A Community Conversation on Mental Health: Science, Culture, and Healing, Part 2

In this special live Zoom panel, Dr. Roland St. Gerard brings together three essential voices in the mental‑health ecosystem — a psychiatrist, a licensed mental health professional, and a social worker — for a powerful, multidimensional conversation on emotional well‑being. Designed for young professionals, leaders, ministers, elected officials, doctors, caregivers, and anyone carrying the weight of responsibility, this episode explores how stress, silence, culture, and expectations shape the mind.

The panel breaks down what happens in the brain during chronic stress, why high‑capacity people struggle to ask for help, and how community, therapy, medication, and faith can work together rather than against each other. Each guest offers practical tools listeners can use immediately, while Roland weaves in cultural insight and spiritual grounding.

This episode also includes an important disclaimer: Dr. Roland St. Gerard is not a licensed mental health professional, and the AAA Resilience Podcast provides information for educational purposes only. The conversation honors the expertise of mental‑health professionals while creating a safe, accessible space for listeners to learn, reflect, and breathe.

If you’ve been strong for too long, if you support others but rarely feel supported, or if you want to understand mental health from medical, emotional, cultural, and spiritual angles, this episode will meet you where you are — and help you take the next step toward healing.

Follow the AAA Resilience Podcast for more Christ‑centered mental‑health conversations. Stay connected to Roland St. Gerard’s books and future releases by following him on Amazon.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome to episode four of season two of AAA Resilience Podcast. This episode is part two from our previous episode with our mental health specialist panel, Dr. Laurel Tate, a school psychologist, Dr. Erica Dudley, a psychiatrist, and Miss Linda Addition, a licensed clinical social worker. Let us now resume our recorded interview. Let's talk about stigma, right? Stigma. Why do so many people, especially leaders and caregivers, avoid seeking help?

SPEAKER_00 0:32

So I think sometimes it's hard for them to have to be somewhat self-reflective and understand that they need the help. Because sometimes some of these things have been going on for so long, there's not the realization that now it's now become problematic. Because being a busy, like being a busy minister, you do have long-to-do lists. You always face crisis because there's always a loss of a member and things of that nature. And so sometimes you just become blind or numb to the pain that's going on within yourself because you relate that to this just part of the job. And so it's not that real realization. So that's why they were saying community is so important. Um, community with your ministry, with other members of your church, with the usher board, with the choir members, with your deacons, with your deaconesses, is the relationship. And just the relationship in and of itself is a safeguard because those people around you will notice things. And if they feel like it's been a relationship that has been growing throughout years, they will feel safe enough to say, hey, you know, I'm noticing uh a change and perhaps um you should get help. So I think most of the time it's just the realization. And then as Linda was saying, it's also a problem with access to care. So sometimes it's very, it's difficult if you're not in the healthcare field to understand where do I go next? Like, do I go to my primary care doctor and tell them about this? Will they refer me? And then once they refer me, how long will it take? So I think um there are many factors, but again, podcasts like this, giving the people the information is very helpful so we can give them some starting points of where to go to.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

Thank you, Dr. Dudley. Uh, Dr. Tate, uh again, thinking of the stigma because some folks due to what people say about mental health, about seeking help. So thinking about that. So, why do so many, especially leaders, you know, maybe thinking of what others might think, avoid seeking help?

SPEAKER_03 2:25

Yeah, and I and I thought that Dr. Dudley did a great job in presenting the solution. So, for example, um, there are many churches that are now, as a result of the growing mental health crisis and problems that pressures that are rising in the community and obviously in the church that do have care and counseling ministries. And so it is available to many people, and then you wonder, well, why is it still a problem? Like, why are people not doing it? Um, and I believe that it has to do with the culture. Some cultures are more receptive to going to professionals. They have old ideas of, you know, if you're gonna go to a therapist, it's because you're crazy. And so um, those are the negative stigmas from the past. Um, but I think society has brought us to a place where it is more and more receptive. Okay. And that's where I come back to the generation, how open our people, depending maybe of their culture, will depend on how well they access, or even if there are stumbling blocks to acts of whether it be financial, there are opportunities in the church to come to your pastor to access all these free workshops that they may have online, et cetera, to get that help and support that you need as you go through a hard time in life. Um, but yet it's something that mentally you have to decide, this is what I want to do. And the hope is that, as Ms. Linda and Dr. Erica said, is that the more the exposure is out there with workshops and talks and the availability of these types of ministries, talking ministries, the more people will feel more comfortable accessing the help that they need.

