Thema Bryant‐Davis
Biographic Data
| ID | 5423951 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Thema Bryant‐Davis |
| GIVEN NAMES | Thema |
| FAMILY NAME | Bryant‐Davis |
| SIGNATURE | DAVIS T B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Pepperdine University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 269 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Pilot development and initial validation of the Black spiritual creativity scale
There is a lack of research dedicated to understanding and evaluating how African Americans engage in spiritual creativity as a form of cultural empowerment in order to thrive in the face of systemic oppression. The Black Spiritual Creativity Scale (BSCS) is a new measure that was designed to address this gap in the literature. The BSCS measures the experience of creativity, rhythm, and soul as spiritual forces that contribute to a sense of perso…
Healing the Trauma of Racism and Sexism
Gendered racism is a source of stress and, in some cases, traumatic stress for women and girls of color as well as gender expansive people of color. Gendered racism is a form of oppression rooted in both White Supremacy and patriarchy. Along with interpersonal and internalized forms of gendered racism, mental health professionals must attend to systemic forms of gendered racism that manifest in every social system from education to criminal (in)j…
Black Love, Activism, and Community (BLAC)
The purpose of this article is to describe the Black Love, Activism, and Community (BLAC) model of healing and resilience. The assumption of the BLAC model is that Black activism is inspired and sustained by love and community. Building on empirical research, liberation psychology, and African-centered psychology, the BLAC model identifies four culturally grounded domains of resilience (relationships, spirituality, identity, and active expression…
Resist and Rise
Black, Indigenous, and other Women of Color (BIWOC) are at increased risk for interpersonal trauma, including racial trauma. Interpersonal trauma has potentially deleterious emotional, cognitive, physical, social, and spiritual consequences. European models of trauma recovery often end their process with coping strategies and meaning-making; womanist psychology, which emerges from the cultural traditions of Black women’s experiences and wisdom, i…
Transnational Feminist Therapy
This article summarizes the contributions of authors to a special issue on transnational feminist practice and integrates their recommendations. The three-part outline for organizing transnational feminist practice themes focuses on self-awareness and cultural humility, knowledge foundations, and interventions and skills. This article also summarizes case material that illustrates the basic guidance of authors who work in many types of educationa…
Transnational Feminist Theory and Practice
This article introduces central features of transnational feminism and discusses how these characteristics provide a foundation for transnational feminist practice in psychology. These core themes emphasize: (a) reflexivity and positionality; (b) intersectionality in transnational perspective; (c) inclusive definitions of global and transnational feminisms; (d) transnational border-crossing practices; (e) agency and resistance in global perspecti…
Still We Rise
Sex trafficking is the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Among those who are at greater risk for sex trafficking are women, girls, impoverished persons, runaways, homeless persons, persons who have prior trauma histories, and ethnically marginalized persons, including African Americans. The short- and long-term consequences of sex trafficking are physical, sexual, psychological, social, economic, and spirit…
The Trauma Lens of Police Violence against Racial and Ethnic Minorities
Police violence against racial and ethnic minorities has been researched through the lens of multiple social science disciplines including psychology. Within psychology, the study of trauma lends itself to understanding the dynamics of unjustified violence perpetrated by some law enforcement agents. These acts of aggression are not only examples of interpersonal trauma but also the trauma of racism, which is examined through the lens of intergene…
Relationship between negative social reactions to sexual assault disclosure and mental health outcomes of Black and White female survivors
The results provide further support for detrimental effects of negative reactions on Black and White survivors and highlight the importance of educating people in the community about sexual assault and how to respond in more supportive ways. (PsycINFO Database Record
The Role of the Black Church in HIV Prevention
Black people have the highest rate of HIV/AIDS infection in the USA, and they are less likely to access quality physical and mental healthcare. To address these disparities as outlined in the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, there is a need for culturally congruent, innovative approaches to HIV/AIDS prevention. The first multi‐denominational national study of Black faith leaders was conducted utilizing focus groups that were held in 11 US cities. The …
Cultural Oppression and Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is maintained within a context of intersecting forms of oppression. Cultural oppression, including racism and ethnic bias, creates additional risk for human trafficking and generates unique challenges for prevention and intervention. There are, however, cultural strengths that survivors of human trafficking have that may be utilized to aid their recovery process as well as psychotherapeutic interventions. In addition to traditio…
