An ethnic validity model is presented as an alternative framework from which psychotherapy can be conceptualized and practiced within and across ethnic groups. This model is advanced in response to research findings, to evidence of ethnocentric biases in American psychology, and to criticisms of public policy. An ethnic validity model emphasizes that there are a variety of ways of living (of being human) each of which offers strengths and limitations. The model addresses the convergence, divergence, and conflict between different ethnic world views and their consequent emergence in cross-ethnic patterns of interaction. It emphasizes the importance of attending to those possibilities in understanding and conducting psychotherapy and the potentials of growth for both therapist and client from doing so.Over the past two decades researchers and practitioners representing a variety of interests and perspectives have criticized the paradigms of

This article goes beyond the question of the positive-negative valence of the Afro-American female self-concept. It proposes a model of self-concept formation for Afro-American women that explains the complexity involved in the synthesis of gender and race self-referents. Three self-referents. psychophysiological referent, African-American referent, and myself referent, are proposed to provide an understanding of the Black female self.The quest for knowledge concerning the experiences and contributions of Afro-American women has been characterized by a long and difficult struggle to capture the essence of what it means to be Afro-American and female. The complexity of such a search lies in understanding the historical past of Afro-American women,