Personal Perspectives on Counseling and Psychotherapy with African Americans

Copyright © 2025 by Jay Thomas Willis, M.Ed., MSW.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book is a work of nonfiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

Rev. date: 01/30/2025

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Also by Jay Thomas Willis

Nonfiction

A Penny for Your Thoughts: Insights, Perceptions, and Reflections on the African American Condition

Implications for Effective Psychotherapy with African Americans

Freeing the African-American’s Mind

God or Barbarian: The Myth of a Messiah Who Will Return to Liberate Us

Finding Your Own African-Centered Rhythm

When the Village Idiot Get Started

Nowhere to Run or Hide

Why Black Americans Behave as They Do: The Conditioning Process from Generation to Generation

God, or Balance in the Universe

Over the Celestial Wireless

Paranoid but not Stupid

Nothing but a Man

Things I Never Said

Word to the Wise

Born to Be Destroyed: How My Upbringing Almost Destroyed Me

Nobody but You and Me: God and Our Existence in the Universe

Got My Own Song to Sing: Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome in My Family

Random Thoughts on My Reality

A Word to My Son: A Celebration

Messed-Up Kid

Off-the-Top Treasures

Going with the Flow

Man’s Basic Purpose

God Told Me to Tell You

My Life and Times: Some Personal Essays

Life’s Lessons: Some Passing Thoughts

Why I Write: Notes Straight from the Hip

Just Jazzing: Thoughts from the Depth of My Soul

It’s Good to Be Alive: Focusing on the Positive Rather Than the Negative

Thanks for Saving My Life

On a Clear Day You Can See Forever

I Got My Reparations: You Can Get Yours Too

How I Became Dysfunctional: Notes from a Personal Perspective

Country Boy: Way Down Home

Helping Black Children Succeed in the Education Game: A Personal Perspective

Never Underestimate the Baby Boy

360 Degrees of Life in America

Fiction

No Worldly Options Except Suicide or Schizophrenia: But God Has His Own Plans

You Can’t Get There from Here

Where the Pig Trail Meets the Dirt Road

The Devil in Angelica

As Soon as the Weather Breaks

The Cotton is High

Hard Luck

Educated Misunderstanding

Dream On: Persistent Themes in My Dreams

Longing for Home and Other Short Stories

Promises I Must Keep: Maintaining My Family’s Legacy

What Kind of Fool? and Other Short Stories

Poetry

Reflections on My Life: You’re Gonna Carry That Weight a Long Time

It’s a Good Day to Die: Some Personal Poetry About the Ups and Downs in My Life

Where I’m Coming From: My Life in Verse

Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Preface

PART I

Models

1.A Conceptual Model for Counseling the Violent Offender in Black Domestic Relations

2.An Effective Counseling Model for Treating the African American Family

3.An Alternative Conceptual Model for Diagnosing African Americans in Psychotherapy

4.Breaking the Grip of Drug Abuse on the African American: Primary Prevention

PART II

Perspectives

5.Critical Mass: A New Perspective on Rage in the African American Family

6.Programmed Self-And-Other-Destruction in the African American Family

7.Some Destructive Elements in African American Male-Female Relationships

8.A Theory of the Origins and Dynamics of Heterogeneity Within African American Culture

PART III

Approaches

9.On Being in the Trenches and Burn-Out in the Profession of Social Work

10.Self-Help Strategies for African Americans in Coping With Depression Related to Racism

11.Maintaining a Person-Centered Approach in a Highly Technological Society

About the Author

Dedication

To Dr. David Burgest, a long-time friend, fellow professor, and writer.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to all my English and writing teachers, my counseling and psychotherapy professors, and the many clients I have served over the years—I hope I left a favorable impression on them and was able to help many of them.

Thanks to my parents, siblings, and the many lessons they taught me.

