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Therapy For Black Girls Founded To Support Mental Health In Our Community

Joy Harden Bradford wants to help Black women and girls have the very best mental health care available. Her Atlanta-based organization, Therapy For Black Girls, has set out to make that possible.

According to her interview with HuffPost Bradford says that her path to becoming a therapist came naturally as she has always been the shoulder that her friends cry on. She also stated that she wanted Black women to feel comfortable and not intimidated by the gravitas of a “doctor”.

Joy also credits another outstanding group of Black women for inspiring her company:

Therapy for Black Girls started when I watched the BET Awards Show called “Black Girls Rock.” The energy in the room ― even when watching it on TV ― is amazing. After, I thought, “How could I create something that had that sort of energy, but related to mental health?”

The name came to me, and I jumped on GoDaddy and bought the domain, and it’s sort of taken off from there. Therapy for Black Girls has allowed me to connect to the things I love the most: black women, mental health, and pop culture. It’s become a perfect mix of all the things I love.

Joy also wants Black women to find more pragmatic approaches to wellness outside of thumping the bible and screaming “hallelujah” at church:

Also, because of the strong ties around spirituality and religion in this culture, there’s been some pushback. There’s this idea that you can just “pray it away,” or that mental illness means you don’t have a strong enough relationship with God. Of course we know that’s not true, but you have to be sensitive to that fact that people are coming in with these kinds of beliefs. So you can’t just say, “Oh no, that’s stupid.” You have to really work with them and help them understand that both things can be true, and how they can make some changes in their lives.

Between Facebook and Instagram the message about Therapy for Black Girls is reaching 32,000 people with access to 715 therapists across the country. This thing is for real and the work being done to strengthen our community is even realer.