Monnica T Williams

University of Ottawa · School of Psychology

This chapter describes how parents can support the formation of a healthy, positive racial/ethnic identity in children and adolescents, including both youth of color and White youth. Ethnic identity is explained, along with minority and White identity models as well as examples of stages of development. Techniques for how parents can strengthen eth...

Anti-racism approaches require an honest examination of cause, impact, and committed action to change, despite discomfort and without experiential avoidance. While contextual behavioral science (CBS) and third wave cognitive-behavioral modalities demonstrate efficacy among samples composed of primarily White individuals, data regarding their effica...

There is a growing body of literature demonstrating that experiences of oppression (e.g., racism, sexism, heterosexism, poverty) are associated with posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms. Traditional trauma assessments do not assess experiences of oppression and it is therefore imperative to develop instruments that do. To assess oppression-based...

This report describes the experience of racism by public service employees by the Office of the Auditor General of Canada (OAG). Our team completed the qualitative analysis and report used to inform the final report that was released.

Currently, individuals with personal or familial histories of psychopathological experiences of psychosis, psychotic spectrum disorders, bipolar disorder, and similar conditions are excluded from most psychedelic clinical trials, studies, and treatment programs. This study sought to determine why such an exclusion exists, what the implications of t...

Psychedelics are being studied for the treatment of numerous mental health disorders, as well as a means of bringing people together. Nonetheless, people of color and those with other marginalized identities have not been fully included. Studies and research on psychedelic-assisted therapies have largely excluded people of color, leaving out fundam...

This vignette told in eight graphic panels illustrates a story about how emotional responses associated with White femininity are used to derail a classroom discussion about racial injustice in a university setting. The panels show how this weaponization of femininity occurs and how it shields those who wield it from external criticism while center...

Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) is gaining renewed interest as a treatment for various mental disorders. However, there has been limited Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) representation in PAP clinical trials, signaling the need for culturally consonant communication about the efficacy and safety of PAP. We randomly assigned 3...

To serve our diverse communities, clinicians must understand how racism shapes the lives of racialized people, affecting physical and mental health. Legha’s (2023) antiracist approach is an accessible guide that clinical supervisors and trainees can implement to reduce racism in mental healthcare. Supervisors and trainees learn to work toward ident...

The Qur’an prohibits the use of intoxicants such as alcohol. However, the use of psychedelics falls somewhere in between social acceptance and outright prohibition among Muslim communities. Due to the cultural and religious stigma associated with the use of psychedelics among Muslims, it is difficult to encourage Muslim participation in psychedelic...

The field of psychedelic studies is expanding at a rapid pace and the need for academic institutions to engage more directly with this emergent field is growing. There have been some initial moves within the academy to begin tackling this evolving landscape, but these efforts have been relatively siloed along traditional disciplinary lines. Academi...

Psychology aims to capture the diversity of our human experience, yet racial inequity ensures only specific experiences are studied, peer-reviewed, and eventually published. Despite recent publications on racial bias in research topics, study samples, academic teams, and publication trends, bias in the peer review process remains largely unexamined...

The Dimensional Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (DOCS) is widely used to measure obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) severity across four broad symptom dimensions (i.e., contamination, responsibility for harm, unacceptable thoughts, symmetry). Despite its proven utility, there is reason to suspect that the unacceptable thoughts subscale conflates differ...

Introduction: Evidence suggests that psychedelics may serve as a therapeutic approach to reduce substance use; however, People of Color (POC) are often excluded from this research. We investigated whether psychedelic use affects other substance use among POC and whether perceived changes in psychological flexibility and racial trauma mediates this...

Organizational culture, policies, and procedures can prevent or promote sexual violence. Lensed through a case study of one woman police officer and her abuse, this paper examines the organizational issues surrounding sexual harassment and abuse in law enforcement and the impact on officers' psychological well-being. We review issues surrounding wo...

