Citing barriers to access, Black Montrealers create their own mental health services

This story is a collaboration between Concordia University's journalism department and CBC Montreal.

Samanta Nyinawumuntu was going through tough times while attending theatre school.

Feeling they needed help, they sought therapy. But, while sitting in a room with a white therapist, they quickly realized the environment wasn't a safe space for them.

"It was like the person I spoke with did not understand or had zero training. I left feeling worse, and I thought 'no, this is not for me,'" Nyinawumuntu said. They abandoned the sessions, feeling they failed to help.

That experience discouraged Nyinawumuntu from seeking mental health services for another year, until finally, they found a Black therapist with whom they felt comfortable.

Nyinawumuntu's experience is common for people of colour. In Canada, anti-Black racism and discrimination contribute to health inequities that lead to chronic stress and trauma, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Between 2001 and 2014, only 38 per cent of Black Canadians with self-reported poor mental health used mental health services, compared to 50 per cent of white Canadians, according to a study cited by the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

The study also found that lack of financial resources and the stigma around mental health are additional obstacles to effective care.

In their search for help, Nyinawumuntu started looking for mental health support in Black community organizations, but found there weren't enough.

"There was one workshop here and there that only lasted one hour. What happens after the hour? You're not good after one hour," they said.

Nyinawumuntu wanted to create a space that could provide regular care.

So, in the spring of 2020, they created the Black Healing Centre (BHC) with co-founder and creative director Katya Stella Assoé.

They're working to break down what they see as the biggest barriers to accessing mental health services: it's expensive, individualistic and often not centred on Black people's lived experiences.

Colonialism and psychotherapy

David Archer, a psychotherapist who specializes in racial trauma, says colonialism impacts psychotherapyas a practice. He works with different racialized groups and advocates for intersectional and anti-racist approaches to mental health care.

"Some therapists may come from the place of the white saviour complex, as if they will rescue somebody, and the client is going to be this passive recipient of the services," Archer said.

He believes this problem is institutional and influences how psychotherapists are trained.

"Colonization acts as a virus that replicates itself," he said.

In the field of psychotherapy, Archer says, this means that white professors teach in ways that influence students to think like them. This, in turn, produces counsellors who use the same white-centred methodologies, which are ill-suited to people of colour, he says.

Archer says this deters members of minority groups from entering the field because they do not see themselves represented, further aggravating the shortage of non-white mental health professionals. However, he warns that having more counsellors who are Black, Indigenous or people of colour does not automatically solve the issue.

This learning gap fails both patients and therapists who may lack the skills necessary to address race and other oppression-related trauma in their clients' lives.

For these reasons, communal and intergenerational healing are pillars of the BHC, with an emphasis on the diverse challenges that Black people face.

The organization hosts collective care circles exclusively reserved for Black men and women, where professionals mediate group discussions to help break shame and isolation.

It also offers art, drama and sound therapy workshops. All services are donation-based.

"People with lived experiences know what they need to heal. We try to work with the most marginalized in our communities," said Nyinawumuntu.

Assoé also explained that the BHC touches on Black people's "African and Caribbean roots of healing that are holistic in nature."

The BHC in action

At its first Black Wellness Summit in February, the BHC let those principles guide the activities. The two-day-long summit included yoga, panels on community care and non-violent communication as well as dinners. Participants were of all ages and spoke both English and French.

The summit was Marie-Michel Thermil's first experience with the BHC. She described the atmosphere as welcoming.

"Every event gave me a moment of relaxation. It was revitalizing and the people were beautiful," she said, adding the BHC founders created a truly safe space for people to share.

Leah, another attendee who is a specialized educator in a Montreal hospital, felt seen at the summit, where she openly spoke up about the difficulties related to accessing proper care for someone who is Black.

"[We're] always pushed behind, always having to fight," she said. CBC has agreed not to publish Leah's last name due to the risk of professional harm for speaking out about interactions with fellow health-care workers.

Leah has been on a waitlist for a therapist in the public system for almost a year. She said she'd recently interacted with social worker who she felt was dismissive and asked Leah to justify her request for help twice.

"I'm the one who's not doing well, and I did the first step of reaching out for help. What makes you think I don't need it?" she said.

She says the summit was a place where she finally felt that she was heard, and that a lot could be gained by more collaboration between the health-care system and community organizations.

Connecting mind and body 

Meditation coach and sound healer Fimo Mitchell works in close collaboration with the BHC, where he regularly hosts workshops such as a sound bath he led at the summit. He founded When The Village Meditates three years ago, to offer Black and racialized people a safe and inclusive space.

"Fimo has given me an amazing, life-changing experience. It allows you to deal with emotions, to be more focused. We need more men who do this type of practice," said David Anderson, a regular client of the Village. 

Tanja Nachtigall, a yoga instructor at the Village, also creates healing spaces for marginalized communities.

Combining mental and physical health by teaching individuals to come together with their bodies, she dedicates her decolonial style of teaching to Black people who she says are routinely scrutinized and excluded from yoga and meditation classes.

"The general environments don't consider our unique needs, from anatomy and physiology to the way that we move," said Nachtigall, who points out yoga should address the distinct stresses, traumas and health concerns of Black individuals.

An alternative form of care 

Assoé stresses the importance of creating a safe space to improve the mental health of Black people outside individual therapy sessions.

"It means that you can share, that you can feel heard, surrounded by your peers," she said.

Archer urges people to think about the restorative potential of community.

"There is this resonance that takes place when multiple people in the same room are healing. There's just this synergistic effect that doesn't have the same strength as one-to-one," he said.

Nyinawumuntu pushes for the revival of an Afrocentric way of being, which facilitates a communal approach to healing.

"Collectively, it enables us to serve more people at the same time. It gives people agency to advocate for themselves and understand the power that they have," they said.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.