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00:02what up though detroit we are back for another episode of detroit culture shifters and you know
00:08one thing about the d we do shift the culture and this time we have dr maya cobb and make
00:14sure that
00:14you have that doctor in front of her name okay because she's out here reshaping how detroit
00:18families are thinking about mental health education and just emotional where-being
00:23through her amazing organizations and through some very interesting avenues she is making sure
00:30that therapy is accessible to all i don't want to spoil the good news so let's talk to the dr
00:36cobb good morning good morning lisha it's nice to be here it's nice to officially see you because
00:42i've been following and seeing all the great things and i don't want to spoil anything that we're going
00:46to be talking about today but for those who may not know who dr maya is can you tell us
00:51a little bit
00:52about yourself sure so i am a licensed clinical therapist i'm registered in the state of michigan
00:58i have my doctorate in counseling education and supervision i'm an entrepreneur i own two
01:04businesses journey to clarity and complete clarity i'm also a clinical supervisor for limited licensed
01:10therapists and counseling interns so what don't you do that's a good question
01:17so what inspired your journey into just the the mental health arena because i feel like you have
01:24to be a certain type of human with a certain type of heart to really want to go into this
01:29field so
01:30what what was the spark for you so it's interesting i wish i had a better answer to this question
01:36but my 12th grade year at renaissance high school i didn't know what i wanted to do i just knew
01:41that i had
01:41to go to college that's what my parents said and i took a psychology class my teacher's name was mrs
01:48for cory shout out to her if she's out there somewhere she changed the whole trajectory of my life
01:53and i learned so much about myself because i was so lost at this point in time i learned so
02:00much from
02:00the psychology content and i thought like oh my gosh i want other people to have this same experience
02:06because if you can understand things about yourself you can start to make changes you can start to heal
02:11and so that's when i decided i have to go into the mental health field i want people to have
02:16the same
02:17experience i'm having i love that and you were explaining how you wear several hats you're a
02:23therapist you're a business owner you're an educator you're also an advocate you do a lot so how do these
02:27different roles like support families who need it like how are you able to weave everything that you do
02:34to make what you've created that's a great question so what i try to do is push back on any
02:40type of
02:41barrier or any type of limitation to access that somebody might have so as a business owner one of
02:48the things i like to do is figure out ways to increase access for people for whatever the services
02:53that i'm offering whether it's tutoring whether it's therapy even for um the supervision that i offer
02:59making sure that i'm accessible to people i offer a lot of sliding scale fees i've seen clients for
03:05free in my business that's why we have interns so that they can see clients for free my ultimate goal
03:11is just to make sure that people have the access that they need i love that and you kind of
03:15hinted
03:16already on it but let's talk about complete clarity real quick because i think it's very
03:22telling of who you are without even knowing who you are the fact that you are bridging not only
03:27therapy but also tutoring with it because i don't think a lot of people realize that they kind of
03:32connect like education and emotional well-being are essentially very connected i'll just say that
03:39because i'm trying to find another word but why was it so important to create a company and an
03:44organization that strives to connect both mental health and you know well-being and success and
03:50academics so when i was going through graduate school i was just looking for a way to have
03:56a couple extra dollars in my pocket and that's real you know i'm like okay i'm pretty good at
04:01school i'm getting my master's i can tutor and so i worked for a larger national organization
04:07tutoring and as i started to get to know the students i recognized like wait a minute y'all
04:12don't need help with school you're having things that are going on at home and because i was in
04:17school for counseling i was able to start to use some of my skills communicate things to parents
04:21and i remember one day in particular it always sticks with me i was working with this baby she
04:27couldn't have been more than like seven or eight years old and we're working on homework and she
04:31looks at me and she says do you think it's okay that my mommy hits or my daddy hits my
04:35mommy and i was
04:36like oh and we talked about that a little bit but i recognize like how in the world are you
04:43going to
04:43focus on this math when you're dealing with watching your parents experience the domestic violence at home
04:49right and you're in elementary school you don't have the tools to go through this as an adult
04:53we struggle with tools to experience that so what are we doing for the kids so that's what sparked me
04:59to break away from the national company and start my own business that incorporated the two things
