Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Decolonizing Couples and Family Therapy: Social Justice Praxis in Liberatory Healing Community Practice

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Book cover Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 799.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 999.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Almeida, R. (2003). Creating collectives of liberation. In T. J. Goodrich & L. B. Silverstein (Eds.), Feminist family therapy: Empowerment in social context (pp. 293–305). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Almeida, R. V., Dolan Del Vecchio, K., & Parker, L. (2007a). Transformative family therapy: Just families in a just society. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Almeida, R., Vecchio, D.-D., & Parker, L. (2007b). Foundation concepts for social justice based therapy: Critical consciousness, accountability, and empowerment. In E. Aldarondo (Ed.), Promoting social justice through mental health practice. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Almeida, R. V., Hernández-Wolfe, P., & Tubbs, C. (2011). Cultural equity: Bridging the complexity of social identities with therapeutic practices. International Journal of Narrative Therapy and Community Work, 3, 43–56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Almeida, R.V., Melendez, D., & Paéz, J. (2015). Liberation-based healing. Encyclopedia of Social Work. Online Publication Date: December 2015.

    Google Scholar 

  • Almeida, R.V., (2016). Hierarchy of Power, Privilege & Oppression Graphic. Somerset NJ: Institute Family Services.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anzaldúa, G. (1987). Borderlands/la frontera: The new mestiza. San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anzaldúa, G. (1999). Borderlands/la frontera: The new mestiza (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Aunt Lute Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ault-Riche, M. (1994). Sex, money, and laundry: Sharing responsibilities in intimate relationships. Journal of Feminist Family Therapy, 6(1), 69–87.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boss, P. (2006). Loss, trauma and resilience: Therapeutic work with ambiguous loss. New York: W.W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brave Heart, M. Y. H., & DeBruyn, L. M. (1998). The American Indian holocaust: Healing historical unresolved grief. American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research, 8(2), 60–82.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brave Heart, M. Y. H., Chase, J., Elkins, J., & Altschul, D. B. (2011). Historical trauma among indigenous peoples of the Americas: Concepts, research, and clinical considerations. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 43(4), 282–290.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Battalora, J. (2013). Birth of a White Nation: the invention of white people and its relevance today. Houston TX: Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Castro-Gómez, S. (2010). La hybris del punto cero: ciencia, raza c ilustración en la Nueva Granada, (1750–1816), segunda edición. Bogotá, Colombia: Editorial Pontificia Universidad Javeriana.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, P. H. (2000). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, P. H. (2004). Black sexual politics: African Americans, gender, and the new racism. New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Collins, P. H. (2009). Foreword: Emerging intersections—Building knowledge and transforming institutions. In B. T. Dill & R. E. Zambrana (Eds.), Emerging intersections: Race, class, and gender in theory, policy, and practice (pp. vii–xiii). New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crenshaw, K. W. (1994). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. In M. A. Fineman & R. Mykitiuk (Eds.), The public nature of private violence: The discovery of domestic abuse (pp. 93–118). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeGruy, J. (2005). Posttraumatic slave syndrome: America’s legacy of enduring injury and healing. Portland: Joy Degruy Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Doucet, M., & Rovers, M. (2010). Generational trauma, attachment, and spiritual/religious interventions. Journal of Loss & Trauma, 15, 93–105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Du Bois, W. E. B. (1903/1994). The souls of black folks. New York: Dover.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fanon, F. (1963). The wretched of the earth. New York: Grove Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freire, P. (1999). Pedagogy of hope: Reliving pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grosfoguel, R. (2011). Decolonizing post-colonial studies and paradigms of political economy: Transmodernity, decolonial thinking, and global coloniality. Transmodernity, 1(1), 1–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grosfoguel, R. (2013). The structure of knowledge in westernized universities: Epistemic racism/sexism and the four genocides/epistemicides of the long 16th century. Human Architecture, 11(1), 73–90.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hankivsky, O., & Cormier, R. (2011). Intersectionality and public policy: Some lessons from existing models. Political Research Quarterly, 64, 217–229.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harding, S. (2003). How standpoint methodology informs philosophy of social science. In S. P. Turner & P. A. Roth (Eds.), The Blackwell guide to the philosophy of the social sciences (pp. 291–310). Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jacobs, J. (2011). The cross-generational transmission of trauma: Ritual and emotion among survivors of the holocaust. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 40(3), 342–361.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maldonado-Torres, N. (2007). On the coloniality of being: Contributions to the development of a concept. Cultural Studies, 21, 240–270.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mignolo, W. D. (2009). Epistemic disobedience, independent thought and decolonial freedom. Theory, Culture & Society, 26(7–8), 159–181.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mignolo, W. (2011). Geopolitics of sensing and knowing: On (de)coloniality, border thinking and epistemic disobedience. Postcolonial Studies, 14(3), 273–285.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pewewardy, N., & Almeida, R. (2013). Articulating the scaffolding of white supremacy: The act of naming in liberation. The Journal of Progressive Human Services, 25(3), 230–253.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quijano, A. (2000a). Colonialidad del poder y clasifcacion social. Journal of World Systems Research, XI(2), 342–386.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quijano A. (2000b). Coloniality of Power, Eurocentrism, and Latin America. Nepantla, 1(3), 533–580.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quijano, A. (2007). Coloniality and modernity/rationality. Cultural Studies, 21(2–3), 168–178.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walters, K. L., & Simoni, J. M. (2009). Decolonizing strategies for mentoring American Indians and Alaska natives in HIV and mental health research. American Journal of Public Health, 99(1), 71–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Institute for Family Services, Somerset, NJ, USA

