Highlighting Black Therapist’s Voices in the Clinical Community
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I typically write a longer introduction for my guest blogs, however, I am choosing to keep my introduction short in order to highlight and amplify the following voices and experiences of my esteemed Black therapist colleagues and friends. I reached out to several Black clinicians, and these are the therapists who chose to participate.
As I lower a verbal knee, I will simply say that I am deeply humbled and grateful for their trust in me, and am truly honored to support these important messages.
As a white healer, advocate, and ally, I continue to listen, learn and grow so that I may continue to be the change I wish to see in the world.
If you are a therapist of color reading this, I welcome your voice, and invite you to send me your contribution if you’d like to add your message to this blog. Or if you prefer, you may add your thoughts in the comment section if you would like to do so.
If you are a white therapist, I hope that you will take time to sensitively listen to our Black colleagues here, as well as in the clinical spaces we occupy, in our communities, with our clients of color, and in our world. I hope, like me, you will thoughtfully consider the experiences and perspectives of our Black colleagues, and continue to learn about privilege and inequality. My hope is that these important messages here and in the world will help each of us continue to do better and work harder in intentionally looking for on going opportunities to dismantle systemic racism in every area of our lives, including in our clinical communities.
All of us, especially white healers, must be committed in word and action to do better, to be better, and to relentlessly commit in thought, word, and deed to end racism and injustice, and to continue to support equality, advancement and change in the journey ahead.
Read, share, learn, grow, heal.
With respect, compassion and allyship,
Mari
Ninoska’s Message…
Ever since I was a little girl I wanted to know why people behaved the way they did. In the 9th grade I thought I was clever because I figured out life was like a jigsaw puzzle. Pieces of our lives are scattered everywhere but when they connect together you see what you have.
I became a therapist to help people make sense of their lives and help heal from past experiences and traumatic events. As an Afro-Latina therapist, I have the pleasure of working with clients from all backgrounds and I love the diversity of my clientele.
Often times, at some point in our work clients will give me a “you know” look, to which I nod in validation. It’s a safe space I want for black and people of color to have to have access to, especially now given our increasingly difficult times trying to fight racism and survive a pandemic.
Additionally, in my private practice, I work with women who have unhealthy attachments to unavailable men or are partners of sex addicts.
The collective pain from current events and emotional suffering is real but often misunderstood. We need more therapists of color to specialize in trauma and sex addiction. Our communities need our help putting the pieces back together.
Ninoska Montero, LMFT, CPTT candidate
Specializing in partners of sex addicts, and women attracted to unavailable men
A Healthy Love Life Counseling
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
Certified Partner Trauma Therapist candidate
www.ahealthylovelife.com
Kim’s Message…
George Floyd’s horrific death has not only stunned the world but has broken open a wound that never really healed in the first place. His death has forced folks to start looking in the mirror to better understand how we got here and asking now what can we do.
I’ve heard many of my white colleagues ask these same questions and honestly, I believe a good place to start is by learning how to accept being uncomfortable. The conversations being held today in light of this tragic death, are not only necessary but vital to any attempts at “erasing racism.”
Some of these conversations may begin in sessions with your clients of color. And some of these conversations may need to be initiated by YOU. How do you handle that? Well, the uncomfortable truth is that unless one is willing to explore and check their own privilege and how they may have been complicit in enabling the structures of systemic racism, you will be doing your client’s a disservice.
You have to OWN YOUR STUFF.
However, the therapeutic space is not the only place this work needs to be done. Yes, the protests are a start, but the real question is what are you willing to actively do to address, challenge and begin dismantling racism in other spaces? That is where the real work begins and this work is not easy.
It requires dedication, commitment and a willingness to be uncomfortable.
It requires grit and guts.
So, what will your role be and what are you willing to sacrifice? Or will you remain comfortable and allow yourself to settle into your privilege of not having to deal with it, because it doesn’t affect you?
Another uncomfortable truth is that racism effects everyone. I encourage my white counterparts to do the work to be better, not only for your sake but for your clients of color sake, and for the sake of creating a better society.
Your clients of color are looking for safe spaces to have these conversations without your unconscious privilege seeping in. The only way to be better is through a willingness to be uncomfortable.