05:04together four and one the fact that you were able to sit down with that young girl and explain to
05:12her a very pivotal moment because like you said even an adult probably wouldn't have
05:19handled that situation properly is truly amazing so shout out to you for being able to help her
05:24through that but i feel like a lot of times there are challenges that parents don't realize that the
05:29kid is going through so what are some things that you've realized that parents may not realize
05:35are happening in their kids lives that you feel as though complete clarity can help with
05:40that the parent is the problem and i know i get a lot of pushback from parents when i say
05:45stuff like
05:46that but even myself as a parent i had to recognize the ways in which i was hindering them
05:52not because i was being abusive or i was being harmful and this isn't even to blame parents it's
05:58to recognize that i have all of these other things going on my goal at the end of the day
06:03is for you to
06:04finish the homework assignment i'm not thinking about what happened to you at school that day did you
06:09like your hair how are you feeling about yourself are you tired are you dealing with anxiety i'm trying to
06:15cook dinner i'm trying to get these things done listen the math homework is due tomorrow i need
06:18you to finish the homework and so one thing that complete clarity offers is like want a break for
06:25parents so that you don't have to deal with the homework and then a way to look at what are
06:30the
06:30blind spots that you're missing and so i look at the tutors as like a translator if you will a
06:37lot
06:37of times our tutors will go to parents and say hey you know maya's having a hard time in school
06:43because there's a kid that's sitting next to her that's always talking about her gym shoes and so
06:47it's hard for her to focus in math class because this is happening and unfortunately as a parent
06:52sometimes we just miss that because of all of the things going on in our day-to-day life and
06:57that's
06:57so real and i understand that parents could you know feel a little bit you know hurt by being called
07:03out but that's the need of community because sometimes like you said blind spots are there we don't
07:08see everything so is there an age group that you work with with complete clarity just so that
07:14everyone knows absolutely all of the babies so we have tutors that i'm sure will go down to as young
07:21as three or four years old but typically we service like that k through 12 age range but we have
07:27had
07:27some preschoolers before and what has been one of the most rewarding parts of creating complete clarity
07:34has it been that story that you shared or is there another situation that you were like wow i'm so
07:39glad that i actually pushed through and made complete clarity kids are fun they're fun and so watching
07:47them grow and how expressive they are one of the my one of my favorite moments happened a couple weeks
07:54ago during our girls support group that complete clarity offers it's called we listen and we don't judge
07:59one of our interns found that because it's popular on social media um and the little girl i don't know
08:05she's maybe 10 or 11 years old she was like i love it here this is great and my heart
08:11just bursted like
08:12oh my goodness as hard as it is for me to show up sometimes and create the resources and make
08:18sure
08:18everything is in order it's moments like that where it's like okay somebody's got to pour into the babies
08:24and it has to be a person that's not always concerned about making a dollar off of every
08:29kid that comes in the door and that's so real especially because like you said you have your
08:33hands in a whole completely different side of counseling with journey to clarity can we talk
08:39about that because again dr cobb is a jane of all trades yes so journey to clarity is my big
08:46baby right
08:47now she is doing a lot of big things we are offering walk-in therapy right now which has
08:53us booming i love servicing adults as well because of the self-awareness that they have a lot of times
09:00children are in therapy because somebody pushed them to be in therapy but many adults are there
09:05unless they're court ordered by choice and so that's a completely different dynamic and helping them
09:11explore and again tearing down those barriers for them as well has been incredibly rewarding and i'm so
09:17glad that you brought up the walk-in therapy because as someone and i'm very candid on radio and on
09:22my
09:22social media that i'm in therapy i love my therapist hands down oh yeah i feel as though i would
09:27not be
09:28the person that i am today without going through therapy because you don't realize how many little
09:34things turn into huge moments where it's like wow i didn't realize that that affected me so much and
09:41this is why i'm doing this so hearing that you're offering therapy in such an accessible way
09:46it's just incredible because i think that the conversation recently has been that therapy is not
09:51accessible and now you've created an avenue where people can literally just walk in
09:56and get something that especially african-american families would not have had access to so can you
10:02explain the process of these walk-ins do they literally just walk in and like how does it work
10:08yep you literally you just pull up so you can come in between our business hours 10 a.m to
10:146 30 p.m
10:15monday through thursday we are closed on friday there have been a lot of people that have tried to
