Janet Helms
American counselling psychologist known for racial identity theory
Counselling psychologist, professor emerita at Boston College, known for racial identity theory, research on test fairness and the study of racism as trauma. She is associated with Boston College's Institute for the Study and Promotion of Race and Culture.
Why this person matters
Helms developed theory and measures describing how people of different races cope with societal racism, covering both Black and White racial identity. Her research connects counselling practice with testing, trauma and education, and she worked with collaborators and students, some of whom hold an award named after her.
Main contributions
Racial identity theory
Over roughly 25 years her theory took shape as a set of interrelated ideas describing how people of different races cope with societal racism. It has been applied in education and law, and she wrote A Training Manual to Accompany Black and White Racial Identity (1991).
Test fairness
She studied test fairness in educational and occupational testing and provided expert testimony to the US Supreme Court in Ricci v. DeStefano.
Books for practice and public readers
Titles include A Race Is a Nice Thing to Have (1992) and Using Race in Counseling and Psychotherapy: Theory and Process (1999, with D. A. Cook).
Context and limits
Racial identity stage models are theory and measurement frameworks. The sources used here do not describe validation studies or criticism of her instruments, and they do not set out the stages themselves. Boston College records her work treating racism and ethnoviolence as trauma. Her birth year rests on one encyclopaedia heading.
In your introductory course
Culture and diversity.Appears in culture and diversity chapters on identity and racism. Students meet racial identity theory in discussions of how people understand their own race in counselling and school settings.
Related course reading: Psychology 2e, section 1.3. This is course context rather than a biographical source.
Years of active work
- 1975
Awarded a PhD in counselling psychology at Iowa State University.
- 1981
Joined the University of Maryland, College Park, where she stayed until 1999.
- 1992
Published A Race Is a Nice Thing to Have.
- 2000
Joined Boston College, later as Augustus Long Professor of Counseling Psychology.
Sources
- Boston College Lynch School, Janet Helms faculty pageUniversity. Institutional biography inspected.
- SAGE Encyclopedia of Counseling, Helms, Janet E. (1947-)Publisher. Abstract inspected.
- Wikipedia, Janet E. HelmsReference work. Reference article inspected.