Black Men and Racial Trauma

by Yamonte Cooper

This volume comprehensively addresses racial trauma from a clinical lens, equipping mental health professionals across all disciplines to be culturally responsive when serving Black men. Written using a transdisciplinary approach, Yamonte Cooper presents a Unified Theory of Racism (UTR), Integrated Model of Racial Trauma (IMRT), Transgenerational Trauma Points (TTP), Plantation Politics, Black Male Negation (BMN), and Race-Based Shame (RBS) to fill a critical and urgent void in the mental health field and emerging scholarship on racial trauma. Chapters begin with specific definitions of racism before exploring specific challenges that Black men face, such as racial discrimination and health, trauma, criminalization, economic deprivation, anti-Black misandry, and culturally-specific stressors, emotions, such as shame and anger, and coping mechanisms that these men utilize. After articulating the racial trauma of Black men in a comprehensive manner, the book provides insight into what responsive care looks like as well as clinical interventions that can inform treatment approaches. This book is invaluable reading for all established and training mental health clinicians that work with Black men, such as psychologists, marriage and family therapists, social workers, counselors, and psychiatrists.

314 pages, Paperback

Published February 23, 2024

About the author

Dr. Yamonte Cooper is a nationally recognized trauma and relationship expert with extensive experience in couples therapy, trauma, and sexual health. He serves as the Clinical Director of the West Coast Sex Therapy Center, is a Professor of Counseling and adjunct Professor of Clinical Psychology, and is a Certified Sex Therapist Supervisor (CST-S).

Dr. Cooper is the author of Black Men and Racial Trauma: Impacts, Disparities, and Interventions, co-editor of Black Couples Therapy: Clinical Theory and Practice, and editor of the forthcoming book Black Male Sexuality: Race, Genre, and Class (Cambridge University Press). As a Fulbright scholar, he has worked internationally to exchange best practices in career development.