TITLE:
Internal Family Systems Therapy with Black Men Navigating Racialized Traumatic Grief
AUTHORS:
Allen Eugene Lipscomb
KEYWORDS:
Black Male Grief, IFS, Internal Family Systems, Grief, Racialized Trauma
JOURNAL NAME:
Psychology,
Vol.16 No.12,
December
26,
2025
ABSTRACT: This theoretical article examines how Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy can be adapted as a culturally responsive clinical framework for supporting Black men navigating traumatic grief shaped by racialization and systemic oppression. Building upon Dr. Allen Lipscomb’s scholarship on Black male grief which foregrounds the cumulative emotional toll of oppression, chronic racial trauma, and the phenomenon of invisible mourning, the article proposes an integrated framework for conceptualizing the protective internal dynamics that often emerge in response to racialized grief. Using an IFS lens, clinicians are invited to engage with protective parts that guard against the overwhelming pain of racialized loss while facilitating the safe unburdening and reintegration of exiled emotional wounds. A clinical case vignette illustrates the application of this model in practice, followed by implications for delivering culturally attuned, congruent, and anti-oppressive mental health care to Black men.