I Am A Black Therapist

Welcome to Reaching Minds Mini Series: How to Therapy.

This episode discusses the need for Black and BIPOC therapist as well as provides awareness to clinicians as a whole of the barriers to treatment for Black Americans and other minorities. Join the discussion through reaching out via Instagram @reachingminds or sending a message using the link below.

Transcript

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Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to Reaching Minds mini series. I'm your host, Brianna Williams MS. I am so excited that you guys are tuning in just on this mini-series on how to therapy. So, welcome, welcome, welcome, welcome. Um, in order to begin, I definitely want to before we dive into all of the different topics that we're going to talk about in this mini-series, I want to kind of introduce myself. I want to kind of get you guys just to let you know a little bit about me, a little about who I am, a little bit about, you know, my passion behind um just the field, just the mental health field, um, especially as an advocate, um, and especially as a black woman therapist in the field. Let me give myself a round of applause for that. So, listen, listen, listen. So, we're gonna be talking about different things like how to find the right therapist, um, knowing your client rights, what can you advocate for in your own treatment? Um, and just trusting the process, how you go through the process, what does it look like? Um, and am I doing therapy right? Um, a lot of people would would ask that question. Um, what does it look like? And so during this mini-series, we're gonna be diving into it. Um, and if you have any questions, please ask those questions. Um, please send me a message. Um, also please reach out to me on Instagram um at Reachent Minds, follow, like, all these different things. Um, so you can stay connected. Um, we're just here to learn with each other, we're here to grow with each other. So, with that being said, let's let's dive right in. Who am I? Um the title of this first um episode is I'm a black woman therapist. Um I graduated in 2022. Um, I graduated with my master's in community trauma counseling um from Jefferson University. So definitely, if you are exploring you know grad schools, definitely check out um Jefferson's uh program. Definitely a great opportunity um just to be around um professionals um to learn to get that first hand experience. So definitely when you're choosing your program, see what they offer, see um if there are any specialties that you're interested in, see if they offer that, see if they offer any ways for you to kind of connect with your professors and connect with just others in the field. Um, how can you get out there? How can you network? Um, and things like that. So um graduated in 2022, um, got my first job um working with youth that were um going through a lot of different things. Um, some of them they were, you know, just readjusting from being incarcerated. Um, some were in the midst of like some um court cases and trials. Um, and then there were some that were just acting out in school, not showing up, um, truancy, um, fighting in school, things like that. Um, so I just worked with a lot of troubled youth. Um, the program that I was working with um was an intervention program. And so this was a short-term program where I worked with the kids individually, I worked with um the parents and the family as a whole. Um, so a lot of my job was beyond therapy. Um, and I definitely recommend if you are in the field or you know, starting out in the field to not only just do therapy, but do some social work, do some case management, really um allow yourself to see the environments of some of the populations that you want to work work with. Um when I first started out, I wanted to work in in juveniles. I wanted to work with juveniles. Um, and that was a very um big passion of mine. Still is, still is to this day. Um and just being able to be in that space, um seeing where people lived at, seeing where people come from, their different ideas, um, seeing just just the lack of support from um family and how that impacts our youth, and that impacts, you know, the decisions that they make. And even seeing some with that had supportive parents, that had two parent homes, that had, you know, um they could get the things that they needed and wanted, you know, from their parents and things like that, and still see them go into these different crowds, go into these different um arenas that you know they were trying to be something that they weren't, or trying to find um just an avenue for them to fit in, um, which led them to different different crimes that they committed, or led them to be around the wrong crowd, or led them to do things that you know we would see um a lot of like our our educators today would kind of deem or write um that population off or say that's the troubled child or that's this and that. Um, but they're really just trying to find themselves, they're really just trying to fit in, find their groove and things like that. So definitely like it was a good experience working with that population. Um, however, I found that I couldn't get the most benefit out of um out of the field and out of my profession because you know, when you are providing free services, so these were these services were free, free of charge, no insurance, no money, nothing like that. When you are faced with, you know, providing free services, you get some people that um a lot of the people that I've dealt with like that don't take advantage of the full um the full resource. You know, they will get the bits and pieces that you know will help, or you know, um if they're not seeing their child being quote unquote fixed or quote unquote um doing what they want them to do, then it wasn't working. The treatment wasn't working. And so um I faced a lot of like pushback or you know, a lot of like no-show or like um lack of engagement, not just from the child, but also from the family and from the parent or the parents. Um, and so that made it hard for me to be effective in the role and to really um allow myself to really exercise those skills that I've learned in in school. So um fast forwarding to present day, I have been, you know, working with um a practice and it has been very very