Speaker 1: Welcome to the Therapy for a Black Girls Podcasts, a
Speaker 1: weekly conversation about mental health, personal development, and all the
Speaker 1: small decisions we can make to become the best possible
Speaker 1: versions of ourselves. I'm your host, Dr Joy Hard and Bradford,
Speaker 1: a licensed psychologist in Atlanta, Georgia. To get more information,
Speaker 1: visit the website at Therapy for Black Girls dot com.
Speaker 1: And while I hope you love listening to and learning
Speaker 1: from the podcast, it is not meant to be a
Speaker 1: substitute for a relationship with a licensed mental health professional. Hey, y'all,
Speaker 1: thanks so much for joining me for Session seventy seven
Speaker 1: of the Therapy for Black Girls podcast. Today we're going
Speaker 1: to be talking all about the truth about self care.
Speaker 1: But before we dive into that conversation, I want to
Speaker 1: show are a few announcements. First, I want to correct
Speaker 1: a mistake I made in session seventy four that was
Speaker 1: all about body image and black women athletes. I mistakenly
Speaker 1: said that Natalie Grieves, who was our guest expert for
Speaker 1: that episode, was in Michigan. But she's actually in Chicago,
Speaker 1: So if you're looking to connect with her in her practice,
Speaker 1: she's definitely in Chicago. You can find all of her
Speaker 1: information in the show notes for that episode at Therapy
Speaker 1: for Black Girls dot com slash session. Secondly, my birthday
Speaker 1: is next week yea, and as a true Libra, of course,
Speaker 1: I am celebrating all month long. To help me celebrate,
Speaker 1: I'd love for you to participate in the thirty one
Speaker 1: Days of Affirmations campaign that I have partnered with the
Speaker 1: think Up App to host. Each day, we're sharing a
Speaker 1: new affirmation across our social media platforms that you can
Speaker 1: add to your think up playlist. At the end of
Speaker 1: the month, if you'd like to make a short video
Speaker 1: about how adding affirmations to your routines has been helpful,
Speaker 1: you can be entered to win a premium version of
Speaker 1: the think Up App and a copy of The Self
Speaker 1: Care Affirmation Journal, which is the new book from our
Speaker 1: featured guest for today. To read more about the challenge,
Speaker 1: head on over to Therapy for Black Girls dot com
Speaker 1: slash Affirmations and join us for today's conversation. I'm joined
Speaker 1: by Maria Davis Pierre. Maria is a licensed therapist, coach, speaker,
Speaker 1: and advocate in Florida. She is also the founder of
Speaker 1: Autism in Black which aims to provide support to black
Speaker 1: parents who have a child on the spectrum through educational
Speaker 1: and advocacy services. Maria and I chatted all about what
Speaker 1: self care actually is, how self care has been commercialized,
Speaker 1: why it's so important for us to practice self care
Speaker 1: as black women, and of course, she shared her favorite
Speaker 1: resources to help you develop your own self care plan.
Speaker 1: Please share your thoughts about the episode as you're listening
Speaker 1: with us all on social media using the hashtag tv
Speaker 1: G in Session. Here's our conversation. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for joining us today, Maria, Thank you for having me. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm excited to chat with you because I know self
Speaker 1: care is like the buzzword now right, like everybody has
Speaker 1: a list about self care, self care boxes, like you
Speaker 1: can find self care stuff all over the police. But
Speaker 1: I did want to make sure that we had a
Speaker 1: conversation about self care that's really kind of grounded in
Speaker 1: what we do as therapists, because I do feel like
Speaker 1: in some ways we've kind of gotten away from what
Speaker 1: self care really is. Um, so so let's start there. Then,
Speaker 1: How would you describe self care for me? And what
Speaker 1: I described to my clients as self care being is
Speaker 1: more of mental health, mental wellness. Sometimes when we are
Speaker 1: seeing all those lists and you know, buzzwords about self care,
Speaker 1: people are automatically thinking of, oh, I need a seven
Speaker 1: day trip to Jamaica, I need to be at the
Speaker 1: spa and things like that, when self care is more
Speaker 1: about taking care of your mental health and mental wellness.
