How Can Solution-Focused Therapy Transform Mental Health for Black people ft Elliott Connie

the the psychotherapy field wasn't really built for us. And I think it's been a challenge for us to benefit from it. So in the past few years representation has meant a lot to me. And I don't just mean like being a therapist, but I mean, like showing up as my culture, as a therapist has meant a lot to me. And I know it's been cool. It's been cool.

So I do I do a lot of work in the media and and television and stuff like that and run the largest training organization in the world dedicated to solution focused brief therapy, and it's exciting work, I can't believe I get to do the job I get to do every day. Dr. Raquel Martin: I love that. Because I always think that like

I have two children. I'm like, I can do my job, like on my head, like I love every single aspect of it black mental health, education, I have so many roles, because I'm a full time professor and a psychologist and do research. But I always feel like I'm educated first. This job is amazing. I can do this on my head. I can be home with my children for a full day. And I just feel like I just be taking good shots. I'm like, why is this? Just so my husband is like you've worked all week. And I'm

like, it don't feel like this. It does not feel like this. It's just so much simpler. And I think a lot of times people think psychology and mental health is like ridiculously

complicated. But once you lean into like foundational principles, and you have a theory and something that you go along with, like you with solution, focus brief therapy, it's actually pretty clear, I kind of see it as living according to your values, like, knowing my values makes decision making really easy if it goes with my values, and it's not ridiculously inconvenient, it's gonna be a yes. If it doesn't,

it's just a simple no, like, it's very easy for me. So tell me more and tell us more about what is solution focus brief therapy. It's funny, it's hard to explain, I was gonna say it's hard to clean in a short amount of time. But it's also hard to explain when I have like four or five days with an audience. But in in essence, a solution focused brief therapy, it's a kind of therapy that's based upon helping the client achieve what is most desire, as opposed to remove what is least desire.

Most of psychotherapy is about identifying problems and problem patterns, and symptomology and all that kind of stuff and removing it. I think solution focused brief therapy can best be described as helping your client discover the version of the best selves, and what their hoped for future would look like. And then how to go about achieving it. I

Dr. Raquel Martin: love that. So how do you incorporate practicing with cultural humility or cultural competence in your practice, especially as it relates to the unique experiences and challenges faced by black people in the black community? You're a black man. So how do you incorporate that? Because you mentioned like, one of the things you love about what you do is you bring your whole self into the work is not only about like, you know, coming in, it's like, I'm black.

This is not I'm not whitewashing anything. How do you bring that into your therapy practice? So I would say that twofold. Number one, and I will preface this with saying I'm probably a bit biased. So take this with a grain of salt. But I think solution focused brief therapy is the most culturally appropriate type of therapy because I simply ask the client what they hope to achieve, and in a non judgmental way, listen to those hope for future

moments, and then help the client to achieve them. Now, why that's so important, I think in the African American community, is if if some kid comes to me which I've had happened before, and it's a kid from a lower socioeconomic background and from a lower academic success community. And the kid says I want to go to college. So many of our kids get talked to Like, but dot dot dot, like, I know you want to go to college. But that's hard and that. And I simply ask questions like which

college? And what would you notice yourself doing from now until at some point in your senior year getting acceptance letter from that college and we talk about possibilities as if they can become real. And my favorite thing about my job is I get contacted from people that I saw years ago that are like I went to college, because you were the first person to talk to

me as if it were possible. And literally, the most transformational thing you can do for any human being, is talk to them about their future as if it were possible, completely ignoring their past. Now, I want to say something when I say completely ignoring their past, because it sounds so disrespectful. But what I mean is completely ignoring the past

ability to remove your future. Like I sit here today, and I'm recognized around the world for my work and solution focused brief therapy, and I'm going to television deal and exclusive podcast deal. I've written many books, I've literally traveled the world, my passport has more stamps on it than some of your favorite rappers. And I have every excuse not to be sitting here, my childhood was riddled with opportunity for me to fail, get distracted, get detoured. And I think a lot of us in our

community are in that space. But if you can believe in your future, enough, anyone can get anywhere from anywhere. And I think it's really, really important to talk to people as if their future can be accomplished. So that's the first way that I bring cultural humility into my work, I think it's, I think it's already baked into the work. And my job is to honor it. The second way, is like I have to fight the status quo in this field every single day, because they're not used to

leadership looking like me. And they have to deal with that, that is an uncomfort that they have to deal with, that the white majority is actually not used to dealing with. We talk about privilege a lot in our in our world. And I think that's a very appropriate conversation. And then it's foundation

privilege is the expectation of comfort. So thus, when somebody makes me uncomfortable, there must be something wrong with what that person is doing, what that person is saying what that person is moving towards, or what that person is speaking about. But the truth is, you don't have any greater expectation of comfort than I do. And if you are uncomfortable that a black man is talking about psychotherapy with a hoodie on, then that's an uncomfort that you have to deal

