Interventions
Community Based Interventions in Barbershops and Beauty Salons: A Futuristic Perspective on Providing Mental Health Services in the African American Community.
​
Barbershops have long been community hubs for the Black community. Not only does this presentation explore the history of the barbershop but also provides a culturally appropriate approach making our barbershops spaces healing. Evidence-based ways training barbers to be early responders to mental health challenges within the community are presented. Ways of edifying with mental literacy training to empower them to modify the stigma that persons of Afrikan ancestry have with regard to mental health is provided. Practical examples of how practitioners are working within the Black community or with Black clients to promote mental and psycho-spiritual wellness of the community of concern is presented.
Ubuntu Rite: Ritual of Restoration for Therapist and Those They Serve
Ubuntu is a practice and a way of life for the Zulu. It emphasizes human connections on multiple levels.
Rituals or umsebenzi are essential to maintaining essential connections for the Zulu. This presentation is intended to introduce participants to the process of setting up sacred spaces that promotes psycho-spiritual healing for therapist, their clients and the communities in which they serve. Mental health practitioners will be guided in to ways of knowing how to create healing altars/shrines for the purpose of enhancing internal and communal connectedness which will increase the likelihood that they will be more effective therapists. To that end this presentation advances an Afrikan Centered (culturally-sensitive) mental health service delivery modality mental health practitioners working with Black Individuals, Couples, and Families