Speaker 1: So it could be something as simple as, um, sitting
Speaker 1: in your car for ten minutes before going in your
Speaker 1: home and disconnecting from work and now getting ready for
Speaker 1: your natural of being you know, wife, mom and whatever. Okay,
Speaker 1: so really you know, and I kind of think about
Speaker 1: it that way to like what kinds of things do
Speaker 1: you need to do to recharge yourself? Yes? Yeah, yeah?
Speaker 1: So what are some examples of things maybe you work
Speaker 1: with your clients on, like how to help them establish
Speaker 1: self care practices. One, we look at self esteem. You
Speaker 1: know where they at with their self esteem, So we
Speaker 1: do self esteem exercises. Uh, you know, things that you
Speaker 1: know trigger them to have anxiety depression, things like that.
Speaker 1: We look at those triggers and then we come up
Speaker 1: with a plan of how to address those triggers because
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of times we can't get away
Speaker 1: from things that trigger us. So we set up a
Speaker 1: plan on how to address it, so that way, when
Speaker 1: we feel those feelings of anxiety and depression or frustration,
Speaker 1: we can go back to our plan and deal with it.
Speaker 1: And that way, you know, we're setting up variation for
Speaker 1: good and mental health mental wellness. And I think it's
Speaker 1: important really, you know, kind of just giving everything that's
Speaker 1: going on in the country and everything we see on
Speaker 1: the news, like just kind of in these things to
Speaker 1: kind of trigger us and you know, just really incredibly stimulating.
Speaker 1: So what kinds of things maybe have you worked with
Speaker 1: clients around that? I mean, because you know that's something
Speaker 1: that there's no way for you to anticipate, like what's
Speaker 1: going to be going on in the news, right, So
Speaker 1: what kinds of self care practices can we establish around
Speaker 1: some of that stuff. So I live in South Florida
Speaker 1: and I actually live in the area where the Parkland
Speaker 1: shooting happened, and um, a lot of my clients then,
Speaker 1: you know, because one of my practices deals especially with
Speaker 1: black parents who have an autistic child. So they then
Speaker 1: had a lot of worry and concern on how is
Speaker 1: my child going to kind of have a plan when
Speaker 1: if something like this happens at their school because now
Speaker 1: it's happening in our backyard. Of course, it was all
Speaker 1: over the news, and you know, we're seeing it and
Speaker 1: it's kind of retraumatizing us as we're seeing it, and
Speaker 1: you know, people who aren't even they're kind of getting
Speaker 1: a secondary PTSD from it. So you know, what we
Speaker 1: had to do was set up boundaries, you know, set
Speaker 1: up boundaries as if if this is a trigger for you,
Speaker 1: what do you need to do to you know, get
Speaker 1: back to your grounded you know, how do you implement
Speaker 1: boundaries around the news and things that we can't get
Speaker 1: away from. How do you go at to revert back
Speaker 1: to those coping skills that we talked about. You know,
Speaker 1: we cannot control every single thing, and although we might
Speaker 1: want to, especially when it comes to our children, you know,
Speaker 1: we just can't. So you know, getting back to realistic
Speaker 1: thought patterns is something that we work on because of course,
Speaker 1: you know, we can't even anticipate when something is like
Speaker 1: this is going to happen, so you know, knowing that
Speaker 1: it is out of our control, but the things that
Speaker 1: are in our control, like preparing our children and setting
Speaker 1: a plan with them and having that plan in places
Speaker 1: things that can help you that's very important. Yeah. I mean,
Speaker 1: so having that kind of local context for you know,
Speaker 1: like a real life example of things happening in your
Speaker 1: neighborhood that directly impacted a lot of your clients. Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: And I do think that that kind of thing is
Speaker 1: on a lot of people's minds, right, I mean you
Speaker 1: kind of continue to see these things happening, uh, in
Speaker 1: our schools and things, you know, like I think there
Speaker 1: that has raised a lot of people's anxiety about um,
Speaker 1: their own anxiety and even their children's right and like
Speaker 1: going to school. A lot of the um, the actual
Speaker 1: the children were like you know, um, I don't want
Speaker 1: to go to school because I don't want to get shot.