Kim Knight, MS, LMHC
www.kknightcounseling.com
Long Island, NY
Podcast: Relationship Recipes (iTunes)
Book: Relationship Recipes (Amazon)
Shirley’s Message…
As a therapist in the IITAP community we have been challenged by many non CSATs (Certified Sex Addiction Therapists) in the clinical community regarding whether or not sex addiction is real. As CSAT counselors, we have spoken on many fronts regarding how the DSM5 does not adequately address the symptoms our clients experience. Given this struggle that we CSATs have faced and continue to face, I find it hard to believe that we are still struggling with how to address cultural diversity in the counseling community.
I have been in the counseling field now for over 20 years. Take it from me, your African American clients are not doing well. I, as an African American counselor, am not doing well. The feeling of being invisible and devalued due to one's race is something that a counselor of any color can make space for by sensitively sitting with and listening to the client, and attempting to encourage and support the client. The best thing you can do as a therapist to help is to recognize there is a problem and encourage your clients of color to talk about it freely in his/her session.
The silence I have experienced as a counselor and woman of color is deafening and telling at the same time. Unfortunately, I have experienced first-hand micro-aggressions within the counseling community.
Here are a few examples:
I have been challenged by other non black counselors that the black experience in counseling has no relevance.
I have been stopped about 5 minutes from my office – driving while black.
I have been ignored and overlooked at trainings and conferences.
I have been ignored and overlooked to speak on the topic of race and discrimination in favor of white colleagues speaking on the topic instead of a selecting a counselor of color.
As counselors, if you limit your interactions to the same people within the same ethic group that make you feel good, then you will never know the pain or the experiences of others who are not like you.
Please check out the following books that are designed to educate and enlighten those who have a limited to no idea of the challenges African Americans experience every day:
White Fragility by Robin Diangelo
Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome by Joy a DegruyI
Shirley Lytle, LMHC, CSAT, CPTT
Living with Purpose Counseling, Inc.
www.lwpc-wa.com and
www.setmestraight.com
Vernon’s Message…
“Let no man pull you low enough to hate him.”
~ Martin Luther King
As some of my other esteemed colleagues have noted, the pandemic of racial injustice, systemic oppression, and exploitation continues to rage across the country, causing many losses. Additionally, recent events, unfortunately highlight significant and enduring health and economic disparities among African Americans and other racial and ethnic groups. This has left me with many thoughts and feelings these days. As a result, I move through social media much quicker. If I linger, I become upset. If you need example of societal racism, you don’t have to look far. Social media is full of it. Indeed, Colin Kaepernick’s message is still misunderstood. The ‘taking a knee” is still being debated. Really? The response for many to the racial injustice is to say, “All Lives Matters”. Really? Well if they do, why can’t you say in the same breath, Black Lives Matter?
The momentum of sustain protesters has many believing, that this time may lead to substantial police and social reform. There is a rainbow of voices being heard, a rainbow of people marching. Perhaps a change is going to come. However, I still remember Rodney King. My millennial clients do not. I still remember Travon Martin. My millennial clients do not.
I still experience moments in my own sessions where new clients say things that are clearly racist. Why do you have to ask me why I have African art and masks hanging on my walls? Why not? Yes, most of the time a Therapist is neutral. But my skin is not neutral. I guess some of them would feel more comfortable if it was, and my practice setting was, as well. It's difficult to wear both hats: the neutral therapist with no personal opinion about these events going on outside my door versus the person of color who grew up experiencing racism as early as 6th grade, when a white kid, at a school I was bused to (desegregation) whispered in my ear “Nigger go home” ; the day after Dr. King was assassinated. It's hard to wear two hats.
I am blessed though to have clients who are not of color, who actually check in with me and ask me, how am I doing? What's this like for you? Of course, others don't even bother; who don't even want to deal with it. Silence is complicity. It's difficult to know what to tell my clients who want to be more involved, more woke, more active. They ask me. Is it even my place to tell them? Make suggestions? Many of my clients are millennials which means their parents are a lot older, redder and more conservative. Many of them share stories of their parents who spend days and days watching Fox News and then espouse things that are clearly racist . It leaves my clients in tears ; and it leaves me struggling to remain neutral.
