Although issues pertinent to psychotherapy with ethnic minorities have been attended to increasingly over the past two decades, the issue of skin color has more or less been neglected in the psychotherapy literature. The idealization of light skin color in mainstream White and ethnic minority communities in the United States has impacted a wide range of societal and individual perceptions ranging from physical attractiveness to intellectual and social competence. The relevance of this impact in the psychotherapeutic relationship is explored in this article. Skin color is addressed within an historical context, and its influence on intrapsychic and interpersonal processes in the lives of clients and therapists are discussed. Clinical vignettes are presented to illustrate the dynamics of skin color in the therapeutic relationship.

Issues of gender, race, immigration, and socioeconomic class have received increased attention during the past decade in the field of psychotherapy (Akhtar, 1999; Holmes, 1992). At the same time, some subtle, related aspects of clients' experiences, such as skin color, have been more or less neglected in the psychotherapy literature. This article addresses the dynamics of skin color in the therapeutic process. Three general areas related to skin color, including placing this phenomenon in a historical context, examining the relevance of skin color in the intrapsychic and interpersonal processes in the lives of clients and therapists, and implications for the psychotherapeutic relationship are explored. Empirical and clinical findings related to skin color will be discussed, and clinical vignettes are presented to illustrate the dynamics of skin color in the therapeutic relationship.

The issue of skin color is relevant to most cultures around the world. An analysis of domination over groups of people, through mechanisms such as colonialism and slavery,...