Speaker 1: And how do you even go about having those type
Speaker 1: of conversations with your child? I mean I'm I'm a therapist,
Speaker 1: and that you know, shook me for a minute. Like, Okay,
Speaker 1: now we have to you know, deal with this. You know,
Speaker 1: what are our answers going to be for this? How
Speaker 1: do we you know, not set them up to feel
Speaker 1: like you know, it's never gonna happen, but give them
Speaker 1: a realistic explanation of what to do if it does happen, right, Right,
Speaker 1: So you know, I think for black parents, you know,
Speaker 1: this is like one more talk now that we have
Speaker 1: the head, but the children, right which you know, incredibly
Speaker 1: exhausting sometimes it really does. And you know, um, you know,
Speaker 1: like I said, I work with black parents who have
Speaker 1: an artistic child. So another thing that we talk about
Speaker 1: and prepare for is if our child is faced with,
Speaker 1: you know, being in for of a police officer, because
Speaker 1: we know that they're not going to be able to
Speaker 1: respond the way that they should as society sees it,
Speaker 1: you know, in those situations. So one of the things
Speaker 1: as an autism parent myself and when working with my family's,
Speaker 1: one of our main concerns is, you know, we don't
Speaker 1: want our kids to get shot, you know, as black parents,
Speaker 1: how how are we going to to navigate this? How
Speaker 1: do we you know, look out for our child who
Speaker 1: can't even express themselves. So this is the kind of
Speaker 1: things that we have to address, you know, when I'm
Speaker 1: working with the clients on you know, how do we
Speaker 1: prepare ourselves for this, prepare our children for this, and
Speaker 1: still focus on our our you know, self care and
Speaker 1: mental health because worrying about seven, you know, can get
Speaker 1: to the point where you're then dealing with the anxiety
Speaker 1: and the depression and things like that. Right, right, So
Speaker 1: I've seen and maybe you have seen this meme to
Speaker 1: Maria kind of going around that talks about you know,
Speaker 1: self care isn't just like spas and bubble bass, but
Speaker 1: it's also you know, getting rid of toxic people in
Speaker 1: your life and all of these other things. So can
Speaker 1: you talk more about what self care looks like. Maybe
Speaker 1: in the context of relationships, Yes, the most important would
Speaker 1: be boundary setting. As I discussed knowing your core values
Speaker 1: and setting boundaries with people in your life. And when
Speaker 1: we talk about relationships, you know, we're talking relationships in general,
Speaker 1: so even husband, you know, parents, you know, cousins, whatever.
Speaker 1: So when my child was diagnosed with autism, a lot
Speaker 1: of my family didn't really know how to respond. So
Speaker 1: they would be like, you know, we'll pray about it,
Speaker 1: or we don't really know how to treat her, or
Speaker 1: you know, things like that. So I had to set
Speaker 1: a boundary with them, letting them know, Okay, this is
Speaker 1: the expectations we have. These are how we expect you
Speaker 1: to treat our child and how we expect you to
Speaker 1: interact with us from here on. And if you cannot
Speaker 1: do those things, then our boundary is we can't be
Speaker 1: around each other. So setting the boundaries so I don't
Speaker 1: have to then deal with you know, them treating us
Speaker 1: differently and things like that, which can lead to you know,
Speaker 1: a multitude of feelings. So setting boundaries like that communication,
Speaker 1: you know, having open dialogues, and not holding stuff in
Speaker 1: to the point where you you blow up like a crop,
Speaker 1: not a croc pot, but what do you call those things?
