Therapeutic Cultural Routines to Build Family Relationships

The Tilted Room of Colorism.

This chapter introduces and examines the collective trauma associated with the efforts of persons of color to meet Eurocentric standards of beauty. By doing so, standards are imposed upon others in the form of colorism, by using proximity to Eurocentric standards as the barometer for physical attractiveness, privilege, and access. First using the tilted room theory to describe the concept of colorism and its implications for African Americans, the author then explores, personally and powerfully, her journey as a woman of color. An experienced clinician, the author presents deeply moving stories from her work with African-American girls where colorism emerges as a significant theme in their struggles to become self-aware. The clinical challenges of transference and countertransference, maintaining therapeutic boundaries, timing of self-disclosure in this emotionally charged topic of colorism is also discussed. Of particular importance to this edited collection, the use of Talk, Touch, and Listen Hair Combing Interaction (HCI) presents a unique opportunity to dismantle the intergenerational transmission of colorism, by creating new pathways to promote positive self-worth, and racial healing as it relates to skin tone and hair texture.