Bush Fellow Encourages More Black Men To Pursue Mental Health Careers

by ANDY STEINER.

Since 2017, when Jamil Stamschror-Lott and his wife Sara founded Creative Kuponya, a Minneapolis-based private mental health practice that provides culturally responsive care outside of the traditional medical model, the small, five-therapist office has been overwhelmed by potential clients excited to work with therapists who understand the unique mental health needs of marginalized communities.

After the June 2020 killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, Stamschror-Lott and Creative Kuponya (a Swahili word meaning “healing”) were heavily featured in national and local news outlets, and demand for their services skyrocketed. While Stamschror-Lott, who earned a degree in clinical social work at Augsburg University, appreciated the attention, he also felt there was even more he could be doing to support the mental health needs of Minnesota’s communities of color.

But he was just spread too thin.

“I haven’t had a whole lot of resources to be as responsive as the demand required,” Stamschror-Lott said. “We’ve just been so busy running our practice and seeing clients. It is insane.”

One idea that Stamschror-Lott dreamed of ushering into reality was a program that encouraged more Black men to consider joining him in the mental health field. To do that, he figured, he’d develop a cohort program that would guide and support young Black men through the process of gaining their degrees and licensure.

Stamschror-Lott knew that the demand among members of marginalized communities for therapists with shared life experiences was high but that the actual numbers of BIPOC therapists in the state was distressingly low. (In 2022, for instance, the Minnesota Department of Health released a report that found that 88% of the state’s mental health workforce was white and just 2.8% was African or African American). Stamschror-Lott thought this cohort program could help address some of those needs.

But Stamschror-Lott knew it would take time and money to get this kind of program up and running. With the mounting demands of his busy practice, he wasn’t sure how he’d ever be able to give himself the time to further develop his idea.

The answer came in June when he was named a 2024 Bush Fellow, a prestigious award from the St. Paul-based Bush Foundation that provides $100,000 over 24 months to 24 community leaders who have an idea they’d like to develop and take to the next level. Stamschror-Lott said he plans to use his award to buy himself the time and space needed to focus on developing the cohort program, which he has tentatively named Heal Black Men Heal.

When I spoke to him last month, Stamschror-Lott was still busy with the day-to-day operations of Creative Kuponya and only just getting used to the idea of being named a Bush Fellow. He told me he was excited by the space that the award would give him to expand his vision — but still adjusting to the reality.

“I’ve been overwhelmed with people congratulating me,” he said. “I haven’t really had a chance to embrace it yet.”

Stamschror-Lott and I talked about the mental health toll of racism, his own career journey and the need for more Black mental health professionals. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

MinnPost: What can you tell me about the demand for Black male mental health therapists?

Jamil Stamschror-Lott: There are definitely very few Black male folks doing mental health work. For Black males, therapeutic identity is extremely limited; we just don’t know many people who look like us who are doing this kind of work. When Creative Kuponya started, we quickly began to feel a clear, steady demand from families who were reaching out to us, looking for a Black male therapist. That demand was so great, so extremely high, that I couldn’t keep up. I realized we need something more, that we simply need more Black men trained as therapists. That’s why I wanted to start Heal Black Men Heal.

MP: How do you envision Heal Black Men Heal working?

JSL: My vision for this project is, as Black men are engaging in acquiring their credentials in this field, “How do we form a supportive cohort for them so they are not alone and isolated?” I was the only Black man in my grad class, so I know what it’s like to be the only person who looks like me in a space. It can be hard. Beyond emotional support, I’d like Heal Black Men Heal to provide some level of stipend or scholarship for participants. There is all of this licensure nickel and diming that can really add up and make it hard financially for a person to complete their degree. I’m interested in forming a network that would help to overcome that barrier and help more Black men get into the field.

MP: Couldn’t this just be done individually? Why do you think it is important to create a cohort of men going through this program at the same time?

JSL: I knew about the power of bringing a group together from my time working as a consultant with the Trailblazers Leadership Program, from seeing that cohort model in action. I’ve also seen the success of some of the scholars who are participating in the Black Men Teach program. I said to myself, “We need more Black male therapists. They need support from each other. I can create a cohort.”

This is what I proposed in my application to the Bush Foundation. The focus of a Bush Fellowship is working on yourself and working on a community project, so Heal Black Men Heal seemed like a good program to work on if I got the fellowship.

MP: Beyond providing culturally informed mental health support for more BIPOC Minnesotans, why do you think it is important to encourage Black men to consider therapy careers?

JSL: It is a great profession. There are a number of guys involved in the Trailblazers program who have said to me, “I want to be an education major with a minor in psychology.” I think that trend is inspired by their experience during Covid and their desire to help young people. I sometimes say to them, “You can be a teacher. I think that is a good profession.

But there are other options, too. You can work with a group of screaming and yelling kids all at once — or you could have a one-on-one session with a client. It pays a little better, too.” This career is not a way of life that many of us have had access to. It creates a whole other way of living.

Oftentimes, when you are trying to get from point A to point B, all sorts of roadblocks come up. How do we remove the psychological or social barriers so that we can achieve those dreams? I believe that it’s important for Black men to feel like they have options in their careers. People from marginalized communities like the Black community sometimes feel that there are only a few career options that they can see themselves in. It is hard to think outside the box, especially if you don’t see examples of other people who look like you there. That’s why I want to help more Black men see that working in mental health care is a viable career option for them.

MP: In some communities, there are cultural taboos around seeking mental health support. Do you think that’s the case in the Black community?

JSL: There’s this general notion that there is a stigma in the Black community around seeking therapy. But my experience has showed me it is not so much a stigma that keeps Black people from seeking therapy as it is the fact that there are just not many options for finding a therapist if you don’t want to experience the microaggressions that could come from working with someone who doesn’t share your life experiences.

Black people want to work with a therapist who has walked the same journey as they have, someone who knows what it is like to live in a body that so often feels unsafe. Dr. David R. Williams of Harvard says that every day, over 220 black folks die prematurely because of the “weathering” of our systems caused by the impact of racism. Culturally competent therapy is one way to counteract that weathering.

MP: Has your work as a mental health therapist helped you to see your own personal experience from a different perspective? Do you think this process could be healing for participants in Heal Black Men Heal?

JSL: When you become a therapist, you start to analyze your whole situation. You start to look at the world around you from a different perspective. There is an emotional healing process that I believe happens when you acquire the psychoeducation. I’d like to help other Black men go through that process.

MP: Now that you’ve been selected as a Bush Fellow, how does it feel to finally be able to truly focus on developing Heal Black Men Heal?

JSL: There are a number of factors that go into running Creative Kuponya that have kept me from truly focusing on this idea. There are so many people who need my attention. It is overwhelming. We are swimming upstream. I haven’t been able to immerse myself in this project, but now, with this award, I finally can. This is a celebratory moment; the support from the Bush Foundation and the Bush Fellowship will help me finally bring my idea into reality.

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See Original Article at MinnPost