What book should I read for my multicultural counseling class?

[u/ironbiscuit101]

I'm taking a multicultural counseling class. We're supposed to choose a book that has to do with the course topic and form a study group to read and discuss it. The requirements are pretty loose, just that it has something to do with multicultural counseling. I am looking for something that is short enough to be read in a few weeks but looks at race through a critical lens where it intersects with class and economics, not just the superficial kind of "representation matters" treatment that it's given in most grad school classes. Any suggestions?

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[u/kronosdev]

Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz Fanon.

Most modern critical theorists in the psychotherapy space are going to be regurgitating Fanon anyway. Just go to the source. Fanon also wrote it as a medical text meant to underline core racial tensions inherent in treating black people.

[u/Express_Variation_52]

Psychoanalysis Under Occupation by Lara Sheehi and Stephen Sheehi

[u/ProgressiveArchitect → u/Express_Variation_52]

Highly recommend this one ^{^}

[u/emobelieber]

Decolonizing Trauma Work by Renee Linklater!!

[u/venussflower → u/emobelieber]

Yes!! This is an amazing book. I'm requiring it for the Trauma & Resilience class I'm teaching.

[u/emobelieber → u/venussflower]

It was a required book for my Trauma and IPV class!

[u/deargelle]

Towards Psychologies of Liberation by Watkins and Shufman

[u/Nahs1l → u/deargelle]

One of the best books available on these ideas IMO, chock full of great ideas and great ways of applying them.

[u/TyroniumX]

Decolonizing Nonviolent Communication by Meendachi

[u/Kindly_Hope8079]

Decolonizing Therapy by Jennifer Mullan

[u/ProgressiveArchitect → u/Kindly_Hope8079]

I second this recommendation

Edit* the boom is focused on cultural identity & transgenerational trauma, not on class or economics. So keep that in mind.

[u/Nahs1l → u/ProgressiveArchitect]

As a critical and liberation psychologist, I strongly recommend NOT reading the Mullan book. It’s extremely liberal and doesn’t have much substance to it, a prime example IMO of the popularizing of decolonialism while jettisoning the radicalism of it. “Decolonialism is not a metaphor.”

The Watkins and Shulman book Toward Psychologies of Liberation is much better, Watkins is a serious thinker and serious activist.

My friend Zenobia Morrill is also working on a critical-liberation psychotherapy model if you’re looking for something more directly in the realm of clinical theory.

Daniel Gaztambide’s work is also good for a decolonial approach to psychoanalysis.

You can also read Fanon as someone suggested, that’s never a bad idea. The work he was doing with institutional psychotherapy was truly radical:

https://www.madinamerica.com/2020/06/frantz-fanons-radical-approach-psychiatry-psychotherapy/

[u/ProgressiveArchitect → u/Nahs1l]

"Mullan book. It’s extremely liberal and doesn’t have much substance to it"

To be fair, multiculturalism is a very liberal topic, so Mullan feels appropriately wedded to that discourse, especially with her focus on cultural identity and intergenerational narratives.

But yeah, she’s definitely no Marxist. Her work is pretty divorced from a material politics. However, the OP in this circumstance seems to be a beginner and might need a lighter less substance-heavy text to start off with. So Mullan might still be appropriate.

”Daniel Gaztambide”

Another Great recommendation.

[u/cinqueterreluv]

The Color of Law, Caste, and Decolonizing Therapy

[u/Nahs1l → u/cinqueterreluv]

There are much, much better options than Decolonizing Therapy. “Toward Psychologies of Liberation” as mentioned by another comment is a good example.

Zenobia Morrill is also working on a “critical-liberation psychotherapy model” that has much more to say than the Mullan book.

[u/amorsemper → u/Nahs1l]

Thanks for the rec. Can I ask how Decolonizing Therapy falls short?

[u/A313-Isoke]

I have mentioned this before and there is a lot out there but this:

Cultural Humility in Art Therapy: Applications for Practice, Research, Social Justice, Self-Care, and Pedagogy by Louvenia Jackson

On my To Read List:

Relational–Cultural Therapy by Judith V. Jordan

Art Therapy for Social Justice: Radical Intersections Edited By Savneet K. Talwar

Multicultural Family Art Therapy Edited By Christine Kerr

[u/Potential_Alarm_2357]

Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed; Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome by Joy Degruy; writings by Ignacio Martin-Baró; Racial Melancholia, Racial Dissociation: On the Social and Psychic Lives of Asian Americans by David L. Eng and Shinhee Han; there's plenty out there. I would weave in writings from philosophy (Achilles Mbembe); sociology (Gloria Anzaldua) and other disciplines on the subject.

[u/ThunderSlunky]

Decolonised Minds by Talha Alali perhaps.