insightful, very insightful um of just the difference, the difference of treatment that I'm able to provide, um, the right range of um just clients that I see day to day. Um I see kids, I see adults, teenagers, young adults, you know, um, even some seniors, um, and even you know, still receiving some of the some of the pushback or some of the fix my child or still receiving, you know, some of those things I I even dealt with in um the realm of like providing free services, um it's still there even in uh private practice. Um, but I have been able to really just grow and hit a stomaching block of imposter syndrome. Um, you know, in my old job, I was not challenged. You know, when I first came in, I was ready, I was on fire. Um, but you know, receiving like a lot of like the pushback and the lack of support, you know, I kind of dialed back, you know, the the therapist side of me and went into mother mode or case manager mode or social work mode or um all these different things. And all those roles were necessary, all those roles were played a part and and made an effect, but I realized like I really wasn't operating um and using the knowledge that I've learned. And so this job challenged me, and still to this day it still does. It challenged me um the most, especially in my first couple months, because it was like, wow, like I really gotta go back and I have to like really look at you know some of these theorists and theories and um some of these techniques. Like I gotta refresh on those things. I gotta really dive in to see, you know, what is going on. How can I get through to this person? How can I make this uh this treatment or this session the most effective? Um, especially dealing with like um adults. That was something new for me. I've always dealt with kids, even in, you know, um not just with therapy, but also in my other jobs, you know, growing up, I've always dealt with kids. I dealt with kids in church when I'm doing ministry and things like that. And so it was very, very, very different because I don't look um my age, I don't look grown. Sometimes I fit in, you know, with the teenagers, you know, I can be lumped in there, I'm short, you know, I I don't, you know, I don't look like I'm supposed to be here. Um as long as, excuse me, as well as being black, being a black woman, um, where most of the people in my practice um were white of the majority majority race, you know. Um and so definitely imposter syndrome really, really crept in. Um, and so having to have those talks with my supervisor, and I am glad that I have a supervisor who is very open, um, who is very supportive and very um pushes me to excel and do the things that I feel like I can't do sometimes, or I'm like, you know what, I don't think this client is gonna work for me, you know. Um, but really just um allowing myself to say it's okay to not know all the answers, it's okay that you can't help this person, they don't want that type of help. It's okay um to even get it wrong sometimes. It's okay, and so I definitely had to learn that a lot um within working in this field, on top of you know, um just life, life in general, um, and having to navigate those things, and so coming into the space where I have to like take on another person's like problems and and worries and fears and things like that. When I'm trying to figure out my own, it was definitely tough, but you know, definitely um pushing and and seeing my way through. Um I'm able to feel a little bit more confident in in the skills and able to have more success stories because I'm allowing myself to push through. So if you are definitely like in school or you are definitely new to the field, like please push through, push through and allow yourself to do things outside of the box and to learn other modalities, other skills, other techniques. Don't stay in the box, definitely learn how to be eclectic, definitely learn how to you know go with the flow and don't feel like you have to have all the answers because we're human, we're not gonna have all the answers, we're gonna misinterpret things, we're going to um misunderstand. Um we're not always gonna get it right, and that's okay. That's okay, even for the professional, it's okay, and so yeah, I had to learn that, and it was definitely a good, a good learning experience, and I'm still learning. Um we learn every day, but definitely like I want to dive into a little bit of like being a black therapist. Um it's rare for us, it's very rare to see a black therapist. And I'm talking about men and women, um, especially male. We need you guys, we need the black men um in the field, but as a whole, black women, the black therapists as a whole, it's only about four percent of black therapists in the field. Um, and then there's 27% by BIPOC um therapists. So that is definitely a low, a very low number. A very low number. Um, and so that definitely, I think that definitely affects, you know, um part of the reason why we see a low number of black Americans seeking therapy. Um statistics show that there's about like 25% of black Americans that seek, only seek uh mental health services. Um, but these are the kind of barriers that they experience. They experience not having insurance coverage. A lot of us don't have mental health there, uh mental health insurance, excuse me. Or if we do have insurance, it doesn't cover a lot of the amount. And so now we we have this big bill. Um therapy requires at least like once or or um once a week or bi-weekly appointments. So that's another bill that's going to stack up, you know, when you don't have the proper insurance. And so that's what we're seeing. We're also seeing that there's a lack of cultural competency from our providers as well as prejudice from providers, and that's because of that low number of black therapists that are in the field. Um it's hard to find somebody that's going to relate um to your stories and things like that. I know me personally speaking, like, you know, finding a therapist was hard because there's some stories and some um experiences that I have that they're going to look a lot different than, you know, a white therapist. They're gonna look a lot different than someone who hasn't seen some of the things that I've seen, who has not um experienced some of the things that I experienced. And not saying that, you know, we have to experience