Faith to move mountains
Interpersonal trauma is pervasive globally and may result in long-term consequences physically, cognitively, behaviorally, socially, and spiritually (Bryant-Davis, 2005b). One of the protective factors that have emerged in the literature is religious coping. Religious coping, spirituality, and faith-based approaches to trauma recovery include endorsement of beliefs, engagement in behaviors, and access to support from faith communities. Compared w…
Sister Friends
Research with ethnically diverse women has found that friendships can enhance women's health and mental wellbeing (Greif & Sharpe, Citation2010). Sister friends can be crucial in assisting African American women and women of ethnically diverse backgrounds to face, address, and overcome, major transitions including stress and traumatic stress. Through a reflection and analysis of the relationship with a sister friend, the author explores the stren…
Surviving the Storm
African American women are at high risk for sexual assault. In addition, many African American women endorse the use of social support and religiosity to cope with trauma. The current study investigates the relationship between these two coping strategies and posttrauma symptoms in a sample of 413 African American female sexual assault survivors using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Findings indicated that survivors…
Sexual Assault Recovery in the Aftermath of the Liberian Civil War
Cross-border feminist collaborations enhance efforts to combat violence against women, including sexual violence. Sexual assault was a pervasive human rights violation perpetrated against many Liberian women during the over decade long Civil War. Based on a review of the mental health literature focusing on the realities of this crime against humanity in the lives of Liberian women, thirteen interviews were conducted with Liberian Church leaders.…
Shattering Silence
National-, community-, and college-based studies have documented the high prevalence of sexual assault among African American women. Although African American women experience sexual assault at alarming rates, they are less likely to disclose or seek help in the aftermath of sexual assault. The purpose of this literature review is to provide a critique of the current literature examining the barriers to disclosure for African American women, such…
Cultural considerations of trauma
There has been an increased appreciation for the need to understand the cultural lenses of survivors and the ways that these lenses may influence both the experience of intimate partner violence and the recovery process following violence. The need for trauma researchers and practitioners to attend to the sociocultural realities of survivors has been advocated by traumatologists of varying theoretical orientations. The Trauma and Violence among D…
Struggling to survive
A substantial body of research documents the mental health consequences of sexual assault including, but not limited to, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, substance use, and suicidality. Far less attention has been given to the mental health effects of sexual assault for ethnic minority women or women living in poverty. Given African American women's increased risk for sexual assault and increased risk for persistent poverty, the current…
Intimate partner violence against African American women
From the Margins to the Center
The trauma of sexual assault is heightened for many women by the interlocking experience of societal traumas such as racism, sexism, and poverty. The mental health effects of sexual assault are mediated by race and ethnicity. The investigators explore the experiences of African American, Asian American, Latina, and Native American female survivors of sexual assault. The sociohistorical context of intergenerational trauma in the lives of ethnic mi…
Healing Requires Recognition
Race-based traumatic stress has been studied in the literature under various names including but not limited to insidious trauma, intergenerational trauma, racist incident-based trauma, psychological trauma, and racism. This article reviews and analyzes R. T. Carter’s article in this issue. The author underscores and reacts to the trauma of racism as discussed in Carter’s article, and also highlights efforts that should be directed to racist inci…
Racist Incident–Based Trauma
Racist incidents are potentially traumatizing forms of victimization that may lead to increased psychiatric and psychophysiological symptoms in targets. The magnitude of the problem of racist incidents in the United States is difficult to estimate; however, data from several sources permit the inference that the prevalence of racist incidents, particularly among people of color, is high. This article (a) distinguishes traumatic stress from nontra…
Rape Is
The film Rape Is... takes the audience on a powerful journey of feeling, contemplation, and education about sexual violence. The viewers walk away from the film with some key educational components. They learn that rape is a prevalent and damaging crime that affects people of all backgrounds. The audience also sees that perpetrators vary in relationship to survivor as well as in demographics and method of force. Viewers also learn the emotional, …
Racist Incident–Based Trauma
Racist incidents are potentially traumatizing forms of victimization that may lead to increased psychiatric and psychophysiological symptoms in targets. The magnitude of the problem of racist incidents in the United States is difficult to estimate; however, data from several sources permit the inference that the prevalence of racist incidents, particularly among people of color, is high. This article (a) distinguishes traumatic stress from nontra…
