Who Am I? Who Are You? Self of the Therapist Exploration

In this chapter, we review the importance of the work of the self of therapist for mental health professionals and how this integrates when working with interracial/intercultural issues. We will utilize self of the therapist literature to discuss self-disclosure, positionality, and cultural responsiveness and why this is needed when working with interracial, intercultural, and interreligious families. In addition, we will be using an intersectional ecological systems framework to address the parallel processes of the therapist and client’s interracial and intercultural identities and the therapist’s relationship to their own ecological system.