Speaker 1: A pressure cooker? So you know, you're stuffing everything in
Speaker 1: and it's the heat is going on and you're not
Speaker 1: addressing something, and then something as small as you didn't
Speaker 1: put the toilet seat down. Now I'm yelling at you
Speaker 1: and talking about things you did you know two weeks
Speaker 1: ago in the person's life. I didn't even know you
Speaker 1: were upset about that. So things like that, you know,
Speaker 1: addressing things as they come up, setting the boundaries. I
Speaker 1: think that's a great example, Horrior, because I think a
Speaker 1: lot of times when people hear boundary setting, they get
Speaker 1: really nervous because they think that that's going especially people
Speaker 1: who we are not necessarily comfortable with, like confrontation and
Speaker 1: conflict um but they think that it's going to cause
Speaker 1: a rupture in the relationship. But what you just said
Speaker 1: is something that actually would help to maintain the integrity
Speaker 1: of the relationship because you said, Okay, this is so
Speaker 1: that we can continue to be in each other's lives, Like,
Speaker 1: this is my boundary for how you will treat our daughter,
Speaker 1: and so because you want to continue being in our lives,
Speaker 1: this is the boundary I'm setting, as opposed to um,
Speaker 1: you know, like not letting it go unchecked and then
Speaker 1: you just fall off the face of the earth and
Speaker 1: nobody knows what happened, and like what how they violated
Speaker 1: you and something exactly exactly. And I think it's important
Speaker 1: to know that. You know, when you're setting boundaries, you're
Speaker 1: setting them up for yourself, for your own mental health.
Speaker 1: You're not setting them up for the other people. It's
Speaker 1: for you. And they have to be realistic boundaries because
Speaker 1: if somebody violates that boundary, you know, you have to
Speaker 1: be able to follow up with the consequence of that boundary.
Speaker 1: So if you're not able to do so, then they're
Speaker 1: just not gonna respect the boundaries because you you're not
Speaker 1: able to follow up with a realistic consequence. Very good point.
Speaker 1: So I think a lot of times when we have
Speaker 1: the conversation about self care with black women, UM, you
Speaker 1: will sometimes here like, oh, I don't have time for
Speaker 1: self care, Like I'm too busy doing all of these
Speaker 1: other things, right, which of course is the reason why
Speaker 1: you need to have self care. But a lot of people,
Speaker 1: you know, there is some reality to that. You know,
Speaker 1: people who are working really long shifts and you know,
Speaker 1: maybe overnight shifts and those kinds of things, like the
Speaker 1: schedule just may not be flexible for them to kind
Speaker 1: of build in times. So what kind of suggestions would
Speaker 1: you give for people who you know really may not
Speaker 1: have the time to kind of do some of this
Speaker 1: reflection and um things that we've talked about. Um, what
Speaker 1: I say, it's to start with five, ten, twenty thirty
Speaker 1: minutes for yourself a day. It could be while you're
Speaker 1: taking a shower, just reconnecting with yourself. You know, you
Speaker 1: can spend a little extra time in the bathroom, you know,
Speaker 1: take a nap, you know, things like that. You know,
Speaker 1: like I said, disconnecting in the car before you enter
Speaker 1: your home. Little things like that. It's it's self care,
Speaker 1: you know, I Like I said, we think about the
Speaker 1: grand scheme of things, but we can think about the
Speaker 1: little steps that lead to the big foundation of you know,
Speaker 1: the overall self care. So what little things can you
Speaker 1: do for yourself daily that's for you and that's for
Speaker 1: your mental wealth. Yeah, I think the shower is a
Speaker 1: good example, right because I think a lot of times
Speaker 1: we are just going through the day, like trying to
Speaker 1: check things off of our lists, as opposed to really
Speaker 1: taking some time to be intentional about you know, like
Speaker 1: paying attention to with the water feels like on your body,
Speaker 1: and you know, really using some of that time that
Speaker 1: you have to do anyway, like we have to take
Speaker 1: a shower, you know, clean ourselves in some way, and
Speaker 1: so using that time to also be multipurpose in terms
Speaker 1: of giving us some self care as well, exactly, you
Speaker 1: know the shower. Be more purposeful with your eating, you know,
Speaker 1: sit there and actually in joy it. I know as
Speaker 1: a mom, you know a lot of times I'm just
Speaker 1: you know, eating on the go or trying to you know,
Speaker 1: eat whatever the kids have left over. But sometimes I
Speaker 1: have to be real intentional and purposeful with my eating
Speaker 1: to know, okay, you know, let me sit down and
Speaker 1: enjoy my meal. Let me have my meal while it's hot.
Speaker 1: Things like that is is self care as well. Mmmmm yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's a really good woman, Maria. I mean, and
Speaker 1: I'm a mom too, and so you know, I do
Speaker 1: know that it feels like there's always something to do
Speaker 1: for the kids, right like, Okay, we gotta do this,
Speaker 1: then we got soccer practice, then we gotta do bads
Speaker 1: and homework and you know all this. So so I
Speaker 1: do think it's really hard sometimes to try to figure out, um,
Speaker 1: you know, like what time can I carve out for myself.
