The Cost of Healing in Silence: Navigating Racial Trauma and the Call for Culturally Responsive Care - Paperback

by Ashley McGirt-Adair (Author)

An up-to-date and expert discussion of how to create a more culturally responsive mental health care system

In The Cost of Healing in Silence: Navigating Racial Trauma and the Call for Culturally Responsive Care, veteran psychotherapist and trauma specialist Ashley McGirt-Adair delivers an effective roadmap for culturally responsive mental health care that acknowledges, understands, and begins to heal the ways racial bias and stereotypes infiltrate counseling. Blending contemporary research, practical tools, and searing personal stories, McGirt-Adair offers both a personal narrative and a comprehensive guide to more equitable mental health care.

The Cost of Healing in Silence offers techniques for culturally responsive care that demonstrates how mental health care can be improved by offering therapy that is reflective of and sensitive to a range of identities. McGirt-Adair helps readers uncover the impacts of racial trauma and navigate the scars it leaves behind, offering culturally attuned techniques for healing and restoration that honor identity and community.

You'll also find:

• Actionable guidance for recognizing and addressing racial bias in therapeutic settings
• Inspiring amplifications of marginalized voices, including those whose pain has often been overlooked and dismissed
• Strategies for improving access to Black therapists and implementing changes that prioritize cultural responsive care

Perfect for people of color who have faced discrimination, bias, or unequal treatment in healthcare settings and are seeking guidance on how to heal from these experiences, The Cost of Healing in Silence is also a must-read for healthcare professionals, educators and allies committed to transforming healthcare into a more equitable system.

Back Jacket

Expert insights and practical tools to improve care for excluded communities

Giving voice to those whose pain has been overlooked, The Cost of Healing in Silence offers a roadmap for mental health care that acknowledges and addresses the ways racial bias and stereotypes infiltrate health care systems. This compelling text blends contemporary research, practical tools, and personal stories to provide both narrative insight and actionable strategies reflective of diverse identities.

Readers will encounter specific systemic issues that demand urgent attention, including misdiagnosis, overdiagnosis, and the criminalization of mental illness. The book also presents concrete calls to action, such as improving access to culturally responsive therapists and health care providers across systems of care.

The Cost of Healing in Silence is a timely and essential resource for mental health professionals, policymakers, and individuals committed to healing racial trauma and creating a more inclusive approach to care for all.

"In The Cost of Healing in Silence, Ashley McGirt-Adair delivers a courageous and transformative call to break cycles of pain and isolation. With truth, tenderness, and conviction, she shows that our healing, both individual and collective, begins when we dare to speak, to feel, and to reclaim our wholeness."
--UCH? BLACKSTOCK, MD, Founder and CEO, Advancing Health Equity; New York Times bestselling author of Legacy: A Black Physician Reckons with Racism in Medicine

Author Biography

Ashley McGirt-Adair, MSW, LICSW, is a psychotherapist and founder of the Therapy Fund Foundation. She is a nationally recognized speaker on racial trauma and health care who is dedicated to eliminating barriers to mental health access and improving outcomes for Black and other historically excluded communities.