with their young ones. “Being open to it early on — not just being open to therapy — but just being open to what mental health really is,” she says can make a difference. Woodall adds that a simple “how was your day?” is not enough — it’s about digging into their inner self and understanding what your child isOf course this might be contrary to messaging older generations may have received that encouraged pushing through and getting over it, but it’s essential.
All of this, tied in with faith-based values or Black hyper-masculinity creates specific language around the Black experience. Lewis also mentions a distrust of theThe Black experience is nuanced and personal, and there is no way for non-Black providers tounderstand it, as Lewis notes: “We need folks that really can show up and give a true narrative by being realistic and humanizing the experiences that we do go through, and letting the people that you serve know that.