The Race Conversation

“This book has been written to help us take an honest look at who we really are. It is here to help us dig deep. It is here to heal the nation. I’m no psychotherapist, but I get it. After years of experience on the front-line helping people like me, Eugene has written a book that I believe can change the way we relate to each other, and the way we relate to ourselves. He writes in a logical, accessible way, and makes The Race Conversation, our conversation.” Benjamin Zephaniah

“Eugene’s conversational and accessible style is music to my ears. He offers us a language to describe our experiences of race conversations and ways to change their outcomes. This book is an inspiration and an awakening for everyone, the young, the old, teachers, social workers, carers, politicians, and decision-makers. Read and feel free.” Jazzie B., OBE

“Launched from his personal and professional experience as a therapist, Eugene Ellis presents an insightful and empirical text. He addresses rage, vulnerability and trauma across racial minds and creates a pathway to the understanding of racial dialogue. The book emphasises the multi-faceted positions of racism, mindfulness and body connections that trigger ‘racial arousal’. Language with a slight bite and examples of dialogue prompt further understanding and unravel ‘race construction’. An undercurrent of external and internal prompts such as white fragility and white privilege are used to contextualise interrelationships between African and Asian people and white people. This book is an important contribution to keeping the race conversation alive.” Isha Mckenzie-Mavinga, psychotherapist, and author of The Challenge of Racism in Therapeutic Practice

“When the history of therapy’s engagement with ‘race’ and diversity comes to be written, Eugene Ellis will be one of the most important figures in the narrative. In this book he confirms his standing as a leading theorist as well as an activist. The innovative strength of the book lies in its focus on the body – on how the race construct and its traumas are held in the bodies of people of colour and also of the white majority.” Professor Andrew Samuels, former Chair UK Council for Psychotherapy

“In this insightful and accessible book, Eugene Ellis tackles a challenging topic with candor, honesty and courage. He manages to clarify the complexity of the race construct and its debilitating impact on our bodies, mental health, and relationships, while instilling hope for healing this legacy. Readers will find themselves inspired by knowledge and empowered by awareness so that enriching conversations about race become possible.” Pat Ogden, PhD, Founder, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, and author of The Pocket Guide to Sensorimotor Psychotherapy in Context

“In this comprehensive text, Eugene Ellis describes a pathway to racial understanding, speaking to both the history of racism and the psychology of race relations, interwoven with a mindfulness-based, somatically-informed model for addressing the effects of this history on all of us. He leaves us with much to converse about!” Janina Fisher, Ph.D., author of Transforming the Living Legacy of Trauma and Healing the Fragmented Selves of Trauma Survivors

“It would be impossible to exaggerate how important this book is for our times. Eugene Ellis brings both personal experience and psychotherapeutic insight into this, often fraught, area with compassion, thoughtfulness and rigor.” Judy Ryde, author of White Privilege Unmasked: How to Be Part of the Solution

“Eugene Ellis has powerfully captured the nuances and fractures of trauma, where our minds and bodies have been dehumanised for far too long, and takes us towards reclaiming our sanity and positive growth. This is a must-have book for all therapists working with people of African and Asian diaspora heritage who want to understand the impact of historical and modern-day racism on the Black British psyche. This timely publication, in the context of Black Lives Matter and racial trauma, will help practitioners to create the space and dialogue for inclusive conversation and change with their clients and the wider community.” Patrick Vernon, OBE, social commentator, and co-author of 100 Great Black Britons

“How the mental construction ‘race’ affects the inner life, the very bodies, of individuals is little recognised and less explored. The Race Conversation is a ground-breaking and timely study that brought me, a white English Buddhist, new awareness of my own inner experience and has already benefitted my participation in the ‘race conversation’ through greater understanding of how the construction of race impacts on the psychic and somatic experience of people of colour.” Subhuti, Member of the Triratna Buddhist Order, President of the London Buddhist Centre, and author of Mind in Harmony: The Psychology of Buddhist Ethics