There is a notable disparity between the observed prevalence of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders in racialized persons in the United States and Canada and White individuals in these same countries, with Black people being diagnosed at higher rates than other groups. The consequences thereof bring a progression of lifelong punitive societal implicat...

Oppression refers to systemic discrimination where the injustice targets or disproportionately impacts specific groups of people. The Trauma Symptoms of Discrimination Scale (TSDS) is a self-report measure designed to assess the traumatizing impact of discrimination broadly by measuring anxiety-related symptoms of trauma due to discriminatory exper...

Purpose of Review The literature on racism and anxiety-related disorders, especially social anxiety, specific phobia, and generalized anxiety disorder, is notably lacking. This report aims to review recent evidence demonstrating the link between racial discrimination and various anxiety-related disorders. Recent Findings Anxiety-related disorders...

The term racial trauma is used to describe the cumulative distressing and traumatizing effects of racism in all of its forms, and it closely resembles the construct of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This investigation aims to increase our understanding of racial trauma by comparing the characteristics of those with a clinically-relevant diag...

For many marginalized people, coping with discrimination is not a temporary condition. Rather it is endemic to living in a discriminatory society and a source of ongoing stress. In this paper, we explore the need to provide people struggling to cope with the skills to tackle not just the personal consequences of discrimination, but also to understa...

The field of psychology has established high professional standards for those who have chosen to dedicate their careers to caring for people navigating relational and mental health challenges. And for good reason. Given the intimate and essential character of this work, these ethics and accountability standards have become a cornerstone of the prac...

The field of psychology has established high professional standards for those who have chosen to dedicate their careers to caring for people navigating relational and mental health challenges. Given the intimate and essential character of this work, these ethics and accountability standards have become a cornerstone of the practice of psychology, h...

Despite recent increased interest in equity, diversity, and inclusion in post-secondary education, racism persists on university campuses as it does throughout Western society, fueled by malignant myths and falsehoods. These myths operate such that universities, intended as places to inspire intellectual growth and development, promote misinformati...

This article reviews the current research literature concerning Black people in Western societies to better understand how they regulate their emotions when coping with racism, which coping strategies they use, and which strategies are functional for well-being. A systematic review of the literature was conducted, and 26 studies were identified on...

Aggression may be defined as an action taken to harm another person who is not willing to be harmed. This definition includes physical and verbal aggression, relational aggression, ostracization, and avoidance. Currently, intention of causing harm is argued to be the critical part of what is considered an aggressive behavior and given that microagg...

Experiences of past and present oppression/discrimination towards Turtle Island’s Indigenous peoples are pervasive, contributing to symptoms of stress and trauma. Psychedelic substances have been shown to be effective for treating multiple disorders; however, there is a lack of research within Indigenous groups. This study examined the effects of n...

Racism can be stressful or even traumatizing. Psychological unwellness emerges out of the confluence of historical, cultural, and individual experiences, and resulting syndromes may or may not fit into a DSM-5 PTSD diagnostic framework. Although racial stress and trauma are common presentations in therapy, few therapists have the resources or train...

Aggression may be defined as an action taken to harm another person who is not willing to be harmed. This definition includes physical and verbal aggression, relational aggression, ostracization, and avoidance. Currently, intention of causing harm is argued to be the critical part of what is considered an aggressive behavior and given that microagg...

Racism has been linked to the development or worsening of mental health disorders. When posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms occur due to experiences of racism, it may be referred to as race-based traumatic stress or racial trauma. More work is needed to quantify the distress experienced by those affected. The present study aimed to assess the va...

Objective: Despite strong evidence for the safety and efficacy of ketamine in the treatment of mood disorders, the enrollment of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) has not been a focus of this research. Health disparities in the treatment of mood disorders in BIPOC indicate a strong need to understand the clinical, social, and pharmaco...

