Contributions of ethnopsychology and the Afrocentric perspective to the field of multicultural counseling

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7213/2175-1838.16.001.AO02

Abstract

Multicultural counseling committed to a decolonial approach has posed a challenge in various parts of the world, particularly considering that breaking away from hegemonic knowledge is a historical and complex process. This theoretical study aims to reflect on the need for multicultural counseling and other perspectives, such as ethnopsychology, to engage with these traditional knowledges, enabling the construction of Afrocentric or Afro-referenced care capable of reorienting a professional practice still grounded in biomedical and white-centered models regarding clinical listening. Reflections on cases attended within the context of a psychological support service designed to assist a community associated with an Umbanda religious community in a medium-sized city located in the interior of the state of São Paulo, Brazil, are presented. Rejecting a Euro-American perspective in the emerging clinical context in this setting is a way to combat the gaze of the colonizer, which is oppressive and constrains identity, individual, and collective freedoms. Thus, in ethnopsychological clinical practice, every individual account must be committed to listening to a collectivity and ancestry, so that the person is not subjected to a process of blame for their psychological conditions, but rather that this subjectivity can be understood within a collective and cultural panorama that is also embodied in the history of this individual.

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Author Biography

Fabio Scorsolini-Comin, Universidade de São Paulo

Psicólogo, Mestre, Doutor e Livre Docente em Psicologia pela Universidade de São Paulo. Professor Associado do Departamento de Enfermagem Psiquiátrica e Ciências Humanas da Escola de Enfermagem de Ribeirão Preto da Universidade de São Paulo. Licenciado em Pedagogia e em Letras (Língua Portuguesa). Bolsista de Produtividade Científica do CNPq.

Published

2024-05-09

How to Cite

Scorsolini-Comin, F. (2024). Contributions of ethnopsychology and the Afrocentric perspective to the field of multicultural counseling. Pistis Praxis, 16(1), 157–169. https://doi.org/10.7213/2175-1838.16.001.AO02