Tracy Norris

Empathy in the Context of Racial Bias

The ability to exercise empathy in the context of the cross-racial therapeutic dyad is essential to positive treatment outcomes.  However, the capacity to demonstrate empathy is especially challenging when the psychotherapist is African American or non-White and working with a White patient who expresses White supremacy or racial bias.  This multi-media project will define the concepts of empathy, transference, and countertransference as well as provide guidelines for how to overcome the barriers to empathy.