But I am a psychologist. I do believe in the power of healing . I do believe people can change . I need to believe that things are going to get better. That's what keeps me moving forward . And if it's any consolation , I have my own journey as proof . It began in a ghetto in Philadelphia, and now I have my own private practice with a PhD . Progress is possible; but it hasn't been easy. I was one of the lucky ones who caught breaks. George Floyd did not. Will his children?
W. Vernon Lee, Ph.D., SAP, CSAT-S
Lee Psychological Services
415-771-1967
vernsting@pacbell.net
www.wvernonlee.com
www.bayareasexaddict.com
Chinwe’s Message…
A Call to My White Therapist Friends for Humanity, Connection, and Leadership:
Our nation is enduring a double pandemic. We went from a global health pandemic, COVID-19 to a racial pandemic which is taking a toll on the psychological well-being of those we serve, particularly our black clients. As therapists, we know all too well the damaging effects of enduring one significant crisis after another can have on our nervous system.
The root of our current national crisis is simple. Our nation, for far too long, has deemed Black people as a threat at best, and at worst less than human.
As a result of a recent string of violent events that reflect this disregard for Black humanity, my clients are exhibiting all the familiar signs of trauma: anxiety, hypervigilance, anger, nightmares, numbness. All of my clients… of all races. The condition of my black clients, in particular, is one of mourning.
As a Black therapist carrying a diverse caseload (50% of my clients are Black and the other 50% are White), I have observed this week that the majority of my clients from both races displayed a myriad of emotions. From depression and intense anxiety, to exhaustion and silence. But virtually no mention at all of the fires that I knew were burning right outside of their neighborhoods. In some cases, quite literally.
What I quickly discovered was that similar to what occurs in the attachment bond formed through non-verbal communication with a child looking toward a caregiver for safety and connection, my clients looked toward me for security, and leadership. So, I took the lead. While the killing of Mr. George Floyd and a countless number of other unarmed Black men and women has deeply impacted me as a Black mom, married to a Black man, raising two young Black sons, I chose to be a leader for my clients. So, I broached the subject, once allowing a tear to escape and roll down my face, while I maintained the therapeutic space with presence and compassion
My awareness has recently been heightened around a multitude of things. I am a member of a statewide listserv for therapists and I was surprised by the deafening silence of my White colleagues this week who are otherwise quite vocal about many other hot button issues. At one point, I found myself reacting with anger to the silence of my White colleagues, many of whom I greatly respect. How dare they not speak up at a time like this! Then the fog cleared…and my years of trauma training kicked in again as I realized, oh yes, they too may be scared, or overwhelmed, or uncertain about what to say or do.
But then a few Black therapists posted, acknowledging what was happening in the world and my frustration grew.
While we understand that apathy and avoidance can be normal reactions to extreme stress or trauma, the problem is that silence then becomes a barrier to connection. When White colleagues and friends choose silence, the message that Black people receive is “My humanity doesn’t matter to you either.”
What our Black clients and colleagues need now, more than ever, is genuine connection and support.
The research about what helps most following a traumatic event is clear. Support from friends and significant others is a powerful determinant of the long-term effects of trauma and is known to reduce the intensity of PTSD symptoms.
Support is paramount. However, in this moment, what it means to be supportive can no longer include passive gestures that lead nowhere. Beyond the hashtags and blacked out social media boxes, I challenge my fellow White therapist to dig deep and lean in. Yes, there will be missteps, interactions will be uncomfortable, even awkward at times, but continue to engage.
Leadership is needed now more than ever—but perhaps in more imaginative ways. We therapist are gifted at creating and holding space for hurting hearts, but our gifts may need to go beyond the therapy room. Whatever position of privilege you hold, leverage it. Please speak up. Learn and unlearn. Join a protest or fund the cause. Find creative ways to demonstrate solidarity with fellow Black therapists who are holding space for so many traumatized Black clients-- and feeling overloaded as they manage their own traumatic stress.
And fellow healers, can we get back to the heart? Can we finally strip away religious, racial, political, and cultural divides and get back to our heart? Can we agree that the protests are not partisan—they are American? Can we push past the fear of mis-stepping and lead in a heart-minded way? Can we use our humanity to connect with the humanity of others?
Can we say, “Black Lives Matter” and mean it?