Speaker 1: So personally, you know, I tend to like stay up
Speaker 1: later than everybody else because that is in the time
Speaker 1: where you know, I can have like some peace to
Speaker 1: kind of do whatever I want. Um do you have
Speaker 1: other tips maybe for moms who are you know, struggling
Speaker 1: to kind of manage our schedule like this? Um? Yes,
Speaker 1: I have a whole lot of tips. One thing that
Speaker 1: I know I do for me, like you, I stay
Speaker 1: up a little later and then I just have I
Speaker 1: get to enjoy a show that I may not have
Speaker 1: gotten to enjoy earlier, because you know, sometimes the TV
Speaker 1: is always on cartoons or a movie that is you know,
Speaker 1: family related, So staying up and watching a movie, staying
Speaker 1: up and journaling. UM time like get up before everybody
Speaker 1: else and just enjoy the quietness. Um. Sometimes I take
Speaker 1: a mental health day and my kids are at school
Speaker 1: and I'm at home actually just enjoying the quietness of
Speaker 1: the home and connecting with myself and figuring out, okay,
Speaker 1: what's my next step. If you're able to do those things,
Speaker 1: you know. Um, So those are some of the tips.
Speaker 1: I mean, you know, exercising is another good one. Taking
Speaker 1: a lunch by yourself, you know, if the kids are napping,
Speaker 1: take that time, and you know, take a nap yourself.
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of times when the kids are sleeping,
Speaker 1: we want to go and do do do, but take
Speaker 1: a nap yourself so you're re energized. That's a good point.
Speaker 1: And I think sometimes, you know, I was having a
Speaker 1: conversation with someone I can't remember recently about like how
Speaker 1: self care can sometimes really be distractions, and so we
Speaker 1: do want to make sure that we are paying attention
Speaker 1: to what we're actually doing right because sometimes you know,
Speaker 1: like napping is really good, especially if it's a restorative
Speaker 1: kind of thing, but sometimes we want to sleep because
Speaker 1: we don't want to avoid or we want to avoid
Speaker 1: doing what we really need to be doing. Right, So, exactly,
Speaker 1: I have that problem. Yeah, that's good. I always needed that. Yes,
Speaker 1: I think that's an important distinction to me, that we
Speaker 1: don't kind of fall into using self care as a
Speaker 1: way of avoiding other things we need to really be doing.
Speaker 1: The problem or the issue will still be there when
Speaker 1: you get out exactly, exactly. Yeah. And sometimes you can't
Speaker 1: even enjoy the nap, right because the anxiety of what
Speaker 1: you're supposed to be doing breaks through, and then it's
Speaker 1: not even RESTful sleep exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So are there
Speaker 1: other things you feel like are left out of these
Speaker 1: conversations around self care since it has become such a buzzword.
Speaker 1: Are there other things you think we should be paying
Speaker 1: attention to. I think that we should be paying attention
Speaker 1: to our our red flags and triggers and know that
Speaker 1: when it's gotten to the point that we can't do
Speaker 1: it on our own, it's okay to ask for help.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of times, you know, we especially
Speaker 1: as black women, do not like to ask for help
Speaker 1: or go see a therapist, and things like that have
Speaker 1: depend on somebody in your support circle. And I think
Speaker 1: we need to get back to knowing that that it's
Speaker 1: okay to ask for help. It's okay to see a therapist,
Speaker 1: it's okay to say, you know, I can't do this.
