Sandtrice D. Russell is a fierce mental health advocate whose life's mission is empowering others through education. Her childhood upbringing led her into the helping profession and she is committed to helping remove the stigma associated with pursuing mental health services. Sandtrice is a Licensed Professional Therapist in Georgia and Texas. She is also the founder of Unique Destiny Counseling, the the author of the Minding my Own Mental Health Journal, published in 2024, and the host of the Self-Aware & F**ked Up Podcast™.
Sandtrice D. Russell, Unique Destiny Counseling
Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better.
I'm Sandtrice D. Russell and I'm a helper at heart. Six months ago, if you had asked me to tell you about myself, I would have likely introduced myself as a Licensed Professional Counselor, a Podcast Host, and an Author. Fortunately, through my journey of self-discovery, I've learned that those things are what I do, not who I am. While I serve in all of those roles and I love what I do, at the core, I'm just a good-hearted, unique, dope, fun-loving person, who loves helping others, and enjoys traveling the world with my wife; living the life that I always dreamed of as a kid.
I'm passionate about theatre and consider myself to be a bit of a theatre snob. I actually studied theatre during undergrad and have a deep love for going to see Broadway productions, as well as local theatre and comedy improv shows. I often tell people that I work professionally to fund my leisure activities which include going to live music venues, festivals, and visiting unique places around the world. My favorite place to be is near the water on a pretty beach with soft sand, listening to the waves come in.
I also love spending time with my knucklehead dog, Riley who is absolutely the cutest little guy that you'll ever meet. He's a Chi-Shi and he definitely lives up to both sides of his breed. Most of my clients have had the opportunity to meet him because he loves sitting in my lap during my virtual therapy sessions.
I've been in the helping profession for 20 years as of 2024, and I wouldn't trade what I do for anything. Helping others helps me better understand myself and the world around me. As a counselor, I specialize in working with clients with anxiety, depression, PTSD, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community who are in need of a safe space. I identify as the L in LGBTQIA and I'm dedicated to creating safe spaces for my clients and the world at large to live in their truth.
What motivated you to start Unique Destiny Counseling, and how has your journey as a licensed mental health counselor influenced the services you offer?
I was initially motivated to start Unique Destiny Inc, the non-profit portion of my organization because I had a desire to open an Independent Living Program (ILP) for LGBTQIA+ youth who had been displaced by their parents due to their queer identity. During the earlier years of my career when I worked in group homes, I noticed how poorly LGBTQIA+ youth were treated by group home staff members and their peers. I wanted to build a space for them to feel safe and free to be their authentic selves. Serving the LGBTQIA+ community will always be at the core of what I do as a licensed mental health provider.
Once I realized that my goal of starting an ILP required a bit more financial capital than I had access to, I pivoted and shifted my focus to providing culturally competent mental health counseling for members of the LGBTQIA+ community. I mostly offer individual therapy for teens and adults who are having difficulty navigating their sexuality or gender identity as well as those who have accepted their identity but struggle to find their place in the world as a queer person. I help those individuals learn to accept their queer identity, navigate through the unique challenges that we face, and begin to live their lives on their own terms.
Can you elaborate on the unique challenges and approaches you employ when working with the LGBTQIA+ community?
People within the LGBTQIA+ community often deal with mental health issues at a rate much higher than those from the "heteronormative" culture. This is often because many people within our community must cope with things like homophobia, transphobia, and the social stigma that comes with being a part of the community. Initially, when people within the community discover that they identify as anything outside of heterosexual, they may deal with things like internalized homophobia or transphobia, and this can have a detrimental impact on their overall mental health. Many of them essentially end up living double lives in order to be accepted by those in their lives and there is an internal fight between their true identity and their desire to be a part of the "heteronormative" culture.
Several queer people who come out of the closet also deal with things like bullying, harassment, and microaggressions within the workplace which creates an environment where they do not feel psychologically safe to be themselves. There is also the impact that religious beliefs and sometimes religious trauma can have on members of the queer community. These are all things that can have an impact on the overall mental of LGBTQIA+ people and their mental health can also impact their physical, emotional, and social health.
LGBTQIA+ people are an underrepresented population, and this often results in them experiencing things like discrimination and rejection in their lives. All of these things impact how they see themselves, and how they view the world around them and many of these things are what bring LGBTQIA+ people to see a therapist like me who understands the challenges that we face from a personal and professional point of view.
When working with LGBTQIA+ people, the main strategy that I implement is helping them cultivate self-love through creating their own narrative. I allow them to be their authentic selves and accept them as they are which allows them to self-reflect and become comfortable in their own skin. I use self-disclosure when necessary to affirm for them that they can be free with me, and it creates an environment where they feel safe to take off their masks. One of the other big components for helping my queer clients is through encouraging them to build their own local or online queer community. It's important for LGBTQIA+ people to know that they are not alone and that there are others who have gone through similar situations. Building community and engaging in things like self-care, meditation, and affirmations help our community transform from shame into strength.
How do you ensure a nonjudgmental and supportive environment for clients dealing with anxiety and depression?
It's sort of difficult to judge someone who is dealing with anxiety and depression when I've quite literally dealt with anxiety and depression for most of my life. One thing that I do in order to ensure that I don't become judgmental is to remind myself that everyone's journey toward healing and recovery looks different.