I am grateful for the numerous White therapist friends who have since reached out to me both publicly and privately expressing their deep sadness. Now more than ever, our nation needs more allies. However, true allyship requires grit. And a willingness to be uncomfortable.
We each will have our own process for growing closer to heart-centeredness as it relates to blind spots and racial injustice. May the work of Black leaders and long-time Non-Black allies inspire you to find your own path.
Finally, this will be a long road. Take a breath, take a walk, take a nap. But, fellow healer, get back to the work. Our nation is depending on it.
Chinwé Williams, PhD., LPC, CPCS
Email: drchinwe@gmail.com
Website: www.meaningfulsolutionscounseling.com
Chinwé Williams, PhD is a Board-Certified and Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in the state of Georgia. She has served as a counselor educator, supervisor, and an executive coach. She has taught at Georgia State University, University of Central Florida, Argosy University, and Rollins College. Dr. Chinwé currently speaks and writes in the areas of trauma, anxiety and women’s wellness. She maintains a clinical and consulting practice in Roswell, GA, called Meaningful Solutions Counseling & Consulting.
Latisha’s Message…
“To be Black in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time. ”
-James Baldwin.
This quote has resonated with me for some time because it speaks to the inner conflict, we as black people, have to endure on a daily basis.
I remember when I was in my internship for my Master’s degree in counseling and I was speaking with another black intern. It was a simple conversation about our future as private clinicians and how we had to present ourselves to other clinicians and clients. The conversation was about how we would subdue ourselves and appearance in order to serve clients, from our nude nail polish to our nude lip-no color. This was to suggest that we were the consummate professional. This was to put distance between us and the stereotypes that plague the black woman. Ghetto. Loud. Overly sexualized. Not educated. Not Professional.
I recall that conversation often and how it speaks to the silent rage that festers because we just are not allowed to be ourselves. We are constantly switching back and forth between these states of mind, these various personalities so we can be accepted and seen as a valuable asset to the community at large.
Those feelings and words linger from those constant conversations my parents had with me and my siblings about being seen as articulate black people even if that meant stifling, suffocating the colorful aspects of your unique personality, our true selves.
I have tried to work to overcome this silent rage but society keeps my recovery at bay because now I am having similar conversations with my own children because fear has taken hold and I have to prepare them for being black in America.
Latisha Taylor Ellis, LPC, CAMS
Psychotherapist | High-Conflict Coparenting Coach
www.empowertransitions.com
Erica’s Message…
Artist Credit: Markus Prime
I am currently a Marriage and Family Therapist intern. Prior to joining the mental health field, I was an Accountant primarily working in the corporate world in the south. As an Accountant, I had a goal of being in a certain position and making a certain salary by the time I get to a certain age. However, after completing both my undergrad and first grad program I ran into constant barriers, such as:
“We need someone with more experience.”
“You might be overqualified and not satisfied with the (high) income we have to offer.”
“You are not a good fit for this company right now.”
“You have a strong resume.” Over the phone, but in person changes to changes to “you have a strong resume, but not quite what we are looking for.”
“You have not been in your current position long enough to be considered for career advancement.”
“You missed a comma on the report, this makes you an incompetent Accountant.”
“Even thought you and Jane Doe share the same job title you are responsible for making sure your reports and her reports are accurate.”
These statements above are few of the many examples of barriers that I faced in my career as an Accountant over the last 10 years moving from Georgia to Arkansas, to Arizona, The same statements everywhere. These statements had me literally convinced that they were true. That jobs were not hiring, or that I needed to work on becoming more competent. For the longest, I went along with the mindset that “if I work harder, I can get to where I need to be.”
At the time I was okay with this until I noticed other African American colleagues doing the same thing working hard, paycheck to paycheck, while our white colleagues did not have to work as hard, have much experience, or education to advance in the career. I was in my early 20s and became aware of how things worked after someone educated me about the “good ol’ boy system.” After this, I felt trapped, like I had nowhere to go, and was afraid that being vocal about the silent racial tension would cost me future opportunities. This tension eventually affected my mental health. When I did speak finally speak out about it, they tried to convince me that things such as modern-day racism, discrimination, and micro-aggressions in the system was a myth.
