Mental Health Toolkit

Wellness is key!

If the COVID-19 pandemic taught us anything over these past couple of years is that we need Black Joy now more than ever. We need to prioritize our mental health and practice both self-care and communal care at all costs. It is often said that in moments of crisis, grief, and trauma that in the time before and after, we need each other to survive and thrive. We hope as a community that we can begin to support each other’s wellness. You spoke and we listened by putting together a mental health toolkit that you can access to support in your wellness goals. While it is amazing that everyone is advancing their technical skills, it is just as important to take care of our emotional, physical, and spiritual wellbeing. Below are a collection of resources to help you start and/or continue that journey.

Mental Health Resources

  • Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective (BEAM): Group aimed at removing the barriers that Black people experience getting access to or staying connected with emotional health care and healing. They do this through education, training, advocacy and the creative arts.

  • Black Men Heal: Limited and selective free mental health service opportunities for Black men.

  • Black Mental Health Directory: External directory of Black mental health practitioners

  • Black Mental Health Alliance: Provides information and resources and a “Find a Therapist” locator to connect with a culturally competent mental health professional.

  • Black Mental Wellness Provides access to evidence-based information and resources about mental health and behavioral health topics from a Black perspective, as well as training opportunities for students and professionals.

  • Black Women’s Blueprint: BWB is in the unique position to harness the attention now being given to Black-led organizations to address structural and historical racism. We also have the opportunity to make explicit that gender justice must be at the foreground for change. The current moment has allowed us to expand our vision to create an entity that would contain the tremendous world change and transformation we want to bring about.

  • Black Women’s Health Imperative: Organization advancing health equity and social justice for Black women through policy, advocacy, education, research and leadership development.

  • Boris Lawrence Henson Foundation BLHF has launched the COVID-19 Free Virtual Therapy Support Campaign to raise money for mental health services provided by licensed clinicians in our network. Individuals with life-changing stressors and anxiety related to the coronavirus will have the cost for up to five (5) individual sessions defrayed on a first come, first serve basis until all funds are committed or exhausted.

  • Brother, You’re on My Mind: An initiative launched by Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. and NIMHD to raise awareness of the mental health challenges associated with depression and stress that affect Black men and families. Website offers an online toolkit that provides Omega Psi Phi Fraternity chapters with the materials needed to educate fellow fraternity brothers and community members on depression and stress in Black men.

  • Ebony's Mental Health Resources by State List of Black-owned and focused mental health resources by state as compiled by Ebony magazine.

  • Exhale: This app was curated by BIWOC so that in your emotional well-being journey, you can lean-in and trust that this space has been cultivated specifically for you.

  • Harriet’s Apothecary: Harriet’s Apothecary envisions a world where Black, Indigenous, and People of color have the power, healing, and safety needed to live the lives we desire for ourselves and our communities.

  • Henry Health Provides culturally sensitive self-care support and teletherapy for Black men and their families. Currently in pilot program available only to residents of MD, VA and DC. Residents of other states can join their waiting list and will be notified when Henry Health is available in their state.

  • Insight Timer: Smartphone app and online community for meditation; guided meditations, music and talks available for free and for-fee. (Teachers of Color is a favorite feature)

  • Liberate Meditation App: A subscription-based meditation app that includes practices and talks designed for the BIPOC community.

  • Melanin and Mental Health Connects individuals with culturally competent clinicians committed to serving the mental health needs of Black & Latinx/Hispanic communities. Promotes the growth and healing of diverse communities through its website, online directory and events.

  • National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network: A healing justice organization committed to transforming mental health for queer and trans people of color (QTPoC)

  • Ourselves Black Provides information on promoting mental health and developing positive coping mechanisms through a podcast, online magazine and online discussion groups.

  • POC Online Classroom Contains readings on the importance of self-care, mental health care, and healing for people of color and within activist movements.

  • QTPoC Mental Health Practitioner Directory: Virtual directory of mental health practitioners across the country for queer and trans people of color, provided by the National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network

  • Sista Afya Organization that provides mental wellness education, resource connection and community support for Black women.

  • Talkspace: is offering a free therapist-led support group in addition to offering substantial financial assistance for therapy in the Black community.

  • Therapy for Black Girls Online space dedicated to encouraging the mental wellness of Black women and girls. Offers listing of mental health professionals across the country who provide high quality, culturally competent services to Black women and girls, an informational podcast and an online support community.

