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Are you a therapist counseling black women clients? How can you make space for a client who is culturally hesitant to sharing their trauma and struggle with strangers? What do all therapists need to know to become culturally competent, compassionate, and aware?
In this podcast episode, Joe Sanok discusses The Essential Guide for Counseling Black Women with Dr. LaNail R. Plummer.
Podcast Sponsor: Alma
As a clinician, you probably chose this field because you wanted to support people in navigating challenges and finding personal growth. But many mental health care providers end up spending almost as much time on billing, insurance, and other documentation as you do in sessions with clients.
That’s where Alma can help.
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Plus, a free profile in their searchable, filterable directory—making it easy for clients who are the right fit for your practice to find you.
Learn more about how Alma could support you in building a thriving private practice at helloalma.com/joe.
Meet Dr. LaNail R. Plummer
Dr. LaNail R. Plummer is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Onyx Therapy Group, the culturally-grounded mental health practice she launched in 2013. With over two decades of clinical experience, Dr. Plummer leads a multidisciplinary team dedicated to expanding access to affirming mental health care and addressing disparities across communities, with a focus on young women, the Black community, and LGBTQ+ clients. Her work spans individual therapy, consultation, community partnerships, and training grounded in culturally intersected frameworks.
Visit Onyx Therapy Group and connect on Instagram.
In This Podcast
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Potential problems that can arise from awareness mismatch
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Nuance and generalities of counseling black women
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Doing intake sessions with black women
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Dr. Plummer’s central tips for counseling black women better
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Dr. Plummer’s advice to private practitioners
Potential problems that can arise from awareness mismatch
People who become therapists are likely helpers at heart. They see the good in everybody, and they are competent in their skills and expertise be impassioned in helping their fellow community members get the most and best out of their lives.
However, while therapists can do a lot for their clients, some challenges should not rest on clients’ shoulders when it comes to their therapy.
Sometimes that ignorance, especially when it comes to marginalized communities, can be harmful. A client doesn’t want to go into the session and have to educate their therapists about what it means to be them. And yes, of course there is cultural humility where a therapist needs to be able to acknowledge when they don’t know something, but to continue to ask the client to teach them about an experience or a nuance that is maybe a bit more general to their race or their gender, as opposed to what it means for them individually, becomes a disservice to the client. (Dr. LaNail R. Plummer)
For example, Dr. Plummer explains that for many black women, if they don’t have a good experience with therapy, then they don’t necessairly find a new therapist – they just stop going to therapy, which can affect the generational view of seeking mental help.
Nuance and generalities of counseling black women
Dr. Plummer, in the first part of her book, breaks the question of counseling black women into two pieces: black history and being a woman.
Part one of the book really talks about the history of being a black woman. So, I divided it first into the historical experiences around race, what it means to be black, and there are some very generalized experiences there. And then, what it means to be a woman. So, not necessarily a black woman, but just a woman in general … And then I go into the intersections. So part one has a lot of the general experiences, but what I love about the book … is that it allows for a therapist to individualize some of the topics based [on] a few things. (Dr. LaNail R. Plummer)
Along with these historical aspects, the book also includes tips for therapists and therapist introspection sections for readers of the book to engage with the work on a deeper level.
It teaches them how to take this information and make a plan on how to use it in seeing their clients and engaging with people around them more compassionately, with additional awareness.
Doing intake sessions with black women
Dr. Plummer’s tips for doing better intake sessions with black women include:
- Understanding that black women can be very closed off initially
- Knowing that there is a cultural hesitation for “not airing out dirty laundry,” in that it will take some time for this client to open up fully
- Avoiding diagnosing the client too quickly, or based on just what the client says during intake
What happens in the intake is not the full picture of what the client is, and I get worried sometimes that therapists start diagnosing just off of intake, and nobody else in healthcare does that … So, I think one of the first mistakes [that therapists make] is not understanding that black folks are not going to give all of the information immediately. (Dr. LaNail R. Plummer)
- Not rushing a person to tell their story and perhaps offering more than one intake session because black women are often storytellers, and want to give a full history rather than a general statement when coming to you for help
Additionally, Dr. Plummer gives a great tip on how to get the best results from doing intake sessions with black women, which is to ask them about their spiritual practices, because this will give you a lot of valuable information.
Dr. Plummer’s central tips for counseling black women better
1 – Acknowledge and accept that our graduate programs did the best that they could, but the multicultural course is not enough to go on. You will need to learn more to do better with counseling the variety of people that exist around you.
2 – Acknowledge your biases. You don’t need to project, reject, or use your biases, but simply acknowledge that they might be there. Be self-aware as a therapist, and that includes knowing our blindspots and where we need to improve.
3 – Use your resources! Open up your textbooks, your old articles or podcasts, and new books and information.
There is so much available to you, so pick what you want and need to become an empowered, compassionate, and aware therapist to serve your community as best you can.
Pick up the book and see what the therapeutic guide says, because it’s here! You can use it, so use our resources. Understand that our mentalhealth multicultural course did the best that it could, but it’s not comprehensive, that we are human and we have biases that need to be addressed and acknowledged, and that we have resources to provide the best therapy … for all of our clients, but specifically today, as we’re talking, for our black women clients. (Dr. LaNail R. Plummer)
Dr. Plummer’s advice to private practitioners
You can do this! We can become the best therapists that we can be for our changing multicultural society. We can create practices where black women clients, and any marginalized clients, can feel welcome to get the help that they deserve.
Sponsors Mentioned in this Episode:
Learn more about how Alma could support you in building a thriving private practice at helloalma.com/joe.
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Resources mentioned in this episode:
Visit Onyx Therapy Group and connect on Instagram.
Check out these additional resources:
- Spotting a Bad Hire Before they Burnout the Team through EOS with Dr. Tara Vossenkemper | POP 1333
- Practice of the Practice Network
- Group Practice Launch
- Group Practice Boss: www.practiceofthepractice.com/grouppracticeboss $149 a month
- PoP Group Practice Owners Facebook Group
- Free resources to help you start, grow, and scale
- Work with us
- Practice of the Practice Network
Meet Joe Sanok
Joe Sanok helps counselors to create thriving practices that are the envy of other counselors. He has helped counselors to grow their businesses by 50-500% and is proud of all the private practice owners who are growing their income, influence, and impact on the world. Click here to explore consulting with Joe.
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