Alongside my own experiences, my husband who is also African American experienced the same issues. In the beginning of his military career, he worked extremely hard to earn this award and promotion. He was confronted by his white co-workers of equal rank and was told that he did not work hard to earn his award and promotion, and that it was only given to him because of affirmative action. My husband was afraid to speak out on this matter.
This last incident is what motivated me to become a therapist. I saw this opportunity as a safe place to unapologetically address these racial issues within the black community, share my own experience, motivate others to share their experiences, and help empower them. I chose the MFT program, because I was interested in how these issues impacted black couples and families.
Since I have been in the mental health field, I noticed that it seems like communicating about racial issues in the black community seem to be an uncomfortable topic for many of my white colleagues. There is always this really awkward pause before saying “black” or “African-American” when completing a sentence.
I was also shocked to find a few white therapists on social networking sites blaming the mainstream media for causing a division in America. I would like for my white colleagues to understand that these things that the media speak of is the reality for many and these are things that have been spoken about for years behind closed doors within the black community. It is understood that a black and white person talking about issues amongst the majority and minorities can be uncomfortable, as it is easy for someone to feel blamed or ignored, and it is okay for people to ask questions. Asking these questions and becoming more aware could help debunk the logical fallacy that racism, discrimination, and micro-aggression is a myth.
Erica Varner-Anderson, MBA
Marriage and Family Therapy Intern
623-688-5410
De Angela’s Message…
Alexa Please Play “We Are Not Gonna Take It”
Dear White Colleagues,
What I want you to understand about this movement across America and in 18 countries, is that there are a set of people that have grown sick and tired of systemic racism and social injustice. Black people are no longer going to tolerate living scripted lives to stay alive, to keep our jobs, or continue to make you feel supreme.
You don’t have to worry if your race will be held against you because racism has never been an issue for white people. You have had the freedom from the responsibility of feeling dread, anxiety, and anguish within a culture of white supremacy. The white race has been held as the “norm” for the human race.
Ever since I have been born I have been grieving because I am black in white America. Black lives do matter and it will take courage for my white colleagues to break from white solidarity. It’s going to take you to speak up and break up the ambiance and sit with the discomfort of confronting your white worldview and an ongoing study of your white fragility.
From this point, black people will be unapologetically vocal and call out discriminatory practices. Black people will no longer live in a world where their blackness is overlooked.
So if this makes you feel threatened or feel disrespected, then you simply do not understand the process of mixing socially with black people. This is your challenge to grow and become allies and eventually an accomplice for anti-racist work.
De Angela Smith, M.A., AMFT
Orange County, CA.
https://www.faiththerapytalk.com/
https://cavfamilytherapy.com/
Clifford’s Message…
What led me to becoming a therapist was the miraculous work of God, pulling me out of a single-parent home (father killed when I was 10 months old), whose mother was a drug addict, alcohol abuser and neglected my siblings and I as a result of the grips of her addiction. Being born as what some would call a ‘crack baby’ (my mother used when she was pregnant with me) —consequently being tossed to and fro in boys homes and foster home — growing up in the city of Detroit, God gave me a passion to not only overcome and beat these odds, but to get to the root of the problem of what rendered situations like mine possible. Well, He would reveal that problem to me clearly. That problem was Satan attacking the African American community through attacking black marriages. I was determined to become and marriage counselor someday to combat this attack.
Accepting a call to the Gospel ministry at 17 years old, I would go on to pastor several years later. While pastoring, I noticed another problem. As pastors, we did quite a bit of ‘counseling’ but very few of us were clinicians or hardly even armchair counselors at all. Additionally, observing the gross taboo of mental health in the African American community and in the black church, these deficits compelled me to earn a clinical degree to bring professional mental health services to the black community in efforts to reduce the stigma against a field that had so much to offer us.
Today, I own and operate a parachurch private practice, offering two locations in the Metro Detroit area for your convenience. I am a marriage, relationship and sexual addiction and men’s issue’s specialist, conventionally counseling from a psycho-Christian intersection. I also proudly serve as Teaching Pastor of Conquerors Church in Roseville, Michigan.
