Storying survival: An approach to radical healing for the Black community.

Abstract

Anti-Black racism (ABR) contributes to racial trauma and to the disproportionate negative mental, physical, and social outcomes faced by Black populations (Hargons et al., 2017;Wun, 2016a). The previous literature demonstrates that storytelling and other narrative interventions are often used to promote collective healing among Black people (Banks-Wallace, 2002;Moors, 2019). Storying survival (i.e., the utilization of stories to promote liberation from racial trauma) is one such narrative intervention (Mosley et al., 2021); however, little is known about the processes by which Black people utilize storying survival to promote radical healing. Using an intersectional framework and thematic analysis from a phenomenological perspective (Braun & Clarke, 2006), the present study analyzed interviews from 12 racial justice activists in order to understand how these activists engage in storying survival to foster Black survival and healing. Results show that storying survival includes five interconnected components: storying influences, mechanisms of storying survival, content of storying survival, context of storying survival, and impact of storying survival. Each of these categories and subcategories are detailed herein and are supported with quotations. The findings and related discussion explore the concept of storying survival and its contributions to critical consciousness, radical hope, strength and resistance, cultural self-knowledge, and collectivism among participants and their communities. This study therefore provides important and practical information about how Black people and the counseling psychologists who aim to serve them can utilize storying survival to resist and heal from ABR. Public Significance StatementThe present study explicates the concept of storying survival, an intervention that facilitates radical healing and liberation for Black people. We delineate the interconnected processes of storying survival, providing insight for Black people seeking to use this strategy to resist and heal from anti-Black racism as well as for counseling psychologists interested in facilitating and supporting such healing through their professional practice.

On the need to reconcile cultural and professional power in psychotherapy: Humanistic principles that are foundational for feminist multicultural practice.

“…Training programs have been expected to teach trainees to reflect upon these differences in power and to learn about strategies to address them within a therapeutic context. Although continued attention to these issues is crucial and much needed, a foundation for working with cultural power in therapy is being actively developed (Adames et al, 2023; Comas-Díaz, 2020; French et al, 2020; Martinez et al, 2022; McNeil-Young et al, 2023).…”

“…This practice also supports liberatory therapists to work with clients to develop an authentic cultural voice and enhance their self-knowledge rather than being defined by oppressive and invalidation messages (see Adames et al, 2023 for a cogent example of this work). It helps them develop trust in their own experiences and perceptions, even in the face of their devaluation in dominant social narratives (McNeil-Young et al, 2023).…”

“…Clients may seek symbolization of experiences that represent moving toward individuation, connection, or both paths. The fostering of symbolization may support the development of narratives that are better able to reflect the complexities of clients’ lives and their strategies for survival in the face of cultural stigma (on the role of narrative in anti-racist therapy see McNeil-Young et al, 2023).…”

Dismantling and eradicating anti-Blackness and systemic racism.

“…The third article by McNeil-Young et al (2023) offers the field a storying survival framework for addressing anti-Black racism that promotes healing and liberation from racial trauma for the Black community. Their intersectional and phenomenological study of 12 Black racial justice activists helped to reveal the multifaceted nature of storying survival (storying influences, mechanisms of storying survival, content of storying survival, context of storying survival, and impact of storying survival) and provides an exemplar of how this approach can be used to resist and heal from anti-Black racism.…”

“…Their intersectional and phenomenological study of 12 Black racial justice activists helped to reveal the multifaceted nature of storying survival (storying influences, mechanisms of storying survival, content of storying survival, context of storying survival, and impact of storying survival) and provides an exemplar of how this approach can be used to resist and heal from anti-Black racism. In addition, McNeil-Young et al’s use of nonconfidential research methods, a rarity in the counseling psychology empirical literature, provides our field yet another way in which we can re-envision the approach to study anti-Blackness and systemic racism by increasing the accessibility of the research and disrupting the trend of extracting more from the Black community than what a study or researcher or field has given (Scharff et al, 2010 as cited by McNeil-Young et al, 2023). Ultimately, McNeil-Young et al provide us with re-envisioned guidelines for research that call for work in this area to no longer be extractive, of limited application or outreach to the communities of study.…”