When she co-founded the Black Brain Campaign in 2016, Farida Boyer explains, the program was meant as a way to talk to the community about the importance of mental health.
“It just really started off with us going around the communities, partnering with elected officials at their events, talking about the importance of mental health and why people should get therapy,” said Boyer, who worked then at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
While the program was evolving, Boyer was also working to take her career to the next step. At CHOP, she worked with parents on how to get the most for their children from the hospital’s Head Start program. She also led a team that provided home visits to support families. She felt she’d done all that she could to help the community in that role.
“I decided to go back to school, because I still wanted to help the community,” she said. “So I decided to go back to school to get my master’s degree in marriage and family therapy.”
Therapists typically get their master’s degree, and then must get licensed to be on insurance panels, which involves a sit-down test. Boyer quickly became a resource for others who were also preparing for the exam.
“During the time when I was in the process of becoming licensed, other clinicians were starting to study to take the test as well,” she said. “And so, a few people asked me if they could study with me. So what I did using my teaching skills was I created a program that we would meet once a week, three hours a week. Everybody would take a turn to teach the lesson, the chapter for that week. We did that for a year. It was six of us. All of us are licensed [now].”
Initially, Boyer did not feel ready to take her exam. It helped her realize how arduous the process is.
“I didn’t feel like I was ready, so I rescheduled my test. When I rescheduled my tests, it was another $200. And all I thought was the test itself is probably about $300, but just to retake it is another $200 and I’m thinking the average person is not going to have this kind of money to keep putting out to take an exam.”
Something clicked for Boyer after analyzing these costs.
Taking the LEAP
National exam prices vary based on the kind of therapist someone is testing to be, or what certification a state requires. Two popular exams – the National Counselor Examination and the National Clinical Mental Health Counseling Examination require fees that can reach $375.
Practicing therapists must get a state license to legally practice. In Pennsylvania, a national certification is almost always required, depending on the kind of therapist. These licenses are not only important legally, but the specific distinctions also increase job opportunities, insurance coverage and salaries.
Boyer said she noticed there are a lot of people of color, particularly those in the Black community, who struggle with moving through the licensure process.
“A lot of them have master’s degrees and just people I know in general have master degrees but have not moved forward in getting their license,” she said. “A part of it is the supervision, paying for the exam and then seeing clients and stuff like that.”
According to Counseling Psychology, less than 5% of mental health therapists in the U.S. are Black or African American.
Boyer said she became passionate about getting more Black therapists licensed and removing the stigma of mental health from the Black community.
From there, the Licensure Education Assistance Program, shortened to LEAP, was born.
“I started raising funds so that we could pay for people to become licensed,” she said. “We are paying for everything for them.”
The 12-month training course includes weekly training toward the exam, individual supervision, the ability to gain clinical hours toward licensure and cost coverage for textbooks and other materials. The program also covers exam fees.
The preparation is specific for those taking the Pennsylvania licensure exam for Marriage & Family Therapy and Professional Counseling. There are other eligibility requirements as well.
Cohorts begin once a year, in September.
Boyer’s own study cohort was the first group that participated. Since then, the program has welcomed several groups of aspiring therapists and led them toward licensure.
Schante’ Frazier was a part of the LEAP program beginning in 2022. She said she is not familiar with another program in the area that has the same focus on or resources specific to people of color.
“So the Black Brain Campaign helps with financial resources,” she said. “They pay for your exam, they set up a training program — and now I am one of the people that helps with that. They also help with study groups.
“They give you all of the materials that you need and they give you the hours that you need to help you with licensure.”
Frazier said destigmatizing the seeking out mental healthcare is another unique part of the BBC’s mission.
“It’s important to Farida to destigmatize mental health and to not think of it as being this horrible thing,” she said. “And helping to bring awareness to it, that this is just something, just as if you had a heart attack, if you had something going on with your leg or anything else that you would go see somebody.”
Frazier is now a training coordinator for the Black Brain Campaign – helping out with newer cohorts. She emphasizes this program is a unique opportunity and she holds it “near and dear” to her heart.
Free and low-cost therapy services
A related component of the Black Brain Campaign is providing free therapy services.
“I was like, how do we still give back to the community?” Boyer said. “So then, we started providing our free therapy programs, so those clinicians who were getting the supervision from us and in the process of becoming licensed were the clinicians that were providing the mental health therapy services.”
The therapy sessions provide trainees with supervised practice hours, which is a condition of licensure, and allows those in the community to benefit from no-cost care. These services can be used by anyone in Pennsylvania, she said, with limited exceptions.
