Black Lives Are Beautiful is a workbook explicitly designed to help members of the Black community counter the impacts of racialized trauma while also cultivating self-esteem, building resilience, fostering community, and promoting Black empowerment.

As readers explore each part of this workbook, they will develop tools to overcome the mental injuries that occur from living in a racialized society. Clinicians who use this workbook with clients will find a practical toolbox of racially informed interventions to aid clinicians, particularly White clinicians, in culturally sensitive clinical practice.

About the Author

Janee M. Steele, PhD, is a licensed professional counselor, counselor educator, and diplomate of the Academy of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies. Dr. Steele is also the owner of Kalamazoo Cognitive and Behavioral Therapy, PLLC, where she provides therapy, supervision, and training in CBT. Her scholarly activity includes service as an associate editor of the Journal of Multicultural Counseling & Development and authorship of works focused on the areas of CBT, cultural diversity, social justice advocacy, and counselor training.

Charmeka S. Newton, PhD, is a professor at the University of North Dakota. She is also a fully licensed psychologist and owner of Legacy Mental Health Services, PLLC. Dr. Newton is passionate about mitigating racial disparities in mental health treatment. In 2022, she was honored with the Distinguished Psychologist Award by the Michigan Psychological Association for this work. She is also a peer-reviewed journal author and sought-after speaker.

Reviews

"Cultivating the spirit of the human condition that Africa-descended people possess requires conditions that affirm rather than invalidate; support rather than denigrate; and surrounded with loving ambiance as opposed to toxic energy. The spirit is challenged, however, to receive that level of valuation and validation in a climate where racism and White supremacy create the condition for a chronic assault on an individual and a people's humanity. Culturally congruent, therapeutic engagement not only requires an accurate assessment of the residual baggage Black people continue to carry from historic and chronic exposure to individual, instructional and societal racism, but it also requires therapeutic support that provides nurturing spaces for people's spirits to recover and heal. This text is a blueprint for how to recognize when clients have been impacted by the racial trauma and toxicity of life's circumstances. It is also a road map for taking people from where they are to where they ought to be. Those of us who are committed to this work enthusiastically embrace the arrival of this book and recommend its adoption by those who are serious about providing therapeutic benefit to people of African descent."

Thomas A. Parham, PhD, president, California State University, Dominguez Hills, and distinguished psychologist, The Association of Black Psychology

"High praise for Black Lives Are Beautiful. This workbook for managing racialized trauma could not be more timely, especially given the persistent barrage of assaults targeted against the Black community (e.g., state sanctioned violence, voter suppression, everyday racism). The authors validate and affirm the integrity of the Black experience. In particular, they provide digestible information concerning the science of racialized trauma, the impact of trauma on the Black psyche, and a host of exercises and nuggets of wisdom that help readers heal from racialized trauma. This is a must read for every Black person because it was written by us and for us."

Norma L. Day-Vines, PhD, professor and associate dean for diversity and faculty development, Johns Hopkins University

"Dr. Steele and Dr. Newton have given the world a precious gift with Black Lives Are Beautiful: 50 Tools to Heal from Trauma and Promote Positive Racial Identity. This is a must-have book for mental health practitioners and an important support for Black clients healing from racial trauma and remembering their value and worth as key components of Black liberation."

Anneliese Singh, PhD, associate provost for diversity and faculty development, chief diversity officer, and provost, Tulane University

"Awareness and knowledge can contribute to personal empowerment and self-efficacy. This workbook has been developed to promote healing, self-love, and acceptance of one's identity as an individual of African/Black heritage. The authors provide a sensitive approach to promote racial healing as an on-going process in one's life journey."

Patricia Arredondo, EdD, president, Arredondo Advisory Group, and faculty fellow, Fielding Graduate University

Book Information
ISBN 9781032117423
Author Janee M. Steele
Format Paperback
Page Count 284
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 540g