The Use of Spirituality and Kinship as Contributors to Successful Therapy Outcomes with African American Families

Abstract

This article discusses therapists' perspectives of how they use the concepts of spirituality and kinship with clients in a therapy setting. Data were gathered from a larger phenomenological study that focused on African American therapists' perspectives of the use of strengths with African American families. Thirty licensed African American therapists from the fields of marriage and family therapy, social work, psychology, and licensed professional counselors, who self-identified as utilizing strengths during therapy with African American families, served as participants. In this study, we explored whether therapists identified two of the five major strengths of African American families that were originally cited by Robert Hill (1971, 1999) as contributors to effective family functioning. The strengths of spirituality and kinship or extended family consistently emerged and were explored as themes that were effective in bringing about family functioning and successful therapy outcomes.

Keywords:

• African Americans
• kinship
• spirituality
• therapy
• family functioning

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to gratefully and sincerely thank Ruby Burgess, EdD, for her invaluable technical assistance and support with this manuscript.