When working with clients, who are dealing with anxiety and depression, my first approach is to normalize it. Both conditions are extremely prevalent across various populations and ethnic groups and across the entire lifespan. Life is tough, so anyone who has never dealt with anxiety or depression should consider themselves to be very lucky.
After I normalize both of those conditions, the next thing that I do to ensure that I provide a supportive environment is to provide my clients with tools to help them navigate through and work towards lessening their symptoms of anxiety/depression. We always start by exploring what tools they already have in their toolbox and then we start to build from there. Treating anxiety and depression involves changing how well we take care of ourselves and changing our thoughts and core beliefs.
What types of workshops and resources do you provide, and how do they complement your one- on-one counseling sessions?
I have a few DEI workshops that I present to clinicians and corporations. One of the most popular workshops that I facilitate is "The Bigger Picture: Understanding the Role of Historical Trauma in African American Identity Development." This is a cultural competency workshop focused on educating people about the unique challenges faced by Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC). In the workshop, we explore the role of intergenerational trauma, microaggression, and racism on black people's mental health.
In addition to this, I also facilitate workshops on Self-Care, Self-Esteem, and Crisis Debriefing. I provide DECI workshops for corporations facilitate trainings and serve on panels within the community.
What inspired you to create the "Self Aware and Fucked Up™" podcast, and what topics do you find most resonate with your audience?
I created the "Self-Aware and F**ked Up™" podcast along with my wife, Jade, out of the desire to destigmatize seeking mental health services and to help people around the world who may be struggling with their mental health. On the podcast, I typically have a guest who serves as a subject matter expert on a taboo topic related to mental health, wellness, or societal experiences. I serve as the host, and I use comedy and real-life experiences to connect with my audience and impart knowledge. People tend to learn more when they have fun and can laugh at themselves while learning about why they do some of the things they do.
The topics that my audience is most drawn to are navigating relationships with narcissists, learning how to live life authentically, and of course, everyone loves the episodes on intimacy and sex therapy. Episodes for the Self-Aware and F**ked Up™" can be found on all major streaming platforms and on YouTube.
How have your personal experiences with depression, esteem issues, and anxiety shaped your counseling methods and client interactions?
I've struggled with depression and anxiety for most of my life. I didn't realize growing up that my depression was masked by the immense amount of anger that I felt due to being abandoned by my parents. As I grew older, I started to realize how much damage being abandoned had caused to my mental health, attachment style, and self-worth. In fact, it was my personal mental health challenges as a child and my struggle with abandonment that led me on my journey to become a counselor. I wanted to be able to help other children who had gone through what I went through growing up navigate through their feelings of anger, abandonment, and depression.
My personal experiences with depression, self-esteem, and anxiety have significantly impacted how I show up as a therapist. My lived experience helps me to connect with my clients and deepens my empathy for their individual circumstances. I use many of the counseling techniques that I've learned during my personal therapeutic journey to help me educate clients and give them practice examples of how to navigate through their own personal challenges. It's one thing to teach someone a technique that you learned in academia, but it is a completely life-changing experience to teach them techniques that you learned in academia and then applied to your own life.
Tell us about your greatest career achievement so far.
My greatest career achievement thus has been creating The Bigger Picture workshop and being able to educate a massive amount of clinicians in my home state on the importance of cultural competency in working with BIPOC. I recall vividly attending a conference in Savannah, Georgia with my wife for the Licensed Professional Counselors Association of GA in 2021. At this conference, I felt disappointed with the lack of cultural diversity trainings that were being offered by the organization. Instead of complaining about the lack of diversity, I decided to apply to become a presenter which is how The Bigger Picture workshop began.
My first time presenting this workshop, I did not know what to expect. I was fearful of how I would be received by my peers and by my non-BIPOC colleagues. I put my heart, soul, and tears into this project and when I was accepted as a presenter for the annual conference in 2022 in my hometown of LaGrange, GA, it was a huge success. The feedback that I received, led me to offer additional workshops virtually in order to allow other clinicians to attend from around the state.
This workshop opened the door for clinicians of all races and ethnic groups to have authentic conversations about things like historical trauma, internalized racism, and implicit bias in a forum that was curated for clinicians. While I had a few participants who purchased tickets in order to troll me and other participants, the overall feedback was positive and I've been able to present the workshop multiple times since its inception.
The success of this workshop helped me to actualize some of my goals around training and educating others and it affirmed my love for teaching things that I'm passionate about.
Tell us about your book "Minding My Own Mental Health: A Comprehensive Guide to Self-Care"
I created the "Minding my Own Mental Health" Journal because I want people who can not afford to go to see a therapist every week to have access to tools to improve their overall mental, physical, and emotional health. I've been fortunate enough to be in therapy continuously for the past six years and I made the self-discovery that while I was succeeding in my professional self-care, I was doing very poorly in various other dimensions of my wellness.
For years, I've worked in the field of mental health, and I've experienced burnout, depression, and anxiety repeatedly. Over the years, I poured so much of myself into my career and helping others that I left very little in my cup for myself. It wasn't until I discovered a tool for assessing my personal wellness that I truly learned how to bring balance to my life and my overall mental health. I essentially created a journal that allows people to assess how well they are functioning within each area of wellness, create a self-care plan to address areas of deficit, and a tool to actively explore and track their progress in each area through curated journal prompts.
I've learned that self-care is the absolute best care and this journal will lead you on a journal of living your best, most authentic, and balanced life.
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