Healing/Affirmation Cards for Women of Color

A Multicultural Counseling Resource by Karma Nashed

Millions of women of color every day in the U.S experience gendered racism, where racism and sexism overlap to shape identity, self-worth, and emotional well-being. These pressures show up in many ways, including Eurocentric beauty standards that devalue natural hair, darker skin tones, and cultural features as well as being underestimated in academic or professional settings, dealing with stereotypes, feeling the need to code-switch to be perceived as “acceptable,” and carrying cultural or family expectations around strength, success, or caretaking. These personal and practical struggles, layered on top of appearance-based bias, create a complex experience with intersectionality that many women of color navigate daily. This is why I want to develop Healing & Affirmation Cards for Women of Color to help counselors create space to talk about these experiences through short reflective prompts and affirmations.

Each of the 8 cards encourages clients to explore themes like self-worth, beauty expectations, rest, vulnerability, and cultural identity. The starter card below asks, “When have you felt pressure to change how you speak, act, or show up to be taken seriously?” with the affirmation, “I deserve to be valued exactly as I am” on the back. This resource is inspired by research on psychological armoring in women of color, where the pressure to appear strong while hiding pain (Stori, Cattaneo, Ramseur, & Adams, 2025) is gently countered by promoting softness, honesty, and self-compassion.

Counselors can use the cards to start conversations, support healing around appearance and identity, and help clients build healthier, more affirming self-images. Clients can also use them independently as daily grounding tools for healing.

Front of Healing Card

Reflective Question

Back of Healing Card

Affirmation

Complete Card Deck

Read straight across!

Front:

2. How have assumptions or stereotypes shaped the way others treat you, and how you treat yourself?

3. Have you ever felt like you had to represent your entire community?

4. What emotions have you learned to silence to "keep the peace"?

5. What parts of your cultural identity bring you joy and pride?

6. Which parts of your beauty have you been told to hide?

7. When have you felt you had to work twice as hard just to be seen as equal?

8. Have you ever felt the need to code-switch? How did it impact your sense of authenticity?

Back:

2. I refuse to shrink myself to fit someone else's narrative.

3. I am allowed to be fully myself without carrying other people's expectations.

4. My voice matters, and my feelings deserve space.

5. My culture is a source of strength, wisdom, and perspective.

6. Every part of me is worthy and honored.

7. My worth is not measured by exhaustion, and I am enough as I am.

8. My authentic self is valuable in every space, and I don't have to perform to belong.

References

Singh, A. A., Wise, T., & Sue, D. W. (2019). The racial healing handbook: Practical activities to help you challenge privilege, confront systemic racism, and engage in collective healing. New Harbinger Publications.

Stori, S. A., Cattaneo, L. B., Ramseur, K., & Adams, L. M. (2025). Centering malleable factors in Black women’s mental health: How psychological armoring and social support role dynamics connect to trauma symptoms from gendered racism. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry.

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