Healing Requires Recognition
Race-based traumatic stress has been studied in the literature under various names including but not limited to insidious trauma, intergenerational trauma, racist incident-based trauma, psychological trauma, and racism. This article reviews and analyzes R. T. Carter’s article in this issue. The author underscores and reacts to the trauma of racism as discussed in Carter’s article, and also highlights efforts that should be directed to racist inci…
The Trauma Lens of Police Violence against Racial and Ethnic Minorities
Police violence against racial and ethnic minorities has been researched through the lens of multiple social science disciplines including psychology. Within psychology, the study of trauma lends itself to understanding the dynamics of unjustified violence perpetrated by some law enforcement agents. These acts of aggression are not only examples of interpersonal trauma but also the trauma of racism, which is examined through the lens of intergene…
Transnational Feminist Theory and Practice
This article introduces central features of transnational feminism and discusses how these characteristics provide a foundation for transnational feminist practice in psychology. These core themes emphasize: (a) reflexivity and positionality; (b) intersectionality in transnational perspective; (c) inclusive definitions of global and transnational feminisms; (d) transnational border-crossing practices; (e) agency and resistance in global perspecti…
Cultural Oppression and Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is maintained within a context of intersecting forms of oppression. Cultural oppression, including racism and ethnic bias, creates additional risk for human trafficking and generates unique challenges for prevention and intervention. There are, however, cultural strengths that survivors of human trafficking have that may be utilized to aid their recovery process as well as psychotherapeutic interventions. In addition to traditio…
Surviving the Storm
African American women are at high risk for sexual assault. In addition, many African American women endorse the use of social support and religiosity to cope with trauma. The current study investigates the relationship between these two coping strategies and posttrauma symptoms in a sample of 413 African American female sexual assault survivors using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Findings indicated that survivors…
Resist and Rise
Black, Indigenous, and other Women of Color (BIWOC) are at increased risk for interpersonal trauma, including racial trauma. Interpersonal trauma has potentially deleterious emotional, cognitive, physical, social, and spiritual consequences. European models of trauma recovery often end their process with coping strategies and meaning-making; womanist psychology, which emerges from the cultural traditions of Black women’s experiences and wisdom, i…
Sister Friends
Research with ethnically diverse women has found that friendships can enhance women's health and mental wellbeing (Greif & Sharpe, Citation2010). Sister friends can be crucial in assisting African American women and women of ethnically diverse backgrounds to face, address, and overcome, major transitions including stress and traumatic stress. Through a reflection and analysis of the relationship with a sister friend, the author explores the stren…
Sexual Assault Recovery in the Aftermath of the Liberian Civil War
Cross-border feminist collaborations enhance efforts to combat violence against women, including sexual violence. Sexual assault was a pervasive human rights violation perpetrated against many Liberian women during the over decade long Civil War. Based on a review of the mental health literature focusing on the realities of this crime against humanity in the lives of Liberian women, thirteen interviews were conducted with Liberian Church leaders.…
The Role of the Black Church in HIV Prevention
Black people have the highest rate of HIV/AIDS infection in the USA, and they are less likely to access quality physical and mental healthcare. To address these disparities as outlined in the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, there is a need for culturally congruent, innovative approaches to HIV/AIDS prevention. The first multi‐denominational national study of Black faith leaders was conducted utilizing focus groups that were held in 11 US cities. The …
Transnational Feminist Therapy
This article summarizes the contributions of authors to a special issue on transnational feminist practice and integrates their recommendations. The three-part outline for organizing transnational feminist practice themes focuses on self-awareness and cultural humility, knowledge foundations, and interventions and skills. This article also summarizes case material that illustrates the basic guidance of authors who work in many types of educationa…
Still We Rise
Sex trafficking is the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Among those who are at greater risk for sex trafficking are women, girls, impoverished persons, runaways, homeless persons, persons who have prior trauma histories, and ethnically marginalized persons, including African Americans. The short- and long-term consequences of sex trafficking are physical, sexual, psychological, social, economic, and spirit…
Healing the Trauma of Racism and Sexism
