Introduction To understand the relationship between Blacks and psychopathology, we must establish the historical contributors that impacted the psychological, emotional, and physiological un-wellness of people of color in America. Historically, the default perspective by which practitioners engaged clients has been from the clinical discourse of the dominant culture. The violence of cultural trauma has a much more collective effect, fracturing the beliefs of an entire population. Although growing research confirms the importance of including culture in assessments and treatment of Black/African American clients, research has not considered assessing and treating the impact the culture-based trauma has on the internal working model (IWM) of African American clients. This dissertation seeks to fill the gap in research by using a theoretical approach to explore clinicians’ ability to engage in culturally sensitive attachment work by exploring the perspectives of clinicians who treat African American clients. Hence exploring whether clinicians are integrating cultural trauma (CT) in their assessments, investigations of the clients’ internal working models and integrating CT in their interventions/treatment. Methods Recruitment for this study began with purposive sampling and progressed in recruiting additional participants through snowball sampling strategies of participants who meet the inclusion criteria. Clinicians were recruited through dissemination requests of targeted professional clinicians, including licensed social workers, professional counselors, marriage and family therapists, or any licensed/master’s level or higher degree mental health professional. Once the interviews were completed, the strategy moving forward consisted of the following: transcription, cleaning, organizing, and coding. To enhance rigor this researcher utilized peer debriefing and support through regularly engaging in debriefings with qualitatively experienced and tenured professors at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice as well as fellow research students. Additional rigor strategies employed were auditing trails by documenting and maintaining memos throughout this process. The final rigor strategy utilized was member check-in, which was used on an as-needed basis when additional clarifications and/or follow-up to an interview were needed. Findings Collectively, 12 themes emerged from all three research questions. The following themes emerged from research question one: (1) connecting community cultural trauma and triggers; (2) analyzing individualist versus collectivist perspectives; (3) exploring feelings of hope or despair; and (4) identifying attachment connections. Research question two: (1) examining the internalization of trauma; (2) investigating messaging and influencers of internal models; and (3) integrating community and generational/intergenerational patterns. Research question three: (1) understanding attachment patterns; (2) exploring connections and baselines surrounding cultural traumas; (3) embracing community alignment and collective survivalism; (4) examining the clinician’s self-awareness and use of self; and (5) integrating and utilizing practice models in therapy. Discussion Two essential factors emerged from the data relating to the inclusion of cultural trauma in assessments when treating African American clients: (1) assess how the client identifies their cultural community membership; and (2) establish how the client differentiates trauma. Regarding the exploration and investigation of CT’s impact on the internal working model, clinicians consider the client’s presentation of the conscious and unconscious internalization of historical and intergenerational traumas, as the data revealed there is an impact of external messaging on the internal working model of the client. Finally, this research uncovered that most participants identify the relevance of Attachment Theory in their assessing, interpreting, and intervention with their clients. A salient discovery and significant theme surrounds participants, identified as African American/Black, regarding their personal discovery and their clients’ individual discovery of making the connection with their self-awareness and shared community membership.