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Therapy isn't just for white people
2022
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Publishers Weekly Review
Attorney and radio host Imani debuts with a scattered collection of essays about finding success as a Black woman in America. Despite her prestigious career, Imani became "inexplicably discontent" with her life at age 27 and decided to see a therapist. Here, she dives into the transformative moments from her childhood, schooling, and family history that shaped her mental health. The daughter of two Ivy League grads, Imani struggled to fit in at her de facto segregated school; in "The Volume on this Bus Is Astronomical," she writes, "I developed a dual personality. When I sat at the Black table, I was one person... with my White friends, I was someone else completely." As she relates in "Thighs that Touch," those code switching abilities would become essential when she entered the pageant circuit during law school--" was validation that I had fully... been accepted by White America"--and later navigated the disillusions of corporate America. Imani is a captivating storyteller, but she has a tendency to move too briskly, skipping haphazardly through time and over resonant emotional beats. The overall effect unfortunately distracts from her gripping takes on thriving in predominately white spaces. The result feels like a superficial primer on racism that, despite the title, barely touches on the nuances of therapy. (Aug.)
Summary

Therapy Isn't Just For White People is a brilliant debut memoir chronicling Imani's compelling journey to understand the racial trauma experienced by many Black people in America and the underlying effect it has on Black mental health. Through therapy, Imani was introduced to the concept of racial trauma, and discovered how her own unrecognized racial trauma affected her mental health, self-image, and worldview.

Spanning more than twenty years, Imani weaves together a multigenerational family portrait of her experiences growing up in the south to her career as a young Black professional, where she was often one of the few Black people in the room. Grounded in truth and reality, in a series of insightful and deeply affecting essays on race, gender, and identity, Imani writes about career, money, religion, food, health, dating, friendships, body image and beauty, and ultimately, through therapy, her mental health and well-being.

Sincere and inspiring, soulful and uplifting, Therapy Isn't Just For White People is a timely reminder of why the telling and sharing of untold Black stories are central to understanding the pervasive race issues in America. "Hold your head high and wear your Black skin with pride," Imani writes, embarking on a journey of understanding, healing, empathy, self-love, and taking control of her personal narrative about what it means to be Black in America in the 21st century.

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