Adetsa Dubose, a licensed counselor in Birmingham, sits behind her desk, her purple tips tied in a flower-like bun, notebook in hand, ready to listen to those in need. .
Her laughter could put anyone sitting on the bright yellow couch at ease. She feels close, like communicating with her cousins during her vacation or complaining with her friends after a busy day.
According to a 2022 Mental Health America study, Alabama ranks 50th in access to mental health care. Despite the stigma surrounding mental health, Birmingham-based counselors and advocates are working to ensure underserved communities have access to quality care. Birmingham's Black female mental health professionals want to make a positive difference by providing culturally appropriate care and resources.
“We want to show the community that there are black people in spaces that were never designed for us,” DuBose said.
After graduating from the University of West Alabama with a bachelor's degree in sociology, DuBose joined the military in 2015 and served for six years.
During that time, she gave birth to her daughter, worked as a mental health technician at the Tuscaloosa Children's Center, founded Black Mental Health: Let's Pray and Talk, an initiative to eliminate mental health stigma in the Black community, and earned a master's degree. Obtained. Clinical mental health counseling.
“When I was in my master's program, I was learning how counseling was geared towards white people. In the same example, I learned how much of the black community was still opposed to treatment. [lack of] It's about accessibility, the stigma that comes with it, and how most of us have been taught to keep things at home and just put them away,” DuBose said.
After leaving the hospital in 2021, DuBose became a therapist at Central Alabama Wellness Physicians and began thinking about starting her own clinic to help close the gap in mental health access in the Black community.
“I wanted to help people,” DuBose said. “I just wanted to be able to talk to people and engage with people and help them process whatever was going on.”
When DuBose was looking for the perfect place to start his practice, he originally had his heart set on a brick and mortar location in Hoover. But when his co-workers showed him a vacant unit in a red brick building in Homewood, DuBose said he could imagine becoming part of the community.
“From a customer standpoint, we thought the Homewood location was better because it could potentially bring us closer to the people we really want to connect with,” DuBose said. “I'm really interested in working with people of color and people of color. That's what I've always tried to do when working with people from marginalized communities, because unfortunately… Because to this day, many Black people do not believe in the importance of mental health and do not seek treatment.
In January 2024, Ms. Dubose started her own clinic, Iman Healing Journey, specializing in postpartum depression, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and racial trauma. She offers sliding scale fees based on her clients' income.
“We need to consider different cultural approaches in counseling. [client] Their needs and feelings are important to them. Because if we don't, they will still feel unheard. If that's the case, what's the point of treatment?'' DuBose said. “I want my clients to feel seen. I want them to feel heard.”
Nadia Richardson, Black Women's Mental Health Institute
Nadia Richardson, founder and CEO of the Black Women's Mental Health Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to building support for the mental health and well-being of Black women, is the founder and CEO of the Black Women's Mental Health Institute. He said he wants to make a big difference in health.
The institute provides free counseling to all Alabama residents, clinician training and community awareness about mental health equity, especially for Black women, who are too often neglected. Richardson said they are underserved in the wellness space.
“I'm a person who lives with a diagnosis. My diagnosis is High-Functioning Rapid Cycling Bipolar Disorder Type 2,” Richardson said. “In my case, my family didn't have insurance, I didn't have knowledge, nobody knew anything about mental health, so I didn't always have the support I needed as a child. It took me years to come to terms with my bipolar disorder. I've spent a lot of time not knowing and not having access to it, but now I want people to know and have access to it. That's what I think.”
Richardson earned her doctorate in higher education and public administration from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and while in graduate school conducted research on the experiences of Black women with mental health concerns.
She learned that the stigma surrounding mental health still needs to be broken. And she wanted to be the one to do it.
Richardson started the organization under its original name, No More Martyrs, after 22-year-old Karyn Washington died by suicide in 2015. Washington is the founder of the blog For Brown Girls, where she talks about her own mental health journey and celebrates self-love, especially among women of her dark skin.
“What I noticed in the comments on some of the articles about these prominent black women who committed suicide was, 'They were selfish, they were weak, what's there to grieve about? They were all uneducated. 'They were beautiful, they all had jobs, they were all successful,''' Richardson said. “I felt like people didn't understand what mental health was like. They didn't understand that the words they were saying were stigmatizing.”
In her research, Richardson learned how black women are often called martyrs, as Washington was after her death. She originally named her organization “No More Martyrs,” and said she hoped her work would help prevent further loss and increase support for Black women.
With a team of four clinicians and counselors, the institute logs 200 hours of free counseling per month in nearly 40 cities across the state.
“i don't want [Alabama] Ranked 50th in mental health access. We don't want that. I want to change things and be able to say that the Black Women's Mental Health Institute is the reason why,” Richardson said.
Although Richardson hopes to increase equity in the black community, the institute's services are available to anyone in need.
“We believe it is extremely important that everyone has training in cultural responsiveness and cultural competency,” Richerson said. “The impact of lack of health equity, systemic racism, and systemic sexism on health and well-being is profound. You can learn from how they show up.”
Tiffany Story, Story House Counseling and Consulting
Tiffany Story, a licensed counselor and founder and executive director of Storyhouse Counseling and Consulting, puts culturally inclusive art on the walls of her office to reassure clients. he said.
“I think if we don't recognize people's unique cultural experiences and challenges, we can cause them more harm,” Storey said. “We have to be able to really consider the whole context of the client's experience in a way that makes them feel seen and valued. It’s important to have people with similar experiences.”
Mr. Storey opened his own practice in 2021. She has worked in the field of mental health for her 12 years, conducting community mental health workshops, treating people with severe mental illness, and providing transitional living, crisis intervention, and emotional development resources. I did.
“I feel very strongly that this is my purpose and was always heading in this direction,” Storey said. “Once I got to school, I ended up loving mental health counseling and realized that this was my passion.”
Most days, Storey can be found filing paperwork, listening intently to clients during counseling sessions, and working with community organizations to raise mental health awareness. .
Storey works as a mental health consultant in Birmingham schools every Tuesday, supporting students through social-emotional learning.
“I have a very strong focus on the community that many other clinicians would not pursue,” Storey said. “A lot of clinicians are looking for private pay. Yeah, we're in a recession. People are stressed that the economy has changed so much. And people really need help, but they can't pay out of pocket. You may not be able to afford it.”
To serve more low-income Birmingham residents, Storey accepts Medicaid insurance, even though it only reimburses half of her counseling fees.
“We know that people want to know that we understand, on a personal level, some of the unique challenges that people face within their own culture and community and spiritually. I think it's important to understand 'health,''' Storey said.
