Black Men, Trauma and Therapy

This unique book is the first UK-published text to showcase the pioneering work of Black male therapists with Black male clients today. The leading Black male practitioners gathered here describe the thinking, theories and conceptualisations of Blackness and masculinity that underpin their practice and how they apply these in their meetings with clients: cishet, trans, gay and straight. Weaving these chapters together is the fundamental belief that how Black men are perceived and perceive themselves, how they behave and how they relate, is fundamentally shaped by the attitudes, expectations and assumptions of others. They are further impacted by Whiteness and the legacies of colonialism, migration and slavery, as well as their personal and intergenerational histories and heritages. Black men are disproportionately represented in our criminal justice and mental health systems, yet are the least likely group in UK society to access therapy, due to both internal defences and external structural and cultural barriers. Taking an intersectional approach, the book's contributors write about anger, power, pride, silence, sexualisation, hypermasculinity, identity, shame, fear, love and loss. They draw on European psychotherapeutic theory and social constructionism, but they also, most powerfully, reach to African ancestral beliefs, traditions and healing practices, and bring the stories of their clients to illustrate their work. These chapters show what therapy can do when the therapist is able to speak with their client in a shared language and with a shared understanding of what it is to be Black and male in the UK today.

Black Men, Trauma and Therapy is the companion text to the top-selling book Black Women, Trauma and Therapy, edited by Helen P. George and also published by PCCS Books.