10/12/2026
📣Long post alert: My heart is full from this weekend. 💗 But I have to start with Friday!
I thoroughly enjoyed the inaugural PRISM Summit for the The Center for Praxis in Indianapolis. It felt like HOME—a family reunion of Black and Brown therapists, clinicians and helping professionals celebrating and supporting one another. The DJ and jazz band knew the assignment, and I’m STILL singing their praises! 🎶🙌🏾💗
I had the honor of opening the summit with spoken word for this gathering focused on mental and behavioral health equity, creating pathways into the field, and providing education, support and tools to help professionals thrive without burning out. Through the PRISM Initiative, as early as eighth graders, are introduced to mental health careers!
When my colleague and friend, Dr. Karlin J Tichenor, invited me, it meant so much for several reasons.
My own therapy journey began during a stressful first transitional year out of college, when someone who looked like me explained therapy and helped me feel safe enough to try it. Before then, I didn’t know therapy was for me.
SIDE NOTE: this is why it’s important for us to do the healing work for ourselves so that we can share with those around us who we know are hurting. This is how we can break the stigma of what people in communities of color think about therapy. When we have positive experiences firsthand, it can inspire us to enter the field. To this day I’m thankful for the people and therapists who helped me on my healing journey, and still do! Because of it, it’s helped me discover how to enter this profession! And that’s why this Summit was so powerful for those who attended, including myself🙏🏾💗
With years of experience in college ministry and working with high school students, this helped me reflect & recognize my life’s path that I had been an empath all my life. That realization led me back to school to earn my Master’s degree in Counseling and Counseling Education and my School Counseling License, along with other formal training.
As a Wellness Therapist, I help people nurture their wellbeing, find healing and hope, and reconnect with their God-given purpose. Through spoken word, motivational speaking, photography, writing, education and podcasting, I bring creativity to that work! Thank you, Dr. Karlin, for seeing and celebrating my gifts. 🤗🙏🏾🎤
I wrote this poem for the summit, “For Those Who Carry Hearts.” I dedicated it to clinicians, practitioners, helpers and educators who hold so much for others while carrying burdens of their own. Writing it, was as though these are the words I wanted someone to say to me when the weight of responsibility feels heavy, but knowing the work is worth it!
It was an invitation to lay those burdens down. To find a safe space to “just be.” To stop feeling like we always have to be “on.” To rest our minds and bodies, pause, collect ourselves and be refreshed—and to know our work is seen and appreciated, even when it’s heavy.
Changing generational patterns, mindsets, hearts and behaviors is meaningful, heavy work. We don’t carry that calling in our own strength. Caring for ourselves is part of stewarding our God-given gifts so we can continue caring for others. 💗
Sharing the stage with my friends and brothers, Dr. Karlin and Malachi “A+Scribe” Carter—whom I traveled with to Ghana this July with Anidaso 360—made it a full-circle moment! 🇬🇭 Dr. Karlin’s inspiring words throughout the program, alongside his team’s amazing work to put on the Summit, helped bring the vision to life! Malachi, who is a spoken word artist and teacher, delivered a closing commissioning poem that left us holding hands around our tables and declaring:
“We have everything we need right here in our hands.” 🤝🏾💗This was a powerful reminder that we ALL are our village!
We came to inspire and left equipped ourselves. Our community work REQUIRES community—and what a blessing to serve alongside colleagues that I can call family!
For the first time, I felt FULLY seen, heard, understood and appreciated as a Wellness Therapist, with space to ask questions, gain wisdom, and the tools to keep learning. I love being a student for LIFE because there is so much to learn! 🙌🏾
Throughout the summit, people shared with me that my poem brought them hope and helped them feel seen. It even sparked ideas about how my poetry’s connection to the heart, mind and body—can bring possibilities beyond traditional therapy approaches. This almost brought me to tears🥹🙏🏾💗. I’m excited for the collaborations ahead!
God never makes mistakes with our journeys. Our paths may differ, but there is room for us ALL. It takes a village to heal our communities, and often times with a variety of tools to get there! This experience gave me hope for our future, especially for Black and Brown professionals.
I can’t wait to keep connecting, collaborating, learning, being mentored, mentoring and supporting one another. Let’s keep making room—and inspire generations to carry this work forward! 🤗💗🙌🏾
