Creates a new framework for approaching Black womens wellness, by merging theory and practice with both personal narratives and public policy. This book offers a unique, interdisciplinary, and thoughtful look at the challenges and potency of Black womens struggle for inner peace and mental stability. It brings together contributors from psychology, sociology, law, and medicine, as well as the humanities, to discuss issues ranging from stress, sexual assault, healing, self-care, and contemplative practice to health-policy considerations and parenting. Merging theory and practice with personal narratives and public policy, the book develops a new framework for approaching Black womens wellness in order to provide tangible solutions. The collection reflects feminist praxis and defines womanist peace in terms that reject both superwoman stereotypes and victim caricatures. Also included for health professionals are concrete recommendations for understanding and treating Black women. this book speaks not only to Black women but also educates a broader audience of policymakers and therapists about the complex and multilayered realities that we must navigate and the protests we must mount on our journey to find inner peace and optimal health. from the Foreword by Linda Goler Blount
Examines how Black women elders have managed stress, emphasizing how self-care practices have been present since at least the mid-nineteenth century, with roots in African traditions. How have Black women elders managed stress? In Black Women's Yoga History, Stephanie Y. Evans uses primary sources to answer that question and to show how meditation and yoga from eras of enslavement, segregation, and migration to the Civil Rights, Black Power, and New Age movements have been in existence all along. Life writings by Harriet Jacobs, Sadie and Bessie Delany, Eartha Kitt, Rosa Parks, Jan Willis, and Tina Turner are only a few examples of personal case studies that are included here, illustrating how these women managed traumatic stress, anxiety, and depression. In more than fifty yoga memoirs, Black women discuss practices of reflection, exercise, movement, stretching, visualization, and chanting for self-care. By unveiling the depth of a struggle for wellness, memoirs offer lessons for those who also struggle to heal from personal, cultural, and structural violence. This intellectual history expands conceptions of yoga and defines inner peace as mental health, healing, and wellness that is both compassionate and political. Stephanie Y. Evans is a Professor of Black Women's Studies, Director of the Institute for Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Affiliate Faculty in the Department of African American Studies and in the Center for the Study of Stress, Trauma, and Resilience at Georgia State University. Her books include Black Women and Social Justice Education: Legacies and Lessons (coedited with Andrea D. Domingue and Tania D. Mitchell); Black Women's Mental Health: Balancing Strength and Vulnerability (coedited with Kanika Bell and Nsenga K. Burton); and African Americans and Community Engagement in Higher Education: Community Service, Service-Learning, and Community-Based Research (coedited with Colette M. Taylor, Michelle R. Dunlap, and DeMond S. Miller), all published by SUNY Press.
"Promoting Black Women's Mental Health celebrates the strengths and complexities of Black women in American life. Many misunderstand and mischaracterize Black women, and under appreciate their important contributions to families, communities, and the nation. In this book, a team of Black women mental health practitioners and scholars discuss a range of conditions that impact Black women's self-concepts and mental health. Drawing on a study of Black women across the United States, authors explore the social determinants of Black women's mental health and wellness and Black women's girlhood experiences. The book also explores Black women's stereotypes, their traumas, how they shift in relationships, and images that affect their racial and gender identity development. The book draws on scholarly and popular sources to present Black women's strength and challenges. Authors include commentary, case examples, reflection questions, and resources to improve practitioners' capacities to help Black women clients to recover, heal and thrive"--
This book unpacks the myth of the "strong black woman" who is never allowed any weakness and the health impacts, both physical and mental, of living in a skewed culture.
African American women have commonly been portrayed as "pillars" of their communities—resilient mothers, sisters, wives, and grandmothers who remain steadfast in the face of all adversities. While these portrayals imply that African American women have few psychological problems, the scientific literature and demographic data present a different picture. They reveal that African American women are at increased risk for psychological distress because of factors that disproportionately affect them, including lower incomes, greater poverty and unemployment, unmarried motherhood, racism, and poor physical health. Yet at the same time, rates of mental illness are low. This invaluable book is the first comprehensive examination of the contradictions between the strengths and vulnerabilities of this population. Using the contexts of race, gender, and social class, In and Out of Our Right Minds challenges the traditional notions of mental health and mental illness as they apply to African American women.
