Our Healing isn't a Luxury

In the bonus episode, of Carry On Friends we’re doing an episode swap with Bridge to U featuring the episode "Healing is Not a Luxury".

Bridge to U is a Breadfruit Media Produced Podcast hosted by Monique Russell. This episode features Barbadian Dr. Charmain Jackman who discusses the idea that healing is not a luxury. 

Dr. Jackman is an award winning psychologist who has trained at two of the top Harvard Medical School training hospitals in the US. She has over 2 decades of mental health experience and focuses on normalizing mental health and therapy for people of color.  Her mission is to increase access to mental health resources for people who have historically not had access to quality, culturally-informed care.

She discusses the need for us to recreate the narrative around who has access to therapy. Traditionally, there have been barriers to people of color seeking mental health help. Some of these challenges include people of color’s distrust of medical professionals, as well as, the challenges in finding healthcare professionals who understand our cultural background.

We also learn that therapy wasn’t designed with black persons in mind. In formal psychology education today, there is a lack of focus on the perspectives of black persons. Such training largely does not consider people of color, nor the diversity and equity issues we face. 

Monique and Dr. Jackman explore the ideas of reclaiming our history and embracing cultural practices as part of our identity. By doing so we can feel empowered in the face of colonialism and white supremacy that has trained us to believe that there’s something wrong with the way we as blacks communicate and respond to racism. Embracing our heritage also helps us to heal.

Dr. Jackman highlights that healing is important for ourselves, our communities and generations to come.

Connect with Dr. Charmain Jackman: LinkedIn | Facebook | Website | Instagram

Connect with Monique Russell: LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | Youtube