Dr. Ganz Ferrance is a psychologist specialising in human potential, and family and marriage therapy.
Over my decades of radio broadcasting and now podcasting, I’ve spoken with scores of people about the structural and systemic barriers to the freedom, prosperity, and happiness of Africans and other groups.
On this episode of MF GALAXY we’ll hear about another set of barriers, which, while being influenced by the structural and the systemic, are a distinct problem unto themselves. They’re also usually more difficult to perceive and define. I’m talking about psychological barriers inside the human community generally and African-Canadian communities specifically, barriers which have been passed intergenerationally and are the legacy of the horrors of colonialism across the African continent, and of the continent-wide rape-gulag in the US and in the Caribbean.
Ganz Ferrance is ideally suited to discuss these intergenerational barriers to our individual and collective health and success, and the means to overcome them. He’s been teaching mind-body health for over two decades in Canada and the United States. He holds a Ph.D. in Counselling Psychology from Andrews University in Michigan and an MA in Educational and Developmental Psychology.
He’s also an increasingly well-known media figure, having appeared on CBC Radio, CHED Radio, CTV Edmonton and CTV’s Good Morning Canada, ByuRadio, Canadian Learning Television, and Sirius XM, and in the pages of P&G Every Day, Our Weekly, and Ebony Magazine.
In this episode of MF GALAXY, Ganz Ferrance discusses:
What Eurocentric psychology misses about the profound, cumulative, psychological impacts of the lifelong experience of enduring racism The significance of what sociologists call “stereotype threat” How people in societies that are free on paper but racist in reality can achieve strong mental health How “purpose tremor” relates to the well-intentioned but counter-productive messages that African parents give their children The danger of waiting for saviours The effects of the competing values of community versus the individual, and Whether African celebrities have an obligation to Africans across the worldToday’s show comes from deep inside the archives of the Grand Lodge of Imhotep. Ganz Ferrance spoke with me at his office in Edmonton in September, 2008.
To hear the exclusive patrons-only extended edition of my conversation with Ganz Ferrance, click on the Patreon link to become a sponsor for a dollar or more per week.
By funding MF GALAXY, you get access to all extended editions of the show, plus video excerpts from selected interviews as they become available. This extended edition includes Dr. Ganz Ferrance discussing:
The benefits of chess, horse-riding, golf, and other non-stereotypically African activities for African-Canadian families The fluidity of racial stereotypes and how they limit people’s futures The “racial solidarity” reasons why some people defend corporal punishment, and How people can change from focusing on defeat to focusing on victoryTo contact Dr. Ganz Ferrance, book him for counselling or a speaking engagement, attend his classes, or to purchase his CDs and DVDs, visit doctorganz.com.
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