By: Breanna Robinson
During the month of May, light is shed on mental health, the realities of living with the conditions, and the ways healthier mindsets can be fostered for optimal well-being.
To commemorate Mental Health Awareness Month, Freddi Brown, a National Board-Certified Health and Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Lifestyle Diabetes Coach, and a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Practitioner, hosted Empowering Black Men: A Mental Health Symposium on Wednesday (May 29, 2024).
It was an inspiring virtual panel discussion of four resilient men sharing their personal accounts, immersing viewers in the experiences of Black men and cultivating the space to be vulnerable.
"I host these men's Total Truth Healing Circle. We get brothers together, we just get to talk, and I think so many men can agree that they feel like masculinity is, we have to provide, we have to protect, we have to, you know, we have to be the foundation," said Britt Daniels, the founder of Prophet Fitness in Washington, D.C., an organization focused on life coaching, mindfulness, movement and nutrition for all that was influenced by his experience with meditation and yoga in Japan.
He continued: "A lot of men feel like, and a lot of men feel like if they don't produce anything of value to the world, they're not valued. If I'm not able to produce consistently, then I have no value for others, right? And I think that's problematic. And why that's problematic is because you tie your value to something outside of yourself, when fundamentally we all have value."
Dr. Shane Perault, a clinical psychologist and founder of African American Marriage Counseling based in Greenbelt, Maryland, who brings a significant amount of experience to the Gottman Marital Method of therapy to harness conflict resolution with healthy communication, also added to this conversation, noting that it's a "natural thing" to be heard.
"I find when we get to a place where we are getting heard, we realize it's just a natural thing. I mean, it's just a natural thing to be able to talk to somebody, kind of figure it out, and realize you're not alone," he said.
Additionally, Brown asked the panelists about mental health and their understanding of the concept when they were coming up in the world as teenagers.
"Since I was a teen, when the conversation of mental health, it was very taboo at that time, right? It was especially in the athletic world. We didn't talk about, you know, what we were going through. We were, you know, encouraged to literally, like, toughen up," said Brandon Coleman (also known as SOUL COLE), a former wide receiver for the New Orleans Saints who became a Certified Health & Wellness Coach, Flow Facilitator, Mental Performance Coach, Certified Breath Coach, and Sound Healing Practitioner following a career-ending neck injury in 2018.
Coleman further noted that playing a heavy-impact sport such as football required people not to show any sign of weakness or risk being “taken advantage of.”
"You're going to get exposed, and we saw that as a liability … it wasn't a space created for us to express how we were feeling, as opposed to now," he said.
Additionally, Lyle Tard, a former U.S. Air Force Training and Development Specialist and now Life and Wellness Coach, spoke on this topic as well, mentioning his upbringing in a Christian home that didn't model "weakness."
"I grew up in a Christian home, and one of the things that was taught out of the Bible, out of the scriptures, was that weakness allows our strength. But the problem is, I didn't grow up in a home that modeled weakness," he said.
Courtesy: Lyle Tard Image Courtest of Coaching With LT website.
"And I think when we talk about what has changed from adolescence to adulthood, is I see more men willing to be vulnerable in front of me, and then inviting me and saying, 'hey, yeah, it's okay.' You can be this way and still be strong … you got a community around you that is willing to assist you, to hold you up, build you up, lift you up, and support you," he continued.
Tard currently partners with Ten Ten Life, an organization focused on support for first responders and military members, and Therapy for Black Men, for Black men who want to grow in all aspects of their lives.
According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, more than 7 million Black and African American individuals in the U.S. are living with mental health conditions.
Black people can sometimes find themselves in positions where they aren't seeking the support they need, dismissing symptoms as normal or unrelated to mental well-being.
Unfortunately, this comes from a long history of psychological pain due to systemic inequalities and discrimination.
Rectifying these thought processes will take time and effort, but it's not impossible. Joy and healing can be achieved within the community.
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