Training Description:
Racial trauma is a term used to describe the physical and psychological symptoms that people of color often experience after being exposed to stressful experiences of racism (Carter, 2007). Similar to survivors of other types of trauma, people of color often experience fear and hypervigilance, headaches, insomnia, body aches, memory difficulty, self-blame, confusion, shame, and guilt after experiencing racism (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005; Carter, 2007, Carlson, 1997; Helms, Nicolas, & Green, 2010).
Moreover, when people of color experience racism more frequently, their symptoms tend to intensify (Bryant-Davis & Ocampo, 2005). Racial trauma is a cumulative experience, where every personal or vicarious encounter with racism contributes to a more insidious, chronic stress (Carter, 2007). Youth of color are able to recount negative race-related experiences, including racial discrimination, beginning in early childhood. By adolescence, researchers indicate that youth of color report experiencing racial discrimination at least 6 times a day. Yet, much of the extant literature focuses on adult racial stress and trauma.
The workshop will present current scholarship highlighting the interpersonal, institutional, and systemic race-related experiences of youth. Strategies for assessing racial stress and the potential for trauma will be presented. The workshop will conclude with recommendations for treatment and fostering healing.
