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.
Nancy Boyd Franklin, PhD, is a Professor in the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology at Rutgers University. She is also an African American family therapist and the author or editor of several books. An internationally recognized lecturer and author, Dr. Boyd Franklin has published numerous articles on such issues as the treatment of African American families, extended family issues, spirituality and religion, home based family therapy, group therapy for Black women, HIV and AIDS, parent and family therapeutic support groups, the multisystems model, and community empowerment.
Table of Contents
I. African American Families: The Cultural and Racial Context 1. Overview 2. Racism, Racial Identity, and Skin Color Issues 3. Extended Family Patterns, Kinship Care, and Informal Adoption 4. Role Flexibility and Boundary Confusion 5. African American Men and Women: Socialization and Relationships 6. Separation, Divorce, Remarriage, and Stepparenting 7. Religion and Spirituality in African American Families 8. Additional Important Topics in African American Communities II. Major Treatment Theories, Issues, and Interventions 9. The Therapist's Use of Self and Value Conflicts 10. Major Family Therapy Approaches and Their Relevance to Treating African Americans 11. The Multisystems Model 12. Public Policy Issues: A Guide for Clinicians III. Socioeconomic Class Issues and Diversity of Family Structures 13. Poor Families and the Multisystems Model 14. Single-Parent African American Families 15. Middle-Class African American Families IV. Implications for Supervision, Training, and Future Research 16. Implications for Training and Supervision 17. Conclusion and Implications for Future Clinical Work and Research
Mental health and human service professionals working with African American clients; professors and students in couple and family therapy, clinical psychology, social work, psychiatry, pastoral counseling, African American studies, and related fields. Widely adopted as a primary or supplemental text in advanced undergraduate- and graduate-level courses.