As a dedicated fan of starting from the beginning, I figured we might as well start with the basics of Afrocentrism. I also wanted to answer the most common questions I get when I attempt to describe my theoretical orientation to folks who are unfamiliar. So first, let’s get a few details out of the way. Q: What is African-centered psychology? A: I will begin by saying there are many many scholars who have formed words, ideas, and concepts around this topic. Forefathers and mothers like Akbar, Ani, Nobles, and James Myers. All these folks (and more) have contributed to the conversation of what it means to be an African-centered psychologist. I acknowledge that I am just ONE more, attempting to carry forward the foundational work of these and other African-centered psychologists. With that said, I like to think of African-centered psychology as a broad term that tasks its practitioners with conducting therapy and conceptualizing their clients from an Afrocentric wor...
It’s an interesting predicament to be a Black student (and a middle aged) Black graduate student of psychology. For 8 years prior to entering my doctorate program at a PWI I committed to studying psychology in its various domains. First, generally as an undergraduate at an HBCU. Then as a master’s student in an industrial/organizational psychology program. Again as a master’s student in a counseling psychology program. When I finally landed in the Counseling Psychology Ph.D program I thought I had a pretty firm foundation on what this field was about. Human behavior? Of course! But there were questions bubbling up inside of me that I consistently spoke openly with my academic advisor about. I was curious how I could have made it this many years in formal academic study of the discipline without ever learning what other cultures thought about psychology. Not just what they thought, but how they conceptualized human behavior, emotion, and psychological well-being. How cou...