with. And I have had to speak truth to power many, many times in my career, I think what they've learned is I'm built for that we can do this, as long as I want to do it, like I'm down to fight 30 rounds. So if you didn't train mentally, like I train, you're gonna have to deal with some real hard times. And it's it's made my work complicated than it needed to be. But also infinitely more rewarding than it would have been otherwise. So those are the two ways I bring cultural,

cultural humility into my work. Number one, I think it's just baked into every single session, and I show up like this. And number two, I have to show up in academic spaces, and as faculty on conferences and like, I have to like show up and refuse to let them change who I am. And like I said, I think the field has learned Eliot built for that these days, they mostly Leave me alone, Dr. Raquel Martin: I always get questioned about the aspect of

being defined as unapologetic. And I could consider that to be like a gift or a blessing. But I always state that I had to be broken to get the blessing of what individuals see as being unapologetic. I have a personality to like if I could wear hoodies and tees and ripped jeans every day, I would even just the way I talk where people just feel the need to possibly humble me and put me down a little bit. And when you know, it's the epitome of like, I know who I am what I saw, I know who

I'm not. And I know that I does this, you know, like in terms of like therapy, I practice, Professor, I'm teaching the students teaching the clinicians doing presentations, publishing articles, it's like, Listen, I don't know everything. But I know what I know. And I notice and I think a lot of times that pushes up against some people because you're right, it wasn't created the field wasn't created for us. I made the joke the

other day in my meeting. Like you know, we got to be we got to be more mindful of like, advocating for the people who are here because can you imagine if the forefathers came into the classroom and saw me teaching, and they will be like, who let the other who let the May? Why is the maid in front of the class teaching? And she's colored? Oh my god. Oh my god, where have we fallen? It is we have just gone down hill, right.

So being in that realm as a licensed mental health professional and US Think just like you mentioned, for the clinicians listening, y'all know, I always say like, you know, people are gonna be how they're going to be. I remember getting a post about like asking why he was wearing a t shirt or something was like a black pride t shirt. And he said, Where's your white coat? And I said, Well, here's, here's the, here's the gotcha, everything. Where's the doctor uniform? Because I'm

a doctor, I don't wear on it. So like, it's, this is all, it's always gonna be a doctor uniform. But I think it's helpful for clinicians in training, who are listening to this to understand that it's not going to stop, and neither should you. I still get those conversations. I still I still get that and I'm like, hey, hey, I'm I'm amazing backup and listen and learn are leaving don't but like I'm, I'm gonna be

here either way. So anyone I a lot of clinicians listening, please realize that every single stage of your career it's gonna happen. And somebody's gonna blame don't let it be you always understand you know, where you come from, like the intellect. I know my citations. I know my sources half the time I'm citing myself. So like, just come out there and feel comfortable.

Because the whole aspect of being unapologetic like and knowing where you're coming from, you gotta you gotta feel comfortable in that because people it doesn't mean there's something wrong with you. I always say that it's more of a them thing than a you think it's not like a race issue. It's a racism issue. It's not my, it's not me being black. It's about what my blackness apparently means for you, and how that

brings them out to you. More recently, I've actually fallen a little bit out of love with the term unapologetic, and oh Dr. Raquel Martin: my god, I fall out a level words all the time. Tell me why you don't like this one even more, because the st. unapologetic almost implies that there should be something to apologize for that I'm just not apologizing for. I think my my favorite word that I use now is I'm I'm explanatory.

And what I mean by that is when like, what happens to me, right, and I have tons of white colleagues that I love and respect. In fact, one of my best friends is a white colleague. I love one of Dr. Raquel Martin: your best friends is white. No, you did not just pull that out. Oh. Well, we make social media content all the time. Yeah. No one has ever questioned his credentials, his education and his authority. And they question mine all the time, like

in the comment section? Where are you licensed? Yeah, where are you? Where'd you get your degrees? They question me all the time. But I don't know what you an explanation. Like, I don't license. I don't have a master's degree. I know my credentials. I know my authority. I know who I am in this field. So like, I just refuse to even entertain those people. When they jump in my comments. Like, I'm just like, go to Google bro. And if you don't like what you find in

Google, then go away. But I don't owe you an explanation. And my favorite thing when people respond, and they're like, you can't answer so that's you're not I think a lot of times, privilege causes people to get confused behind the meaning of the words can't and won't. And I'm a won't person, I just won't entertain you. I have no desire to tell you who I am in this field. If you decide to question I know exactly who I am. And I know it to such a degree that I don't owe you an

explanation at all. I don't care what you think it doesn't mean anything to me. Yeah. It's irrelevant. Hey, Dr. Raquel Martin: everyone, just a reminder that mind your mental is not just a podcast. It is also a amazing community. If I do say so myself. It's phenomenal. I mean, you get more access to me, what more could you want in this life? So if you want to join the community, if you're not already on the

community, we go to my social media. My social media is the same Raquel Martin PhD and DM me the word community so you can get details on joining this amazing flipping community. You get more access to me all like I'm a delight. All right. All right. Hope to see you there.