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The Convergence of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender
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The Convergence of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender
Multiple Identities in Counseling

Fifth Edition


496 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
Students, beginning and seasoned mental health professionals will be better prepared for diversity practice by this accessible, timely, provocative, and critical work, The Convergence of Race, Ethnicity and Gender: Multiple Identities in Counseling, Fifth Edition.  Author Tracy Robinson-Wood demonstrates, through both the time honored tradition of storytelling and clinically-focused case studies, the process of patient and therapist transformation.  This insightful, practical resource offers behavioral health professionals a nuanced view of diversity beyond race, culture, and ethnicity to include and interrogate intersectionality among race, culture, gender, sexuality, age, class, nationality, religion, and disability.  With a keen focus on quality patient care, this important text aims to help professionals better serve patients across sources of diversity.  Readers will recognize their roles and responsibilities as social justice agents of change, while identifying the ways in which dominant cultural beliefs and values furnish and perpetuate clients’ feelings of stuckness and inadequacy, in both the therapeutic alliance and within the larger society. This remarkable text reveres the lifelong commitment of using knowledge and skills as power for good to make a meaningful difference in people's lives.
 
Part I: The Mental Health Professional and Diversity
 
Chapter 1: You, The Mental Health Professional, and Diversity in Mental Health Practice
The Mental Health Profession

 
 
Chapter 2: Multicultural Competencies: Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes
Multicultural Competencies

 
Competency Guidelines, Benchmarks, and Standards

 
Diversity Training

 
Assessment and Research

 
Implications for Mental Health Professionals

 
Case Study

 
 
Chapter 3: Multiple Identities
Multicultural Counseling and Psychology Defined

 
Diversity: An Overview

 
A B C Dimensions

 
Conceptualization of the Self

 
Images of Diversity

 
Implications for Mental Health Professionals

 
Case Study

 
 
Chapter 4: Identities as Status
Identities as Status: The Contextual and Social Construction of Differences Model

 
Assumptions of Hierarchical Socialization Patterns

 
Implications for Mental Health Professionals

 
Case Study

 
 
Part II: Our People
 
Chapter 5: People of Native American and Alaskan Native Descent
History

 
Geography and Demography

 
Social, Psychological, and Physical Health Issues

 
Acculturation

 
Cultural Philosophies and Values

 
Implications for Mental Health Professionals

 
Case Study

 
 
Chapter 6: People of Spanish and Latino Descent
The Spanish, Portuguese, Indians, Asians, and Africans

 
Migratory Patterns from Mexico

 
Demography

 
Geography

 
Social, Psychological, and Physical Health Issues

 
Migration and Acculturation

 
Cultural Orientation and Values

 
Implications for Mental Health Professionals

 
Case Study

 
 
Chapter 7: People of African Descent
History, 500-1500 AD

 
The Slave Trade

 
Resistance to Slavery

 
Demographic Trends

 
Social, Psychological, and Physiological Health Issues

 
Cultural Orientation and Values

 
Implications for Mental Health Professionals

 
Case Study

 
 
Chapter 8: People of Asian Descent, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders
History

 
Demography

 
Social, Psychological, and Physical Health Issues

 
Acculturation and Experiences in America

 
Cultural Orientation and Values

 
Asian American Identity Development

 
Implications for Mental Health Professionals

 
Case Study

 
 
Chapter 9: People of the Middle East and Arab Americans
The Africans, Asians, Europeans, and Arabs

 
Muslims and Arabs: Differences and Similarities

 
Migratory Patterns from the Middle East

 
Demography

 
U.S. Census Bureau Classification as White

 
Social, Psychological, and Physical Health Issues

 
Cultural Orientation and Values

 
Implications for Mental Health Professionals

 
Case Study

 
 
Chapter 10: People of European Descent
History and Immigration

 
Geography and Demography

 
Social, Psychological, and Physical Health Issues

 
The Meaning of Whiteness

 
White Racial Identity Development

 
White Privilege and Colorblindness

 
Implications for Mental Health Professionals

 
Case Study

 
 
Chapter 11: People of Jewish Descent
History of Migragration and Accultration

 
Defining Judaism

 
The Meaning of Being Jewsih

 
Shoah (The Holocaust)

 
Demography

 
Social, Psychological, and Physical Health Issues

 
Cultural Orientation and Values

 
Implications for Mental Health Professionals

 
Case Study

 
 
Part III: Converging Identities
 
Chapter 12: Converging Race
The Social Construction of Race

 
Race and Science

 
Origins of Racial Groups

 
On Race, Ethnicity, and Difference

 
Implications for Mental Health Professionals

 
Case Study

 
 
Chapter 13: Converging Biracial and Multicultural Identities
Definitions

 
Demography

 
The One-Drop Rule

 
The Fluidity of Race

 
Racial Socialization

 
Multiracial and Biracial Identity Development

 
Research and Biracial and Multiracial Populations

 
Implications for Mental Health Professionals

 
Case Study

 
 
Chapter 14: Converging Gender
Gender Definitions

 
Gender and Biology

 
The Social Construction of Gender

 
Undoing Gender

 
Sex and Gender Roles

 
Gender and Emotion

 
Gender and the Body

 
Gender and Experiences in Therapy

 
Gender Identity Models

 
Implications for Mental Health Professionals

 
Case Study

 
 
Chapter 15: Converging Sexuality
Definitions and Terminology

 
Narrative Questions

 
The Importance of a Focus on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues in Mental Health Diversity

 
Developmental Processes

 
Counseling LGBT Populations of Color

 
Implications for Mental Health Professionals

 
Case Study

 
 
Chapter 16: Converging Socioeconomic Class
The Invisibility of Class as a Variable in Counseling

 
The Intersection of Class

 
Class: An Identity Construct

 
Middle-Class Bias and Counselor Training

 
The Fluidity of Class

 
Middle-Class Bias and Ethical Standards

 
Classism

 
Implications for Mental Health Professionals

 
Case Study

 
 
Chapter 17: Converging Disability
Understanding Disability

 
Disabilities and Children in Schools

 
Adults and Disabilities

 
Veterans

 
Disability Studies

 
The Social Construction of Disability

 
Alzheimers

 
Perfection, Beauty, and the Able Body

 
Implications for Counselors and Psychologists

 
Case Study

 
 
Chapter 18: Converging Spirituality
Spirituality and Religion Defined

 
Spirituality, Therapy, and Cultural Considerations

 
Diverse Healing Strategies

 
Implications for Mental Health Professionals

 
Case Study

 
 
Chapter 19: Converging Social Justice in Diversity Practice
Social Justice and Empowerment

 
Power and Powerlessness

 
Social Justice and the Therapeutic Process

 
Feminist Therapy and Social Justice

 
Patient Navigation: Social Justice Example

 
Implications for Mental Health Professionals

 
Case Study

 

Supplements

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Modern, cutting-edge info in a topic that has evolved considerably even in the last few years. Speaks to the millennial generation in a way that other textbooks I've used have not.

Dr Catherine Griffith
School Of Education, University Of Massachusetts
June 2, 2016

Sample Materials & Chapters

Chapter 4


Tracy L. Robinson-Wood

Tracy Robinson-Wood is a professor in the Department of Applied Psychology at Northeastern University. She is author of The Convergence of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender: Multiple Identities in Counseling. The fifth edition, to be published by SAGE, is anticipated in 2016. Her research interests focus on the intersections of race, gender, sexuality, and class in psychosocial identity development. She has developed the Resistance Modality Inventory (RMI), a psychometrically valid measure of psychological resistance based upon a theory of resistance she co-developed for black girls and women to optimally push back against racism, sexism,... More About Author

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