SPEAKER_02 4:19

Okay, thank you, Miss Linda.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Um, so for me, I think that sometimes the stigma is also because um fear of how people will think of you, right? So if I'm a professional in mental health, I'm supposed to be the one teaching and educating patients on how to kind of manage their emotions effectively. I think sometimes it comes with a little bit of shame and guilt as a professional. If I if someone knows that, oh, I had to go do therapy, oh, I have to seek out counseling for a certain reason, then in my mind, whether true or not, I might kind of adhere to the thought process that they will judge me, they will criticize me because here I am a professional and I'm not and I'm not able to cope or manage my situation in a manner that's conducive to my overall well-being without seeking help. So I think sometimes there can be a little of shame with it. Um, obviously there's no shame, right? But you know, just because of our mindset, maybe because some of our own past traumas, some of our current traumas, some of the things that we've gone through in life, that can hinder us from seeking mental health services as professionals.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

Okay. Now I remember when I was doing my BA in psychology, uh, we as students had to seek therapy. So uh maybe Dr. Tate might answer that. Is that a normal thing for therapists to uh seek out therapy?

SPEAKER_03 5:47

Oh, that that's a good question. I may not be the best person to I didn't have that requirement. Okay. Um, but I I do think even though I I've probably just to be transparent, only been to therapy one time myself. I do believe that therapy takes many different forms. You can go to a professional therapist or you can have that structure with the people who are close to you that you feel safe. Um, I think the key thing is to seek out people who are wise and um who God has used to really kind of bring revelation as to how to help you in your time of need. And so I do practice, on the other hand, if I need help emotionally, I mean, since you're you're you mentioned a personal story, I make it a point. If I see the signs from myself, then I make it a point to seek people who I know I can trust, who I can talk to, who would share the wisdom of God with me and will keep it confidential. Right. Right. So that that's something that you know you you don't wait for a crisis. That's something that all of us, in terms of our mental health, like any other parts of our body, like you mentioned in the open and spiritually, you know, you always need to go through a checkup. And there again, there are pressures in life. And so, you know, we we need to access the help as God would give us that community to do that or that family, et cetera. And we need to, it's important to do that. As you say that, um, there is a growing of suicide. Um, even in the schools, our work in the school systems, and so many kids, young kids, I'm talking about elementary school, are doing more, making more and more notes, how they want to kill themselves, how they want to die. We really have to get in the habit of talking about our feelings, helping kids with resilience, helping kids with coping skills. It has to be part of what we do within the family. So we need to help ourselves get into the habit of, you know, building those coping skills ourselves and also relating it to our members, but also within our own family.

SPEAKER_02 7:58

Thank you. Very important. This also can lead to this question as well, uh, which is like, what does healthy support look like for someone who's always supporting others, such as leaders like yourself? Like, you know, like what does healthy support look like for you?

