By Dianne Anderson

Black men may need that strong shoulder to cry on –  but naturally suspicious of healthcare providers – can now take heart knowing that therapists who look like them are just around the corner.

With nine therapy local locations, and another Colton Wellness Center coming soon, Marty Sellers is gaining mental health traction in the Inland Empire.

Sellers, a marriage and family therapist, understands the community’s reluctance to seek help.

It’s not just about stigma, he said, but that young Black men often feel alone, or have anxiety they can’t explain. It could be heightened race hate, discrimination in aspects of life or work, or just the high cost of living.

He advises clients to take a breath, take a walk at the park or run, and go to group therapy, but also know that in these unstable times, negative emotions are not so unusual.

“You’re seeing a bodily response experience that is natural, but if no one tells you that it’s a normal response, we might think it’s crazy,” said Marty Sellers, MFT, MTS Chief Executive Officer of MarSell Wellness Center.

Soon, he opens his tenth Wellness Center, which has grown over the years to over 150 employees with a clinical team of over 25 therapists in several locations, including Moreno Valley and the corporate office in Ontario.

He also contracts with Riverside County with mental health and behavioral health services for DPSS, where he offers domestic violence and anger management services.

Lately, he said money is no longer an excuse for not getting care and good therapy.

For nearly five years, he’s jumped through bureaucratic hoops to finally be able to accept Medi-Cal to provide free services for his clients. He also wants to show other providers how to navigate the difficult process and pitfalls.

“It’s not only fighting the system, but we’re fighting systemically with the powers-that-be that holds the keys to the kingdom with getting people the help they need,” he said.

Especially for younger Black men, they need the extra help. From what he sees, there are many reasons why the suicide rate continues to climb. One is getting educated about how to handle life’s challenges, and that whatever the problem, it’s temporary.

“When you’re so overwhelmed you don’t see the other side of it, I think a lot of our young black men are overwhelmed by life,” he said.

Although they are graduating high school in greater numbers, they are not going to college at the same rate as Black women, even as a college diploma these days is worth what a high school diploma was worth decades ago.

Another reason is Black kids too often are wrongly medicated, under or overmedicated, or improperly diagnosed. It’s not helping them to develop the emotional maturity they need to survive.

“Chemical imbalances and some of this can be induced because of wrong medication,” he said. “We see it all the time in hospitals when someone is physically misdiagnosed. Now imagine a mental health misdiagnosis and all these years on the wrong medication.”

Boys also lag longer than girls in mental development. For men, he said it’s about mid-20s, compared to girls, who mature earlier at about 17 or 18 years.

“We’re putting these psychotropes on an undeveloped brain,” he said.

Drugs, instead of therapy, can lead to bigger problems down the line. Not that all drugs are bad, but he feels it’s a very temporary solution to a bigger problem.

“I have a client who told me they got so tired of feeling drugged all the time that felt like having an out-of-body experience. There are many other things we could do. Let’s look at the food deserts in these communities,” he said.

In his group, Black men met up regularly to talk about things they were afraid to talk about. Being in a group with other Black men confirmed they were not alone.

“These were young men pursuing their Associate and Bachelor degrees, [saying] we’ve never understood what mental health was. One said he proudly shared he was going to a group therapy session, he actually got permission to say he’s not okay and didn’t feel judged,” Sellers said.

Not long ago, suicide in the Black community was considered an anomaly, but that has changed, according to several studies.

Besides American Indian or Alaska Native, Blacks experienced the highest percent change from 2011-2021, the Kaiser Family Foundation reports.

They show that suicide deaths are increasing fastest among people of color, younger individuals, and people who live in rural areas.

“Between 2011 and 2021, suicide death rates increased substantially among people of color, with the highest increase among AIAN people (70% increase, from 16.5 to 28.1 per 100,000), followed by Black (58% increase, from 5.5 to 8.7 per 100,000), and Hispanic (39% increase, 5.7 to 7.9 per 100,000) people (Figure 3). Other studies show a particularly large increase in suicide deaths among Black youth and adolescents,” the study said.

In another recent report, the University of Georgia addressed reasons why young Black men are dying by suicide at alarming rates. The study points to racism, and childhood trauma may be to blame for suicidal thoughts.

Citing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the study shows that suicide is the second leading cause of death for African Americans between the ages of 15 and 24, with suicide prevalent among Black men, dying at a rate more than four times that of Black women.

“I think we often don’t look at where the disparities are and who the individuals most at risk are when we’re talking about suicide ideation,” said Michael Curtis, co-author of the study and a graduate of UGA’s Human Development and Family Science Department in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences. “We just know it’s bad, and particularly among young Black men.

For more information on therapy, see https://marsellwc.com/

To see the KFF Study, https://www.kff.org/mental-health/issue-brief/a-look-at-the-latest-suicide-data-and-change-over-the-last-decade/

For suicide intervention and help, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988