Clinical Issues with Interracial Couples

Theories and Research

Go beyond cookie-cutter therapy and interventions to provide culturally relevant therapy that works for your clients in interracial relationships!

With this book, you'll explore an array of relational issues faced by various configurations of interracial couples. Then you'll learn specific intervention strategies for treating these couples in therapy. The first section presents research and theoretical chapters on issues faced by interracial couples who are heterosexual; the second focuses on issues facing racially mixed gay and lesbian couples; and the third provides you with specific interventions to use with couples in interracial relationships. Clinical Issues with Interracial Couples: Theories and Research is an important addition to the collection of any therapist who counts an interracial couple among his or her clients.

From the editors: “Although interracial couples face challenges related to differences in their racial backgrounds, couple and family theories have had little to say about how to work with these differences. Not all couples are white, married, and heterosexual, and there is a growing understanding that clinical practices based on these assumptions may not be adequate when working with interracial couples. Recognizing the diversity of our clients, the intent of this book is to contribute to more respectful and inclusive clinical practices that can address the treatment issues we face in the first decade of the twenty-first century.”

The first section of this book examines challenges faced by heterosexual interracial couples, focusing on:

• how black/white couples experience and respond to racism and how they negotiate the racial and ethnic differences they face in their relationships
• the significance of race-or lack of it-in white women's relationships with black men, with suggestions on how to create a therapeutic space for discussing race without over-determining its significance
• marriages where one partner is of Latino/a descent and the other of non-Latino/a white descent-a pilot study of a rarely investigated population!
• approaches, interventions, and strategies to use when treating multicultural Muslim couples
• Hawaii's unusual history of interracial ties and relationships, the common challenges that face interracial couples there, and therapeutic interventions that can benefit them

The second section of Clinical Issues with Interracial Couples looks at the issues faced by same-sex interracial couples. Here is a sample of what you'll find:

• clinical considerations for working with interracial/intercultural lesbian couples
• pitfalls to avoid in therapy as well as suggestions for a conceptual approach for gay Latino men in cross-cultural relationships

The book's final section presents interventions for use with interracial couples. Here you'll find:

• assessment techniques and interventions geared toward black-white couples
• information on doing effective therapy with Latino/a-white couples
• a case study of the therapeutic process as applied to an Asian-American woman married to a white man
• seven therapists' perspectives on working with interracial couples-focusing on the historical context of intermarriage, specific concerns and issues that interracial couples experience in their relationships, and the experiences of therapists working with this diverse and challenging client population