- 2 days ago
Dr. Arthur C. Evans -CEO and Sr. Vice President of American Psychological Association
Jeff Johnson,
Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis
Jeff Johnson,
Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hi, I'm Dr. Arthur Evans. I'm the Chief Executive Officer of the American Psychological Association,
00:11and I'd like to welcome you to Essence Wellness House. I have two great guests with me.
00:16I'm so excited to be with you all on today. I'm Dr. Tama, a licensed psychologist in the
00:23Los Angeles area, a professor of psychology at Pepperdine University, ordained elder in
00:29the AME Church and activists and artists. And it is my pleasure to talk about Black men's mental
00:35health today. And I'm Jeff Johnson. I'm really glad to be with you, Dr. Evans and Dr. Tama. I am
00:43the creator and curator of a community called Men Thrive, which is focused on increasing the life
00:50expectancy of Black men by helping to reduce stress, anxiety, creating community, and helping
00:55brothers identify and set goals and aspirations. And I'm also the father of five. And so as we
01:03just talk about this whole notion of how we need to plug in so that we can be engaged in raising
01:09the village, I am dealing with it daily in my house. So I'm excited about this conversation.
01:15Well, great. And why don't we start there with what helps men to thrive and particularly Black
01:23men to thrive? And I want to start with Dr. Tama and just talk about the importance of this whole
01:28topic of men's wellness and men's psychological health. Wonderful. I am so glad for this topic.
01:37And it really is urgent. As we have heard the rallying cry of Black Lives Matter, it is also
01:43important to know that Black minds matter, that Black men's mental health matters, and that we want to,
01:50as you have named, not only survive, but thrive and look at what it would mean for our Black boys and men
01:57to really flourish, particularly during these times. There is so much stress and trauma, whether we look
02:03at the pandemic or at least look at police brutality, the prison industrial complex, and just financial
02:09stress and strain. And this conversation is particularly significant when we look at the risk facing Black men.
02:18Black men are four times as likely as Black women to commit suicide. They have higher rates of alcohol
02:25abuse than Black women, white men and white women. And we know that substance dependence is often about
02:32medicating pain. So the pain is there, the distress is there, the support needs to be there so that Black
02:39men can be everything that they were born to be and more.
02:42You know, Jeff, from your perspective, what are some things that Black men can do to thrive? If you're
02:50really looking at that and your life work is in that area, what have you learned about what helps Black
02:58men to thrive from a psychological or mental standpoint?
03:01Sure. And I think that both you and Dr. Tamer could probably dive deeper into some of the clinical
03:07some of the clinical recommendations. But what I'm seeing is, number one, we got to give ourselves
03:13permission to feel. And so we have both from a white supremacy perspective that attempts to rob us of
03:20humanity and putting us in a position where we where we feel like being stoic is being strong or some of the
03:28cultural realities that we deal with, where I don't want what's crazy to me, doc, is that on one end,
03:35we're in these spaces where I can't look weak. So I got to stand strong. I can't cry because I don't
03:43want to be viewed as weak. But but what gets me is when I'm talking to brothers, I can't be overly happy
03:50because I don't want to look goofy. And I can't be surprised and excited and joyful because I got to act
03:55like I've been there before. And I can't be confused because I'm supposed to know everything.
04:01And so literally what we have defined as strong is often the very definition of inhuman.
04:11And so just giving us permission to feel, we just did something this week on Men Thrive,
04:16feel something, share something. So that if you're feeling something, so often we're asking brothers
04:23to check on a brother. But we're not often saying to each other, yo, say something and start to get
04:28in the habit of of saying how you feel, especially when it's a good thing, when you're joyful, when
04:34you're excited, when you're happy. So so giving brothers the permission and almost the expectation
04:40to feel as part of their humanity and part of their strength. The second thing is recognizing that
04:47behavioral health tools or wholeness tools are not about lulling you to a state of weakness,
04:54but actually positioning you for a place of strength. And so whether it's meditation that
05:01puts you in a place where you are quieting the mind or whether it's affirmation where you're
05:07reprogramming the mind from all of the nonsense that you're dealing with on a daily basis,
05:12whether it's even chanting or prayer, all of these things are actually used by some of the greatest
05:17warriors in the history of the world to prepare them for battle. And so helping helping brothers,
05:23I think one commit to feel and to that some of these tools are not about lulling you to weakness,
05:29but actually about having you operate at your highest level of strength.
05:33Yeah, you know, when I was in my practice years, I remember that one of the things that was a challenge
05:41was that often when I was working with black men, we often don't have the language of feelings and
05:46emotions, right? Because yeah, it's a typical guy. How are you feeling? They, you know, all right.
05:51You know, it doesn't kind of go much more than that for many guys and giving people that language
05:57and the permission, as you saying, Jeff, I think it's so important. Dr. Tama, what would you say,
06:01you know, as a, as a clinician, as a licensed psychologist, what kinds of things can men do?
06:07I mean, one of the big changes in our field is that we're recognizing that not only is it important
06:12for us to go to professional health, but there are a lot of things that we can do ourselves
06:17that can make a difference in our own mental health and our own mental wellness, just like we exercise
06:23and we eat right to make sure that our bodies are okay. What are some of the things that we can be
06:28doing that will make sure that our minds are okay as well? Yes, I'm so glad you raised this because I
06:35want to name both working with a health professional, a mental health professional and self-help tools.
