Interracial Couples, Intimacy, & Therapy - by Kyle Killian (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Grounded in the personal narratives of twenty interracial couples with multiracial children, this volume uniquely explores interracial couples' encounters with racism and discrimination, partner difference, family identity, and counseling and therapy. It intimately portrays how race, class, and gender shape relationship dynamics and a partner's sense of belonging. Assessment tools and intervention techniques help professionals and scholars work effectively with multiracial families as they negotiate difference, resist familial and societal disapproval, and strive for increased intimacy. The book concludes with a discussion of interracial couples in cinema and literature, the sensationalization of multiracial relations in mass media, and how to further liberalize partner selection across racial borders.

Review Quotes

Killian does an excellent job of discussing the intersections of race, gender, and socioeconomic factors as they affect the development and progression of intimate relationships in the lives of his participants... A strong contribution to the literature on working therapeutically with such couples and to the broader literature on multiracial families.-- "PsycCRITIQUES"

Killian connects the experiences of twenty interracial couples to literature, cinema, and the intersections of culture, race, gender, and class. Contending that moving beyond silence about race can be transformative, he provides ways that professionals can help interracial couples make sense of their experiences of marginalization, find their voice, and reauthor their family identities in life-enhancing ways. This emancipatory book is for all those who support and celebrate relationships that may not fit society's conventions.--Fred P. Piercy, Editor, Journal of Marital and Family Therapy

Killian has made a major contribution to the scholarly literature on multiracialism in the twenty-first century, providing a means to affirm interracial intimacy while reinforcing, rather than rejecting or retiring, an anti-racist political project. This book should be required reading for all those in the helping professions struggling to understand better the matrix of race, gender, class, and sexuality in and beyond their clinical practice. To the extent that they are animated by a desire to live and love in a more just and equal world, rather than a 'free market, ' this learned study should appeal to academic and general audiences alike.--Jared Sexton, University of California, Irvine

This comprehensive, up-to-date book captures the realities of today's interracial couples via authentic and compelling narratives and is a landmark reference for seasoned scholars and practitioners, as well as for students in the social sciences and clinical professions.--Peter Fraenkel, City College of New York and Ackerman Institute's Center for Work and Family

Without fear, Kyle D. Killian inquires into the lives of interracial couples, inviting readers to appreciate how race relations unavoidably makes its way into the most intimate spaces. Adopting a strengths-oriented approach, his book wonderfully weaves history, couple formation, human development theory, family systems approaches, and social constructionist psychotherapy approaches to illuminate interracial couples' lived experience. It is a must addition in counseling psychology, couples therapy, and multicultural counseling courses and a welcome addition to undergraduate courses in family and human development.--Gonzalo Bacigalupe, Director, Family Therapy Program, University of Massachusetts Boston

About the Author

Kyle D. Killian, Ph.D., LMFT, is associate professor and scholar at the Centre for Refugee Studies at York University, Toronto. A licensed couple and family therapist, he has published books, articles, and chapters on interracial and intercultural couples, immigrant and refugee families, and trauma and resilience. Interculturally married, he lives with his wife, Anna, and their two trilingual sons.