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Play for Profit Podcast
🎙️ Play for Profit is the podcast for neurodiverse entrepreneurs, creatives, and multi-passionate misfits who are done with the hustle-and-grind blueprint. Hosted by Najela Carter, a creative business coach and school psychologist, this show helps you build a business that feels like play—without burning out or boxing yourself in. Whether you're dreaming up your next big idea or redefining success on your own terms, you'll find tools, mindset shifts, and playful strategies to profit from your passions your way.
✨ It’s time to ditch the rules, follow your curiosity, and build a business that actually feels good.
Play for Profit Podcast
Breaking Mental Health Stigmas with Marquita Myrick
Markeeta Myrick shares her journey from experiencing depression and anxiety as an undergrad to becoming a licensed professional counselor and empowerment coach, breaking cultural barriers against therapy along the way.
• Mental health stigma in Black communities is declining, especially since 2020, though distrust of historically white-dominated systems remains
• For religious clients, spirituality can provide additional coping tools alongside therapy, not replace it
• White supremacy and workplace microaggressions can trigger feelings of helplessness, anxiety, and depression
• Awareness itself is a powerful coping skill when dealing with racism and microaggressions
• Having a plan for addressing uncomfortable situations and practicing self-care are essential strategies
• Being an ally starts with education and willingness to examine your own biases
• Effective self-care includes yoga, grounding techniques, deep breathing, exercise, and maintaining a support system
• Combat imposter syndrome by regularly reviewing your accomplishments and celebrating wins
• When facing resistance, get curious about what it represents rather than shutting down
• Setting clear goals helps overcome feelings of inadequacy in professional settings
Connect with Markeeta Myrick on Facebook and Instagram @MarquetaMyrickLPC
What is your name and what do you?
Speaker 1:do Markeeta Myrick and I am a licensed professional counselor and an empowerment coach, and what led you into that field? It was always a fun story to share, so my own journey with depression and anxiety in my first year of undergrad really led me to it, and, being from an African-American family, I was discouraged from seeking therapy. And I finally just got to the point where I thought, look, my grades are failing, life is not going well. I need to try something outside of what I'm used to, trying A prayer, basically.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Just keep praying, baby. We're praying for you.
Speaker 2:I'm like I know, and it helps, but I need to do something else.
Speaker 1:Yeah there's a missing link. So yeah, long story short, I went to see a therapist and over the course of two months for me, that's what it took for me to start feeling relief and feeling lighter. It's like, oh, I can study and I don't have a whole bunch of thoughts that are just unorganized in my brain. So, yeah, my own experience with getting my healing through therapy is what got me to have a desire to become a therapist myself.
Speaker 2:Both of us are. We're african-american women. Why do you think that stigma still is pervasive in the african-american community as far as going to go to therapy or things relating to mental health?
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I will start by saying I do think it's getting better?
Speaker 2:Yes, definitely, at least in my practice, the whole year of 2020,.
Speaker 1:I have never had so many African-American clients since practical. I could go a year without getting a new African-American client before Right During the pandemic, everybody was like I need to talk to someone. Yeah, I'm a first-timer and I still continue to get a lot of first timers who are African-American.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:But I think that stigma still exists, especially now because of the increase in the awareness of racism and how it's impacting people and white supremacy and how it still impacts African-Americans. And so I think when we have that those problems continuously perpetuated in society collectively as Black people, there starts to be this distrust of these systems. And I know that the field of psychology was created by white men and so that still exists and I think some people just don't have enough knowledge about it and what it really is. And the other thing I'll say is that I know a lot of African-Americans who identify as Christian. One of the questions I get is are you a Christian? And if you're, know the talk at church a month ago and one of the questions was do you?
Speaker 1:feel that therapy can become addictive for people. Do you feel like it's harmful for Christians if they start meaning on the therapist?
Speaker 2:I want to know what your response was to that question regarding religion and mental health.
Speaker 1:I was the guest speaker talking about mental health and we talked about forgiveness, and when that question came up, my response was I actually, in my practice at least, right. I can't speak for anyone else's practice, but in my practice I find that people who identify and connect with some sort of religion or spirituality, they actually have an additional tool for their toolkit and I do ask my clients on intake form in consultations like how do you identify spiritually or religiously?
Speaker 1:Is that something you want incorporated into our work together? I have clients who practice a variety of spiritualities and religions or different denominations. I have to get a little more creative about navigating different coping skills for them and different strategies and different mental health skills that they can lean in on. Yeah, that's how I answered that question.
Speaker 2:At some point you have to do the work and the therapy is the work. But sometimes you have to go out and apply that in the real world in the sense of okay, they gave you your toolbox, now you have to go out and use that in your everyday life. It's not two separate realities. So you had mentioned earlier about white supremacy and kind of that affecting mental health in some capacity. What are your thoughts on that?