Gendered racism is a source of stress and, in some cases, traumatic stress for women and girls of color as well as gender expansive people of color. Gendered racism is a form of oppression rooted in both White Supremacy and patriarchy. Along with interpersonal and internalized forms of gendered racism, mental health professionals must attend to systemic forms of gendered racism that manifest in every social system from education to criminal (in)j…
Rape Is
The film Rape Is... takes the audience on a powerful journey of feeling, contemplation, and education about sexual violence. The viewers walk away from the film with some key educational components. They learn that rape is a prevalent and damaging crime that affects people of all backgrounds. The audience also sees that perpetrators vary in relationship to survivor as well as in demographics and method of force. Viewers also learn the emotional, …
Racist Incident–Based Trauma
Racist incidents are potentially traumatizing forms of victimization that may lead to increased psychiatric and psychophysiological symptoms in targets. The magnitude of the problem of racist incidents in the United States is difficult to estimate; however, data from several sources permit the inference that the prevalence of racist incidents, particularly among people of color, is high. This article (a) distinguishes traumatic stress from nontra…
Healing Requires Recognition
Race-based traumatic stress has been studied in the literature under various names including but not limited to insidious trauma, intergenerational trauma, racist incident-based trauma, psychological trauma, and racism. This article reviews and analyzes R. T. Carter’s article in this issue. The author underscores and reacts to the trauma of racism as discussed in Carter’s article, and also highlights efforts that should be directed to racist inci…
Intimate partner violence against African American women
From the Margins to the Center
The trauma of sexual assault is heightened for many women by the interlocking experience of societal traumas such as racism, sexism, and poverty. The mental health effects of sexual assault are mediated by race and ethnicity. The investigators explore the experiences of African American, Asian American, Latina, and Native American female survivors of sexual assault. The sociohistorical context of intergenerational trauma in the lives of ethnic mi…
Shattering Silence
National-, community-, and college-based studies have documented the high prevalence of sexual assault among African American women. Although African American women experience sexual assault at alarming rates, they are less likely to disclose or seek help in the aftermath of sexual assault. The purpose of this literature review is to provide a critique of the current literature examining the barriers to disclosure for African American women, such…
Cultural considerations of trauma
There has been an increased appreciation for the need to understand the cultural lenses of survivors and the ways that these lenses may influence both the experience of intimate partner violence and the recovery process following violence. The need for trauma researchers and practitioners to attend to the sociocultural realities of survivors has been advocated by traumatologists of varying theoretical orientations. The Trauma and Violence among D…
Struggling to survive
A substantial body of research documents the mental health consequences of sexual assault including, but not limited to, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, substance use, and suicidality. Far less attention has been given to the mental health effects of sexual assault for ethnic minority women or women living in poverty. Given African American women's increased risk for sexual assault and increased risk for persistent poverty, the current…
Surviving the Storm
African American women are at high risk for sexual assault. In addition, many African American women endorse the use of social support and religiosity to cope with trauma. The current study investigates the relationship between these two coping strategies and posttrauma symptoms in a sample of 413 African American female sexual assault survivors using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. Findings indicated that survivors…
Sexual Assault Recovery in the Aftermath of the Liberian Civil War
Cross-border feminist collaborations enhance efforts to combat violence against women, including sexual violence. Sexual assault was a pervasive human rights violation perpetrated against many Liberian women during the over decade long Civil War. Based on a review of the mental health literature focusing on the realities of this crime against humanity in the lives of Liberian women, thirteen interviews were conducted with Liberian Church leaders.…
Faith to move mountains
Interpersonal trauma is pervasive globally and may result in long-term consequences physically, cognitively, behaviorally, socially, and spiritually (Bryant-Davis, 2005b). One of the protective factors that have emerged in the literature is religious coping. Religious coping, spirituality, and faith-based approaches to trauma recovery include endorsement of beliefs, engagement in behaviors, and access to support from faith communities. Compared w…
Sister Friends
Research with ethnically diverse women has found that friendships can enhance women's health and mental wellbeing (Greif & Sharpe, Citation2010). Sister friends can be crucial in assisting African American women and women of ethnically diverse backgrounds to face, address, and overcome, major transitions including stress and traumatic stress. Through a reflection and analysis of the relationship with a sister friend, the author explores the stren…
