Charmaine Perry

Why did you become a therapist? I sometimes want to ask co-workers and colleagues this question oftentimes. For me, in the beginning it was because I had such a positive experience with therapy, I wanted to share that experience with others.

Over the last few posts, my writing has evolved into focusing on underserved populations. People of color have long been an underserved population in mental health. The last couple years in American society has been filled with racial issues which affects the African American community in many different ways.

With social media constantly reiterating the news over and over again, we are all in danger of becoming desensitized. The news and social media plays on our emotions and thoughts by using attention grabbing headlines to increase clicks for their articles.

The term ‘boundaries’ play a very important role in the field of counseling and psychology. We spend hours examining, whether directly or indirectly, our clients’ boundaries with themselves and others.

Words such as culture, race, and ethnicity are extremely prevalent in counseling today. Counseling does not exist in a vacuum. We may sometimes feel that what is happening in the outside world is shut out of the counseling room, but it is not and has never been. Counseling and therapy exists to serve the needs of the people within our societies.