African American adolescent girls: Embracing the strength in intersectionality.

Abstract

African American girls are a diverse, resilient group whose members experience a range of strengths and challenges. The varied lived experiences of African American girls highlight the importance of an intersectional lens when considering therapeutic approaches and ways in which practitioners can work to empower them. However, as with other ethnic minorities, there is often underutilization of mental health treatment by African American girls (Garland et al., 2005;L. M. Miller, Southam-Gerow, & Allin, 2008). This chapter examines such approaches from the perspective of individual, family, and group therapy, with a focus on assessment, barriers to treatment, strategies for treatment retention, and effectiveness of treatment.Although African American girls have myriad presenting problems, trauma is, unfortunately, a common underlying issue for many (Voisin, 2007;Wilson, Woods, Emerson, & Donenberg, 2012). We examine the impact of varied traumatic experiences, such as violence, racism, and other forms of oppression (e.g., sexism, classism, homophobia), and identify how these experiences may manifest as presenting problems in the therapeutic setting.