Relationship between negative social reactions to sexual assault disclosure and mental health outcomes of Black and White female survivors
The results provide further support for detrimental effects of negative reactions on Black and White survivors and highlight the importance of educating people in the community about sexual assault and how to respond in more supportive ways. (PsycINFO Database Record
The Role of the Black Church in HIV Prevention
Black people have the highest rate of HIV/AIDS infection in the USA, and they are less likely to access quality physical and mental healthcare. To address these disparities as outlined in the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, there is a need for culturally congruent, innovative approaches to HIV/AIDS prevention. The first multi‐denominational national study of Black faith leaders was conducted utilizing focus groups that were held in 11 US cities. The …
Cultural Oppression and Human Trafficking
Human trafficking is maintained within a context of intersecting forms of oppression. Cultural oppression, including racism and ethnic bias, creates additional risk for human trafficking and generates unique challenges for prevention and intervention. There are, however, cultural strengths that survivors of human trafficking have that may be utilized to aid their recovery process as well as psychotherapeutic interventions. In addition to traditio…
The Trauma Lens of Police Violence against Racial and Ethnic Minorities
Police violence against racial and ethnic minorities has been researched through the lens of multiple social science disciplines including psychology. Within psychology, the study of trauma lends itself to understanding the dynamics of unjustified violence perpetrated by some law enforcement agents. These acts of aggression are not only examples of interpersonal trauma but also the trauma of racism, which is examined through the lens of intergene…
Still We Rise
Sex trafficking is the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purposes of sexual exploitation. Among those who are at greater risk for sex trafficking are women, girls, impoverished persons, runaways, homeless persons, persons who have prior trauma histories, and ethnically marginalized persons, including African Americans. The short- and long-term consequences of sex trafficking are physical, sexual, psychological, social, economic, and spirit…
Transnational Feminist Therapy
This article summarizes the contributions of authors to a special issue on transnational feminist practice and integrates their recommendations. The three-part outline for organizing transnational feminist practice themes focuses on self-awareness and cultural humility, knowledge foundations, and interventions and skills. This article also summarizes case material that illustrates the basic guidance of authors who work in many types of educationa…
Transnational Feminist Theory and Practice
This article introduces central features of transnational feminism and discusses how these characteristics provide a foundation for transnational feminist practice in psychology. These core themes emphasize: (a) reflexivity and positionality; (b) intersectionality in transnational perspective; (c) inclusive definitions of global and transnational feminisms; (d) transnational border-crossing practices; (e) agency and resistance in global perspecti…
Resist and Rise
Black, Indigenous, and other Women of Color (BIWOC) are at increased risk for interpersonal trauma, including racial trauma. Interpersonal trauma has potentially deleterious emotional, cognitive, physical, social, and spiritual consequences. European models of trauma recovery often end their process with coping strategies and meaning-making; womanist psychology, which emerges from the cultural traditions of Black women’s experiences and wisdom, i…
Black Love, Activism, and Community (BLAC)
The purpose of this article is to describe the Black Love, Activism, and Community (BLAC) model of healing and resilience. The assumption of the BLAC model is that Black activism is inspired and sustained by love and community. Building on empirical research, liberation psychology, and African-centered psychology, the BLAC model identifies four culturally grounded domains of resilience (relationships, spirituality, identity, and active expression…
Healing the Trauma of Racism and Sexism
Gendered racism is a source of stress and, in some cases, traumatic stress for women and girls of color as well as gender expansive people of color. Gendered racism is a form of oppression rooted in both White Supremacy and patriarchy. Along with interpersonal and internalized forms of gendered racism, mental health professionals must attend to systemic forms of gendered racism that manifest in every social system from education to criminal (in)j…
Pilot development and initial validation of the Black spiritual creativity scale
There is a lack of research dedicated to understanding and evaluating how African Americans engage in spiritual creativity as a form of cultural empowerment in order to thrive in the face of systemic oppression. The Black Spiritual Creativity Scale (BSCS) is a new measure that was designed to address this gap in the literature. The BSCS measures the experience of creativity, rhythm, and soul as spiritual forces that contribute to a sense of perso…
Psychology (21 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Medicine (13 works) · Gender Studies (12 works) · Poison control (12 works) · Psychiatry (12 works) · Social Psychology (12 works) · Suicide prevention (12 works) · Political science (11 works) · Clinical Psychology (10 works)