Reflections on the Journey I’m About to Take

It’s an interesting predicament to be a Black student (and a middle aged) Black graduate student of psychology. For 8 years prior to entering my doctorate program at a PWI I committed to studying psychology in its various domains. 

First, generally as an undergraduate at an HBCU. Then as a master’s student in an industrial/organizational psychology program. Again as a master’s student in a counseling psychology program.

When I finally landed in the Counseling Psychology Ph.D program I thought I had a pretty firm foundation on what this field was about.

Human behavior? Of course!

But there were questions bubbling up inside of me that I consistently spoke openly with my academic advisor about.

I was curious how I could have made it this many years in formal academic study of the discipline without ever learning what other cultures thought about psychology. Not just what they thought, but how they conceptualized human behavior, emotion, and psychological well-being.

How could I have possibly made it this far in the academy at such a high level of education and only ever learned about Freud, Adler, Skinner, and the other “forefathers” of psychology?

How could I have only learned about what Europeans had to say and think about human psychology? Emphasis on “human” here as I was becoming more and more aware that perhaps those “forefather’s” ideas of what it meant to be “human” did not include….ME.

Me a Black woman, belonging to a long linage of Black people.

Me a Black woman who descends from the enslaved Africans that built the country I was born in with, literally their blood sweat and tears.

Me a Black woman who knew that my ancestors were more than just slaves, but were themselves humans with their own thoughts, philosophies and worldviews.

What then did my ancestors, ancestors know and think about psychology? And how did I make it this far in the discipline without hearing their stories?

And so, like many other non-white psychology students I decided to dig, as any good researcher would do, to find out how psychology and psychological well-being was understood and defined by them. Them, the African peoples, who literally were the first ever people.

My biggest gripe with psychology at the start of my doctoral studies was something that felt indescribable. I felt there was something missing from the way that psychology had traditionally conceptualized human beings. For me the traditional Eurocentric frame of the discipline left me wanting for something more soulful.

I had been a yoga teacher for many years. Steeped in the mindfulness, spiritual, and metaphysical practices and philosophies of ancient India. There were many many parts of that cosmology that rang true to me.

And yet, I was unsure upon entering graduate school of how I would yoke this spiritual/metaphysical reality that had become so much of my identity into the psychology that I was studying that seemed devoid of such concepts.

I originally thought I would have to mix psychology with mindfulness/spirituality in some way to be the kind of psychologist and therapist that felt congruent with myself.

But alas that was not necessary.

What I have come to find in studying African-centered psychology is that it really is a holistic way of understanding humanness. It has been a journey and continues to be an enlightening yet often confusing and lonely one, given the difficulty in finding other African-centered psychologists to connect and learn with and from.

So I offer this space as a space of learning and connection.

A space for myself and other psychotherapists healers to connect and learn about this very important topic of African-centeredness in our therapeutic work.

Look forward to (near) weekly blogs that help you gain knowledge and understanding about the theory and practice of African-centered psychotherapy. In doing so, you’ll get real examples of how I have and continue to apply Afrocentric principles and interventions into my own therapy work, so that you can have some real examples of how to apply the same principles with your own clients.

OH – And if you really want to stay tuned, be sure to click the link below to subscribe to my African-centered psychology community. I’m so not tech savvy so the only thing I email are the links to this blog post. If I happen to be hosting a workshop or something about African-centered psychology, I might add that to the community email as well.

Join the community!

In love and connection,

Keya