I am not your healer
It is difficult to identify the specific turning point in the mental health profession at which modern-day grifting seems like the standard. Was it the COVID pandemic? Is TikTok the culprit? Are venture capitalists and tech companies responsible? IS IT CRACK? I do not know which way to send the blame. However, what I know for sure is that I am sick of the tomfoolery, buffoonery, and scamming.
I have been in the business of caring in community amongst my people and living a life of service since I was 12 years old. Before I stepped foot on a college campus to start collecting degrees and debt, I was a student leader in middle school and high school, affectionately known as a rebel with a cause. People have always been at the center of what I do, and at no point throughout my journey of adding letters behind my name have I come to see people as profit.
I can not help but draw parallels between individuals in the mental health profession who proclaim to be healers and scammers; they are pretty much the same to me, because what are you talking about?! How is it possible that you believe so much of yourself and so little of others that you have the power to heal another person? At what point did you stop believing, or have you ever believed, that people are wildly capable and the ability to heal thyself is within?
As a licensed mental health professional, I am not a healer, and I have no desire to masquerade as one for several reasons. The first and most important one is that I have enough of my own life going on, and healing me is a laborious full-time job, and there is nothing glamorous about it. The second reason is that I believe too much in the power of people, and I understand how systems of oppression have led people into believing they are without power, which is false. The third reason is that it absolutely sounds ridiculous, for a licensed mental health professional, to call themselves a healer when you are lowkey an agent of the state.
Now I do not want you to read this and surmise that I am dismissive of actual traditional healers and ancestral practices because I am not. I know that the current Western construct of mental and behavioral health therapies is not the same thing; it never has been, and it never will be. At its core, mental and behavioral health interventions are a science with methodologies that practitioners are, hopefully, trained and skilled to administer. And by doing so, the goal should not be to heal clients, families, and communities but to help them access and define what healing looks like for them.
A statement that I live by is: I am Black before I am a social worker, and I am a revolutionary before I am a therapist. I do not seek dominion over others. Nonetheless, I have observed how individuals, organizations, and corporations use this field to do just that, which fuels my rage, because how dare you?! We are dealing with a legitimate invasion, and I deeply recognize that those of us doing the work rarely have time to combat misinformation and snuff out the scammers because we are actually doing the work. However, if love for and the protection of people are at the core of what you do and who you are, we must start making time for it. I will continue to do my part because my people not only deserve to know but also feel they are capable, powerful, and worthy of care and truth.
