Four professionals whose work is shaping Black mental health.
Nedra Glover Tawwab
Nedra Glover Tawwab is a licensed therapist and a New York Times best-selling author who specializes in relationship therapy. Her work focuses on showing others how to set and maintain healthy boundaries as a means to building healthy relationships. Tawwab is the founder of Kaleidoscope Counseling in Charlotte, North Carolina. She works with couples and families coping with postpartum depression and anxiety disorders. Tawwab is widely known as a content creator who shares mental-health information on Instagram (@nedratawwa) with more than 930,000 followers. She uses memes and videos to cover various mental/emotional wellness topics. Her content offers insight into how to break down barriers that impede on one’s mental health and offers ways to continue healing outside of therapy. “If you really want people to listen to, to respect, to honor your boundaries, you have to consistently uphold your boundaries,” says Tawwab. She is a graduate of Wayne State University.
Kiaundra Jackson
As the visionary behind KW Couples Therapy and Black Speakers Rock, Kiaundra Jackson is making quite an impression on the world of mental health. A relationship therapist, TV personality and speaker, Jackson is also the author of multiple self-help books such as “Hard Work or Harmony: A Go-To Guide for Women to Nurture Healthy Relationships with Family, Friends.” “I have a very simple motto when addressing mental health,” says Jackson. “It is to ‘treat your mental health just like you treat your physical health.’” Jackson has described her approach to therapy as being “therapeutically ruthless,” which incorporates her tendency to be kind and compassionate but also willing to apply pressure as needed. Jackson is a graduate of Azusa Pacific University, and is currently a private practitioner in Los Angeles. Premarital and marital issues, anxiety, depression, grief and loss are among her areas of expertise.
Deran Young
Deran Young is a licensed clinical psychotherapist who earned her bachelor’s in social psychology and two master’s degrees: one in public administration and the other in social work. Her experiences during childhood, her work as a philanthropist and her 17 years of experience in the Air Force have given her insight into those who suffer with post-traumatic stress distorder, anxiety and depression, and gender discrimination. As a military therapist who faced gender discrimination, Young saw and met the need “to hold a space for women who are trying to heal and navigate the system.”Young has helped to create a counseling-and-guidance center at a high school in Ghana. She also founded Black Therapists Rock, which empowers Black therapists across the country through mentorship and the exchange of information. The mission of the organization is to eradicate intergenerational trauma in marginalized communities. Young works in Washington, D.C., where she lives with her son.
Darrick Tovar Murray
Darrick Murray is a professor and author based in Chicago. He created a video series called “Counseling African American Men” consisting of “Developing Cultural Competency,” “Anger and Identity” and “A Course of Complete Therapy.” Each video is designed to prepare mental health professionals to better serve Black men who seek counseling. An associate professor in the counseling and special education department at DePaul University in Chicago, Murray has taught such courses as “Couples and Family Counseling,” “Legal and Ethical Issues in Counseling,” “Counseling Skills,” “Multicultural Counseling” and “Career Counseling.” Murray has also taken a special interest in researching multicultural experiences, biracial-identity development, African Americans’ “well-being,” and counseling and spirituality. His 2017 book, “Basic Therapeutic Counseling Skills: Interventions for Working with Clients’ Thoughts, Feelings and Behavior” (co-written with Jan Louis Gaetjens), is an educational tool for future mental health practitioners. Tovar-Murray earned his doctorate at West Michigan University.
First published in Black Mental Health Today, Fall 2023 (Vol. 9, Anniversary Issue).