The month of May is Mental Health Awareness month. A Palm Beach County licensed mental health practitioner says the pandemic is opening the door to more conversations around mental health in communities of color.
In 2007 Tarsha Williams Weston faced a mother’s worst nightmare.
“The assailant came up from behind in the backyard and just shot him in the head,” she recalled.
Her son was murdered on his 18th birthday. Williams Weston says years later she still couldn’t process the loss.
“Because when I wasn’t feeling at my best, I used other alternative things such as alcohol, sleeping pills and whatever to cope with it,” she said. “I was planning on ending my life.”
Sabrina Harris a licensed mental health practitioner saw one of Williams Weston’s social media posts and reached out to offer her help.
“What some people saw as a post, thought she was done, over it,” Harris said. “It was a holiday period of time, I’m like there is something more here.”
Now, with her non-profit organization, House of Loveillionaires, Harris is helping minority community cope with their traumas.
“One thing that this research does is it emphasizes coping skills and calming strategies that we innately go through, or we vicariously tacked on to,” she said.
She says the first step to healing is acknowledging the trauma and its impact.
“There is no ‘Wonder Woman’ with the cape there is no ‘Superman’ with kryptonite,” she said.
“It okay not to be okay, it’s okay to have a moment,” Williams Weston said. “But God does not want us to stay in that moment.”
For more mental health resources visit https://www.facebook.com/houseofloveillionaires/.
