We were lucky to catch up with Diamond James recently and have shared our conversation below.

Diamond , appreciate you joining us today. What’s the best advice you ever gave to a client? How did they benefit / what was the result? (Please note this response is for education/entertainment purposes only and shouldn’t be construed as advice for the reader)

I think one of the best pieces of advice given to a client was actually a revelation that they came to themselves – that things do get better. I remember being at the tail end of treatment with someone and asked them, “if you could tell the version of yourself that first started therapy anything, what would you say?” and their response was “it gets better”. It could’ve been easy for me to attempt to tell someone that and hope they believe it, but it has a different impact when someone is able to realize and believe that themselves. This was a person who experienced loss, was navigating grief, struggles with their identity and finding a place of belonging. I believe in my ability as a therapist to sit with them, see them, show up for them as they showed up to this process and for me to help give language and normalize their experiences, it helped in them being able to see that at some point, things do get better.

Diamond , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Diamond James. In describing myself, I like to distinguish between who I am and what I do. I think sometimes we marry the two and make our identity what we do. I have definitely been guilty of that for a long time. I am a daughter, compassionate, a creative person, an explorer and a curious person. By discipline, I am a licensed therapist and my background is in social work. In the work that I do, I am very intrigued by trauma and how the effects of trauma show up in our lives. I am also very fascinated by the brain and body connection, so some of the work I do with those I serve is exploring how stress and trauma shows up in our body and what we can do to address it.

I am also intrigued by addressing and dismantling the stigma that still exists about mental health, especially in communities of color. While mental health is a phrase that’s used often, I don’t believe it’s understood as much as it’s used. Social media can be a helpful tool to talk about it, but because social media is often a short form medium, we can sometimes oversimplify and overgeneralize things that are more nuanced and layered. A part of what I do is help to normalize that mental health is health, and investing in our mental and emotional wellbeing is simply a part of healthcare, like going to the doctor for a sprain, routine check-up or some sort of virus.

Because of my training in social work, I look at many things from a systems perspective. We all exist in multiple systems and these system can aid us or add to the difficulties we face. We cannot address the effects of that in our health and well-being without identifying what systems are impacting our lives, especially communities of color. Some of the education that I do around this is not only in individual therapy, but in the community when I’m afforded the chance to speak and through Breaking Down Stigma, which is currently an online space where I help to normalize mental health through educating others.

I feel like a part of my purpose in life is to help others feel seen. I know what it’s like to feel overlooked, tossed aside or not enough and my hope is that those who encounter me or the work I do feel seen and valued as is, because you are. Without having to overcompensate, without tying your value to what you do or produce, you’re valued. What has happened or is happening to you does not have to be the defining features of who you are and the hope you have for the future.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

You know how grandparents or other family members brag on their “grandbaby” to their peers and talk about how well they are doing. Well, I recall experiencing that. Lots of praise and affirmation because of my academic performance. Growing up, I always did well academically. While it was a way of showing love, the unintentional consequence was I began to define myself by how well I performed. I have a passion for dance and as a pre-teen and teen, I danced, eventually, competitively. It was another unintentional reinforcement that praise and affirmation comes from performance. This lesson translated into how I understood my relationship with God – His love for me was based on how well-behaved I was. I navigated college life like this too. But I realized this is a lie and an exhausting way to live. It can also produce loads of shame if you can’t meet that unachievable standard consistently. Through my own journey, I’ve come to realize the truth in my worth, that is not based on my performance or how well I produce or create. Because, if that’s what I place my value in, what will that say about me if I don’t perform well, have a human moment or I choose not to produce anything?

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

If we’re talking about clients, building rapport with those you serve is literally vital to succeeding in this field. Now when I say success, I do not define it by someone being completely changed by the time treatment is over. I don’t even define it by achieving 100% of a client’s desired goals. What good is knowing modalities or interventions to use if you haven’t been able to connect with the one you’re working with? Building rapport with someone and connecting with them where they are helps to create safety. I believe if there isn’t safety developed, not much else will be able to be done successfully. Without safety, things stay surface.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @breakingdownstigma
• Twitter: @breakdownstigma
• Other: I have a podcast called “Coheirs The Podcast”, which can by found on Apple Podcast, Spotify and iHeart Media. It’s all about tending to what I like to call our “being-self”, who you are when you’re not achieving, performing or producing.

Image Credits
Charity Hope Photography is credited for the main photo, picture on the beach, picture sitting in the chair, and picture laughing. This felt like a clearer way to include that information.