Due to the murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Ahmaud Arbery, our country is waking up to the pain and struggle that Black people have been fighting since they were enslaved and brought here. Systemic inequities are especially highlighted in maternal medical and mental health care. Black women have a more than three times greater mortality rate in pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum than white women. Mental health systems of care have the same inequities with the same devastating outcomes.

My counseling and coaching practice is committed to being anti-racist, using the following guidelines: 

• Cultural competence and humility: I continue to educate myself on the impact of racism, and racial and systemic inequties on an individual, a family, and a community. I participate in learning that teaches me how my actions may further those inequities; with each lesson, I pledge to do better
• Appropriate referrals:  Clients may prefer a counselor who looks or identifies like them or has similar/shared lived experience as them. It is my obligation to network with my colleagues so that I can make referrals based on client needs and client preferences regarding gender, race, sexual identity, or other pertinent traits that the client values.
• Access to care: Clients, regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation, physical abilities, or financial request for a sliding scale fee, are welcome, their value affirmed, and their dignity upheld.