1st Edition
The Colonization of Black Sexualities A Clinical Guide to Relearning and Healing
Anne Mauro invites therapists to look through a historical lens to view how the harmful effects of colonization and white supremacy impact their Black client’s sexuality in the modern day.
Written from her unique position as a sex therapist and bi-racial Black woman, Mauro believes that by relearning the history of sexual trauma on African American bodies, clinicians can better assess their client’s intergenerational trauma and inform their work and practice. Chapters address how the patriarchy was an agent in colonization, the impact of colonization on ethnosexuality, slavery, and sexuality, ethnosexual historical traumas and their impact on modern day American sexual behavior, and the continuing effects of sexual violence and sexual health disparities in young Black women and girls. With reflective questions woven throughout, the final chapter guides the therapist through clinical practices meant for grounding, healing, and the promotion of authenticity within this work. It offers tangible insights into dismantling oppressive practices and integrating the material into the reader’s personal and professional lives.
The book is essential reading for students of gender studies, human sexuality, and race studies, as well as all mental health professionals, such as sex therapists, marriage and family therapists, and clinical social workers.
Biography
Anne Mauro is dually certified as an AASECT certified sex therapist and sexuality educator, licensed relationship therapist, and AAMFT ans AASECT clinical supervisor.
'Anne is a passionate therapist and educator who understands how past trauma affects current relationships, including with one’s self. Using an anti-oppressive lens, Anne offers a cutting edge look into how to explore the past to help clients heal in the present. A clinical guide for any therapist who wants to continue dismantling systems to heal future generations, consider The Colonization of Black Sexualities essential reading.'
Kristen Lilla LCSW, AASECT Certified Sex Therapist and Educator & Author of Boxes and How We Fill Them: A Basic Guide to Sexual Awareness
'I'm an older white person and I was hooked from the very first page. The author's writing is beautiful. At one point, she asked the reader to notice what we were feeling in our body. The answer for me was goosebumps. This book provided an abundance of new information for me. It was the most interesting book I have read in a very long time. It was also very practical and I can apply it to my own work as a sex therapist. Truly an exceptional read!'
Neil Cannon, Ph.D., LMFT, CST-S, AASECT Certified Sex Therapist & Supervisor, Denver, CO, USA
'Anne Mauro delivers an engaging and informative read that exemplifies the need for Black voices and experiences to be heard, understood, and valued in the mental health and sex therapy fields. Her work is a triumph in decolonizing and unsettling sexuality and is a must read for all those working toward healing, relearning, and liberation.'
Dr. Roger Kuhn (Poarch Creek), CST, LMFT, activist, artist, writer
'Dr Anne Mauro has gifted us with an insightful analysis of how Black sexualities have been colonized and continue to be harmed by sexuality professionals unless we are willing to engage in the necessary work of decolonization and relearning. Flawlessly weaving personal stories, clinical vignettes and scholarship, Dr Mauro guides us through a journey of unlearning, relearning and, ultimately, healing and liberation. This is an essential book for sexuality professionals and, indeed, all healthcare providers and educators.'
Alex Iantaffi, PhD, MS, SEP, CST, LMFT Author of Gender Trauma: Healing Cultural, Social and Historical Gendered Trauma and President of the Minnesota Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
'A warm invitation to a Foucauldian 1619 Project revealing the sexual healing possibilities when American settler sex and gender colonizing power is empathically brought to consciousness in the sexual lives of our clients, their therapists and our nation.'
Doug Braun-Harvey, The Harvey Institute, San Diego California, USA
'A must read text for students and scholars of critical sexuality studies and sexuality professionals committed to self growth and healing the impact of oppressive forces. This work is essential for contextualizing Black sexualities and presents an opportunity to reflect on the impact of colonization and cis-hetero-patriachy on sexualities and increase sexual multiepistemic literacy. This work contributes to the depatriarchalization of sexuality studies and provides foundational content for the history of black sexuality.'
Zelaika Hepworth Clarke, PhD, MSW, MEd, eroticologist and co-founder of the decolonial sexuality studies program at Goddard College
