We recently connected with Andrea Burks and have shared our conversation below.

Andrea, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Healing Through Vulnerability was formed during a personal mental health crisis. The idea of Healing Through Vulnerability came with the desire to break the stigma of mental illness because stigmas were something I was constantly dealing with and were driving the narrative that all individuals that suffer from Mental Illness are “crazy” or psycho instead of someone who copes with life’s challenges differently. Being vulnerable and opening up about the realities of my mental health on Facebook Live in April 2022, allowed people to see the reality of what it was like to struggle with Mental Health and for others to see they were not alone. While expressing my pain and exposing the fact I had thoughts of “unaliving” myself allowed people to see that mental health did not have a look and that sometimes we aren’t always that strong and it’s okay to show emotion or ask for help. Healing Through Vulnerability creates a safe space to allow individuals to be authentic and to break the silence of their struggles with Mental Health, build community, and fight the stigmas due created by society due to lack of knowledge and experience with Mental Health.

Andrea, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

In April of 2022, I began sharing my journey through social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram after having a Mental Health Crisis. Due to my transparency and Vulnerability in sharing my struggles, I received hundreds of messages from people who could relate and felt the need to continue following my journey to find the strength to heal and focus on their mental health. Therefore, Healing Through Vulnerability was born.

The purpose of Healing Through Vulnerability is to encourage women to be open with their mental illness to break the stigma of Mental Illness. I hope to leave a lasting impact and create a movement that will provide empowerment, healing, and compassion to women who struggle in the African American Community.

From a vision created through the crisis, I have started a movement that has a more relatable approach to discussions about Mental Health in the African American Community and among women. I always say that I hope that by being vulnerable, I not only save a life but also save my own.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My journey with Mental Health has not been easy. I always tell people my story started when I was eight years old. I was molested by a family member and developed serious distrust and insecurities about myself. It carried on into adulthood. I began exhibiting signs of depression and anxiety during my senior year of high school. I had come out of a serious breakup right before prom and was devastated. I remember feeling extremely depressed during that time. I started having suicidal thoughts, but I tried to focus on the future to avoid falling further into a deep depressive state. In the fall of 2002, during my freshman year in college, I had a series of retriggering events and attempted suicide for the first time at age 18. From there, I received help with weekly therapy and medication and managed to stay stable for more than ten years. Then, at age 30, I landed in a verbally and mentally abusive relationship, which eventually turned physical. My self-esteem was broken into pieces. I began having major insecurities about not feeling good enough or worthy of love. I was constantly belittled and mistreated. Most people would ask “why did you stay for so long?”, but the thing about Mental Health is that once you are emotionally and mentally connected, for me especially, it takes a serious event to break you out of a situation or relationship that turns you into a person unrecognizable. That same year, I had my second suicide attempt. I remember being depressed and broken for so long because of that relationship. I had stopped eating; I was sleeping all the time. I started showing signs of isolation, I was falling out with my family. I was giving this individual money and remember struggling financially due to giving away half my paycheck, forcing me to neglect my expenses and responsibilities. It became so dire that, I would come home from work or school, and my lights or cable were off. I also woke up one day and my car repossessed. In 2014, I landed in the mental hospital because I was not able to make logical decisions and wanted to constantly unalive myself. During my short stay, I received the necessary coping skills and medications needed to stay stable and return to normal life, The following year tragedy struck again. My paternal grandfather passed away from a massive heart attack. Eight months later, my maternal grandfather, the one I was closest to, died of congestive heart failure. It was then I began falling deeper into grief and depression. In April 2019, My paternal grandmother died due to complications of diabetes, and then four months later in August 2019, my father died in front of me due to heart disease and another massive stroke. I also experienced a miscarriage during that time and from there I fell further into depression and grief. It was then that I also developed social anxiety, which became crippling and I was unable to leave bed. In August 2019, I also found out my sister was expecting, and I wanted to help so I fought hard to get out of my low mental state. For almost two years, even during the pandemic, I found stability in my well-being. I started to feel more confident and optimistic about the future. However, that did not last long; tragedy and devastation struck again in February of 2022. My last grandparent, my maternal grandmother, had died. During that time, I was also working at a stressful company, planning a funeral, and trying to remain positive. However, to add to the grief and depression, I received afflictive news. The man I’d been seeing for over a year impregnated someone else, and from there I was in a downward spiral. I started having a serious mental health crisis, which triggered me to attempt suicide twice last year, once on April 28th and the final one on May 25th, 2022, when I was found unresponsive by my mother. I spent a week in the Mental hospital, where I received treatment, but my life never returned to normal. I was unable to function enough to keep my career, so I began to focus more on my brand, Healing Through Vulnerability, and share my message not only to help others but help myself.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Building Healing Through Vulnerability’s social media audience was not always easy. My brand is about mental health, and with it being such a “taboo” topic, it was difficult to grow engagement on the one topic that mattered to me the most. So I began working with a social media strategist to help plan content and grow my followers in order to put my brand in front of individuals, especially women who were struggling with mental health. I also had to pivot away from being very specific when it came to sharing my brand story. I had to add elements that would be exclusive to everyone, not just myself. So, I included broader topics such as women’s empowerment and inspiration while still including mental health resources and awareness. In the course of 90 days, with simple strategy adjustments, I was able to grow my page from 650 followers to over 5,500 followers on Instagram alone. My one piece of advice to being successful is to stay consistent, solidify your brand story, and pivot your brand to be inclusive of everyone without losing the actual mission and purpose of your brand.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.healingthroughvulnerability.com
• Instagram: healingthroughvulnerability
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/healingthroughvulnerability
• Linkedin: Andrea Burks and Healing Through Vulnerability
• Youtube: Healingthroughvulnerability
• Yelp: Healing Through Vulnerability
• Other: Schedule Appointment with Spaceology (as.me)

Image Credits
IamAlishaNicole CreativeFocusProductions