Objective: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating disorder requiring timely diagnosis and treatment, with special attention needed for Black populations in the U.S. Yet, stakeholders often fail to recognize Black communities' heterogeneous ethnic composition, thus not allowing diverse sociocultural realities to inform PTSD interven...

Background: Limited ethnoracial diversity in previous ±3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine-assisted therapy (MDMA-AT) trials for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has prompted questions concerning whether Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) also benefit from this treatment. Methods: Secondary analysis was conducted using a modified int...

Purpose of Review While research has identified racial trauma in other contexts, it is often overlooked amongst Canadian society. Racial trauma occurs as a result of an event of racism or cumulative events over time whereby an individual experiences stress and consequent mental health sequelae. Given that the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and/or Person...

Some may think that discussions on the inhumane treatment of refugees of color can wait until after the war in Ukraine has ended. However, human lives are at risk every second and no refugee should be denied basic rights because of interactions between their identities and others’ ideological beliefs. In addition, experiences of racism within Ukrai...

Evidence-based jury selection is a critical need because of historical and ongoing racial biases that impede a just process and outcome. As norms about bias, how to measure it, and mitigating its effects have progressed over time, new tools to help carry out this work have become available. This article synergizes the latest relevant psychological...

Racism is a pervasive problem in Western society, leading to mental and physical unwellness in people from racialized groups. Psychology began as a racist discipline and still is. As such, most clinical training and curricula do not operate from an anti-racist framework. Although most therapists have seen clients with stress and trauma due to racia...

Background Newly arriving Syrian refugees can present with specific health characteristics and medical conditions when entering the United States. Given the lack of epidemiological data available for the refugee populations, our study examined the demographic features of Syrian refugees resettled in the state of Kentucky. Specifically, we examined...

Although general cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can help alleviate distress associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), strategies tailored to targeting specific cognitions, feelings, and behaviours associated with OCD such as exposure and ritual prevention (Ex/RP) and cognitive therapy (CT) have been shown to be a significantly more...

Psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) is a burgeoning treatment with growing interest across a variety of settings and disciplines. Empirical evidence supports PAT as a novel therapeutic approach that provides safe and effective treatment for people suffering from a variety of diagnoses, including treatment-resistant depression, substance use disorder...

Background The current study is one of the first to examine race, ethnic, and sex differences in the prevalence of and trends in hallucinogen use among lifetime users in the United States. Methods Data came from the 2015–2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health and included respondent's reporting ever-using hallucinogens ( n = 41,060; female =...

MDMA (±3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine)-assisted therapy (MDMA-AT) was shown in previous clinical trials to have promising efficacy and safety for alleviating treatment-resistant posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, due to low ethnoracial diversity, the question remains as to whether ethnoracial minority participants would benefit simil...

There is a need to understand ways in which Asians in North America attempt to heal from racial trauma, given their well-documented high risk of exposure and associated adverse mental health outcomes. We conducted a secondary analysis of Asians from a survey of people of color in North America who have consumed psychedelics in response to racial di...

Background Currently, personal or familial histories of psychotic symptoms are exclusionary criteria for most psychedelic clinical trials, studies, and treatment programs. This study sought to determine why such an exclusion exists, what the implications of the exclusion criteria are, and if there was agreement in expert opinion. Methods In-depth...

Despite overwhelming documentation of disproportionate arrest, prosecution, conviction, and incarceration of Black Americans and the many psychological tools available to assess racism and implicit bias, anti-racist jury selection remains an understudied area of research. An evidence- based, anti-racist jury selection process is an urgent need, par...

In racialized societies, race divides people, prioritizes some groups over others, and directly impacts opportunities and outcomes in life. These missed opportunities and altered outcomes can be rectified only through the deliberate dismantling of explicit, implicit, and systemic patterns of injustice. Racial problems cannot be corrected merely by...

Traditionally, conceptual models of racial stressors (including racial microaggressions) have characterized the reactive experiences of African Americans, particularly identifying how African Americans cognitively, emotionally, and behaviorally respond to racial stress. The current study extends beyond the reactive coping experience and identifies...

