African Americans regularly receive societal messages about their lack of value, powerlessness, and inability to ensure their personal safety. Perpetuated through media stories as well as common, everyday interactions, these microtraumas cause African Americans to experience a heightened sense of cortisol arousal, a pervasive feeling of doom, and a lack of trust in relation to their environment. The result is hypervigilance and intrusive exaggerated flight, fight, and freeze responses.
| File type | File name | Number of pages | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manual - Microtraumas and the African American Client (2.3 MB) | 30 Pages | Available after Purchase |
Candace R. Dickens is a PESI Faculty Member and Licensed Professional Counselor in the State of Maryland as well as the District of Columbia. She is currently pursuing her PhD in Counselor Education and Supervision at Saybrook University. She is a strong advocator for creating culturally sensitive counter spaces that promote racial/ethnic healing, identity formation and group resiliency. Her proudest accomplishments as an advocator for racial healing are found in her creating the BIPOC Provider Directory Color of Trauma and Healing, and founding Kujichagulia, a BIPOC therapeutic counseling group for African American female students attending Bowling Green State University. She is a popular speaker and has been featured at major conferences such as NAADAC National Conference, the Maryland Tuerk Conference, Licensed Clinical Professional Counselors of Maryland Conference, Black Mental Health Alliance Conference, the Psychotherapy Networker, and Boston University School of Social Work.
Speaker Disclosures:
Understanding Cultural Trauma
DSM-5 Trauma and PTSD
Talking about Race
Techniques for Treating Physiological Responses to Trauma
Understanding Long-Term Memory
Trauma & Neuroscience
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