    Rhea Almeida & Lisa Dressner

  2. Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, New York, NY, USA

    Willie Tolliver

Authors
  1. Rhea Almeida
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Lisa Dressner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Willie Tolliver
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rhea Almeida .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. The Family Institute at Northwestern University, Center for Applied Psychological and Family Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Jay L. Lebow

  2. The Family Institute at Northwestern University, Center for Applied Psychological and Family Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Anthony L. Chambers

  3. The Family Institute at Northwestern University, Center for Applied Psychological and Family Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA

    Douglas C. Breunlin

Section Editor information

  1. PositivaMente & Grupo Campos Elíseos, Mexico City, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico

    Margarita Tarragona

Appendices

Appendices

Appendix 1: Questioning Binary Norms of Socialization

  1. 1.

    Avoiding historically femininity and behaviors with cisgender women’s role (housework, childcare, gender nonconforming activities and occupations).

  2. 2.

    Seeking stereotypically hypermasculine appearance – large upper-body muscular build – projecting physical strength and shading/avoiding color. Patina of seriousness around sports and not in fashion or makeup.

  3. 3.

    Restrictive emotionality, suppression of range of feelings (except for anger), emotional distance, avoidance of affect in self and others.

  4. 4.

    Seeking social status and self-esteem via achievement, competition primacy of work/provider role, earning power.

  5. 5.

    Self-reliance, avoidance of dependency on others even on intimates and friends.

  6. 6.

    Aggression (sometimes alternating with avoidance/denial) as a means of conflict resolution. Toughness and leadership in the face of adversity.

  7. 7.

    Striving for inherited patriarchal dominance in relationships and control over others in the family.

  8. 8.

    Non-relational attitudes toward sexuality, and objectification of others, use of pornography rather than erotica as means for arousal.

  9. 9.

    Homophobia and transphobia, fear/anger at members of the LGBTQ* community/gender nonconforming people and rigid adherence to a gender binary.

  10. 10.

    Seeking stereotyped feminine looks and behavior. Thin Barbie dollesque or the sexualized model of a cisgender woman. Choosing historically female roles and over focus on second-shift responsibilities.

  11. 11.

    Comfortable with a range of emotions except anger and adopting the caretaker role.

  12. 12.

    Seeking social status and self-esteem vicariously through heterosexual partnering.

  13. 13.

    “Acquiescing to non-equal sharing in second-shift responsibilities.”

  14. 14.

    Normalization of heterosexual coupling.

Appendix 2: Cultivating Spaces for Gender Fluidity and Nonconformity

  1. 1.

    Expanded emotionality: the willingness to express the full range of emotions, including exuberance, joy, love, wonder and awe at things beautiful, fear, sadness, remorse, disappointment, and allowing oneself to express all of the highs and lows of the human experience.

  2. 2.

    Embracing and accepting of expanded gender expressions to be fluid for all.

  3. 3.

    Balancing work and family life: seeking pride through contributing both within the world of work and as an active participant in family and community life.

  4. 4.

    Embracing relatedness over individualism: valuing collaboration with all human beings and with the rest of the natural spiritual world.

  5. 5.

    Valuing shared power of relatedness: striving to create equal partnerships with adults and relationships with children that engender feelings of being loved and respected while also providing appropriate limits and structure.

  6. 6.

    Challenging and resisting cisgender hetero male definitions of sexuality and inviting expressions along the trajectory of gender identity and sexual orientation.

  7. 7.

    Rethinking and embracing positive sexual roles across gender expressions for all individuals, including elders, all sizes, and different experiences of ableness.

  8. 8.

    Interrupting homophobia/transphobia: embracing gender identities and sexual orientation as fluid identities for all.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Almeida, R., Dressner, L., Tolliver, W. (2019). Decolonizing Couples and Family Therapy: Social Justice Praxis in Liberatory Healing Community Practice. In: Lebow, J.L., Chambers, A.L., Breunlin, D.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49425-8_823

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation