PODCAST EPISODE № 81

The Reason Why I Chose NOT to Major in Traditional Psychology

by Anita Charlot

Click the ICON below to listen to The Reason Why I Chose NOT to Major in Traditional Psychology:

In 2010, the percentage of Black or African American Mental Health Counselors was 15.59%; in 2021, the rate dropped to 11.28%.**

Between 2019 and 2021, there was a decline in White mental health counselors, with the most significant reduction occurring in White men, from 40.14% in 2010 to 31.36% in 2021. That’s almost a 10-plus percent difference.

I can only speculate as to why that is as a Black woman, but I will wait for any sort of statistical reports before I share my opinion on that. Or maybe I’ll wait until another podcast episode… Who knows? But just know that I will cover this a little later.

So if 69% of counselors are women, yet the total percentage of all Black or African American counselors is 11.28% (in 2021), why didn’t I make it my business to get a traditional psychology doctorate?

Well, that’s a great question. Keep listening to find out…

See you inside the episode…

What You Learn:

My journey and experience with traditional psychology and how I became the Corporate Metaphysician
What a support team is and how beneficial it can be
Some practices that go hand in hand with traditional psychology
How I can help you curate the perfect support team for you

Featured on the Show:

**Read Zippia’s Statistics on Mental Health Professional Demographics
Check out my newsletter titled “Did You Know” on LinkedIn which covers Leadership and Personal Development Topics for Women, teaching you how to lead confidently and consciously using practical and spiritual concepts.
Begin your healing journey by joining the Relationship Architect Academy and find the support you need today!
Get on the Waitlist for my upcoming community for healing and supporting my Black and Brown sisters!
Reach out to me on our Contact Page
Learn more about how you can work directly with me
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As an Executive Coach for Women, Professional Speaker, Corporate Metaphysician™, Author of The 5 Phases of Dating – The Grown-Ass Woman’s Guide to Attracting and Maintaining Authentic Relationships, and the Creator of The Happy Executive Woman™…

Anita teaches women of color how to heal from past relationships and corporate trauma, increase their confidence and improve their leadership skills.

She is a board member of the Women Impact Network and Women In Technology, where she focuses on coordinating and creating professional development training for the members.

Anita also coaches White allies on how to ACTivate Your Privilege!™ and is hired to speak and train as The Corporate Metaphysician™ at organizations willing to begin reversing corporate America’s trauma by taking an honest look at their “unconscious DEI efforts,” all using practical and metaphysical concepts.

Upcoming Speaking Engagements:

No alt text provided for this image — Flourish Media Conference 2/17 – 2/18 Miami, Florida
Topic & Workshop: How To Heal From Workplace Trauma for Black and Brown Women

Recently featured in…

ValientCEO Magazine!

Speaker’s Magazine

For all coaching, media, or consulting inquiries, don’t hesitate to contact Anita at https://anitacharlot.com/contact.

To learn more about how to partner with Anita, go to https://anitacharlot.com/services.

To join the waiting list for the upcoming For My Black and Brown Sisters monthly membership community, go to bit.ly/formyblackandbrownsisters

Episode Transcript

In 2010, the percentage of Black or African American Mental Health Counselors was 15.59%; in 2021, the rate dropped to 11.28%.**

Between 2019 and 2021, there was a decline in White mental health counselors, with the most significant reduction occurring in White men, from 40.14% in 2010 to 31.36% in 2021. That’s almost a 10-plus percent difference.

I can only speculate as to why that is as a Black woman, but I will wait for any sort of statistical reports before I share my opinion on that. Or maybe I’ll wait until another podcast episode… Who knows? But just know that I will cover this a little later.

So if 69% of counselors are women, yet the total percentage of all Black or African American counselors is 11.28% (in 2021), why didn’t I make it my business to get a traditional psychology doctorate?

