This course will provide information on the definition and historical underpinnings of Anti-blackness in American culture. We will use psychoanalytic writings as well as additional sources to explore and discuss the ways in which psychodynamic/psychoanalytic thought conceptualizes racial minority mental health in general and work with African Americans in particular. Participants will have opportunities to explore their own ways of understanding and interacting with African American individuals through introspective journaling and case presentations.

This course is aimed to help participants get more comfortable being uncomfortable and will be a supported dive into our co-constructed racial realities.

Course objectives:

This course is designed to help you:

• Demonstrate awareness of medical, legal, and historic underpinnings of anti-blackness in the United States.
• Discuss several theories of racial identity development
• Identify potential impacts of historical trauma related to anti-blackness on individuals and clients
• Critique the history of psychotherapeutic thought regarding race and mental health
• Examine the nature and impact of internalized anti-black world views in their own lives
• Create space in which race can be constructively discussed
• Utilize self-awareness skills helpful in discussions of race
• Assess and address anti-black counter-transference
• Identify the implications of race in transference with clients of color

Course Level:  Introductory

Carol Robinson is the Chair of the St. Louis Civil Rights Enforcement Agency, a Licensed Professional Counselor, a Doctoral Candidate/Researcher at UMSL, and a former Research Fellow at the St. Louis Psychoanalytic Institute.

 Click HERE for Continuing Education Credit details.