ABSTRACT
The belief in racial democracy in Brazil has been deconstructed by various indices of social inequality and violence victimization. Although more than 50% of the country’s population is black, Brazilian scientific production on racism and mental health is not significant. The subject of race relations is, in general, invisible within the psi sciences. This situation raises the question of how this portion of the population is served in the mental health system, specifically in the psychological clinical service to the black client. The objective of this study was to collect narratives of black persons who had white psychotherapists, regarding their experiences of racism in daily life, as well as to how they were listened to in a biracial dyad in psychotherapy. Seven women took part in the study. Four thematic categories were identified: (1) Reason to seek psychotherapy; (2) Psychotherapeutic process; (3) Associated therapeutic factors, and, (4) Psychotherapist specific training to serve black people. The most important issues, presented by all the interviewees, were the interracial transference in the therapeutic process and the lack of training of the psychotherapist to serve black clients.
Keywords:
Racism; mental health; black woman