10:19pull up on friday we're not open we're never open on fridays and then we do a half day on
10:24saturday
10:24from 10 a.m to 1 30 p.m so you come in if you have insurance we'll bill your
10:30insurance as long as there
10:31is zero out-of-pocket cost to the client but if you pull up and walk in that session is
10:35completely free to
10:36the client and if you don't have any insurance at all you come in we still see you unfortunately
10:41we're not able to offer that virtually you do have to literally walk into the establishment but
10:46we just need your id and an insurance card if it's applicable i love that and i know that you've
10:53already specified why it was so important but i feel as though we say that it's important for therapy
10:59to be accessible but then we don't actually take the steps to do it so what was that spark or
11:04that
11:04moment that you were like you know what i'm gonna put this on my shoulders and make sure that my
11:09community actually gets what they need like what was that moment that you were like this this is
11:13absolutely necessary yeah so in training my admin team they're absolutely phenomenal none of them
11:20though are in the mental health world they're our phenomenal admin team they're very good at
11:26organization all of those things and so i would hear people in distress on the phone sobbing crying i
11:34need an appointment i don't know what to do my kid my wife whatever's going on just in distress and
11:41you
11:41know no knock on my admin team but they're like okay and like what's your address and they're going
11:46through the intake process and i'm like okay what i get it we have to get certain information about you
11:52in order to be seen and then you got to go through the billing department and we got to verify
11:56your
11:56insurance you got to wait five to seven business days yada yada yada and i'm like what if we could
12:01just eliminate all of that and you can just come in i can have you sign the two documents the
12:06three
12:06documents that i need you to sign legally in order for me to bring you back to see you and
12:11then we
12:11can figure out all the other stuff later but when you're in distress right now even if you can't get
12:16us on the phone even if you're not able to wait the five to seven days for an appointment you
12:20can
12:20just pull up you can see somebody and then after your session we can go through additional questions
12:26and paperwork and then additionally last year towards the end of 2025 we had so many clinical
12:33interns that were set to start in january and in michigan and other states you need a certain amount
12:39of hours in order to graduate and so myself and my clinical manager i'm like okay what are we going
12:43to
12:43do like we got 10 people who are going to be here how do we make sure they have all
12:47their hours and
12:48i'm like let's kill two birds with one stone let the people pull up and walk in and then have
12:54each
12:54intern have a day where they're on call and so you're available to see whoever comes in and then
13:00if they happen to not have insurance they can continue to work with you and then we'll go from
13:05there come on the brain that you have dr cobb is really incredible so what has been the response
13:10so far because i i based off of what i'm seeing on socials everybody named mama has been trying
13:15they have so what is the response from your side we're getting a phenomenal response which is
13:21beautiful and overwhelming at the same time i can imagine going through some growing pains i know that
13:27there have been some folks frustrated about a wait or taking a while to get somebody on the phone so
13:32we're working on all of those things behind the scenes but i try to reiterate on social media to
13:37please pack your patience because you are walking in without an appointment so that is something i'm
13:43really trying to communicate to folks is that yes we are here and we are able to service you but
13:48even
13:49if you come on a day where we have four people available for walk-ins if all four people happen
13:54to be taken up at the moment you might have to wait a little bit but we offer snacks we
13:59have some
14:00throwback shows on the tv you know it's a good time we're watching the fresh prints we kicking it
14:04right okay you gotta throw the black cartoons on there the black sitcoms so we try to make it an
14:10inviting environment for folks to come in so i do my best on that regard but the response has been
14:16very overwhelming i love it i'm so grateful for it and we're hoping to expand so we can service more
14:22people but no that makes sense because at the end of the day the people who you know have the
14:26appointments also have to be seen too so it's a balancing act and i feel like your every day is
14:31going to get better and better but is there any way that we can support you because i feel like
14:35you're supporting the entire metro area what can we do to help you girl like is there anything that
14:40we can do are you looking for people do you need funds like what what do we need we absolutely
14:45are
14:46looking for people so we are currently hiring for multiple different areas we're hiring for an admin
14:52assistant we are certainly hiring more therapists and then we've opened up a few more slots for our
14:58clinical internship now mind you we've gotten a lot of great applicants for our clinical internship
15:04however you do have to be in a master's program either in counseling psychology social work or