SPEAKER_00 8:15

Yes. So healthy support, so as uh uh to piggyback on what Dr. Lorel Tate was saying, that um for you look in your community, your already established community. So to demystify therapy, so therapy is just simply speaking with someone, and that some and that other person is able to challenge some of your thoughts and give you alternatives, you know, so give you alternative skills, coping skills to deal with it. So it's just talking to someone. And so that someone could be someone that you pay, a professional, or that could that could be someone like Dr. Tate said, someone with wisdom in your life. So just demyssifying therapy is talking with someone. And that could be someone who's already in your circle, like I said, um, minister, other ministers that you're talking. As long as a tool, a trick we always learn is as long as you can get them talking, you have them. It'll come out eventually. Um, so the support group is someone you already have bonds of trust with. And even if like if even someone to someone you trust will give you a recommendation to someone they use. Because you start with trust. So even before you get to a crisis, you always don't want to be an island onto yourself. That's where you run into danger. You always want to be in community. Like Dr. Lorel Tate said earlier, Jesus was always in community. And he was always in relationship with others and with his father. And that's the same for us be in relationship with other people and your father. So when you do have those other people around you, they can speak into your life before you get to that crisis point and need to speak to a professional. And when if you do get to that point, they can help and guide you. So it's something that you have to do, something you have to create. The the um it's a lifestyle, healthy living, healthy emotional living is like healthy living physically, proper diet and exercise. Spiritually and mental health-wise, it's always having healthy relationships around you. So it's like a preventative care, it's always being around um positive people who share your same values, who you know believes the same things you believe, who is biblically based, and that way it makes it easier in times of crisis to lean on those who are already around you.

SPEAKER_02 10:13

Thank you. So, in the cultural and spiritual aspects, something I see often, especially among immigrants, black communities, Caribbean families, and people raised in high expectation environments, is the belief that strengt means silence, that faith means suppressing emotions, that leadership means carrying everything alone. But healing requires partnership. Healing requires community, healing requires wisdom, medical, emotional, and spiritual. So, how do each of you see faith, culture, and mental health working together rather than against each other? Ms. Linda?

SPEAKER_01 10:57

Oh, good question. Um so faith, culture, and mental health working together, I think that's an opportunity, the leaders in the church to promote mental health awareness within the congregations by encouraging the congregation to seek out services. If you're feeling depressed, seek out someone to speak to, seek out a therapist. Um, if it's something a little bit more severe like psychosis, obviously just encouraging them to seek out med management. I know sometimes the people in the church also, sometimes the leaders in the church are not also aware of some of the services that is out there for mental health services. So I think by everybody coming together with, like I said earlier, just creating workshops for mental health in the churches, educating the congregation, educating the leaders about what is mental health. And then also, obviously, from a faith perspective, God is first, right? We had heard all of our life, all of our thoughts are um adhering to the word of God. But also from a cultural perspective, because there's so much stigma associated, like even for example, I'm Haitian. So even within the Haitian community, trying to convince, I've had cases where I've had a kid came in that was clearly responding to internal stimuli, and the mom is saying that it's um voodoo, right? So just being also able to just educate the community on mental health and also not to dismiss their cultural perspective, but just to have them understand how this particular behavior can or may also align with something different. Um, so a lot of work to be done in the community, but I think just through education, through empowerment and through knowledge, we can help to kind of foster an environment that can bring together faith, culture, and mental health in the community. Great, great.

SPEAKER_03 12:53

And there's not there's not much more to add to that. I think that that encapsulates the answer like completely. But I would also like to emphasize the importance of education from top down, from you know, the the head minute the minister. And then if they see it as important, then it would trickle down into um the the congregation and um all those things, the education in in that manner will come as well.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

All right. Anything, Dr. Dr. Dudley?

SPEAKER_00 13:19

Yeah, it's like as they stated, it's just the education and just being creative in your education. So if you know certain cultures, they're not going to be responsive if you say, you know, therapy or mental health. You just say, you know, healthy living, how to be happy, you know, use other terms that they won't that you know that won't trigger them, will not put up the block, um, the blocks. Just change your language to meet meet them where they are.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

Makes sense. Yep. So now we'd like to leave some practical tools uh with our listeners. And so I would like uh each of you, you know, if you would leave our listeners with one practical tool they can use this week to support their mental health. Um, we could start with uh Dr. Dudley, you know, whether it's rounding, sleep hygiene medication.

SPEAKER_00 14:04

Yeah, back to the basics. Um, proper sleep, six to eight hours of sleep, getting rest. That's the number one thing you can do for yourself to incorporate good mental health is separating, um, meditating, um, and just back to the basics. Sleep, proper diet, exercise, back to the basics, physical and emotional health. Five and two more. Thank you. Well, I received that.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

Dr. Tate.