“The only way you will not be able to utilize our services is if you are currently in danger of harming yourself or somebody else, because then you’ll need a higher level of treatment that we can’t provide,” she said. “The other one is if you’re actively receiving medication, because it’s 12 sessions and most of the time if you’re receiving medication, it’s something that’s ongoing. So, you should have a therapist you’re working with full time.”
The organization initially offered eight free sessions to participants, Boyer said, but soon found this wasn’t enough.
“We only were providing eight sessions and then the therapist that we’re working with was like, ‘By the time we get to eight sessions, we feel like we’re starting to connect with them,’ ” she said. “So we decided to increase them to 12.”
Michele Abraham-Montgomery wears many hats. In addition to being a mother and grandmother, she runs programming for research about autism at various universities and she is a grant reviewer for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She is also a sleep navigator at CHOP, where she guides individuals through their sleep disorder journeys.
She is also the CEO and co-founder of Spectrum Success 911, a nonprofit organization championing and supporting individuals on the spectrum and their families. She also does a lot of outreach and partnerships with related community organizations.
Abraham-Montgomery said she got connected with the Black Brain Campaign through her work in the community as a family peer coach and peer specialist. She explained both of these roles involve helping families make the best choices for their lives, which can involve listening to stories about their difficulties, challenges and crises.
“About four years ago, I experienced what is called vicarious trauma,” she said. “And vicarious trauma is like when people tell you toxic information, you start having symptoms, even though it didn’t happen to you.”
She said she went to the E.R. while experiencing this, and doctors quickly recognized what was happening. Abraham-Montgomery said this was a wakeup call for her. She began to incorporate more rest and relaxation, and quickly decided therapy was necessary on her journey.
“I signed up as a professional because I think it’s so important that professionals also receive these services, because we’re taking in so much information, and it should be a cycle of self-care, where families and our clients pour into us, and then we should have a way to expel that and pour into someone else,” she said. “And so by me connecting with the Black Brain Campaign, I was given an opportunity to expel some of the information I’m taking in from the people of the families that I’m working with.”
Abraham-Montgomery said the therapy that Black Brain Campaign provided was different from anything she’d experienced before. She enjoyed the open and curious nature of her sessions.
“I have been going to other therapists before, and I felt like they were more or less overbearing, like telling me what to do, as opposed to helping me and being a co-discoverer with me,” she said. “She was helping me by using phrases like, ‘How did you feel about that? Do you feel that that would be the best course of action for you?’ ”
Abraham-Montgomery felt some hesitancy about going into therapy as a professional herself. The BBC, she explained, allowed her to feel empowered by her decision to go to therapy.
“I didn’t feel like there was shame, blame or judgment in my sessions, and that’s what I love so much about working with the Black Brain Campaign,” she said. “Just to remove that judgment factor, because I have been going to other places where I felt like I was being judged as an individual and as a professional and being asked, ‘Why are you here if you’re a professional?’ ”
Abraham-Montgomery adds that she feels the program “breaks the cycle of silence in Black and Brown homes and communities” and encourages these communities to feel empowered about sharing their emotions.
After the initial 12 free sessions, Boyer explained, BBC offers another 12 sessions for $25 per visit. From there, the organization can refer people elsewhere.
“If then we feel like you still need care, then we’ll start referring you out, because then there’s something long term that you may need,” Boyer said.
Abraham-Montgomery said she did the 24 sessions with the BBC, then continued therapy elsewhere. She is grateful for the opportunities this provided her.
The Black Brain Campaign offers individual, couples and family therapy. This is available at three in-person locations and via telehealth as well. The BBC website includes contact information to set up appointments.
Plans for new facility
Beyond LEAP and therapy, Boyer said, the organization provides other services – including case management, help in schools and community outreach. She is also looking to expand BBC’s footprint.
“My goal is to also get a training facility,” she said. “We partner with other organizations to sometimes host trainings and different things like that, but I would like for us to have a whole wellness center, where you can come to us and we might have a yoga studio, we might have a meditation studio. So I want everything to be housed in one space.”
The organization’s case management services provide individual care and support to those facing mental illness, disabilities and financial hardships in the community.
Boyer emphasizes the Black Brain Campaign’s mission really comes down to one thing – providing a “safe space” in the community.
“The reality is we’re all going through something in any part of your life,” she said. “I don’t care if you’re white, Black, Asian American, it doesn’t matter. We’re all going through something and even just being in the inner city, there’s a lot that happens. So, we want to make sure that we are a resource to the community, and we want to have a partnership in a community where people know it’s a safe space to go get help.”
