Black Mental Health Symposium
Published in the April 2023 edition of the Buckeye Review
SYL April 2023
April is Minority Health Month – and as clinicians who both specialize in marriage counseling, we often have occasion to refer clients for individual therapy. Couple’s work is predicated on both partner’s doing their work for and with each other. However, there are instances where individual work needs to be done. We often say two things. One, anything buried alive, stays alive. We often see in others, and in ourselves, the tendency the ignore, brush over and just move on from painful issues of our past. Moving on is important – however, without adequately dealing with – or processing the pain – it tends to show up in the most unexpected times and places with very unpredictable results.
The other maxim we use is, “If you can name it, you can tame it “referring to the unspoken trauma and buried emotions so often invisibly haunting our relationships. Once addressed, it makes life clearer, relationships richer and our previously unexpressed emotions understood.
For Black people there are many unspoken, unexpressed ghosts haunting us. For all the homespun remedies of stuffing, ignoring and “just get over it” advice, there are some things that just need to be dealt with for us to thrive better.
On April 27,2023, we are hosting a Black Mental Health Symposium. We’re opening a dialogue with a panel of Black therapists to discuss the hidden wounds often ignored. For all our attempts to “just move on” without dealing the racial insults and assaults we face, there are some things we must do to flourish.
Black America is not deaf to the calls to ban books about our history, nor are we immune to the calls to erase, ignore and punish those who discuss diversity. Indeed, with each successive report of attempts to shred our humanity, another tear pierces the soul of our existence and diminishes our sense of self. We will rally together to heal ourselves, notwithstanding attempts to devalue us.
We have assembled an impressive array of some of the valley’s best and brightest in the field of Black Mental health and invite the public hear the dialogue about the power and promise of engaging as well as the pitfalls of ignoring your mental health.
Psychiatrist, Dr. Steven King, Psychologist, Dr. Kellie Kirksie, LPPCC, Gloris Griffin, CSB, LPCC, DEI Director, Nancy McCain and Dr, Sherri Harper Woods, distinguished professor, and LISW-S will round out the initial panel to openly discuss racial trauma facing Black Americans as well as provide insight and treatment direction and suggestions. Dr. Linda McNair, Ed.D, MSSA, and Dr. M. Mike McNair will serve as co-moderators and guide the discussion.
This will be the first in a series of discussions. Stay tuned. Location: Youngstown Event Center 5-7:30 pm