The Healing Power of Feminist Approaches to Black Mental Health
As Black History Month concludes, we celebrate the powerful intersection of feminist principles and Black mental health. Feminist approaches recognize that our personal struggles connect to broader social contexts, validating rather than pathologizing our responses to oppression. Black feminist thought—through visionaries like bell hooks and Audre Lorde—offers transformative frameworks emphasizing self-definition, joy as resistance, emotional wholeness beyond the “strong Black woman” stereotype, and community healing. We’re witnessing encouraging progress as these principles integrate into mental health services through culturally responsive care, Black feminist practices, and accessible payment models based on economic justice. This feminist vision for Black mental health carries inherent hope—acknowledging oppression while affirming our capacity for both personal and collective transformation, creating approaches that don’t merely help us survive systems of oppression but support us in flourishing beyond them.