“Making Room for Our Voices”

Mindfulness and compassion training promotes effective stress reduction via meditative practices that enhance nonjudgmental attention to present-focused thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations. Yet, these approaches have been predominantly normed on White Americans without attending to the salient sociocultural determinants of health that contribute to African American women's pervasive and persistent stress-related illnesses.

Guided by a Black feminist, intersectionality framework – a framework that recognizes Black women's distinct intersectional realities – the current book chapter discusses qualitative data from 24 African American women across the lifespan (age 18–65). Data were obtained from focus groups, in-depth interviews, and course evaluations from women who engaged in either a one-hour mindfulness workshop (N =12), a 4-week mindfulness training intervention (N = 7), or an 8-week compassion training intervention (N = 5). We then discuss the strengths and limitations of our findings from a Black feminist, intersectionality framework to offer recommendations for continued research in this area.