This handbook brings together crucial information related to mental illness among black Americans by examining the impact of social structures and conditions on the mental health of blacks. Choice While it is generally assumed that poverty, unemployment, and discrimination have a serious impact on the psychological well-being and functioning of black Americans, very little research has been directed to understanding or documenting the black experience from the mental health standpoint. This multidisciplinary study develops a broad perspective on the subject, with implications for both clinical practice and sociological research. In addition to examining important mental health issues, the authors look at the ways in which specific social, structural, and cultural conditions and practices affect the lives of individual Black Americans and their families. The first two parts of the book present demographic profiles of the black community and epidemiological analyses of mental disorders. The psychological stressors arising from racism are next considered, together with the social structures and coping skills that have enabled blacks to maintain networks of support. Two chapters are devoted to homicide and family violence in the black community. The remaining chapters cover psychiatric diagnosis and treatment, legal and social policy issues, and factors in positive mental health. Incorporating the contributions of sociologists, social workers, psychologists, and psychiatrists as well as mental health administrators, this book provides new data and expert analyses that will be of interest to anyone working in this rapidly expanding field.
Women’s Mental Health Across the Lifespan examines women’s mental health from a developmental perspective, looking at key stressors and strengths from adolescence to old age. Chapters focus in detail on specific stressors and challenges that can impact women’s mental health, such as trauma, addictions, and mood and anxiety disorders. This book also examines racial and ethnic disparities in women’s physical and mental health, mental health of sexual minorities and women with disabilities, and women in the military, and includes valuable suggestions for putting knowledge into practice.
This book discusses the importance of culture and diversity within society through multicultural, cross-cultural, and intercultural encounters while applying psychological effectiveness to manage core competencies. It carefully explains how influential the social environment is to an individual within a society. It seeks to directly affect mental health practitioners’ treatment within practices in accordance to specific ethno-cultural clients; and it seeks to encourage students and practitioners to practice acceptance of diverse groups and multiracial communities. Although understanding various cultural norms and accepting diversity is not always simple, the book promotes a global understanding through identifying cultural benefits within a multiracial, multi-ethnic society, while evoking culturally competent techniques for mental health practitioners.
There are several debates in reference to, the definitions of mental health and its contributory factors on black people's life. There is also conflicting views by several authors and their failure to recognised cultural differences and the need for inclusion of black people's experiences in research, while a majority of people from different background, ethnicity, and gender differentiation appears to be making more use of mental health provisions. These concerns are examined through an approach that brought to the fore experiences of black women that have gone unnoticed; it's like a nation without a history. Yet there are factors that are of great significance in understanding major obstacles that are known to be an historical factor in the life and in understanding of black women's experiences. The life history of black women in Britain, the paucity of literature on black related issues, and the negative impact of racism, and social Darwinism of marginalism on black women's life comes with other social issues. The fact that black women still occupy denigrated roles and responsibility in a country where there has been much debates on equality of opportunities. Yet, equal access to training, housing and many other factors comes at a cost on black people's every day experience. Women are especially at risks from poor mental health compounded by other multi-layered factors. Such is inclusive of the lack of prestigious occupation associated with unequal access toward promotion. Certainly, these multifaceted realities can affect their performance in compromised to their health and ability to withstand negative influences. This title 'Teetering on the Edge' attempts to improve upon the lack of resources on the experiences and historical account of black women of Caribbean descent in Britain and the direct results of their insurmountable experiences inclusive of the impact of injustices on related issues of health. The uniqueness of this book seeks to make known these issues and to address the paucity of black women life experience from an historical perspective and the challenges of negatives that impacted their life and health in heightening public awareness of these issues.
The experiences of both black patients and the black mental health professionals who serve them are analyzed against the backdrop of the cultural, societal, and professional forces that have shaped their place in this specialized health care arena.