This content was created by Dr. Jameca Cooper. This content was uploaded by Dr. Jameca Cooper. This is a YouTube video titled "How to Find an African American Therapist" (published March 1, 2022) featuring Dr. Jameca Cooper. It is an informational/educational monologue made for Black History Month in which Dr. Cooper outlines practical ways to locate African American counselors and therapists — recommending resources such as Psychology Today, Therapy for Black Girls, ZenCare, AfricanAmericanTherapists.com, insurance provider directories, virtual therapy options, Google searches, and word-of-mouth referrals — and notes increased demand and limited availability since 2020. The speaker also discusses insurance/availability challenges and encourages viewers to like and subscribe.
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Hi, in honor of Black History Month, I wanted to make a special video to help individuals find African American therapists. I know in the past, I would say 1 to 2 years, there has been a surge in racial and ethnic minorities looking for mental health therapists and In my years of practice, this has never happened before, so I'm very glad about it. But at the same time, I'm not sure that we have enough providers to go around. So what I want to do is share with you ways you can find African American counselors or therapists. Make sure you like this video and subscribe. So I want to go through a couple of options of ways for you to find therapists, African American therapists, of course. Of course, in your area. It's Black History Month, so I want to make sure we're focusing on Black people, on African American people, because there are a lot of African American people out there. Some of you are watching this video and you're wondering, how can I find a counselor or a therapist to help me with whatever I'm going through, whether that's depression, anxiety, trauma, or just maybe some coaching on life issues, focus, work issues, family, who knows. But every now and then everyone needs a little bit of help. So one of the first ways that I would say that you should look in your area to find an African American counselor or therapist is Psychology Today. Many providers list themselves on Psychology Today, and when you go on Psychology Today, you can plug in your zip code or your city to look at available practitioners in your area, but you also should be able to filter the results by gender and race as well as issues. So if you're looking for someone that's working with you on family issues or family therapist, you should be able to filter it by that on Psychology Today. Also, if you're looking for only male therapists, maybe you're looking for, um, a counselor to work with, um, your husband or a male relative or one of your children that's a male, then you only want males, you can filter it by gender as well. So that's a very good option on Psychology Today. And probably from what I've seen, it's one of the most widespread that's used. Many therapists, like I said, list themselves on Psychology Today. Number 2 is the option that has become a lot more popular over the past few years for African Americans, especially for women, Therapy for Black Girls. You've heard of that name before, but the website has grown over the past few years and many African American practitioners list themselves on that site. So you should be able to go on the site and find people in your area. Now everyone is doing virtual therapy, virtual sessions now since the pandemic, so it might be easier for you to find someone that fits with what you are looking for and what their specialty is based on the virtual options. So they don't necessarily have to be in your area in order for you to see them or work with them. So the third option I would tell you would be ZenCare. It's another website that lists providers that are African American, and from what I've told, people have been successful in finding African American therapists on that site. Other options are AfricanAmericanTherapists.com. It's one of the newer websites, but you should be able to go on there and find, in your area of course, people that are African American and that fit what you're looking for. Now keep in mind, some of these sites are not used by all practitioners, so you might go on and look in your area. Say if you're living in the Midwest, if you want to go look in Chicago, you might only have a few providers that are listed in the Chicago area because of course all providers are not going to use all of these sites. Um, and then the next thing I'm going to say is you can always check with your insurance company. So if you are using Blue Cross Blue Shield, you can go look at the Blue Cross Blue Shield provider page under behavioral health or mental health, and you can search and filter through providers that way as well. That may be a good option for people that know they're using individuals that take their insurance insurance, and you want to make sure you find people that are credentialed or on the panel for that insurance. Therefore, they can accept your insurance. Otherwise, you— I'm guessing you would be expecting to pay out of pocket. So insurance could be a big issue for many people who are looking for providers. But one of the things I also want to add, I know I just have given you many options, but in this day and time, you can do all these steps, you can find providers that you see online and you think, ooh, yeah, this is a good person. I think this is a good fit. The challenging part and the struggle is going to be reaching out or contacting those providers and now finding out that they don't have any availability or openings. That is commonplace now, and it's been that way at least for the past year and a half to 2 years because like I said, there's been a surge in individuals wanting mental healthcare that are African American, and it's been a surge in individuals who are specifically wanting African American therapists. Especially since the summer of 2020, the pandemic, and George Floyd. So it may be difficult to find African American therapist that has an opening, that takes your insurance, that meets the time of the day you need. It could be a lot of challenges. So I don't think that this is going to be an easy task for you. I hope that it's going to be an easy task, but I wanted to provide you some options on how you can find African American therapist. I know I get this all the time when people are able to get me via email or on the phone, they're like, "Whew, I've been through this, this, this, and I've tried to find African American counselors or therapists and it's been very difficult." It is very difficult, but hopefully you can use the tools that I gave you and hopefully you can be successful. If all else fails, you can do a Google search and look for individuals who might have websites. But the one thing I want to say before I end is that keep in mind, even if you look at all these plus other options, A lot of African American counselors and therapists are not listed on any of these sites at all, especially those that are considered more old school. They don't get down with all of this listing and an internet thing. They're strictly word of mouth. So don't rule out word of mouth. In other words, ask around for people like, hey, do you know any good counselors or therapists in your area? Do you know anyone that's worked with one? Can you give me a referral, a name? That always works because the best way to find out who's gonna be good for you or maybe a good fit is knowing someone that you trust and that person has told you that this person is good because I've worked with them. So good luck out there. It's hard, but happy Black History Month. And I hope you can find a therapist that can meet your needs and that can get you to a place of healing and to help you improve your life and feel better. Make sure you like this video and subscribe. I'm Dr. Jameca Cooper.