  • The Safe Space: A free app available on Android and iPhone, geared specifically towards the black community, focused on mental health stigma reduction.

  • The SIWE Project Non-profit dedicated to promoting mental health awareness throughout the global Black community.

  • Unapologetically Us Online community for Black women to seek support.

Treatment Directories

Book Recommendations

  1. My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, by Resmaa Menakem, M.S.W.

Menakem’s book is a deeply empathetic work that traces how white supremacy traumatizes and dehumanizes Black people, and how this legacy is fundamentally unhealthy for white people as well. Menakem brings in loads of historical context and trauma-based psychology to prove his point, but his writing style still manages to be warm and understanding without coddling the reader.

  1. Black Fatigue by Mary-Frances Winters

Presents information about the intergenerational impact of systemic racism on the physical and psychological health of African Americans and explains why and how society needs to collectively do more to combat its pernicious effects.

  1. I'm Telling The Truth. But I'm Lying: Essays by Bassey Ikpi

A deeply personal collection of essays by the Nigerian-American writer and creator of #NoShameDay explores how her childhood move from Nigeria to Oklahoma was complicated by Bipolar II and anxiety disorders.

  1. Willow Weep For Me by Meri Nana-Ama Danquah

Examines the author's personal struggle with depression, the hidden roots of her illness, the effect it had on her life, and her ability to cope with the disease through the support of other African American women.

  1. Heavy: An American Memoir by Kiese Laymon

Laymon writes eloquently and honestly about the physical manifestations of violence, grief, trauma, and abuse on his own body. He writes of his own eating disorder and gambling addiction as well as similar issues that run throughout his family. Through self-exploration, storytelling, and honest conversation with family and friends, Heavy seeks to bring what has been hidden into the light and to reckon with all of its myriad sources, from the most intimate—a mother-child relationship—to the most universal—a society that has undervalued and abused black bodies for centuries.

  1. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, by Joy DeGruy, Ph.D.

Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome aims to explain the trauma passed down from generation to generation as a result of chattel slavery and systemic racism. While you may already know the trajectory of slavery in America, DeGruy’s book makes a case for the psychological and emotional wounds that the instiution has inflicted and continues to inflict on Black people.

  1. The Unapologetic Guide to Black Mental Health: Navigate an Unequal System, Learn Tools for Emotional Wellness, and Get the Help you Deserve, by Rheeda Walker, Ph.D.

The Unapologetic Guide to Black Mental Health explores why mental health is such a widespread issue and provides strategies for navigating the health care system as a Black person. This is an accessible read for folks who want context and tips they can apply to their own life.

  1. The State of Black Girls: A Go-To Guide for Creating Safe Space for Black Girls, by Marline Francois-Madden, L.C.S.W.

Often we use the term “Black girl” to describe Black women of all ages, but The State of Black Girls is a resource for young Black women who are coming of age and navigating the challenges and disappointments of life. It’s a great guide for Black girls—filled with affirmations, strategies, and tips—as well as those who work with and support Black girls every day.

  1. Black Women’s Mental Health: Balancing Strength and Vulnerability, edited by Stephanie Y. Evans, Ph.D.

This anthology brings together contributors from political science, psychology, and health care realms to explore the challenges that Black women face when trying to attain well-being. The book is accessible for Black women who are grappling with these issues, but it’s also useful for mental health professionals who want to effectively serve Black women.

  1. You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience by Tarana Burke and Dr. Brené Brown

Tarana Burke and Dr. Brené Brown bring together a dynamic group of Black writers, organizers, artists, academics, and cultural figures to discuss the topics the two have dedicated their lives to understanding and teaching: vulnerability and shame resilience.

  1. Soothe Your Nerves: The Black Woman’s Guide to Understanding and Overcoming Anxiety, Panic, and Fear, by Angela Neal-Barnett, Ph.D.

The way that we talk about mental health in the Black community is as creative and multifaceted as we are. For many of us, mental health conditions, like anxiety and depression, were cloaked with statements like “My nerves are bad” and “I’m feeling down.” In Soothe Your Nerves, Neal-Barnett begins to unpack how many Black women deal with anxiety along with practical advice for working through anxieties when they arise.

  1. Between the World and Me By Ta-Nehisi Coates

Ever since its release in 2015, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates has become essential reading for Black men. Framed as a letter to his son, Coates explains through the context of his own experiences as a Black man living in the U.S. how the “American Dream” is in actuality a mirage, built through exploitation and slave labor.