Episode 9 - Embracing Mental Health in Black Communities with Brianna Campbell and Hakeem Rahim
It was my great honor and privilege to hand the mic over to my original staff member and believer in the mission of this podcast, Editor/Producer Valencia Saint-Louis. She walks through the mental health journey of the Black Community and the community as a whole with Brianna and Hakeem in such an eloquent, thought provoking, honest, empathetic, and vulnerable, as well as practical manner. I am so beyond pleased that we get to share this with you.
You do not want to miss this week’s show notes and sources from these 2 phenomenal guests. They have such great information and sources to offer all of us. They really are a must see.
In this episode they discuss how Mental Health can serve as an access point for deeper healing, as well as how it’s the intersection of different areas of wellness and performance as a human being, including mind, body, spirit, and social factors.
Brianna and Valencia touch on the fact that Mental health is not something you “came down with”….we all have mental health, and the negative stigma it tends to carry in society and culture needs to be addressed.
Hakeem very openly and vulnerably shares about his own mental health journey with being diagnosed with Bipolar disorder in 2000, and the importance of how his parents handled it and showed up despite the stigmas around mental health they were surrounded by. He shares how he has used his mental health journey as a catalyst to share and do work around this to help others in their journeys. Hakeem shares that he continues to have a great family support system and tools to help on the journey, and how fortunate he feels to have that.
He addresses that communities of color and black people are hurting and need to heal, deserve to heal, that healing is their right, so it’s important to move aside the shame and stigma in families, and that is something that needs healing in the collective community.
This group discusses how wonderful it would be if the black community felt empowered and understood the tools available, how different the personal and collective experience would be.
They address the barriers that get in the way of this happening, why the stigmas and fears exist in the Black Community; the trust that has been violated historically that makes vulnerability feel costly, unsafe, and not something that can be shared freely.
Hakeem shares an acronym that he uses with the word SEE - ShareEducationEquipping. He talks about the stereotype belief that Black men should not cry, need to be the warrior, and all of them discuss what all of this surviving and protecting with no mechanisms to process emotions and feelings for men and women, or the tools to deal with these things, is costing in terms of health and quality of life.
They talk about their wish for Black community to understand that everyone needs an emotional education and foundation. Brianna talks about how she would love for the Black community to create a pillar and foundation of emotional health and wellbeing including:
Stress tolerance - being able to work and soothe your way through something difficult
Be able to name emotions - most people start with “I think” rather than really knowing
Identify how the emotions they are feeling are being felt and experienced in their physical body
Because the Black community has lived life in survival mode, there’s not been room left to think about, process, and move through emotions
If they are willing to make this a priority then each generation can progressively enjoy more peace, contentment, and emotional awareness
Hakeem shares how he had to get over that “just wanting to get over it” mentality, and accept that you still have to tend to your mental health throughout life, that it’s a journey, and we are one part of this continuum. He shares his belief that “If I heal I’m making it better for somebody that comes after me”. It’s not selfish to heal and take time for self care.
Hakeem states the most profound thing in an episode full of profound statements, “We’ve been hurting for so long, we don’t even realize we’re in pain”. Wow! He continues that the Black community, “needs to go on this healing journey, we are missing something that’s getting in the way, “I have a right to be well, I have a right to be whole”.
Valencia touches on how “self care is selfish” is widely predominant in the culture as a whole, especially amongst women, women who are Mom’s, women who feel responsible for putting everyone else first.
As they discuss what tools, resources, and practices are available and accessible to the community, Brianna emphasizes that there needs to be a sense of inclusion, of us all being at a “Round Table” and shares the resources that she uses herself and recommends to others.
Hakeem sheds light on the importance of recognizing that there’s Personal Choice - deciding that this is not my life and making a choice that I’m going to get better and stay well.
Valencia remarks on how we talk about healing through the shadow or the fog, but she finds that what is not spoken about as much, is that healing by going through the light can also be part of the journey as well, including doing things that are nourishing for our souls.
This group goes over what Allyship looks like for each of them; the importance of acknowledging privilege, that our system was set up for some groups to have more privilege than others, to own and acknowledge the truth of that so we can all heal and move forward to live as the interconnected humans we were created to be. They talk about the importance of Empathy instead of Sympathy, not wanting anyone’s pity, but instead the sense of “I’m standing with you, I’m for you, and I’m going to show up for you and with you, and we’re going to move this needle and make things the way they should be together.”
They talk about the intersection of Physical, Mental, and Emotional Health and how they’re all connected to one another. They speak about how they’ve all had to journey to the understanding of that connection because historically these aspects of health have been looked at as separate entities; the layers involved in this, how to recognize them, and address them for optimal health.
Boundaries are discussed, and how they need to be understood and reflected in each of our lives, and the effect that has on their health and wellbeing and the health and wellbeing of their relationships.
There are so many important nuggets shared in this conversation that we all need to hear, know about, and practice how it applies to each of our lives. It might be the conversation I’m most proud of that we’ve had here at The F.E.E.L Podcast and I urge you to listen, take notes, and most importantly not miss it!