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You are here: Home / MPRC People / Mia Smith-Bynum, Ph.D. / Mia Smith Bynum Publications / The Black Lives Matter Movement: A Call to Action for Couple and Family Therapists

Shalonda Kelly, Gihane Jeremie-Brink, Anthony L Chambers, and Mia A Smith-Bynum (2020)

The Black Lives Matter Movement: A Call to Action for Couple and Family Therapists

Family Process, 59(4):1374-1388.

The frequent police killings during the COVID-19 pandemic forced a reckoning among Americans from all backgrounds and propelled the Black Lives Matter movement into a global force. This manuscript addresses major issues to aid practitioners in the effective treatment of African Americans via the lens of Critical Race Theory and the Bioecological Model. We place the impacts of racism on Black families in historical context and outline the sources of Black family resilience. We critique structural racism embedded in all aspects of psychology and allied fields. We provide an overview of racial socialization and related issues affecting the parenting decisions in Black families, as well as a detailed overview of impacts of structural racism on couple dynamics. Recommendations are made for engaging racial issues in therapy, providing emotional support and validation to couples and families experiencing discrimination and racial trauma, and using Black cultural strengths as therapeutic resources.

Black Lives Matter, Structural racism, Couples therapy, Family therapy, Racial socialization, Clinical training, Black Lives Matter, racismo estructural, terapia de pareja, terapia familiar, socialización racial, capacitación clínica, 黑人生命重要, 结构性种族主义, 伴侣治疗, 家庭治疗, 种族社会化, 临床培训

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