Speaker 1:When it comes to white supremacy, the women have most to complain about this in some capacity. What are your thoughts on that? And when it comes to white supremacy, the women have most to complain about this in the workplace, and it's the. We know that it exists and then we I have to help them separate. It might be existing with that one person, or that's what that one person's actions or behaviors are bringing up for you. Has anyone outwardly said anything to you that makes you feel that they think they're superior? So we have to break it down. But of the things that that I work on is really dissecting that and just talking to them about their identity and how they want to show up in the world and what they want to believe about their capability. Because that, first and foremost, if you don't, if you come from this place of my ancestors were brought here as slaves and it's going to be harder for me and it was harder for generations before me. It's going to be harder for my kids and my grandkids. You're filling your brain with a lot of negativity. One of those things historically may be true, but if you continue to hold on to those and let those let that narrative perpetuate in your head as a Black American, then you're going to feel stuck. People have felt stuck. That's what they share with me, and so I know it's something that I've had to overcome myself at one point years ago. Am I going to trust that I can make my way in society as a Black woman and I can still be successful and amazing and people will still come to my practice, no matter what color they are? Absolutely I believe that now I can believe that and I can also understand our history, understand the challenges that came before me, there'll be a voice for those who don't have the same type of privilege that I do as a Black woman.
Speaker 1:So I think it's for people. To get back to your question. It brings up these feelings of helplessness, hopelessness For some people. They get very anxious about it because they're worried about code switching and how they have to show up in the environment. They feel left out of meetings. They feel this has been coming up a lot lately too they'll see a group of white colleagues talking when they come into the office or when they walk by and it's I'm not a part of that. I think those are some of the things that hopelessness, helplessness. They can definitely activate anxiety and depression in the workplace and in other areas of life too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I moved to and you think I'd be used to this, growing up in a predominantly white town and everything that you know, sometimes when you, especially as a black professional, you do think, oh, are they doing something because I'm black or there's.
Speaker 2:It's not always, I think it might be prevalent to the point where it causes anxiety, but I think, as a collective Black experience, maybe 99.9% might just have that little voice at the back of their head thinking, oh, is it because I'm Black? Or did they somebody said, came at me weird, is it because I'm Black? Or, and having to really take, not take it out, but just be aware when that comes to mind and be like, is there another reason why they said X, y and Z that has nothing to do with my race? And sometimes, sometimes it can be and sometimes it's not. One thing I do want to go before we kind of change gears is microaggressions. What are some coping skills that African-Americans and other people of color can have for dealing with microaggressions?
Speaker 1:whole coping skill to be learned, in that there's a level of awareness. I think awareness in itself is a coping skill because, if we think about it, some people are walking around and they're unaware that. They're unaware of how other people experience them in the world you had that awareness.
Speaker 1:It took a while to kick in and it, like I said, it happens to me too. It happens to other black people. I hear it in session and my co-workers said this, or my boss said that, and I didn't know how to respond. In the moment we either freeze up or we might say something, or we go home and we're like oh man, how do I circle back to that? As a therapist, I can circle back to things and say hey, last week I said such and such and I'm like I want you to know that I didn't mean to offend you. What came up for you when I said that? Right?
Speaker 1:So to me, to go back to your story, awareness is a coping skill. I also think having a plan to deal with these types of things is helpful, because I liken it to grief. People come to therapy and say I'm still, I'm struggling right now, I don't know why. Okay, well, what happened this time a year ago? Oh, my grandfather died. So we know now it's predictable. We know that every year around august, you might start feeling some grief and some sadness because your grandfather died a year ago and he might just speak up on you.
Speaker 1:So now we can put on your calendar. Now you can plan to do a memorial with the family or whatever. You can plan a trip. So I think, when it comes to these microaggressions and some of the things that we experience out in the world as Black people, we can have a plan for it. Will the plan always work?
Speaker 1:No, but we can say, all right, if something comes up and I feel uncomfortable in the moment, do I feel comfortable addressing it? And that may be, yes, it may be. I have a close relationship with this person. I'm going to go there. I have friends. I've had to do that. Do that with super uncomfortable. If you refer to my child's hair as bad hair or not, because she has foresty hair, this was years ago, right, but super uncomfortable. But I knew I had to address it and sometimes we may choose, not for our own sanity. So do you want to address it? How do you want to address it? Be aware of how it's impacting you. Absolutely be practicing self-care. Absolutely know where you can go to get support for it, which may be family and friends, which may be that person who attended you Therapy, right, a lot of people in therapy are talking about being in a shoot Right, because they definitely came up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so those are some of the coping skills. I think that are helpful and just I don't think that we should take on the role as Black people of.