15:10licensed marriage and family therapist and you have to be at the point where you're in internship so we
15:15cannot allow bachelor's level folks for example to come in and start seeing clients right we want to play
15:20them games over here right so we are hiring for those three things and then of course if anybody wants
15:26to donate that's always an option as well our community coordinator faith lee she is figuring out a way
15:33to set up a fund so that those who have been interested in donating are able to do that perfect
15:38and is there a way that say someone actually wants to book your services they don't necessarily want to
15:43walk in like they actually want therapy to be a lifelong journey is there a way that they can reach
15:48out to
15:49you are you taking um new clients at all so i personally am not accepting new clients my current clients
15:56would be so mad at me if i started accepting new clients in fact some of them were like so
16:02i see
16:02what's happening on social media what does that mean for us do i am i gonna have my slide are
16:06we good
16:06they had to make sure they were straight exactly exactly so if you are looking to work with one of
16:12our phenomenal therapists that are accepting new clients and we do have some folks with immediate
16:17availability i recommend that folks book a new client registration call if you call the phone
16:23regularly you might not be able to get someone on the line because we are quite busy but if you
16:28book
16:28a new client registration call it allows you to upload your id and your insurance to our hipaa
16:33compliant portal and then a member of our admin team will call you at the time that you selected so
16:39we can make sure we're not playing phone tag or anything like that beautiful beautiful because i was
16:43wondering that i was like i know that you guys have a lot of phone traffic so i'm like is
16:47there
16:47somewhere else that people you know can get the access that they need now on top of the fact that
16:52you're running these two businesses little birdie told me that you've become a three-time author like
16:58what's happening here so i successfully completed my dissertation in 2025 let's pause right here
17:06that is a hard work dissertations are no joke congratulations keep going i'm sorry no problem i
17:14i love my dissertation i'm very passionate about the work that i was doing and the research i'm very
17:22into the black mother-daughter relationship and how that impacts the identity development and self-worth
17:28in the daughter the dissertation though is very it's very dense it's very thick it's very academic
17:34so my goal is to break it down into bite-sized pieces to where the average person who's not in
17:40higher
17:40education and doesn't want to read 50 11 citations is able to read it digest it and gain the information
17:47so i do have what is a little snippet of it that's out now on amazon and my website the
17:54relationship
17:54blueprint and it's a workbook it's very interactive and it goes through pretty much what were you taught
18:00during childhood that you didn't even realize you were being taught about what is a relationship
18:04supposed to look like what should we expect what's tolerated what's not tolerated and all of the
18:10baggage that we carry that again a lot of us are not even aware that's there and you mean
18:14relationships in all facets platonic romantic or is it just mother-daughter like is is it for
18:21everyone it's for everybody so while my research specifically is on the mother-daughter dynamic
18:27my passion and myself as a clinician i look at the whole parent-child relationship so this workbook
18:33is gender neutral whatever parent it is you would like to explore whatever gender you identify as
18:39it it's applicable to you so i feel like it would be remiss of me to not ask this because
18:44as someone
18:44who was really scared to walk into a therapy clinic to you know talk and bear my soul because you
18:52you've
18:52really got to be open and honest for you to actually heal and that's terrifying for any human being
18:58regardless of your demographic your your age like where you come from what is something that as a
19:04therapist but also i'm going to assume so you can also tell me if i'm wrong someone who also actively
19:09goes through therapy herself oh yes what is something that you would say to someone who's right on the
19:15edge who's like i've heard all these great things about therapy but is it really true i know that i
19:20need
19:20that healing and that support but i don't know money's tight i'm hearing the stigmas that we all have
19:28grown up with like what what would you say to someone who's right on the edge a lot of the
19:35negative things about therapy it's rooted in a very outdated version of what therapy is and i can speak
19:42for myself with my therapist love her down and i can speak for myself as a therapist it doesn't look
19:48like what a lot of people think it looks like some of my clients have me cracking up laughing like
19:53we in
19:53there kiki and then you might be bursting into tears and then we might go back to kiki and it's
19:58an interactive relationship it's not just oh i sit here with my tie on and my notebook and i'm analyzing
20:06you and we're having this very formal discussion and we're going through a treatment plan no i'm here to
20:13help you figure out whatever the heck is going on in your life in whatever way that works best for
20:18you
