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Isha McKenzie-Mavinga is one of the pioneers in mental health in the black community. She was part of a mental health discussion geoup associated with St George's and Springfield Hospital staff and other mental health professionals at Lessingham Road in the 1980s. In the 1990s she was a senior member of staff at the Afro-Caribbean Mental Health Association in Brixton. She conducted some interesting research, probably the first UK baseline of African Caribbean and Asian counsellors and psychotherapists. More recently, she has published papers related to later research in the BACP Counselling and Psychotherapy Research Journal. In this book she tackles many difficult issues. The introduction informs the reader of the common terms which she uses in the body of the work, and, most usefully, she defines what she means by ‘Black Issues’ - the concerns of black and minority people in psychotherapy and counselling that are rendered beyond the scope of most therapeutic models. Because a multi-cultural approach is not embedded in theory, those who are not of European backgrounds have featured little and therapists have been ill equipped to work with these clients. The work of British luminaries, Colin Lago and Joyce Thompson, Jaffar Kareem and Roland Littlewood and Barbara Fletchman-Smith are mentioned among others.
The book explores many untouched issues using the voices of trainees’ tutors and clients from a range of backgrounds. Just as women's issues generally raised concerns and resentment in men, black issues in counselling and psychotherapy arouse similar rage in some white people. The profession has for many years tinkered on the fringes but errs on the side of caution in order not to upset majority feeling. This fear of exploration is counter to the enterprise of therapy and growth. McKenzie-Mavinga chooses not to be mired by this and instead focuses on how therapists in training can be given