Perspectives on Mental Health, Culture, and the Weight of an Examined Life
Real talk on burnout, grief, identity, and what it means to carry a lot — from a clinician who has carried some of it herself.
I Was Recently Elected to the Board of Directors of the Red Songbird Foundation
I am honored to share that I have recently been elected to the Board of Directors of the Red Songbird Foundation, a nonprofit organization committed to helping people heal from trauma, mental health challenges, PTSD, and substance use disorder. This appointment reflects the kind of work I have dedicated my career to, and I am grateful to be in the room where that work is being expanded.
Grief Nobody Talks About: When the Loss Isn't a Death
Most of what I know about grief, I did not learn in graduate school. I learned it in the years after I lost my husband — and in the years I have spent sitting with clients who are carrying losses that no one around them has fully named. Grief is not only for death. And the losses that do not come with condolences are often the ones that cost the most.
The Mental Health Cost of Being the Strong One in Your Family
In most families, there is one person who holds things together. Who makes the calls, manages the crises, carries the emotional weight of every person in the room. That person is usually a woman. And the cost of that role is almost never talked about honestly, because the person carrying it is too busy carrying it to say it out loud.
Black Women Are Losing Jobs at an Alarming Rate
Between January and February 2026, Black women lost 87,000 jobs. That number deserves more than a headline. Job loss for high-achieving professionals is not only a financial event. It is an identity event — and for Black women who have spent careers proving their right to be in the room, it hits in ways that are specific and rarely named.
What the Shreveport Tragedy Reveals About Untreated Trauma in Men
In April 2026, a man in Shreveport, Louisiana shot his wife and killed their seven children. Eight children are dead. A woman is fighting for her life. The details are almost incomprehensible. But as a clinician, I know this is not incomprehensible. It is what untreated trauma and unchecked deterioration looks like at its most catastrophic. And we have to be willing to say that clearly.
The Superwoman Schema Is Not a Compliment
There is a specific kind of exhaustion that comes from being told your whole life that you are strong. Not as an observation, as an expectation. The Superwoman Schema is one of the most well-documented psychological patterns affecting Black women, and one of the least talked about honestly. Here is what I see in my clinical work and why strength, when it becomes an obligation, stops being a gift.