20:18right so what i would say to that person is give it a try i'm also big one not every
20:23therapist is
20:24the best fit for everybody and so keep looking if you had a negative experience if your first
20:30experience is with somebody and you're like and i'm not really feeling it keep looking keep looking
20:35until you find that person because once you find that person life-changing i have to agree because i
20:41was with a previous therapist not saying that she wasn't great it just didn't the the match the
20:46connection wasn't there but the minute i found this girl like you said we'd be kicking in there
20:50i'd be having her laughing on our zoom calls and then i'm like wait no but i'm actually sad what
20:54is
20:54we actually need to talk wait hold on but i i love what you have created i love that you
20:59have
20:59not only championed for yourself but you're championing for the entire metro area making sure that
21:06we feel seen not only by the community but by ourselves i think that with therapy it's so fulfilling
21:15to realize what i don't want to say was wrong because nothing is wrong with a person yeah but
21:21there was something that changed and now everything makes sense because it's a very fulfilling moment to
21:29be like okay well now i have answers and now i have the tools to figure out how to do
21:33it and now
21:34these things or these outbursts or these feelings won't happen as aggressively as they might have happened
21:40before so i love that you have created an atmosphere and a space that people can feel heard
21:46they can feel seen even if they may not have you know the insurance backing and you know the support
21:52from their families to push them is there any advice that you want to give to parents who know that
21:58their
21:58child is struggling but they don't really know where to start themselves is it bringing them to complete
22:04clarity or what what advice or things that you would share with a parent who's like no i think
22:10something's there and i just don't know how to attack it from the right perspective absolutely so
22:16first and foremost talk to your baby your baby has more answers than anybody can ever give you i know
22:22a lot of people want to lean into like the books and social media but they don't know your kid
22:26ask your kid and if your kid isn't old enough for you to start that dialogue absolutely take them to
22:32somebody talk to their teacher even if you're not ready to talk to a therapist now of course you
22:37know me i'm big on therapy so taking your child to therapy is incredibly helpful the therapist
22:43again acts as like a translator so like hey this is what's going on with kid and this is what
22:48i think
22:48can be helpful one of my favorite things about having complete clarity and journey to clarity in the
22:54same building is watching parents go to therapy while their child is in therapy and so i encourage parents
23:00if your child is in therapy you yourself also need to be in therapy because if there is something going
23:05on with your child to where they need to talk to a therapist that in and of itself is worth
23:11you
23:11figuring out how to process in your own therapy session for sure and i think it's also just a very
23:15good role model stance because the kids are gonna be like okay well if mommy and daddy are doing it
23:21it's not too scary for me to do it either i love that wait we need to let everyone know
23:26where they can
23:27follow and they can get all this information because i know we just threw a lot at everybody
23:30can you let us know where they can find you and your amazing organizations absolutely so if you're
23:35looking for me my instagram is dr maya cobb if you're looking for a journey to clarity the instagram
23:42is journey to clarity and i believe there's an underscore after it complete clarity is complete clarity
23:51i believe that's what it is i think it's just complete clarity i don't think there's an underscore
23:55and then on tiktok where we have completely blown up even though i don't have a personal tiktok you
24:00can find me and journey to clarity on there it's journey to clarity underscore love that and obviously
24:05with detroit culture shifters we always try to you know push our flowers forward while they can still
24:10smell them and there are a lot of people who may not have you know the the platform or may
24:16go very
24:16unknown but have been doing dynamic work within our community who would you want to see on this
24:21platform who deserves their flowers absolutely so i would love to see jessica mayfield ashwood on this
24:28platform she is a black therapist she is a social worker based in the city of detroit and above all
24:37of
24:37that she is a phenomenal author of children's books and she has this very special way of breaking down
24:43such a complex topic related to mental health her first book was on anxiety and she breaks it down
24:49in such a way where children can understand and it's been such a tool that we've used in our office
24:55and i hope that all the parents go buy her book well we don't go buy the book today okay
24:59thank you so
25:01much for being here dr cobb if you don't know it already you are truly incredible and you are truly
25:05shifting the culture for not only detroit but everywhere congratulations on all your success and
25:10we can't wait to see what's next thank you thank you
25:13we can't wait to see what's next thank you
25:17you
25:17you
25:17you
25:18you
25:18you
25:18you
25:18you
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