Well, that’s a great question. Keep listening to find out…

See you inside the episode…
~~~~~~~
I started college in 1983 with the original goal of studying Computer Science. Not because I wanted to, but because my mother thought it would be the career that would pay the most money. And while she had a point, and even though I excelled in my computer classes, they didn’t do it for me.

Since I am truly an introvert at heart – I know, probably hard for you to believe, but it’s true – one would suspect that sitting behind a terminal all day and coding would be heaven for me, but as much as I love my quiet time and working from home, the human element was missing.

I then moved on to Accounting, as Men on Film so eloquently stated on In Living Color… Hated it!

Since I wanted to touch on the human element, I started taking psychology courses. Having been the friend that others came to when they had problems they couldn’t figure out how to fix, it seemed only natural until it didn’t.

While I understood the theory in those classes, Psych 101, Child Adolescent Psychology, and a few others, I couldn’t see how it applied to my Black lived experience. Don’t get me wrong; some things resonated; however, the Black experience was either misrepresented, totally excluded, or completely wrong.

As we were doing our research, we were told to use the DSM v3 (at the time), which is The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. While searching through this manual and reading the definitions and diagnosis, I felt compelled to argue its validity, given that it had not considered any of what I now know as Urban Trauma.

So to me, it was missing the SOUL of an entire race of people, and I could not see myself being governed by an organization that could make or break my career if I strayed too far away from the “rule book.” How could I? Knowing that there was a strong possibility that the diagnosis I would be forced to give to fit into the system would be incorrect and could follow a person around for years.

Add in the fact that Black people shied away from going to therapy as we were taught “what happens in our house, stays in our house” and “don’t’chu go tellin’ dem White people about our Black problems,” and I couldn’t, in good faith, subscribe to a “rule book” that didn’t take into account the experience of urban Black folk like me?

Do I believe that the mental health field and the DSM are instrumental in diagnosing mental health disorders? Absolutely. I also think that there are things that a potential client should work on with a licensed therapist and other things that fall outside of traditional therapy. That’s where I come in, and here is how it works.

Before signing a client, we have a discovery session. During this session, the client shares with me where they are, why they reached out to me, what they want to accomplish by the end of our time together, whether or not they have worked with a coach or therapist before, and what their experiences were like with them.

After taking them through my proprietary discovery session questions, I assess whether I can assist them on their journey if I will recommend that they see a licensed therapist, or if they will be better served by having a care team.

What is a care team, you ask? Here… I’ll explain it to you:

This team could consist of a combination of more than one type of support…
A licensed therapist
A somatic experienced practitioner
Me as their coach
…or other traditional and metaphysical practitioners as needed
Each person is unique, and their “healing plan” should also be unique. There is no one size fits all.

So if you’ve been following me for a while and listening to the podcast, you may recall when I shared with you in 2020 how I had an entire care team of 2.5 people working with me. At the time, I was taking a movement-based resilience, trauma-informed yoga training class. So basically, this class was teaching me how to use yoga, to help people not only move through their trauma but to recognize the difference in how these people needed to be handled. And by handled, I mean the difference between or understanding the effect of how certain music may trigger some people, the name of certain positions may trigger people, the smells in the room may trigger people, how to correct a person’s posture or positioning without touching them so that you don’t trigger people. But this was a course that I took for myself, and learning all about the different types of trauma, and things like that opened up something in me that I did not expect.

I recognized during that time, as I was really pouring myself into this work so that I can be more present and be there for my clients to help them out, I ended up peeling off the BandAid of the trauma that I had suffered throughout my life in order to grow through that. The .5 was my teacher from this particular class, and then I had a talk therapist, and I had a somatic experience practitioner. It took all three of those (or 2.5 of those) individuals to help me grow through what I needed to grow through so that I could be fully present and available for my clients.

So when I say each person is unique, and that there is a healing plan that should also be unique, my ability to understand where people are when they come to me, and to help them grow through that, help them create a plan and decide who should be on their team is something that’s really near and dear to my heart and something that I’m good at.

Since turning down the traditional psychology path 40 years ago and obtaining my Bachelor’s in Metaphysics instead, I have since become aware of several additional psychological therapeutic techniques that I see as a compliment to traditional psychology:
CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) 
DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy) 
Play Therapy
Sand Tray Therapy
Art Therapy
Dance Therapy
EMDR(Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
Somatic Therapy
…to name a few.

Understanding the differences between them and which techniques will help a person “grow through” the mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual trauma, limiting behaviors, and negative thought patterns are valuable when working with clients. These additional techniques allow the therapist to tap into the “whole person” understanding that each person is different.

Helping potential clients identify who would be best to partner with for their overall success and that takes their insurance is one of the benefits of working with me.

Will I ever go back and get a traditional psychology degree? At this time, no. However, I am currently working on my doctorate in Metaphysical Psychology, which allows me to go deeper into the “spirit” of my clients and how they connect with the world through their minds, body, and soul.

Working with people on the soul level speaks most to my heart. Believe it or not, being able to “read” people’s energy and see behind the mask they show everyone else has been my biggest asset while working in Corporate America.

It’s an uncanny skill (often unnerving, particularly for the insecure) that I started to develop as a child, honed in the military, perfected through my coaching business, and practiced in corporate America.

Is it possible to heal corporate America during my lifetime? Probably not, but I can bring awareness to the issues, help begin the healing process for as many women as possible, and work with companies and organizations that recognize they have blind spots, conscious and unconscious biases, and genuinely want to put their money where their policies are to do something about it.

I can be the voice of consciousness in as many companies and on as many stages as possible, using over thirty years of experience in coaching personal and professional relationships and practicing metaphysics.

Someone has to be willing to go “beneath the surface” with conscious conversations, books, workshops, keynote speeches, podcasts, interviews, and whatever it takes so that Black women finally feel seen, heard, understood, honored, appreciated, and protected in the workplace.

And in case you are wondering how they tie together, the Metaphysical Psychology Doctorate is a theology degree coupled with the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration focused on Operations has created a path that allows me to incorporate logic, theory, intuition, my entrepreneurial spirit, and the human element into helping clients, businesses, and organizations run smoothly… consciously!

If you are a Black woman needing healing, you can message me directly, and I’d be happy to share how we can partner on your path to long-lasting transformational healing.

And if you are interested in where I got the statistics from at the beginning of this podcast, you can go to the show notes, and you will find the link there. You will also find information for upcoming speaking engagements!

As I am recording this on 2/14, I’m actually headed to Miami tomorrow. I am creating or presenting a masterclass on how to help Black and Brown women heal from corporate trauma. And I am a panelist on magnifying mental wealth for the Flourish Media Conference, which is being held in Miami from 2/17-2/18/23. And I know by the time you probably hear this, I will already be in Miami.

You can go to my LinkedIn page, or you can also go to the link in the show notes if you want to purchase virtual tickets to be present.

Also, I am a keynote speaker for the Institute of Real Estate Management here in Chicago. Actually, it’s in Oak Brook on March 31, and you do not have to be a member of IREM to participate or to attend. You can purchase your tickets online, and the link for that will be in the show notes as well. And this keynote speech, the topic is Conscious Transformative Versus Performative DEI Programs and How They Impact Your Employees.

So I am all about peeling back the layers and digging beneath the surface and uncovering the things that at times will make people uncomfortable. But if what you say is true, and you really want to make a difference, and you really want to be an ally, you need to understand that it’s going to take more than just creating policies and talking a good game.

You’re going to need to show up and do the work.

With that. I want to thank you for listening. Be sure to download the show notes. Be sure to share this podcast with anyone in your network that you feel could benefit from learning or understanding this information, and I will see you in the next episode…

**Zippia The Career Expert

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The Reason Why I Chose NOT to Major in Traditional Psychology

PODCAST EPISODE № 81

The Reason Why I Chose NOT to Major in Traditional Psychology

by Anita Charlot

Click the ICON below to listen to The Reason Why I Chose NOT to Major in Traditional Psychology:

What You Learn:

Featured on the Show:

Upcoming Speaking Engagements:

Episode Transcript

Enjoy the Show?

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"Can He Handle Your Grind?"

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PODCAST EPISODE № 81

The Reason Why I Chose NOT to Major in Traditional Psychology

by Anita Charlot

Click the ICON below to listen to The Reason Why I Chose NOT to Major in Traditional Psychology:

What You Learn:

Featured on the Show:

Upcoming Speaking Engagements:

Episode Transcript

Enjoy the Show?

IF YOU LIKE IT, SHARE IT

Get the free video training..."Can He Handle Your Grind?"

podcast

stay in touch

Get the free video training...
"Can He Handle Your Grind?"