Nineteen Fifty-Six Vol.4 Issue 2

saying? It doesn’t make sense, how am I going to get you
what you need to fix that stomachache if you’re going to
be in here like “no, I’m good.” I can see you holding your
stomach and I can see you struggling. Talk to me.
I’ve been in many sessions where we spent session after
session talking about one thing, but that wasn’t what
they were really there for. So, the goal is to know a little
bit about what you want to work on. I think sometimes
childhood trauma is such that we don’t know, that’s what
the thing is, but we know in our adult life, we’re feeling
very anxious and we’re feeling very depressed. Our
goal is to help us get down to the root of where did this
start? Where did it begin? So maybe even think a little
bit about like, what are some things that happened along
the way that made me be like, “this was not okay and
ever since then, this bothers me.”
I think it’s just courage, sometimes that first step of
making a phone call or doing the walk in or making
the appointment. It’s the courage, but also the follow
through. I think a lot of times people come to therapy
they do their intake and they’re like, “oh, I got that off
me I’m done.” Okay, you’ve told somebody, now let’s walk
the walk. Let’s take the journey. Let’s work through it.
Right? I would say come with your courage, come with
your honesty and be ready to be consistent.
Q: For students who don’t attend therapy, do you have
any ideas or coping mechanisms for people that are
scared to go to therapy or want to find something to give
them a little push?
Early: There’s podcasts, you can always find a really
good podcast. I listen to like Black girls therapy
podcast different things like that. Obviously, there’s
a ton of self-help books out there. I mean, you can
Google self-help books and there’ll be thousand out
there, millions out there. But if you Google like even
self-help books for Black women, or for Black men,
you will start finding things. If you Google “self-help”
for a podcast for Black men, there’s actually several
really great podcasts out there for Black men.
There’s a host of things out there. There’s YouTube
channels, there’s always the blessing of social media,
there’s a great deal of things out there. I get a
feeling that social media also can sometimes be a
slippery slope, because this is not tailored to you,
especially if you’re still trying to figure out like, “I
don’t know why I feel this way, but I want to go listen
to some stuff.” It’s not tailored to you, that’s why
therapy is very much tailored to what you’re trying
to work on.
Of course, there’s plenty of self-help out there and I
encourage people to practice some deep breathing,
practice finding things that really help you release
stress, like working out, or art, or anything that
you’re passionate about, generally, is something
that’s going to uplift your spirit, but also, therapy
helps. Those will supplement and those will be a
great Band-Aid but until you kind of get to the core
of what’s in that wound, you’re just kind of putting a
little ointment on it for the time being.
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