Guide for Clinical Practice: 1555 Internalized Racial-Trauma Addressing Internalized Racial-trauma Among African Americans

Abstract

Prior literature has suggested interventions to address racial-trauma among individuals of African descent in clinical practice settings. Although there is an existing body of literature on external racial-trauma interventions, limited research has established interventions to address internalized racial-trauma in clinical practice for mental health providers. This project used conceptual framework of community-based participatory research, theoretical framework post-traumatic slave syndrome theory, and existing racial-trauma interventions, to understand the social problem of internalized racial-trauma among the African American community, and propose the developed innovation, Guide for Clinical Practice: 1555 Internalized Racial-Trauma. Guide for Clinical Practice: 1555 Internal Racial-Trauma (1555 IRT) is a social innovation that is aimed to increase conversations on race in therapeutic settings, with objectives (1) to increase clinician knowledge on internalized racial trauma, (2) increase self-efficacy to use 1555 IRT open-ended questions, and (3) assist mental health providers to increase skills to personalized treatment plans that addresses race-related distress. 1555 IRT consists of five subscales: Devaluation of Own Cultural Group, Vacant Esteem, Internalization of Negative Stereotypes, Disdain of Natural Physical Features, and Social Fears, that were influenced by existing literature.