TPC-Journal-V4-Issue1

63 The Professional Counselor \Volume 4, Issue 1 not really want to interact with me if they didn’t have to. I can tell this because of there is a level of avoidance even when they are, to some degree, forced into communicating. There’s a barrier there. Oftentimes there’s a lack of eye contact. Their avoidance makes me feel invisible because at the same time you see how they inter- act with their own [other White people]. When you do talk with them, they are very diplomatic, very politically correct, very careful. At times, I think this is how they communicate with anyone they don’t know, but for me I know it’s associated with race. I mean this is something that as an African-American male you deal with pretty regularly. Table 1 Thematic Overview of Phenomenological Analysis of Invisibility Thematic Code Major Theme Subtheme Self-affirmation 1.1 Defining themselves through cultural connectivity 1.1.1. African-American male mentorship 1.1.2. Understanding and exploring African-American history and culture 1.1.3. Counseling Self-awareness 2.1 Increasing consciousness about their individual and societal perceptions, beliefs and attitudes 2.1.1. Self-affirmation 2.1.2. (Racial) identity development Overcoming invisibility 3.1 Building a social, spiritual and therapeutic support system that is accessible 3.1.1. African-American male mentorship 3.1.2. Resiliency 3.1.3. Religious/spiritual foundation 3.1.4. Counseling Effectively counseling African-American males 4.1 Counseling therapeutic approach 4.1.1. Authenticity 4.1.2. Unconditional positive regard 4.1.3. Empathetic and understanding 4.1.4. Self-aware Participant #2 . I probably feel invisible the majority of the time. I’ve learned to cope with it. It’s just a part of my reality, but at times it’s stressful. Sometimes it’s hard for me to assess some of this stuff because it’s so normal for me. I’m a faculty member at this university and certain people know me in classes and in my col- lege, but as soon as I walk out of the building I don’t perceive that people see me as a professor. Not that people have to recognize that I’m a professor, but I don’t think that I’m viewed with the respect that any professional should have in any public space. Going into department stores I feel special when a sales person acknowledges me…I’m grateful and I want to do business with them because they’ve demonstrated to me that they are cultur- ally competent, kind, a decent person because most times I’m looked over. I prepare myself for what I have to deal with. I’m very capable and competent…negotiating these things [race, invisibility] because I’ve had to do it. I’ve even watched my mother do it when I was a child.