic minority groups in this country (African-Americans², Latinos³, Native-Americans⁴, Asian-Americans⁵ and Middle Eastern Americans), common themes exist in their overall experiences with therapy. Additionally, there is vast underutilization of mental health services, primarily for the following reasons: a sense of alienation and shame, stereotyping and lack of trust in the therapist (particularly a white therapist).

Because this phenomenon is so embedded in horrific histories as well as ongoing cultural disparities, it often seems insurmountable to rectify. But it is my strong conviction that we in this field can, and must, put every effort into positively intervening in this issue by fully recognizing it and, coming from a place of authenticity, fully focus respectfully on the unique cultural backgrounds and qualities of each human being we encounter.

¹Williams, D., & Levitt, H. M. (2008). Clients’ experiences of difference with therapists: Sustaining faith in psychotherapy. Psychotherapy Research, 18(3), 256-270.

²Thompson, V. L. S., Bazile, A., & Akbar, M. (2004). African Americans’ perceptions of psychotherapy and psychotherapists. Professional psychology: Research and practice, 35(1), 19.

³Comas-Diaz, L. (2006). Latino healing: The integration of ethnic psychology into psychotherapy. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 43(4), 436.

⁴Heinrich, R. K., Corbine, J. L., & Thomas, K. R. (1990). Counseling Native Americans. Journal of Counseling & Development, 69(2), 128-133 and Trujillo, A. (2000). Psychotherapy with Native Americans: A view into the role of religion and spirituality.

⁵Leong, F. T., & Lau, A. S. (2001). Barriers to providing effective mental health services to Asian Americans. Mental health services research, 3(4), 201-214.

 

Respect-Focused Therapy (RFT) is a foundation on which all modalities and techniques used in therapy can be strongly grounded, in order to produce sound, effective outcomes. This approach offers clients the opportunity to gain experiential understanding of being respected, possibly for the first time, from the therapeutic relationship and then be able to heal old wounds by creating more respect for self and others in the therapeutic process.