Date

12-16-2025

Department

School of Behavioral Sciences

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)

Chair

Stephanie Phillips

Keywords

Strong Black Woman Schema, psychological wellness, intersectionality, Brainspotting

Disciplines

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

Black women in the United States experience disproportionate health disparities resulting from the intersecting effects of racism and sexism. Although researchers widely acknowledge these disparities, they have given less attention to how race- and gender-based oppression affect mental health outcomes. Brainspotting (BSP) is a trauma-informed approach emphasizing clinician attunement and a nonjudgmental space for processing distress. While BSP has shown promise with diverse populations, few studies have specifically examined its use with adult Black American women. This quantitative pretest–posttest study investigated the efficacy of BSP in improving psychological wellness among Black women and whether endorsement of the Strong Black Woman (SBW) schema was associated with psychological wellness. Participants completed self-report measures before and after three BSP sessions. A Pearson’s r correlation examined the relationship between SBW endorsement and psychological distress at pretest. Results indicated no significant relationship, r (14) = .289, p = .28 (two-tailed), R² = .08. Although not statistically significant, the correlation suggested that women who more strongly endorsed the SBW schema tended to report slightly higher distress at baseline. A paired-samples t-test examined whether psychological distress decreased following BSP. Results were statistically significant, t (5) = 3.45, p = .018 (two-tailed), r² = .70, 95% CI [11.04, 75.62]. These findings should be interpreted with caution, as the six participants who completed both assessments did not meet the statistical power requirement (n = 22). Findings highlight BSP’s potential as a culturally responsive intervention and underscore the need for larger, longitudinal studies to examine its impact on Black women’s mental health.

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