We’re in one of the best months of the year, July. It’s when mid-year celebrations reach a high—between national holidays, birthdays, vacations and family gatherings—July has a lot to offer. If you remember correctly, it’s also the month when we highlight mental health and education for people of color. Without getting into statistics and opinions, I do want to at least acknowledge all of the mental health advocates, practitioners (eh em!, lol) and educators who work diligently to support the growth, health and healing of marginalized people—Blacks, Latinx, Native Americans, Asians and Pacific Islanders, as well as people who intersect at more than one racialized identity.

As a blogger, but also a podcaster, I want to introduce you to a valuable conversation I had not-so- very long ago on my podcast, Black People Heal. It’s with my colleague and friend, Dr. Tana M. Session. Dr. Session and I sat down to talk about the incredible amount of health information at our fingertips that we often know little about—and it comes in the form of our health insurance-ease. But, thanks to 30 years of expert education in human resources, Dr. Tana broke it down in very simple terms for us.

This may not be the most exciting episode you want to tune in to on your day off, but if you don’t listen, you will miss details about your investments that could devastate your mental health in the long run, so I highly recommend it. For an easy find, click here– Episode 2 -” Maximizing Your Health Benefits in a Pandemic with Dr. Tana M. Session” – YouTube .

And for those of you who like to know the highlights, here’s a few:

1. 1. Don’t allow age—young or old—to determine when you will start making financial investments into your health. Waiting until you’re dealing with a crisis is the worst time to learn about the type of medical coverage you have or will need to heal yourself. Listen to the show to understand the multiple ways to maximize your pre-tax income.
      
      
   2. If you have a mental health advocate or practitioner in your life who can assist in coordinating care with your medical provider, the better you are for it, because these folks can be your linkage between health benefits and wellness recovery. Tune in to learn what specific advocacy they provide.
      
      
   3. You may work for an employer that offers FMLA (Family Medical Leave), which protects your job while you’re on a leave of absence, but that may not be sufficient when you are paying for a host of mental health providers. What can you expect your job to pay and what will you be required to pay?

Take a listen to the ENTIRE show (I know some of you out there may be skippers! LOL)– Episode 2 -” Maximizing Your Health Benefits in a Pandemic with Dr. Tana M. Session” – YouTube–and share it within your networks. We are STILL living in unprecedented times, and this information could LITERALLY save a life, possibly yours. As Dr. Maya Angelou once said, “when you learn, teach.” These are the times to learn as much as we can about mitigating loss; as you learn, teach, share, tell someone what we’re doing over here.

Until next time Village,

Asha…

 

*This blog is about becoming free. It’s a reflection of introspective thoughts and experiences that have crossed miles of self-discovery. I created this blog to inspire others to live life with less self-criticism, judgment and openness to new experiences. May you find that you learn how to live a life by design and on your own terms!*

Therapy continues to be a mystery to people. I think it’s the way it has been viewed by individuals who’ve not done it as a privilege afforded only to wealthy people. Well, the truth is for me, a professional mental health therapist and life coach, about 98% of my therapy clientele consists of millennials- some of whom are in the high-income range earners, and some who are in the mid-level income earning brackets. Yet, both groups continue to wow me with their commitment to seek professional, specialized mental health care.

My clients come from a broad spectrum of people from around the world—the northeast, the mid-west, the south, the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa. I’m amazed at the generational bonds they’ve decided to break by doing something their parents never considered nor proposed to do (some of that is culturally impact and some of that is systemic racism).

So, I want to use this time to help demystify a few things that people receive by coming to therapy. First, let me say that I’m still a certified life coach, so you will continue to “get coached” here, but by now, you also know that I’m a psychotherapist and with this month being Mental Health Awareness Month for People of Color I wanted to provide a few messages about healing.

A Few Ways Psychotherapy Transforms More Than Just Your Problems

1. 1. It can enhance your intuition.
      
      
   2. It can help you to solve problems for yourself that seemed impossible to solve in the past.
      
      
   3. It can bring restful sleep into your life.
      
      
   4. It can help you to develop confidence in yourself.
      
      
   5. It can teach you how to set and assert boundaries within your relationships.
      
      
   6. It can show you things about your life and personality that you enjoy and appreciate.
      
      
   7. It can give you the ability to communicate effectively with others.
      
      
   8. It can teach you about the things you want and don’t want for yourself such as radical self-care!
      
      
   9. It can help you to develop social skills you may have felt you’ve lacked.
      
      
   10. It can give you insight into your family and interpersonal relationships so that you know how to healthily engage them.

Being your authentic self takes cultivating your self-awareness.  Coaching and therapy can help with that. You don’t need to be in crisis to go to therapy and you don’t have to limit yourself to one view of what “support” looks like, which is why coaching has also been an extraordinary service for a lot of people who are motivated to change their lives sooner. If you haven’t known anyone yet who’s been in therapy, find a therapist online that you can follow, or take up a podcast such as Therapy for Black Girls podcast as a first step. Or, if you’re seeking a coach to train you in some incredible life skills and relationships with work and toxic people, connect with me– at lifecoachasha@gmail.com–and let’s chat!

Until next time Village,

Asha…

 

*This blog is about becoming free. It’s a reflection of introspective thoughts and experiences that have crossed miles of self-discovery. I created this blog to inspire others to live life with less self-criticism, judgment and openness to new experiences. May you find that you learn how to live a life by design and on your own terms!*