Speaker 1:We're going to just educate everybody to be doing their own work, yes, but I do think it's important that if you have a relationship with that person and they said something that offended you, have some action taking on our part to say am I practicing self-care as I'm going around the world and experiencing these things and am I willing to address it and, if so, how am I going to do that? Addressing it with them is separate from you addressing it internally, understanding what it activated in you and why, and processing what you can do with your therapist right everything.
Speaker 2:I think race has been put in the spotlight, where I think some people who've been walking around just oh, I don't have to deal with that, I'm not that particular race or I'm not that identity can just walk and just pretend like those don't exist. But when you see it on your screen people fighting for their rights and things surrounding George Floyd and everything you can't look away and I think a lot of people are hoping to address it. But I still get people from the dominant culture kind of wary.
Speaker 2:They don't want to offend anybody. What can others do to be an ally to their friends that are different ethnicity or race or sexual orientation or identity, gender identity? What can people do to be an ally for that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think being an ally starts with education. That's like the first thing that pops up into my mind, and so there is no shortage right now of companies and individuals who have packaged their services to offer diversity and inclusion training. If your organization or your school offers it, then let's tap into that. There are free trainings online, of course. I have a friend who charges people, I think, $125 an hour to do individualized diversity and inclusion training. Oh wow, help them understand some things about some things no shortage of knowledge if you really want to know it.
Speaker 1:But I think sometimes people take this I don't know what to do role and they freeze because, even though they're staying verbally, I don't know what to do and this feels uncomfortable, that I don't know what to do. They're actually taking the more comfortable route because it's pretty uncomfortable. I got uncomfortable about some things. So, yeah, education is it starts. There's no shortage of education for people to dive in. I think the education piece is the first part and I think that second piece is checking our own biases. We all have them. And so being willing to say, ok, I have some bias, how is this showing up in my work? How is this showing up in my interactions with people? I have some bias. How is this showing up in my work? How is this showing up in my interactions with people? And then, third, just have that willingness, which is not necessarily an order, but have a willingness to figure it out and to recognize when you're not taking action.
Speaker 2:What are some?
Speaker 1:other things you can do for self-care and pushing through that resistance. Absolutely. I'd love to share some self-care tips. I'll just add one more thing from the previous discussion, in that I think taking breaks is good. So, again, that level of awareness taking breaks when you need to Self-care is going to look different for everyone. I should say that first, I always encourage people to do some mind-body stuff, do some yoga, do some grounding skill and if your audience is unfamiliar with that term, definitely just Google grounding skill therapy. You will find some resources to help you with how to choose those five one of the five senses are all and get yourself grounded. I love yoga. I'm not sure if I already mentioned that.
Speaker 1:Well, I should never know for yoga grounding skill, practicing deep breathing. I think some people it's such a basic thing that we do and some people think, no, I do breathe. Yeah, we all breathe. But are you practicing breathing as a skill? Right? So Google the 4-7-8 breathing method. That's the one I use the most. It's the one I recommend the most. I definitely think therapy is self-care. I do my own therapy as needed.
Speaker 2:It's usually like once a quarter, but it's such a good way to release what's going on for you.
Speaker 1:Exercise. We know it's good for the brain and the body. We're playing our physical health. Having a support system, yeah, I think. Accountability it will be helpful to talk to other people. You can get some support. Oh, that came up for you too. Oh, you two were waking up at 3 am thinking about black lives matter. Okay, so I don't know you start to get this collective energy going. Okay, we're gonna get through this. We're gonna get these books written because we know they need to be out in the world and like we're practicing self-care just by holding space for one another.
Speaker 1:Yes, so those would be some of the things outside of like going to get your nails done or your hair done yeah massage. Those things are helpful. I love them too, and you're bad, and yeah, you can do the other things too yeah, work for you.
Speaker 2:What are some other, maybe some some ways of pushing past resistance that you can maybe think of?
Speaker 1:or even if that's something worth doing yeah, yeah, that's a good question, if there's even something worth doing. I like that you have a realistic approach to it, because there are deadlines. Writers are going to have to meet them. What came up for me while you were talking to Jella is this idea of naming the resistance. And sometimes, when we just say, okay, I'm having resistance to do this, the inclination is to just shut down, pull away from the work that we're doing. But even I get resistance in different areas. It may be marketing, it may be continuing education, like I mentioned earlier.
Speaker 1:We're back for apparently a year and a half, but I had to name it. What does this resistance represent for me? So, really getting curious about the resistance versus allowing yourself to pull away get very curious. What is this about for me? What does this resistance represent? What's coming up for me around this resistance? It may be this is triggering some past trauma. It may be oh, I feel guilty because I'm a parent and I'm spending a lot of time away from my kids. If we just lean into that resistance and shut down, then we won't know what it is. So that's why I think it's important to name it and also say, okay, I'm feeling resistance.
