ABSTRACT
The fifty-minute intervention activity aims at raising the youth's awareness of their identity status, improving their evaluation of their own heritage/background, and appreciating their blackness and/or other minority status. The purpose of this activity is to help the therapist and client address the specific concerns of identity development with regard to growing up black or as a member of other minority groups in America. It should facilitate discussion of racism, financial disadvantage, oppression, or discrimination. This objective is combined with the goals to increase self-awareness of internal emotional states, to help the youths modulate their otherwise explosive emotions, and cope effectively with the environmental stressors related to their minority status. This chapter focuses on the positive development of one's minority status identity and coping behaviors in difficult and culturally relevant situations. The use of cultural artifacts from the clients' heritage helps the youths incorporate their cultural identity in the development of an emotionally mature and positive behavioral repertoire.
