At Myers-Galloway Counseling, our mission is to Heal and develop confident Black women, so they can create resilient families. Our vision is to create an environment where mental health conversations become normalized for Black women creating an improved sense of self and healthier family relationships.

The holiday season is here, and it can bring up a lot of old (or unresolved) emotional scars. Especially for Black women who experienced adultification and/or parentification during their childhood, reconnecting with family members during this time of year may result in intense family conflict, trigger abandonment issues, fear of rejection or grief. Not to mention, there are always topics that feel off-limits.

When you look at a little Black girl what do you see? How many times have you heard of a little Black girl being referred to as fast? Be honest. Do you see innocence or do you see someone who is sneaky, automatically capable of taking care of herself or even of someone else? Before you answer, it has been found that adults in the United States see little Black girls as less innocent and more adult like than their white peers, especially those ages 5 to 14 years old.

Denise, a top performer in the Marketing department of her Fortune 500 company, is every Manager’s dream. Despite this, there are days when she experiences microaggressions that make her question how she is “seen” at work. Black women maintain their sanity by constantly negating the impact of microaggressions and reminding themselves that they worked hard to get to where they are professionally and deserve to be there.

Since Myers-Galloway Counseling opened its doors in 2016, I have noticed a trend, specifically among my Black female clients. There was a pattern of a deep sense of responsibility to others, a foggy awareness of personal needs and wants, and an over extension of time and emotional capacity. Before I was even familiar with the word parentification, I realized that my clients’ stories reflected a lack of nurturance in childhood and it was making a huge impact on their lives today.

Working in a leadership position - especially in the C-Suite - will come with additional stress. But Black women are more likely to face more significant obstacles than their white counterparts.