06:40It's important to know that only 2% of psychologists are black men, only 2% of psychiatrists are black
06:48men, 4% of social workers are black men. And so there is a need for us to not only tear down those
06:55walls to receive the services, but also to enter into the field. And I am excited about the work that
07:02black men have done along with black women in creating interventions that really affirm our culture
07:09to know that you don't have to leave yourself behind to get therapy, that somehow it is a thing for white
07:15people or rich people, that wholeness and wellness is for us. And there are Afrocentric models, there are
07:23African-centered black psychological models of ways that we can integrate our spirituality and our activism.
07:31And it's powerful because we know spirituality and spiritual practice helps with resilience, but often
07:37when we go into spiritual spaces, black spiritual spaces, it's majority women. We know that activism
07:44and engaging and community transformation can be a tool for empowerment, but often those spaces are
07:51absent of many of our brothers as well. So I would say getting engaged. I like to say justice is therapeutic,
07:58right? When we can get some justice, some of this stress would be relieved. And so this sense of
08:04being a part of the solution, being a part of community work and community organizations,
08:10as well as engaging it. You mentioned meditation. So prayer or meditation or being a part of a faith
08:16community can be an important resource. And the last one I'll mention around social support to connect
08:22with what Jeff was sharing is to make a commitment to telling someone the truth about how you feel
08:28instead of just saying, I'm good, right? It's more than I'm good. And so to follow up with each other
08:33and say, no, like, how are you managing, right? What's going on with you to ask a deeper question
08:39than just what's up? Because a lot of people are carrying a lot of pain, but also a lot of promise.
08:46Yeah. You know, how can we have those real conversations? You know, so I'm, you know, I'm
08:52African-American man, you know, hang out with guys with brothers all the time.
08:56You know, we don't talk about, Jeff, as you're saying, some of the things that are happening
09:03deep, the deep issues that we're dealing with, the things that we are, that might be troubling us,
09:09the things that we may be afraid of, right? The things that we might be concerned about.
09:14How do we have those real conversations? What have you learned in your work, Jeff, that
09:19can help these guys who might be listening to this?
09:21Well, I don't think there's a silver bullet. I think that there has to be multiple ways that
09:26we're doing this because, again, we're talking about disrupting a history of cultural engagement
09:32that has said that I'm risking my life by doing this. I'm risking my life by exposing myself to you.
09:37I'm risking my safety by being transparent. There's probably not a week that goes by where I don't have
09:47a brother who has done what he never thought he would do and say to the woman that he's dating or
09:54that he's married to, you heard my feelings. I'm feeling some kind of way. And I would say in the
10:02conversations I'm having, five out of 10 times at least, that woman that says, oh, you're acting like
10:08a B now. And so the same woman that wants him to be communicative has also often not been conditioned
10:18to understand what Black strength through men being transparent looks like. And so we have to begin
10:25to normalize this in a way that starts from our institutions to our individual relationships. And so
10:32when you ask, what can we do? I think sometimes we're asking for this to be like a state of Black
10:37America conversation, when sometimes it just needs to be me and the person I trust the most.
10:42And so when I'm talking to men, I'm like, yo, this isn't about having this conversation at the
10:46barbershop. This is about who is the one brother who you trust enough to tell one thing that you normally
10:54would keep to yourself. And can you practice and rehearse that, where you're doing that at least once a week,
11:01where it becomes normal. And again, not always the hard stuff. Sometimes it's the fun stuff. It's the
11:07happy stuff. If we can get brothers comfortable and feeling safe talking about stuff that makes me
11:12joyful, happy, excited, excitedly overwhelmed, then that becomes practice to start talking about stress,
11:19anxiety, depression, and the rest. I think the second thing is doing, tapping into folks like yourself,
11:27because this should be the kind of conversation that we're having in our public spaces.
11:33You know, we need conversation guides for family reunions, conversation guides for Thanksgiving,
11:40because I think that there are times when Black families come together when we should be elevating
11:45how we feel. And again, it doesn't always have to be a negative thing. But I think we need help
11:50and support and guidance. And sometimes that's about individually, to Dr. Tama's point, seeking
11:57support. But it's also about how are we seeking support about the conversation itself and guides
12:03for families and individuals to do that. And I think that's information that's often really difficult
12:08to access. And so the more we can create it and ensure that our folks have it, the more we can be in those
12:14spaces, whether we're institutional or one on one, to start normalizing that as a practice.
12:21Great. And Dr. Tama, you can take us out. What's your last comments that you would make to the men
12:28and the men in their lives about this topic? Yes, I want to say to the Black men who are listening,
12:36you are worthy of care. You are worthy of rest. You are worthy of safety. You are worthy of good sleep.
12:44You are worthy of good love. You are worthy of high self-esteem based on the truth that you are
12:51more than enough. And one of the ways you can also heal is with the arts. So our music and dancing
12:58and spoken word and visual art and graffiti art, those are all ways that we express the fullness of
13:05who we are. And you're deserving of that. Wow. Very powerful. Thank you so much,
13:11Jeff. Thank you so much, Dr. Tama. Great conversation. And for all the brothers and the sisters out there,
13:17stay strong.
Comments