everything in life because there's gonna be things that I never experienced, but my client may experience whether they are like me or not like me, you know. But there's definitely um a difference in how um our responses are when we are able to be um sensitive to the culture, sensitive to those um experiences, and not just seeing it as, oh, like they went through that, like, oh, they they are this, or you know, and that's where those type of um biases come from, or you know, or the fear to even address some of those things because like we haven't um been through those things. So definitely a lot of a lot of issues with that. Um, and then also there are some historical misconceptions and stigmas. So growing up, like we didn't talk about that, we didn't talk about therapy, we didn't talk about our problems, like you know, we just take it a guy, or you know, we talk to our friend about it, we talk to mom and dad about it, um, and whatever happens in this house stays in this house. That was that was it, that was the culture, that was what we did, right? Um, it wasn't seen as um therapy wasn't seen as something that was for us, you know. That's for the white man, that's for the white people do that. Um and definitely like, you know, there's no shade to, you know, any of my viewers that are that that do identify as white. Um, but yeah, there's definitely a difference in just how black people have viewed, um, have viewed therapy. You know, it was something that was looked down upon. It was something that said, you're crazy if you are going to therapy, you're crazy or loopy if you're taking medication. Um, or you know, if you are in a religious sense, like it's like you don't believe God. You don't believe that he's a healer, you're not trusting him, you're not praying enough, um, you're not going to church enough, you're not whatever, you know, whatever those things were. And you know, just think about those things that were said to you. Like, think about all those times that somebody said those things and you kind of buried those problems. Like, I'm pretty sure, like, you've seen a lot of things. I'm pretty sure you've experienced a lot of things and you needed that relief, but was unable to get that because of these stigmas, because of these um, these things that were passed down to us and just told generation after generation after generation. So definitely that's one of uh of the barriers just within our culture um that we're doing better with. I agree that we are we are tackling it better, you know. Millennials, Gen Z, like they're doing a thing, you know, definitely providing awareness, definitely um taking advantage of the services, which is good. Um, but still, we got a lot of work, a lot, a lot, a lot of work to do. Definitely COVID highlighted, you know, the need for this as well. Um, but yeah, we have a lot of work to do. And then the last barrier is the lack of representation. Like I said before, only 4% are black therapists, and then 27% BIPOC. Like, that's really low. That's really low. And so, like, definitely I encourage you if you are thinking about joining the field, and if you are maybe think about seeking therapy, like just be encouraged for those that are seeking therapy, be encouraged that there are some black therapists out there, there are some BIPOC therapists out there. You might have to search a little bit. Um you might have to to pay a little bit, you know. Um, but they're they're out there, so be encouraged to know that they're out there, and we're gonna talk more about that, about how to find the right therapist, about you know what to look for, and and things like that. We're gonna talk more into that. But also, like for those who are in grad school, um, for those who are thinking about joining the field, like I just want you to be encouraged as well to to know that like we need you. We need you in this field. And um we know it's not easy, we know it's it's it's definitely uh a hill to climb, but push through, push through all those things that that I've gone through, the imposter syndrome, push through um the hard work that it takes um to get you know licensure, to get even the degree, um, to get all these different things. Um and and and educate yourself, really educate yourself, um, and and push yourself to to not just um focus on one modality, but make yourself marketable. Because we really need you out here. Again, it's only four percent of us. And then it's only twenty-five percent of black Americans seeking therapy, and just because they seek it doesn't even mean that they're actually able to stay in it or Maintain it or even um enter into it because of all these barriers. And so if we can tackle that of building that representation up, then we can add some more percentages to that. To all my fellow um therapists who who are listening who are not of the black population or not of the BIP population, your job is to definitely become aware, become more culturally aware, um, to help, you know, those of um of of black or um BIPIC culture um to be able to feel like they can feel safe in session. Um so that way that they can be able to deal with those problems and those traumas and all these different things that they've been holding on to. So become educated too. Become educated too. Don't be scared. Um don't be scared. Don't be scared. We're people, we're just all people with different experiences. So I really just want to continue this conversation on how to therapy, and I hope that you know this information so far has been beneficial for you. Um, I want to encourage, you know, just everyone, you know, whether you are a therapist, whether you are in grad school, or you you're thinking about, you know, getting therapy, or you're you know, in therapy right now, but it might not be you know what you're looking for. You don't know if you're doing it right. And so this is this is what it's all about, how to therapy. So thank y'all for tuning in, and definitely there'll be more to come. All right, y'all. Again, my name is Brianna Williams and MS. Be sure to follow me on Reaching Minds. Um, um, that's on Instagram, and then also if you have any questions, anything like that, um, concerning how to therapy, please, please, please DM me or shoot me a message um using one of the links that is in the description of the podcast. Thank you so much, guys.