Speaker 1: You know I've had enough. It's okay to do those
Speaker 1: things because that is taking care of yourself. Yeah. And
Speaker 1: I would even add it's okay to make that call
Speaker 1: even before you get to that point, right, you know,
Speaker 1: because I think a lot of times we do wait
Speaker 1: until it gets to we're at a point of overwhelming
Speaker 1: exhaustion before we want to reach out, as opposed to like, okay,
Speaker 1: I can see this coming down the line, let me
Speaker 1: go head and try to put some things in place
Speaker 1: to prevent me from getting to overwhelm exactly. That's why
Speaker 1: it's so important to be aware of what your triggers
Speaker 1: are and what those warning signs look like, so that
Speaker 1: as soon as you see one, you know, okay, we're
Speaker 1: getting there. Let's let's go and let me go back
Speaker 1: and and refer. I give my my clients a actual
Speaker 1: support circle sheet, and I'm like, Okay, in times of loneliness,
Speaker 1: I can rely on this person when I just need
Speaker 1: to vent. I can rely on this person when I
Speaker 1: need advice, I can rely on this person, refer back
Speaker 1: to that sheet, and you know, call those people, call
Speaker 1: on them. So you've mentioned some of these triggers and
Speaker 1: warning signs a couple of times when Maria, So, I
Speaker 1: want to make sure we give people like if they
Speaker 1: don't know that this is a warning sign or a
Speaker 1: trigger for them, Can you give some examples, um, that
Speaker 1: people may be able to recognize in their own lives. Yes, Um,
Speaker 1: paying attention to your body. So things that you know,
Speaker 1: if my heart starts to you know, rapid beat, if
Speaker 1: I'm feeling those anxious feeling you know, feelings of anxiousness.
Speaker 1: If I'm feeling you know, frustrated, if i feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, if one more thing comes on my plate,
Speaker 1: I'm just going to break down. Those are warning signs anger.
Speaker 1: What is a depression? These are all warning signs if
Speaker 1: you see that you are getting to the point where, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm feeling a lot more sad than usual. What is
Speaker 1: causing this? Going back to seeing what is causing all
Speaker 1: of these feelings that you're feelings. So it's about paying
Speaker 1: attention to your body and knowing that because we all
Speaker 1: kind of have a base level. So when you start
Speaker 1: to see things that are not at that base level.
Speaker 1: Those are your warning signs or whatever experiences your body
Speaker 1: is feeling for your personal self, those are your red flags,
Speaker 1: warning signs and triggers. Yeah, and I think, like you
Speaker 1: mentioned related to you know, physical symptoms, you will also
Speaker 1: see sometimes like increase headaches and st make issues, you know,
Speaker 1: which is why a lot of people end up in
Speaker 1: like their primary care doctors all right, like they will
Speaker 1: have all of this other stuff going on and not
Speaker 1: realize that it's actually connected to something emotional health wise.
Speaker 1: And you know, knowing that again with the boundaries the triggers,
Speaker 1: if I'm around this person, I always feel like this,
Speaker 1: If I'm in this setting, I feel anxious, you know,
Speaker 1: knowing that the setting is not somewhere you need to
Speaker 1: be or you need to set boundaries around that setting
Speaker 1: or that person. So being aware of that as well.
Speaker 1: So I want to lead in now to your book
Speaker 1: because I bet so your your new book coming out
Speaker 1: is a self care affirmation journal, and I'm guessing that
Speaker 1: there's probably some space to journal around how you're feeling
Speaker 1: in particular spaces, you know, because I think we don't
Speaker 1: always pay attention to that right, Like, we don't always
Speaker 1: pay attention to how drained we feel after spending time
Speaker 1: with that particular friend, right, um, And I think making
Speaker 1: some of those connections can be really good. So can
Speaker 1: you tell us a little bit about what led you
Speaker 1: to creating the journal? Yes, I can so. As I
Speaker 1: stated earlier, I have two private practices. One deal specifically
Speaker 1: with black parents who have an an autistic child. The
Speaker 1: other one deals with um black women who are dealing
Speaker 1: with postpartum depression and anxiety. And what I started to
Speaker 1: see and working with both of those practices is that
Speaker 1: they were spending so much time focusing on everybody around them.
