We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jessica Chavira-Eubanks a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jessica, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
The most significant risk I have taken was pivoting my business, Purple Couch Therapy. I began Purple Couch Therapy to serve Black/bodies of culture in my community. As I began working with people in the community, 85 percent of my caseload was predominantly Black. I initially started my practice with the intention of providing a space for restoring royalty back into people, youth, and women, restoring our crown as a collective. Purple represented the color of domestic violence and royalty.
I was creating a team that could help me with a big vision rooted in liberation, and I thought I was clear on our mission/vision and the foundational values to create a team of therapists, but I learned that I needed to be more straightforward. As I deepen my knowledge of liberation practices through teachers such as Resmaa Menakem, Dr. Jennifer Mullan, Dr. Manuel and Jessica Zamarripa, bell hooks, Maria Yellow Horse Braveheart, and Na’im Akbar, and all the pioneers of decolonizing mental health. I realized how challenging it was to practice liberation work and be an employer. The two fundamentally do not mix well together. I had to pivot my whole business structure into a collective where there would be more room for liberation practices. I had to let everyone go and redefine how I wanted to practice liberation work as a leader in this field. Dr. Thema Bryant’s new book, “Reclaiming Yourself,” she quotes Nina Simone, defining freedom as living without fear. It requires a considerable risk to stand in what you believe in as an advocate for the people and community we serve at Purple Couch Therapy in a white supremacy world, where they would instead keep silent on the ongoing trauma we experience daily.
Ok, first of all, running a business as a child of a parent dependent on alcohol who has an inner child begging to make things work and forgive and forgive is a learned trait developed in nuclear family dynamics. Unprocessed people-pleasing wounds poured into my business as I began pouring myself into a company, creating a team dynamic during the height of COVID and George Floyd and constantly overgiving and losing money that my husband and I invested to please everyone. My constant people-pleasing, pouring myself over capacity, and giving out too much financially and emotionally almost wiped me out clean. One by one, I slowly decided to let the things that were no longer serving the mission of Purple Couch Therapy go. I got evidence of Purple Couch Therapy’s mission to cultivate a sacred space for Black Womxn Healing. Black womxn medicine is a practice after years of healing work, and there is a lot more to go for myself and community. My practice pivoted to a space where Black womxn medicine healing is the root of our work—a place where you can be, a place that celebrates Blackness, womanism, and queerness. Black women’s medicine is the world’s oldest healing tradition. Every Black woman inherently embodies Black girl magic. Black woman medicine is cultivated as we heal and grow our wise, loving selves together. All bodies and cultures are welcome in the sacred space I created as long as we respect and are conscious of the space we are in.
The Instagram post I went viral for is letting people know exactly where I stand, “If you don’t love Black women, then unfollow me.” The next day, I woke up with thousands of Black women and people who love Black womxn in the community with me. The more I let go of things and people who did not align with the vision, the more love was there. It took me five years to cultivate this mission of having a sacred space dedicated specifically to Black women and people who want to learn how to love Black women more and receive healing from a Black woman.
I remember conversing with a healer, Jessica Zamrippa, co-founder of the Institute of Chicana/o/x Psychology and Community Wellness. She reminded me I have medicine, a practice that needs to be cultivated, protected, and sacred. I remember her telling me I was the jefa in my community. My role is to determine who was safe to do this liberation work and who was not. I laughed in disbelief when she told me it was almost too much for me to step into that role. She was serious, and I knew she was.
Today, I could not be more clear on what we stand for at Purple Couch Therapy, which is rooting our work in Black Womxn Medicine. One of our Directors, Joelisse Galarza, helps us recruit interns for our internship program, helping new graduate students who want to learn from a Black Womxn Medicine lens. Resma Menekem says,” It’s not who you start with; it’s who you end up with”. Joelisse understood the assignment from the beginning and continues to help us recruit interns for our internship program. I now have a team that supports Black womxn’s medicine: Tony Chavira, LMFT Decolonizing Therapist Trainer, two admin support, and three graduate-level interns who are all interested in keeping this work sacred and learning and listening from a Black womxn’s lens.
Being clear on where you stand on your mission and values in a business is essential, as that is how I have collaborated with community partners to provide free therapy in the San Antonio, TX, area for free therapy for youth and families aged 12-19.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I am a mother, daughter, and sister from Killeen, TX. My historical roots trace back to Cameroon and Nigeria, Africa.
I walk the walk and talk the talk, and sometimes that gets me in trouble. However, I am rooted in what I know and stand on it.
My parents are from the Midwest as they moved there due to the harshness of the South, where my great grandmother is from Tuskegee, Alabama.
This work came to me when I began studying social work and learning there are rarely any spaces for centering Black healing. I always longed for there to be a space where Black healing and Black woman healing were the center of the work. For centuries, all bodies benefit from Black woman healing. This ain’t nothing new. I am just speaking it loudly and proudly.
Through my own stories of childhood pain and inner wounded little Jess, I always yearned for a place like Purple Couch Therapy to heal among people who looked like me, who could see my whole self. I am here to reclaim what Black girl magic means. Reclaiming Black girl magic is returning to yourself. Slowly coming back to who you always have been, tapping into that true essence of who you are.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I had to unlearn people pleasing. The lesson I learned is to take the risk of showing what you stand for. Practice using your voice; you never know how much more you can get. But I can’t lie. This journey was a terrifying rollercoaster ride into cultivating a sacred space for Black women in a world that doesn’t value Black women. When I think of purple, I immediately think of Black women. I learned that I am good at pivoting when things are not aligned. Like the beautiful people I work with, I can pivot in business and personal life when values are not aligned with Black Womxn Medicine.
If you could go back in time, do you think you would have chosen a different profession or specialty?
Now that I know what I know I probably would not go back in choosing the field I am in due to all the student loans I have. I would rather sit with a monk and learn more mindfulness and mediation.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://purplecouchcounseling.org
- Instagram: @purplecouchtherapy
- Facebook: Purple Couch Therapy
- Linkedin: Purple Couch Therapy
- Youtube: Purple Couch Therapy
- Yelp: Purple Couch Therapy
- Other: Stay tuned for Black Womxn Medicine Podcast
Image Credits
Deshawn Henry- Photographer