9. Taboos: Wellness in the Black Community

Special Projects Coordinator Kathryn Destin moderates a conversation between Girls Write Now Mentor Ashley Sowers and friend Dr. Ijeoma Unachukwu about the taboo of practicing mental wellness in the Black community and the inequities the healthcare system enforces in its practices. They also explore the presence of misogynoir in professional spaces that view Black women as disposable and undeserving of wellness.

Resources:

• Therapy for Black Girls

• Find your local chapter of the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI)

• Follow: Dr. Akua Boateng on Instagram

• Checkout the Nap Ministry on Instagram

• Read:

  • Medical Apartheid by Harriet A Washington

  • Wellspring of Words by Dr. Denise A Williams

  • The Body Keeps Score by Bessel van der Kolk

  • Emotionally Healthy Spirituality  by Peter Scazzero

  • Them and Me — The Care and Treatment of Black Boys in America | NEJM 

  • Daughters’ Keeper — The Care and Treatment of Black Girls in America | NEJM.

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