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Tracy M. Norris, DSW, LCSW-R is a psychodynamic psychotherapist who provides culturally aware and relational psychotherapy to clients with complex trauma histories and/or severe behavioral and emotional problems. As a psychotherapist, she works with many White patients who express racial bias during treatment. These patients are often angry, frustrated, and feel as though something has been taken away from them. This multimedia project will examine the challenge of exercising empathy in the context of the racialized therapeutic dyad.  It will explore what empathy is, how transference and countertransference influence empathy, and the impact of White fragility in the therapeutic dyad where the psychotherapist is African American and works with a White patient who expresses racial bias. This area of exploration is important in that it may provide a deeper understanding of the impact of racism/White supremacy on the cross-racial therapeutic dyad where empathy is critical to positive treatment outcomes. This multimedia project seeks to be especially useful for African American and other non-White clinicians treating White patients who express racial bias during treatment. Additionally, this site may be utilized as a teaching tool in multiple educational settings.  This project is a continuation of the my daily work.

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