Speaker 1: And you know, the example I would give them is
Speaker 1: they had a glass of water, and they kept giving
Speaker 1: the water to everybody else, and then when it was
Speaker 1: time for them to take a drink, they had nothing,
Speaker 1: you know, so they weren't taking care of themselves. And
Speaker 1: I just started to notice this pattern with them that
Speaker 1: even when we try to talk about self care, they
Speaker 1: didn't even know what that looked like for them. They
Speaker 1: didn't even know how to go about, you know, setting
Speaker 1: up self care for themselves. So I said, you know what,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna make a book and make it
Speaker 1: easier for you, so you can get the foundation with
Speaker 1: this book, and then that book will lead you to
Speaker 1: creating a self care plan for yourself that works, you know,
Speaker 1: and you can change, you know, as you change as
Speaker 1: a person. So that's how you know, I got into
Speaker 1: UM developing the book. It was initially for those two
Speaker 1: groups that I was dealing with, but then I was like,
Speaker 1: you know what, everybody can benefit from this. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: definitely sounds like a really good resource that will be available. Well,
Speaker 1: it is available. Yeah, So what are some of your
Speaker 1: other favorite resources around self carecter or their books are
Speaker 1: things that you find yourself frequently um sharing with your clients. UM.
Speaker 1: I read a lot of Burnet Brown. I think that
Speaker 1: her books, you know, kind of get you back centered
Speaker 1: to self and help you figure out a lot. Is
Speaker 1: something I recommend a lot to my clients, are her readings. UM.
Speaker 1: And then I also just tell them to go down
Speaker 1: the barns and no while and look at self self
Speaker 1: care and self help. And there'll be things like work
Speaker 1: books like anxiety work books or UM journals and things
Speaker 1: like that and pick one up and use it intentionally,
Speaker 1: you know, UM, things like that. I I tell them
Speaker 1: to watch a movie, you know, resources that can show them,
Speaker 1: you know, what self care looks like for them. So
Speaker 1: I tell them, you know, go and look at these
Speaker 1: resources and be intentional with them. So those things I
Speaker 1: recommend to my clients. So sounds great. And Burnee Brown
Speaker 1: is a podcast favorite. UM, lots of therapies who have
Speaker 1: been Yes, of course love Renee's works and I definitely
Speaker 1: think those are great books to grab copies of. So
Speaker 1: where can we find you online? Mario? What's your website
Speaker 1: as well as any social media handles you'd like to share? Okay? So, um,
Speaker 1: you can find me at www dot Autism in Black
Speaker 1: dot org or www dot Day by Day Therapy dot com.
Speaker 1: And then my social media handles are if you're on Facebook,
Speaker 1: it's autism in BLK, instag Am and Twitter are autism
Speaker 1: in Black b L A c K spelled out great
Speaker 1: And of course we will include all of that information
Speaker 1: in the show notes. Definitely make sure you grab your
Speaker 1: copy of the journal so that you can't be more
Speaker 1: intentional about your self care. Yes, it's available on Amazon.
Speaker 1: It's UM fifty two Affirmations for self Care. You can
Speaker 1: use it for fifty two days or use it in
Speaker 1: a weekly format and take you through a whole year.
Speaker 1: Very cool. Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Maria.
Speaker 1: Thank you for having me. I'm so thankful Maria was
Speaker 1: able to share her expertise with us today. To check
Speaker 1: out the resources that she shared and to learn more
Speaker 1: about her practice, visit the show notes at Therapy for
Speaker 1: Black Girls dot com slash Session seventy seven, and please
Speaker 1: make sure to share your takeaways from the episode in
Speaker 1: your i G stories are on Twitter, be sure to
Speaker 1: use the hashtag tv G and session that we can
Speaker 1: find them and share them. If you're looking for a
Speaker 1: therapist in your area, be sure to visit the therapist
Speaker 1: directory at Therapy for Black Girls dot com slash directory,
Speaker 1: and don't forget to check out the Therapy for Black
Speaker 1: Girls store. To grab yourself a T shirt or a
Speaker 1: mug to show your love for the podcast, you can
Speaker 1: find it at Therapy for Black Girls dot com slash shop.
Speaker 1: And if you want to continue this conversation and join
Speaker 1: a community of other sisters who listen to the podcast,
Speaker 1: join us over in the Thrive tribe at Therapy for
Speaker 1: Black Girls dot com slash tribe. Make sure you answer
Speaker 1: the three questions that are asked to gain jury. Thank
Speaker 1: y'all so much for joining me again this week, and
Speaker 1: I look forward to continue in this conversation with you
Speaker 1: all real sued, Take good care, pur often all oftor
Speaker 1: par often A often par oftor