Treating the trauma of racial systemic oppression: A scoping review and thematic analysis
Date
2025
Authors
Emery, Megan
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Abstract
This research study sought to answer the question: How does the recent literature examine treating the chronic trauma of racial systemic oppression within the individual therapy hour? A scoping review and thematic analysis of 34 articles was conducted, per the Arksey and O’Malley (2005) and PRISMA-SR protocols. The analysis found that there are three categories of philosophy in the selected literature: Western, Adapted Western, and Decolonized. These categories agree that racial systemic oppression is psychologically traumatic, that it must be addressed via anti-racist approaches, and that the therapist must have done significant reflexive work to unlearn racist beliefs that are inherent in society. The three categories differ in how they go about implementing anti-racist approaches. Western and Adapted Western approaches are rooted in evidence-based Western therapy practices and add varying degrees of anti-racist or culturally adapted elements to this base. The Decolonized approach completely decenters the Western perspective and replaces it with the healing traditions of the culture of the person seeking help. All the articles agreed that while these concepts are theoretically sound, they lack research to determine their effectiveness. More research needs to be done, specifically via a decolonizing research methodology, to avoid continuing the cycle of Western systemic oppression.
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Keywords
pyschological trauma, chronic trauma, racial trauma, racism, racial systemic oppression, institutional oppression, decolonized therapy, anti-racist therapy, non-western, culturally adapted therapy, psychotherapy, therapy, social work, counseling