In 2020 I said to my then caucasian boss, “You know, in diversity training, I just learned that we are supposed to have interviews with a diverse panel. She looked at me and said with a smile well, you’re going to have to be in every one of them because you know you are the token black therapist. This was the day my career path as a mental health therapist officially changed. Let me give you part of my backstory, “I am an African-American female, born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to a single-parent mother. I can count on one hand the number of times I was in my father’s presence during my entire childhood. I grew up in the era of first-generation children born to parents addicted to crack cocaine. Some of my best childhood friends had mothers who were addicted to the drug. I was also aware of relatives who struggled with the addiction. I grew up seeing what crack cocaine did to families and black and brown communities. But I also witnessed a side of humanity that showed real people struggling with real-life issues, pressure, and poverty. I took my experience throughout my childhood years and began applying it to my work in the human service field. Due to my academic skills, I completed a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a master’s degree in social work. I was told upon graduation that I would never make any money in the Social Work field and that I should commit to a life of service. Something about this notion did not feel right, but the city of brotherly love ( Philadelphia) also felt at times like it was the city of killing big dreams. My mother always told me not to stay in Philadelphia; it was one of her biggest regrets. At 25, after reconnecting with a man I met in my late teens, I decided to leave the city and head to Tennessee to pursue a romantic relationship and a better chance at a high-paying respectable career as a mental health professional. In Tennessee, I achieved my goal; I was hired by the Department of Defense and worked hard to provide mental health services to U.S. soldiers and their families. I had arrived, or so I thought! I had achieved my dream of making a promising career as a black mental health therapist, and I was making the money to match. By 2015, I had. become the wife of an active-duty soldier, and he had orders to return to the east coast. Our next stop – Virginia. Upon arriving in Virginia, I became comfortable with being the only black therapist of color in many settings. I  learned years earlier that it was a blessing from God that I completed my degree and licensure requirements because, as we now have learned, the national testing board for social workers, ASWB, has been found to show racial disparities in the number of people of color who pass the board exam on a path to become a licensed therapist. In Virginia, I did a few odd therapist jobs here and there with the ultimate goal of obtaining a supervisor position either on the government or state level. In 2017, I landed a county position in Northern Virginia. The pay was equivalent to landing a federal government position, and I was ecstatic because, remember, years earlier, I had been told that I would never make any money in the mental health profession, and here I was making the money! I also learned through both verbal and non-verbal confirmations during my years growing up in Philly that the ultimate goal for a person of color was to land a job at the city, state, or federal level because, as many would say, “There’s where you get good job benefits from.”

As I worked as the only black behavioral health supervisor for the youth division of the agency, the world was increasing with racial tension, division, and strife. The agency created a diversity team dedicated to improving diversity efforts after an internal investigation revealed a racial divide and disparity among what they referred to as “line staff and first-line supervisors.” In plain terms, line staff was comprised of mostly unlicensed professionals, and first-line staff and above were licensed professionals. My program manager felt I would be a great addition to the diversity team since I was one of the few black supervisors on staff. By 2019, my passion for helping individuals began to dwindle. I was exhausted with the politics of upper management, I was frustrated working under what I know now was a narcissistic boss, and my clinical skills were no longer a focus of my everyday work. I had arrived but at what cost? I wanted to give up the very gift God had blessed me to use. Since the days of my youth, God allowed me to see the humanity in people who were experiencing hardships, but I was burned out! So…… I started searching for a career change, and as I was talking about not wanting to be a therapist anymore, someone from my church asked me if I would not mind speaking on the importance of mental health and the church community. I agreed. As I began to speak more and more on the importance of understanding mental health in faith-based communities, my passion started to reignite. However, I was still working at the county agency, making almost 6 figures and dealing with an increasing amount of office politics and a lack of awareness about the importance of equity in the workplace. When I learned that the agency had a standard SOP in place that detailed the procedure for interview panels, including a diverse panel, I was shocked! Years earlier, as I sat in the interview room, I was on the other side of two caucasian women and one caucasian male. No diversity in site! By 2020, my then-new supervisor was more open to my feedback because I had managed to transfer departments to get from under the previous narcissistic leadership. I thought going to new leadership was the right move for me professionally. I was still dealing with burnout, but I felt I could overcome it with my new change of environment. Welp, I was mistaken; she looked me dead in the face and referred to me as the token black therapist and laughed at the thought of trying to make diversity a priority when most of the staff was not of color. I felt devastated, I had spent years believing in change, and I had come face to face with silent racism and silent resistance to change. I was totally expected to be happy that I had “arrived” and expected to keep quiet. This was the very defining moment in my mental health career. I decided it was time to stop taking on the expectation of what people think or do not think is a successful mental health professional. I prayed long and hard and acknowledged what I had ignored long enough! God had given me a gift to see hope in what most people label broken, and I was operating in my expertise. I decided to walk away from my nearly 6 figure prestigious county position and walk in my passion as a faith-based mental health expert and psychotherapist. I left with my faith and my confidence to bet on me! In my first full year as the CEO of my own mental health and wellness private practice, I grew my team to 5 therapists, and my business earned nearly double the income of the county position. I invested in myself as well as in my business, and I learned that the possibilities are endless!