Preface

Personal Perspectives on Counseling and Psychotherapy with African Americans, is a book of eleven papers that deal with some aspect of counseling and psychotherapy with African Americans. The author wrote the papers in this book several years ago but weren’t into writing books at the time. The author wrote these papers in the late part of the twentieth century. Many of the references reflect that period. He thought about combining the papers some years later. It took a while for him to convert them into a book. His reluctance to publish the papers as a book was because of his resistance to retyping them. He has severe arthritis in one hand but had no one else to perform this task. But he is happy to say the work has been a satisfactory and worthwhile experience. He kept thinking that by combining these papers into a book he could possibly be of help to many people who are interested in counseling and psychotherapy with African Americans. Finally in 2024, he decided to pursue the idea of a book. Since these papers were written several years ago, he revised and reedited them. In the original papers he made some minor errors. Consequently, any errors made by changes in the original documents are strictly the author’s fault. Every attempt was made to correct these errors. These papers were all published in professional journals.

He began to think of doing the book mainly after seeing his friend Dr. David Burgest write a book on casework, where he combined casework papers written by several different authors. The papers in this book are all written by the author, except for one or two of them, and the author served as co-author on these. He has always admired Dr. Burgest and has tried to pattern after him. Dr. Burgest has contributed to the literature prolifically and was a professor for many years.

These are approaches to counseling and psychotherapy conceived by and written for African Americans but can be of use by anyone interested in such work. The author decided to combine the papers he has written so far; knowing that it will probably be the end of his professional writing career. He hopes these papers help someone to better understand the art of counseling and psychotherapy with African Americans. The papers will serve as a legacy to the author. Several of the papers he wrote, he has forgotten which journal they were published in, so he will have to settle for the eleven papers presented here.

In college he became interested in counseling and psychotherapy. The author is happy to share his ideas with the reader. The ideas are some of the accumulated wisdoms of the author, who has devoted his life to the field.

He attended college at Stephen F. Austin State University, where he studied sociology and social and rehabilitative services. He graduated and joined the Navy. Upon receiving an Honorable Discharge from the Navy, he attended Texas Southern University for graduate school and received a master’s degree in educational counseling. He attended the University of Houston and received a master’s degree in social work.

He worked as a medical social worker for four years. He then worked at a mental health center for eight years. Followed by some time as a private practitioner in counseling and psychotherapy. He also spent time teaching and consulting. He has spent the last few years of his life writing. This includes fifty-four self-published books, at least fifteen professional journal papers, over three-hundred-fifty Op-Ed Commentaries, and several consumer articles. He has written mostly Op-Ed commentaries, poetry, biography, memoirs, nonfiction and fiction books. He hopes this book lives on in the hearts and minds of many counselors and psychotherapists.

Today, it is hard to distinguish between behavior therapists, counselors, psychologists, and psychotherapists—and a few other labels we tend to give. The author realizes that there is much overlap between them. He feels that the label doesn’t matter if we are clear about what we are doing.

Though the papers in this book were written many years ago, they are still relevant today and will be relevant for the near and distant future.

These papers may not include some of the latest therapies—and they are numerous but speaks to counseling and psychotherapy in general.

Check out this and other of his books @ www.willisjay.com, by Jay Thomas Willis

Jay Thomas Willis

Richton Park, Illinois

Part I

MODELS

1

A CONCEPTUAL MODEL FOR

COUNSELING THE VIOLENT OFFENDER

IN BLACK DOMESTIC RELATIONS

ABSTRACT

In this paper a model is proposed for counseling with the violent offender in Black domestic relations. Emphasis is placed on the sociocultural context of the development of problems that lead to the need for such a model. Consideration is also given to the present context of the problem and the fact that Blacks tend to be resistant to treatment. The end-product of the model for working with the violent offender is proposed.

This paper was published in the Family Therapy, Volume 21, Number 2, 1991. This paper was also published in Implications for Effective Psychotherapy with African Americans. This paper was also presented to the annual Black Family Summit, North Charleston, South Carolina, February 25, 1994; and at the National Black Family Conference, Louisville, Kentucky, March 9, 1995.