Purpose of Review Racial trauma is a severe psychological response to the cumulative traumatic effect of racism. This review synthesizes emerging theoretical and empirical evidence of racial trauma, outlines the mechanisms, and lists available assessment and treatment options for racial trauma. Recent Findings Emerging evidence illustrates that th...

Gender and sexual minorities are subjected to minority stress in the form of discrimination and violence that leads to vigilance, identity concealment and discomfort, and internalized homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia. These experiences are related to increased susceptibility to mental health concerns in this population. Historically, the behav...

Allies are members of a dominant group that work to dismantle oppression experienced by subordinate groups. Given the well-documented mental health impact of all forms of racism on people of colour, including microaggressions, cultivating White allies is important for reducing racism and advancing equity. This paper examines the impact of two diver...

The link between socioeconomic status and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms is well established. Given that Black women are disproportionately burdened by both poverty and PTSD symptoms, research focusing on these constructs among this population is needed. The current study assessed the association between material hardship (i.e., diff...

Being a White ally goes beyond being merely “non-racist” and having good intentions. Meaningful allyship is behavioural and requires active participation in dismantling systems of oppression. The objective of this study was to ascertain the degree to which White individuals behave in an allied manner when provided the opportunity to do so by compar...

Black men and women encounter multiple forms of racism in American society and require numerous strategies to manage the stress associated with these experiences. This chapter reviews the current state of the literature regarding Black people and how they cope with racism. Findings demonstrate that Black people tend to cope with racism through soci...

Objective: Empirically supported treatments (ESTs) have been criticized for lack of ethnoracial representation, which may limit the generalizability of findings for non-White patients. This study assessed ethnoracial representation in United States-based randomized controlled trials (RCTs) for three evidence-based treatments for posttraumatic stre...

Efforts to understand racial microaggressions have focused on the impact on targets, but few studies have examined the motivations and characteristics of offenders, and none has examined microaggressions committed by members of racialized groups. The purpose of this study is to determine if racial microaggressions should be conceptualized as a form...

The highly publicized murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and George Floyd raised awareness of the insidious ways racism continues to manifest. This led to increased support of the Black Lives Matter movement in the US and globally. The American Psychiatric Association formally apologized for its support of structural racism and called for th...

Racial microaggressions are an insidious form of racism with devastating mental-health outcomes, but the concept has not been embraced by all scholars. This article provides an overview of new scholarship on racial microaggressions from an array of diverse scholars in psychology, education, and philosophy, with a focus on new ways to define, concep...

With the increased desire to engage in antiracist clinical research, there is a need for shared nomenclature on racism and related constructs to help move the science forward. This article breaks down the factors that contributed to the development and maintenance of racism (including racial microaggressions), provides examples of the many forms of...

Harvard psychiatrist Chester Pierce’s conception of “subtle and stunning” daily racial offenses, or microaggressions, remains salient even 50 years after it was introduced. Microaggressions were defined further by Sue and colleagues in 2007, and this construct has found growing utility as the deleterious effects of microaggressions on the health of...

The growth trajectory of ethnically and linguistically diverse individuals in the United States, particularly for youth, compels the education system to have urgent awareness of how diverse aspects of culture (e.g., Spanish-speaking, Black Latina student) are implicated in outcomes in American school systems. Students spend a significant amount of...

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a leading cause of disability world-wide (World Health Organization, 2008). Treatment of OCD is a specialized field whose aim is recovery from illness for as many patients as possible. The evidence-based psychotherapeutic treatment for OCD is specialized cognitive behavior therapy (CBT, NICE, 2005, Koran and S...

Background Previous research showed acute psychedelic effects were associated with decreases in racial trauma (RT) symptoms among black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). Among samples comprised primarily of white participants, positive outcomes of psychedelic experiences have been mediated by increases in psychological flexibility. Therefor...

