Race, Ethnicity & Gender
Our notions of race, ethnicity, and gender are foundational to our sense of who we are--and they're often at the center of trauma wounds. As we explore how racism, transphobia, and ethnic stigmatization impact clients' well-being and sense of safety, we must also explore how our own sense of these identities impacts our work. These articles unpack racial trauma and culturally responsive care, gender-identity issues, and trans-affirming care. Learn from Kenneth V. Hardy, Howard Stevenson, Deran Young, Monnica Williams, Joy Harden Bradford, Noah Garcia, and others.
Healing Oppression-Based Trauma
How Discrimination & Chronic Stress Impact the Body
Gender Identity & Trans-Affirming Care
Transgender and gender-diverse clients face unique challenges, from navigating identity development to managing societal hostility and discrimination. As political attacks on trans rights intensify, creating affirming therapeutic spaces has never been more critical. Gender-affirming care requires therapists to understand the difference between supporting exploration and imposing gatekeeping, while helping clients and families navigate complex medical, social, and emotional terrain. These articles explore gender-affirmative therapeutic practice, insights for supporting parents, and how to encourage "gender-pleasure."
Men's Issues, Masculinity & Feminism
Traditional masculinity often leaves men emotionally constricted, relationally distant, and struggling to express vulnerability. Many male clients arrive in therapy conflict avoidant or resistant to the therapeutic process itself. Understanding how rigid gender socialization impacts clients of all genders is essential for helping them access authentic emotions and build healthier relationships. These articles explore approaches for defusing male shame, supporting boys' emotional development, and understanding gendered experiences more broadly. Learn from Terry Real and others about the ways in which gender shapes relationships with friends, family, and partners, and how to break unhealthy patterns.
Racial Trauma & Culturally Responsive Care
Racism, discrimination, and microaggressions leave lasting psychological wounds that demand specialized understanding and care. Clients often arrive in therapy not only carrying the weight of these traumatizing experiences, but the additional burden of having those experiences invalidated. Developing true cultural responsiveness requires therapists to examine their own biases and understand the nuances of racialized experiences of trauma so they can create safe therapeutic spaces. Learn more from Kenneth Hardy, Howard Stevenson, Monnica Williams, Joy Harden Bradford, and others.
For many clients of color, responses to cultural silencing aren't isolated reactions, but longstanding survival strategies. Read more
How do we combat racism in a world determined to tell us it doesn’t exist? Read more
Jewish therapists and clients are experiencing traumatic invalidation of their experiences of antisemitism. Read more
Ken Hardy has been presenting workshops on racial reactivity for over 30 years. What's different now? Read more
A therapist, author, and longtime contributor to Psychotherapy Networker reflects on our field's entrenched reluctance to name and discuss issues of race and... Read more
The impact of a series of executive orders targeting trans and nonbinary people has been immediate and devastating. How can therapists help? Read more
How can we help our clients work through the inner torment of trying to occupy two cultural identities at once when they don’t fully feel they belong to... Read more
Support your BIPOC clients in gaining clarity about the frequency and types of discrimination they’ve experienced as they heal from racial trauma. Read more
Evidence-based tools can help us embrace our clients' feedback, greatly increase our cultural competence. and improve therapy outcomes. Read more
His generation of kids almost had to be gender- and sexuality-questioning to be cool, right? Maybe he was just mirroring what was happening around him. Read more
Black Men Heal’s therapy outcomes are defying the odds—and raising questions about what it means to be truly culturally competent. Read more
How does it impact the development of second-generation kids when their sense of self is inextricably tied to meeting the needs of parents and elders? Read more
Forming strong connections with others is not only integral to our development as humans, it’s connected to our very survival. For Black women, this is... Read more
Learn how to work with narcissists, bullies, avoidants and other difficult male clients with leading expert Terry Real. Read more
The business world has well-honed tools for making sure employees feel valued and fulfilled. Can they be used to solve a core issue that brings many couples to... Read more
A new approach embraces the somatic wisdom and indigenous knowledge of BIPOC clients. Read more
"Like my father before me I’ll continue to wage war against racism, confident that awareness will hold my aim steady." Read more
When politicians decide what gender-affirming care should look like, what happens to the mental health of our trans, nonbinary, and gender fluid youth? Read more
At best, self-harm and suicide among Black children are misunderstood. At worst, they’re willfully ignored. Read more
Are we undermining boys' longing for soft, loving friendships? Read more
Data from recent Pew Center, The Washington Post, the Williams Institute, and Gallup surveys shows the current state of transgender children in the U.S. Read more
If clinicians continue to assert that "trauma is trauma," the uniqueness treating racial trauma will remain on the margins of what we extol as best practice. Read more
Networker discusses racially-sensitive, trauma-informed interventions and strategies with Dr. Kenneth V. Hardy. Read more
How to help men face the hidden fears that keep them stuck in unhealthy relationship patterns. Read more
An Iranian-American therapist speaks to how the mix of grief, anger, and a new insistence on change in her former homeland, could be affecting clients. Read more
Networker sits down with the founder of Latinx Parenting Leslie Priscilla as she discusses key cultural and environmental factors that may influence your... Read more
More than 50 years after feminist psychologist Carol Gilligan's pivotal study on how women think about the choices in their lives, she speaks up about our... Read more
Despite an increasing diversity in race and ethnicity, the psychotherapy field is primarily filled with women—a reversal that's taken place over the last 50... Read more
For trans folks, attuning to gender-pleasure allows them to resist harmful cultural scripts—but it can be a radical act of resistance for cis folks too. Read more
As young people move forward with new, more flexible frameworks for thinking about gender, it’s not always easy to bring parents along. Read more
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