Creating and supporting family therapists of color

An article published in the latest issue of Family Process describes the creation and structure of a training program designed to increase the number of family therapists of color. The authors address the first twelve years, in which the Diversity and Social Work Training Program of the Ackerman Institute for the Family trained fifty-seven graduate students of color. Of those, twenty-seven elected to remain in their program for post graduate training-- a high fifty percent retention rate as compared to other recruitment and retention efforts for professionals of color. Using a bottom-up approach, they recruited students of color while still in graduate school and provided them with mentors, financial aid, and emotional support. "Without a proactive recruitment strategy were we not, in effect, perpetuating racism in our society by treating families of color and white families almost solely by white professionals?" authors Laurie Kaplan and Sippio Small asked.

"The authors set out to recruit and support family therapists of color, adhering to several premises. Among them: recruiting students before they complete their graduate studies, mentorships with faculty of color, partnerships with community-based organizations and academic institutions, provision of a long-term institutional commitment and biracial collaborations. Intensive interaction between students and senior faculty also helped incorporate the students, prevent marginalization, and gave the faculty the opportunity to learn, as well, from the different voices and experiences. The program "....has been a vehicle to recruit and retain diverse students, enabling a family therapy institution to reliably count on a slow but steady diversification of its student population and its faculty," the authors conclude.

This study is published in the September issue of Family Process. Media wishing to receive a PDF of this article please contact JournalNews@bos.blackwellpublishing.net.

Family Process is an international, multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal committed to publishing original articles, including theory and practice, philosophical underpinnings, qualitative and quantitative clinical research, and training in couple and family therapy, family interaction, and family relationships with networks and larger systems. It is published on behalf of the Family Process Institute.

Laurie Kaplan, LCSW, is the Co-Director of the Ackerman Institute for the Family's Diversity and Social Work Training Program (DSWTP). Ms. Kaplan is also a senior faculty member at the Institute and teaches in the externship program and the DSWTP. Ms. Kaplan is available for questions and interviews.

Sippio Small, CSW, is a teaching faculty member of the Ackerman Institute for the Family. He is also Co-Director of Ackerman's Diversity and Social Work Training Program, which he founded in 1992, together with colleagues Laurie Kaplan and the late Ruth Mohr. Mr. Small is available for questions and interviews.

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