Multicultural Feminist Therapy With Adolescent Girls of Color
ISBN: 978-1-4338-4126-2Available formats
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Adolescent girls of color are among the least-understood and least-served populations in Western society generally and, more specifically, in clinical practice. Although adolescent girls of color wrestle with many of the same mental health challenges as teens from other backgrounds, they receive psychotherapy and counseling at a far lower rate, and when they do seek help, therapy is often terminated prematurely. Multicultural feminist psychotherapists seek to correct this situation by advocating for an empowering approach to working with this young population.
In this video, Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis discusses this therapeutic approach with host Dr. Maysa Akbar, then demonstrates her work in a session with a teenage client. Following the demonstration, Dr. Bryant Davis and Dr. Akbar discuss key moments from the session.
Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis completed her doctorate in clinical psychology at Duke University and her post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical Center's Victims of Violence Program. Upon graduating, she became the coordinator of the Princeton University SHARE Program, which provides intervention and prevention programming to combat sexual assault, sexual harassment, and harassment based on sexual orientation.
She is currently a tenured professor of psychology in the Graduate School of Education and Psychology at Pepperdine University, where she directs the Culture and Trauma Research Laboratory. Her clinical and research interests center on interpersonal trauma and the societal trauma of oppression. She is a past president of the Society for the Psychology of Women and a past APA representative to the United Nations.
Dr. Thema also served on the APA Committee on International Relations in Psychology and the Committee on Women in Psychology. APA honored her for Distinguished Early Career Contributions to Psychology in the Public Interest in 2013. The Institute of Violence, Abuse and Trauma honored her with their media award for the film Psychology of Human Trafficking in 2016 and the Institute honored her with the Donald Fridley Memorial Award for excellence in mentoring in the field of trauma in 2018. The California Psychological Association honored her for Distinguished Scientific Achievement in Psychology in 2015.
She is the editor of Multicultural Feminist Therapy: Helping Adolescent Girls of Color to Thrive. She is one of the foundational scholars on the topic of the trauma of racism and in 2020, she gave an invited keynote address on the topic at APA. In 2020, the International Division of APA honored her for her International Contributions to the Study of Gender and Women for her work in Africa and the Diaspora.
Dr. Thema has raised public awareness regarding mental health by extending the reach of psychology beyond the academy and private therapy office through community programming and media engagement, including but not limited to Headline News, National Public Radio, and CNN.
