Therapeutic Cultural Routines to Build Family Relationships

Book excerpt: Social workers and Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health (IECMH) helpers need practical, relationship-based clinical tools to support families experiencing stress, separation, and loss. Research reveals key parenting behaviors occur during hair combing interaction (HCI) – lively verbal interaction, sensitive touch, and responsiveness to infant cues. This book explores how the simple routine of combing hair serves as an emotionally powerful, trauma-informed, culturally valid therapeutic tool for use by mental health helpers. HCI offers a low-cost opportunity for IECMH helpers to engage families and sustain attachment relationships. In this book, case studies illustrate the use of HCI with diverse families of color. Each chapter includes questions for reflective supervision to understand sociocultural factors that may shape behaviors during HCI. Topics included in the text: The Observing Professional and the Parent’s Ethnobiography Introduction to Reflective Supervision: Through the Lens of Culture, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion A Case Study in Cross-Racial Practice and Supervision: Reflections in Black and White Tools to Disrupt Legacies of Colorism: Perceptions, Emotions, and Stories of Childhood Racial Features Therapeutic Cultural Routines to Build Family Relationships: Talk, Touch & Listen While Combing Hair© is a unique resource for counselors, psychologists, psychiatrists, home visiting nurses, early childhood educators, and family therapists who work with military families or multiracial families with bi-racial children. “This book provides practical insights useful for professionals and parents. The authors share compelling experiences using strength-based and rich cultural approaches guided by reflective practice. It deserves to be widely read and become a classic resource.” Robert N. Emde, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, University of Colorado School of Medicine