SPEAKER_03 14:28

All right, mine is more like back to the spiritual basics in terms of finding time for your own devotions that um consists of prayer, being in the presence of God, and journaling, you know, even as you study the word. I like journaling. Journaling.

SPEAKER_02 14:43

I find that sorry, journaling. You mentioned journaling. Uh I know a lot of people hear that word, but can you just uh explain that a little bit? What is that?

SPEAKER_03 14:52

So journaling is pretty much writing your thoughts. I like it in devotions because um as you study like a word, um, a message, a spiritual message, you are talking to God, you are praying, uh, you're meditating on God's word, and then you're also writing it out, writing out the impressions that you believe that God is laying on your heart as well as your own thoughts and feelings. It could be your own concerns. The Bible talks about casting all your cares on him. So part of my journaling is also writing, these are the things that I'm praying about, you know, praying for the health of a loved one and praying for this. I find that that allows you to release, God says again, cast all your cares on him, for he cares for you. Um, you'll find that there are limitations with other people helping you, but there's no limitation with God helping you.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

How would you explain that to a non-Christian? How how could they journal? Because I'm pretty sure we have non-Christians listening.

SPEAKER_03 15:56

Okay, so like for non-non-Christians, they journaling is not a new concept. It's used very widely in mental health. Um, you journal your thoughts, your feelings, your goals, um, but especially your thoughts and your feelings as part of the expression of what it is that you're going through, which is part of what we're talking about in terms of talking. Um, it also allows you to see where your thoughts may be uh faulty, especially as you look back on them and you talk to maybe someone like myself, then we're able to challenge those thoughts and be able with the challenging of our thoughts, like almost like make corrections. And then from your thinking, we'll follow your behavior, your emotions, and then your actions. Thank you. Something we call a cognitive behavior therapy. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

Is that what I was gonna say?

SPEAKER_02 16:49

Right. So, Miss Linda, um, what one uh tool, practical tool, we can leave with the listener.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

So for me, it also is journaling, and obviously there's different types of journaling. Um, I would say maybe gratitude journaling, right? Um for me, as Dr. Laurel mentioned, CBT is a big component, right? It's like the gold standard. Just being able to kind of like process our emotions and putting it on paper, just being thankful for some of the things that we have, being mindful of what we have, um, seeing the glass half full perspective as opposed to half empty. I know for a lot of people that's difficult, but I have also, just in my personal experience, experiencing, learned that just being grateful and just coming with a spread of gratitude in writing has had a tremendous effect on my overall thinking, my perspective, how I see life, how I see the people around me. So I think journaling is definitely one of the um, if not one of the best, you know, one of, you know, a good practical tool for someone to implement just in their daily routine or even in a weekly routine, because obviously people are busy. But um, yeah, cognitive behavioral therapy, that's the standards.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

All right. Well, this is the uh time in the uh podcast where we do the activation moment. So right now you take a breath and just release, let your shoulders drop, let your mind slow down, and ask yourself number one, what am I carrying that I haven't named? What feeling am I carrying that I haven't named? Number two, who supports me and who do I need to reach out to? Number three, what should or what would he look like for me this week? What would healing look like for me this week? Let one truth rise, only one. And before we close, I want to speak a blessing over everyone listening, leaders, caregivers, professionals, ministers, parents, and anyone who has been strong for too long. May God calm the storms inside your mind. May He strengthen the parts of you that feel tired. May God surround you with people who support your healing. May He give you courage to rest, courage to feel, and courage to ask for help. And may the knowledge of science, the compassion of community, and the love of Jesus Christ lead you into a season of emotional freedom. So if today's conversation helps you breathe deeper or think differently about your mental health, stay connected. Follow the AAA Resilience podcast for more Christ-centered mental health conversations, and follow Roland St. Gerard on Amazon for books, teachings, and future releases. My dear panel, uh, Dr. Dudley, Miss Linda Edition, Dr. Tate, thank you so very much for putting this uh time aside. I know you are so very busy and to come on board to bring healing to our listeners. Uh, and God will surely bless you. I'll see you on the next episode with a focus on men and leaders.