Speaker 2:What are your thoughts on imposter syndrome, and what kind of what do you think of when I say imposter syndrome, like what comes up for you?
Speaker 1:for that it's been interesting to explore this topic with people because it's something that I battle. So I feel like, without saying it, I can offer insight as to what that looks like for people mentally. But when I think of imposter syndrome, I just think of doing something and having the thought that, oh, I'm not as good as I'm presenting myself, to be like, yeah, I have these credentials and yeah, I've written these books, but I'm really not an expert on this topic. I'm afraid people are going to find out I mean one mistake. They're going to find out that I'm an imposter. So that's what comes up for me, and what I tell people is that you have to review your accomplishment often, which can feel a little conceited at times.
Speaker 2:I do it all the time it pumps me up Right.
Speaker 1:It makes it so much easier to go into a session or to hop on a podcast and say, no, I do know what I'm talking about. There have been questions you've asked me already. Believe it or not, your audience is going to hear this. You've already asked me some questions where I instantly thought, oh no, they're going to know I'm a female thing running that Instagram reel. It's like they're going to know. How would they know? They're going to know. That's what came up with me. They're going to know. They're gonna know I don't know what I'm talking about. And then I took a deep breath again, because we're naturally breathing, and I said Hita, you know you're gonna be fine, let her finish the question and then you're gonna be able to answer. It's gonna flow out of your mouth. Watch it flow out of your mouth, because you know what you're talking about right right.
Speaker 1:So a lot of times we're not celebrating our win. We're just looking for the next quick achievement, and if we're not taking time to celebrate those wins, we're not absorbing it. But when we do absorb them and when we do constantly review the wins, from small to large, how can you have imposter syndrome? It's still going to come up right All the time. But just again, having that awareness, naming it, what is this really about? Okay, is it really that I feel like I'm an imposter, or is it that I'm just a little merrily? Is it that I'm? Is it that, in our case, with this podcast right now, is it that I have imposter syndrome, or is it that I really don't know what questions she's going to ask me?
Speaker 2:It came up for me because for the longest time I didn't want to do interviews, because I'm like oh, what is this happens, or it's not a big podcast, or what if they don't want to do it? And been like, like you said, you have to look at your accomplishments and celebrate your wins, because it's like nobody's turned me down.
Speaker 2:I think everybody wants to come on and talk about themselves and their expertise. But if you have other people speaking into your life that don't necessarily like they have your hopefully they have your best interest in mind, but they don't always know what's going on behind the scenes.
Speaker 1:And sometimes they're projecting too.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Their own fears about what they can't accomplish, or it could be something coming up for them knowing that, oh wow, she's following her dreams. It's something I always wanted to do, or something I don't think I could be. But we also have to realize people could be projecting their own stuff onto us and it's our job to say thank you for your concern and then you walk away. Yeah, I'm not taking that on that's you, that's you another thing to help with imposter syndrome.
Speaker 1:that's something I've been storing to the side and we continue to talk. One thing that's helpful is to identify some goals to achieve for yourself, and so I've done this in business. I actually started writing my goals down and checking in with them frequently. It's been helpful. I know that's going to look different for someone who's writing. It's deadlines, maybe it's research, maybe it's interviews, I don't know. But what would? If you feel like you're not an expert on the topic, maybe make a list of all the ways in which you are and then, if there are some areas where you're like, is this imposter syndrome? Like you can question that. Maybe you just need to tap into someone else's expertise. Maybe you need to borrow someone else's belief because they're going to pour into you like a writing coach, I imagine.
Speaker 1:So sometimes we have to set some goals and say, all right, I'm feeling like an imposter in this area, so I need to do some. I have some work to do. I can't just sit on this, because I do need some more skills and training. It's the whole reason I said I'm not doing. I'm not working with couples right now. I've said that for a year and a half because I recognize I do well with couples. But I started to get some imposter syndrome. But it wasn't because I'm not good at it, it was because I need to learn more. I want to learn more. So that's a goal at some point to learn more, and then I will start back working with couples. So setting goals, I think, is helpful. If it's activating something in you and you're not living by your values and all those other things are negated, then you got some work to do.
Speaker 1:You have some things to question, but it just comes down to this idea of knowing who you are, I think, really, and how you want to present in the world, and also looking for other examples outside of how you've done things differently and how they've been successful. It's okay to be innovative, it's okay to be different and lean into your uniqueness and know that not everybody's going to like it and if you will sleep over it, it says more about you than it does the other person, cause maybe you don't know you, maybe you don't really believe in you and what you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so where can people find you online?
Speaker 1:Online. I am on or at Marquita Myrick LPC on Facebook and.
Speaker 2:Instagram, so that's perfect. I'll go ahead and put that in the show notes and thank you so much for speaking with me today. Absolutely, thank you so much for having me.