Couched in Color Ep 19 (Part 1) - As For Me, I Have to Stick with the Sistahs: Black Women Creatives and Mental Health with Nikki Webber Allen
Couched in Color with Dr. Alfiee
Release Date: 07/30/2020
Couched in Color EpS1.5: You Are Elegant: A Special CIC Episode w/Super Producer Mark "King" Batson
Couched in Color with Dr. Alfiee
This is a time of unprecedented stress regarding racial justice, police brutality, the election of 2020 and of course the Coronavirus. With all that is surrounding us, I wanted to bring you a special episode between seasons 1 and 2 (CIC EpS1.5). I am so excited for this special episode of my videopodcast w/Super Producer Mark "King" Batson" (on IG at @markbatsonrocks).
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Couched in Color Ep 20 (Part 2) - As For Me, I Have to Stick with the Sistahs: Black Women Creatives and Mental Health with Nikki Webber Allen
Couched in Color with Dr. Alfiee
In this final episode of our inaugural season, we focus on the mental health of Black women creatives and bring you part 2 of a 2 part episode with Nikki Webber Allen, an award winning producer with a Ted Talk (yes THE TED Talk), currently at 2.3 million views and counting. Nikki talks openly about being a Black woman creative, her mental health journey, the devastating loss of a loved one to mental illness, and her efforts to empower others through her nonprofit, I Live For...
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Couched in Color Ep 19 (Part 1) - As For Me, I Have to Stick with the Sistahs: Black Women Creatives and Mental Health with Nikki Webber Allen
Couched in Color with Dr. Alfiee
In this final episode of our inaugural season, we focus on the mental health of Black women creatives and bring you part 1 of a 2 part episode with Nikki Webber Allen, an award winning producer with a Ted Talk (yes THE TED Talk), currently at 2.3 million views and counting. Nikki talks openly about being a Black woman creative, her mental health journey, the devastating loss of a loved one to mental illness, and her efforts to empower others through her nonprofit, I Live For...
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Ep 18: Helping Black and Diverse Men to Heal - A conversation with James Harris
Couched in Color with Dr. Alfiee
Dr. Alfiee meets mental health advocate James Harris, author of the self-help book Men to Heal. The book provides active coping and skills based guidance on helping men and boys achieve emotional freedom and access the full range of their emotions.
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Ep. 17: Grief Across Cultures, Asian Mental Health and 13 Reasons Why - A Conversation with Dr. Helen Hsu
Couched in Color with Dr. Alfiee
Dr. Helen Hsu, a Stanford clinical psychologist, grief expert and expert consultant on the popular Nextflix show "13 Reasons Why" sat down with me to discuss mental health across cultures. Our conversation ranged from a vivid and enlightening discussion of how grief may look different in (what we know to be a highly diverse population) Asian and Asian American culture, to helping college students and their families manage mental health to the very popular TV show she consulted on and her thoughts on how we can be more honest, open and realistic about the mental health concerns of...
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Ep 16: Dr. Bowen Chung on PoC, Big Data and the Mental Health Safety Net
Couched in Color with Dr. Alfiee
This week, I sat down with Dr. Bowen Chung, a psychiatrist at UCLA Harborview Medical Center to discuss psychiatric science, health disparities research, socioeconomic status and their intersections with mental health for people of color (specifically African American and Latinx underserved communities). Just a note: The video produced for this episode did not do Dr. Chung justice so when I received it, I decided it was best to not include it. This will be my only episode this season to not have both audio and video and I apologize to my audience for this. Dr. Chung and I have...
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Ep 15 - Sam Bissonnette & Andy Riemer - We Must Be Honest: Decolonizing Mental Illness Together
Couched in Color with Dr. Alfiee
This week, we had a really timely discussion about what it means to be both in the fight for social justice and an ally. Our guests, Sam Bissonnette and Andy Riemer are 2 creatives and trailblazers using media, early childhood education, Asian American studies, masculinity and women's studies along with a wealth of lived experience and passion to make a difference in our world. Their work reflects the idea that we can never know a person's story just by looking at them and that we are all both person's impacted by social injustice and allies at the same time. They teach us to use our gifts...
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Ep 14: Vanessa Adebayo on Making a Difference Worldwide in Black Communities
Couched in Color with Dr. Alfiee
This week, we focus on global mental health in the African Diaspora. Our guest, Vanessa Adebayo, imagined and created a nonprofit focused on the health (including mental health) of our brothers and sisters in Africa. She implements conferences throughout the continent to raise awareness and stress the need for caring for our mental health. she also deploys health ambassadors as part of her Africa's Health Matters nonprofit initiative. Her work is essential and reflects the worldwide need for culturally relevant, accessible care. One of Vanessa's goals is to teach people that seeking care for...
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Couched in Color E12: AfroLatinx and Black: Elevating the Mental Health Conversation for Men and Boys
Couched in Color with Dr. Alfiee
In 2016, thirty-nine unarmed Black people were murdered at the hands of the police - 34% of them were Black men. Our founder, Jason Rosario - a product of a single-parent home in the Bronx, New York - created The Lives of Men as a vehicle to help change the narrative around Black and Latinx masculinity, and to combat the negative stereotypes of Black men perpetrated by law enforcement and mainstream media.
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Couched in Color E11: Angel White, Striving While Black and Femme: Black Girls, High Expectations and Mental Health
Couched in Color with Dr. Alfiee
Angel White, Community Manager at Industrious, tells Dr. Alfiee about the additional pressures and expectations as a Black woman forging a business career.
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Earlier this week, I took a moment to reflect on Black women, our mental health, trauma, grief and recovery. I thought about Megan Thee Stallion and her traumatic experience with gun violence; the horrifying impacts of COVID-19 on Black women caring for children, spouses/partners, aging parents and working in essential professions (sometimes without PPE or other critical safety measures).
My teen daughter brought it all home for me when she told me, "mom I feel like Black women are the most unprotected women in the world". It was heavy and I felt sad that even my teen, with all of the energy I and my family pour into her, still sees so much in this work that leaves her weary.
So, this final episode of the season, part 1 of 2 parts, is particularly powerful for me and the CIC crew. Nikki Webber Allen is an Emmy award winning producer with a Ted Talk (yes THE TED Talk), currently at 2.3 million views and counting. Nikki talks openly about her own experiences with mental health, she describes her devastating loss of a loved one to mental illness and she openly shares with our audience her coping strategies, means of support and efforts to empower other through her nonprofit, I Live For...
I left this conversation feeling inspired and validated (and that wasn't even my goal going in!) As a bonus in this episode, I share how Nikki fundamentally changed my life (not even kidding) and if you listen to her story, she will fundamentally change yours too, so please take a moment to listen and subscribe.
You can Find I Live for on the web at www.ilivefor.org.
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As always, you can find us across all social media at @couchedincolor (on Twitter) and @couched_in_color (on Instagram).
Dr. Alfiee Breland-Noble is a psychologist, author, founder of mental health nonprofit the AAKOMA Project and host of the mental health podcast “Couched in Color with Dr. Alfiee,”