Clifford J. Clark, LLMSW, CSAT-Candidate
Transparent Professional Counseling
30043 Parkwood St.
Inkster, MI 48141
Website: www.transparent-counseling.com
E-mail: info@transparent-counseling.com
Phone: (248)-237-7709
Fax: (734)-728-2964
LaVonne’s Message…
In order to start understanding what I have written, please first click on the following link and listen to this video by poet and artist, Zariah Tucci:
https://www.instagram.com/tv/CBBWsCDHEe8/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Can you hear that? What did you hear? What did you feel? Was it just a poem or did your thoughts go to the life she must have lived? Or did you think about yourself? To you she is a stranger, but in your life she may show up as your client, your colleague, your doctor, your supervisee, your enemy or your friend.
Dr. Harry Aponte wrote the book and coined the phrase, “The Person of the Therapist”. In session “The Person of the Therapist” often initially shows up through involuntary emotions. We often use this part of ourselves in order to process our every day discretions. Just as it is with our clients, these same thoughts that direct our actions and behaviors, are created by the experiences of our lives. These are the things we see and things we are told, whether good or bad, which help to ignite our hearts, guide our actions and fuel our emotions.
As a black therapist, in respect to color, what do I think it is most important for YOU to learn in this time??? Take the time to learn about yourself. Because if you can’t, you will only further antagonize the underlying voice of that same beauty who walked into your office. Because the voice like the one heard on this video, rarely will you see. Beauties like her will be polite, and demure, and will attempt to be everything YOU need in order to make YOU feel comfortable. And if YOU haven’t learned to first deal with YOUR Self, then that same beauty will walk away with nothing but to trust in the hollow, untrue poisons that she first presented with.
In the office of the therapist who has taken the time to understand their own Person, they can then first identify the truth behind their own prejudices. In understanding and working through this, only then can they become the safe haven your client deserves and can then truly “show up” and be present in the best possible way.
LaVonne Johnson, LMFT
405 Uptown Square
Suite D
Murfreesboro, Tennessee 37129
(615) 678-0184
Tori’s Message…
Greetings Brothers and Sisters,
First I would like to thank Mari for her passion and fire for creating this Platform!
My name is Tori Dion Hodge, I am a Social Worker currently working as a Life Coach, and in a Unit in the Air Force. George Floyd's murder has ignited so much inside me and I wanted to share the following thoughts…
It is horrific and tragic what happened to George Floyd. I recall my parents protesting during the Vietnam War, they were students at NYU and City College, and the current events have brought back many memories of racism and political unrest. It was exciting to wake up to the news and view all the stations from MSNBC, FOX to CNN along with other stations covering the protests. I am thankful that I can witness and feel the energy of a NEW MOVEMENT! To see the human race finally coming together and standing for a world where every one understands that they matter! This is my vision for the world, and I get to support it unfolding!
I have also been impacted by racism having an Irish/English Father and African American Mother in the 60’s from Detroit, Michigan - do I need to say more? I have experienced racism within my family system, and externally. Both of my African American sons have experienced profiling from police officers on a constant basis in Warwick, Rhode Island, Franklin, Mass, Hartford, Conn, Salisbury, NC to West Palm Beach Florida. This is nothing new for us as a family.
I have also experienced racist white male patients calling me the “N” word refusing for me to be assigned as their Therapist while working in an inpatient treatment center once in Lake Worth, Florida. Racism did not start with me, it started with the opposing side, with the entitlement and privilege. As we heal and move forward, the discussion and dialogue must start between them and us in order to create a safe platform. An Ontological and Ecological perspective is needed to create an opening for change.
Although these protests for the past 12 days look good, we have a long way to go. It is important to remember we are only shaving at the surface. As for those other groups that are coming in to the protests to fight and create violence, whether paid off or not, I choose to disregard and not acknowledge them due to their trick to create distraction, control and confusion.
Peace always begins with us first. I am dedicated and devoted to being a safe space for dialogue and discussion being mindful of my own blind spots, my own judgments, past hurts, pain, anger, and expectations. I have felt the support and love from my white brothers and sisters reaching out to me via phone, texts, and emails asking me, “Tori how are you sister, I love you! How can I support you?” This is encouraging as it is apparent they are understanding a tiny bit of the intensity of what I have always felt my entire life.
We have a long way to go in a wrinkle in time. Hopefully we will make a difference because bottom line is , “I am George Floyd.”
Blessings, Presence and Harmony!
Tori Dion Hodge, LCSW, CSAT
Boynton Beach, Florida