Couple Brings Culturally Centered Perspective to Mental Health

New approach provides a safe place for Southeast residents besieged by trauma and stress

Courageous Healing Inc. and Courageous Living LLC are manifestations of power couple Aaron and Janell Lane, as they approach mental health services and competency training in the Fort Wayne community, in new ways.

The two have worked in the community — Aaron in social work and Janell as one of the few local licensed Black female counselors — as they continue to pour into the southeast side of Fort Wayne where they both grew up.

Janell holds a master’s degree in mental health counseling from Ball State University, with an emphasis on providing community-based mental health services. Aaron has a master’s in organizational leadership from Indiana Tech and a master’s in clinical social work from Indiana University.

They started their services under one company in 2014, and over the years they’ve grown the business into two separate entities, a nonprofit, Courageous Healing Inc., that provides culturally centered counseling services, and Courageous Living LLC, that provides consulting services and training on cultural competency to organizations, businesses and others.

In the current climate, Janell said the work they do and the population they serve means they have to operate on all levels — micro (individual/family), mezzo (organizations/communities) and macro (systems/policy), which can be a daily challenge.

They are being pulled more than ever to support the community in this way. In July, they hosted a video series that can be found on their Facebook or YouTube pages in which they discuss topics including anxiety and depression, the traumatic impact of racism, and toxic stress, among others.

As we got to the end of our conversation, we discussed how living the way we do has been normalized as we are stressed and under duress almost daily, which is not a normal way to live. We discussed that in these challenging times we must speak up and speak out no matter how hard it is.

Janell suggests that people should be honest with themselves and lean in to their feelings and emotions but also explore the root causes of those feelings. People should create room and space to breathe, feel “how they feel” and not be afraid to open up and communicate externally about what is happening internally.
To connect with Aaron and Janell and learn more about their work in our community, go to their website, CourageousHealing.org.

The Trauma Response

Our psychological well-being is just as important as our physical health. This excerpt is taken from the Lanes’ article “Burden of Proof” in the August 2020 Fort Wayne Magazine. You can read the entire article at www.fortwayne.com/good-reads/fort-wayne-magazine-august-2020. The issue is dedicated to African American lives and experiences in Fort Wayne.

It is important that we acknowledge that the conscious and subconscious impact of recurring disbelief does not dissipate when the conversation ends – especially when the cost is projected onto the population that has already carried the burden of generational pain and trauma. Trauma is stored in the body; trauma is encoded into genetics; trauma is transmitted and transferred.

The autonomic trauma response that is initiated upon experiencing a stressful event triggers the amygdala, an area of the brain that contributes to emotional processing. The amygdala then sends a distress signal to the hypothalamus, which functions as the command center of the brain, communicating with the rest of the body through the nervous system, jump starting the production of “cortisol,” the stress hormone responsible for the “Fight or Flight” response.

Cortisol and adrenaline are designed to slow digestion, speed up breathing (for increased oxygen intake), and push blood flow to your extremities (making it easier to fight or run). This survival mechanism is completely necessary when walking in an unfamiliar neighborhood and seeing a loose dog running at you, however is not useful and can actually become problematic when activated while sitting at home on your couch attempting to relax.

Prolonged exposure to cortisol is common in populations with high incidences of traumatic experiences, which is often referred to as toxic stress. Toxic stress has been shown to have long-term implications on health and well-being outcomes for marginalized groups.

The Society of Black Mental Health Professionals

Crystal Kelly, LMHC, was born and raised in Fort Wayne and currently a licensed mental health counselor at a private practice is working to break the stigmas in Black and brown communities about counseling and mental health. Crystal has spent time in her career doing community mental health at Park Center and now in addition to her work for a private practice, she is building a group of Mental Health Professionals here in Fort Wayne under the Society of Black Mental Health Professionals which is now 1-year-old as of April.

The group of licensed counselors, case managers, social workers and interns is currently working on its nonprofit status. Crystal is personally invested in supporting and helping people deal with and overcome trauma.

The purpose and mission of the group is to inform, educate and empower black and brown communities on mental health awareness. The group came together as minorities in the field of mental health to support each other but also help to give our community access and understanding of mental health and counseling. The group meets monthly, now online and connects in the community through doing presentations at churches and now doing online monthly webinars. Some of the topics include grief, trauma, mental health, stress and anxiety, depression and the next webinar is about suicide.

Lastly Crystal and I discussed that as Black and Brown people become more interested in counseling, it is important for people to see counselors who look like them and who may be able to relate in terms of experiences or background. We also discussed the important of people being able to search and find therapists of color online. Please connect with the group on Facebook, Instagram and their website: www.thesocietyofblackmentalhealthprofessionals.com and email at: thesocietyofblackmentalhealthprofessionals@gmail.com