Incidence of Black Family Violence

National statistics on family violence are difficult to interpret and compare because there is very little consistency in how information is collected and because much of this violence goes unreported. Definitions of what constitutes family violence may vary from state to state, as do methods of counting the amount of violent activity. Most of the statistics are derived from isolated surveys from a particular state (Landes, Siegel, Foster, 1993).

Violent family activities occur in several different areas that can be further subdivided, and it is difficult to get adequate statistics on these areas, e.g., child abuse and neglect (physical, emotional), spouse abuse, parent abuse, elder abuse, homicide, and abuse of other family members.

The frequency of husbands’ abuse of their spouses is estimated at 3-4,000,000 incidents a year, resulting in 1,000,000 injuries, while many incidents go unreported. Each second a woman is battered in her home: 25-45% have been beaten during pregnancy, and 40% have been raped during the pregnancy. Injuries sustained from battering during pregnancy often result in babies with low birth weight, one of the major risks to an infant’s well-being, normal growth, and future development. Family violence is also associated with miscarriages and premature labor and is the most frequent reason women visit emergency rooms. Physical and emotional abuse accounts for 25% of all female suicide attempts and more than 4,000 homicides per year (Holtz & Furnis, 1991).

An estimated 2.4 million children are alleged victims of child abuse and neglect per year. Each year some 1,000 of these children die from their injuries. In 1990 there were 1.5 million confirmed cases of child abuse and neglect. Approximately three children die each day from abuse or neglect. Since 1980, reports of child abuse and neglect have quadrupled. This abuse and neglect occur at tremendous economic and psychological cost to victims.

Few sources give separate statistics for the Black family. Jones (1993) noted that approximately 500,000 cases of Black child abuse or neglect are reported yearly. Child abuse and neglect have been up 40% among Blacks since 1985. The child abuse and neglect rate for Blacks in 1985 was 15.7 per 100; for whites it was 10.3 per 100. From 1975 to 1985 the rate for whites decreased, but remained the same for Blacks (Landes, Siegel, & Foster, 1993).

History. The experience of slavery and subsequent treatment has influenced the dynamics within the Black family structure. This, in effect, caused the Black family to behave differently from other groups to its members, and to manifest its pathology in different ways. The Black family has had many disruptions to its normal ability to function, and has a history of many invasions, the Middle Passage, and slavery caused the family to be constituted differently from most groups. The role of the Black male and female was perverted in that they were denied the right to be parents and protectors. As a result, by default the female assumed the major responsibilities of the household. This confusion in roles was passed on from one generation to another, and many Black males have still been unable to assume responsibility for their role as husband and father. The female, in many cases, still bears the responsibility for nurturing the family (Green, 1975). As a result, the female experienced much frustration. Some of the respect for the male that was lost during slavery has not been regained to this day, and the problem is compounded because of present environmental constraints on the male and female.

Blacks were raped of their history and culture; were told that they were worthless; were told they had no legal rights; were lynched; were forced to hate other Blacks; were told they should not or could not own property; were told that they were lazy and uneducable; and were discriminated against in the educational system, the economic system, the religious system, the psychological system, the medical system, the political system, and the social system. It is against this background of deceit, oppression, misuse, exploitation, enslavement, court battles, sit-ins, stand-ins, marches on Washington. . .of participating in Black is beautiful movements; and of watching white public officials in the nation’s capital cut or eliminate federal and local programs that are designed to help Black Americans, that we, Black and white have arrived where they are in the United States today (Smith, 1978, p. 88).

These issues still plague the Black family, in addition to other pathologies as compared with other groups. The female has taken the stance that she deserves all the amenities society has to offer, but the male has been unable to provide these amenities. It has become difficult for the male and female to live up to each other’s standards, creating a very real schism in the family structure. This places the male and female on two different levels and adds additional confusion and conflict