Allies are members of an ingroup who work toward fairness for people in an outgroup. Ally behaviors include calling out discrimination and fighting for inclusion of outgroup members, and it includes public and private behaviors. As such, White allies can be an important means of reducing racism against people of color. There are few means of assess...

Two concepts that describe repetitive thoughts regarding an individual’s sexual orientation—sexual orientation rumination and sexual orientation obsessions—have been introduced into the research literature. Despite the fact that these concepts have similarities, important distinctions exist with regard to their theoretical underpinnings, developmen...

There is a growing resurgence in the study of psychedelic medicines for the treatment of mental health and substance use disorders. However, certain early investigations are marred by questionable research methods, abuses against research participants, and covert Central Intelligence Agency financial involvement. The purpose of this study was to un...

Background Few studies have assessed the epidemiology of hallucinogenic substance use among racial and ethnic groups of varying age cohorts. Use of psychedelic substances may differ among people of color (POC), due to factors such as stigma and discriminatory drug enforcement practices against POC. The lack of inclusion of POC in psychedelic resear...

If patients with mental illnesses are to be treated fairly in comparison with other categories of patients, they must be given access to promising experimental therapies, including psychedelics. The right of early access to promising therapies was advanced as an ethical principle by activist Larry Kramer during the AIDS pandemic, and has now largel...

Emerging evidence from randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials suggests psychedelic compounds such as 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), psilocybin, and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), when administered as an adjunct to psychotherapy, that is, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy (PAP), may be beneficial for treating sub...

After decades of prohibition, scientific and academic inquiry into the psychedelic sciences has been reignited in the West. Alongside research, clinicians are being permitted to study the effects of psychedelic substances in humans, and the door has been opened to deliver psychedelic-assisted therapies for mental health needs. However, despite exci...

Background: With support from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, we convened researchers representing palliative care, psychosocial oncology, spiritual care, oncology, and psychedelic-assisted therapies. We aimed to define priorities and envision an agenda for future research on psychedelic-assisted therapies in patie...

Scrupulous obsessions are a prominent presentation of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Previous conceptualizations of scrupulosity have indicated that it belongs to the unacceptable thoughts dimension, which pertains to sexual, violent, and religious obsessive themes. However, research suggests that scrupulous symptoms may differ from other una...

Current research suggests that ketamine-assisted psychotherapy has benefit for the treatment of mental disorders. We report on the results of ketamine-assisted intensive outpatient psychotherapeutic treatment of a client with treatment-resistant, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of experiences of racism and childhood sexual abuse. T...

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a leading cause of disability world-wide (World Health Organization, 2008). Treatment of OCD is a specialized field whose aim is recovery from illnessfor as many patients as possible. The evidence-based psychotherapeutic treatment for OCD is specialized cognitive behavior therapy (CBT, NICE, 2005, Koran and Si...

Previous research has shown that intrusive thoughts in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) often focus on emotionally significant aspects of individuals' lives (e.g., values and beliefs). The current study sought to expand our understanding of OC symptoms related to sexual orientation (SO-OC symptoms) by investigating the roles of homophobia (i.e.,...

Butts (2002) was the first to draw attention to what we now call racial trauma, or race-based trauma, in the mental health literature. Racial trauma can be defined as the cumulative traumatizing impact of racism on a racialized individual, which can include individual acts of racial discrimination combined with systemic racism, and typically includ...

True feminism has the power to transform society, but too often what is advanced as feminism is actually White supremacy in disguise – a counterfeit we sometimes call White Feminism. White Feminism exists to promote the comfort and safety of middle-class and affluent White women. At its core, it is a racist ideology that claims to speak for all wom...

Black people living in Western culture often feel the impact of racialization, cultural trauma, and racism. Oppression and inequality can contribute to psychic distress at individual and collective levels, and this is enhanced and compounded for people who exist at the intersection of multiple marginalized identities.