The Homecoming Podcast - Dr. Thema Bryant

Dr. Thema - as she presents herself in the Homecoming podcast - really radiates. She speaks with the kind of warmth, wisdom, insight, and creativity that can make you pause to soak in and savour what's being said. For those of us who are exploring flavours of spirituality, she has got to be one of the most respected therapists bringing her extra credentials (a master’s of divinity) to healing our mental health struggles. And if that strikes you as woowoo, let's just be clear - she is an absolutely trailblazing clinician and the 2023 president of the American Psychological Association, the leading scientific and professional organization representing psychology in the US.

As her bio reads, "Dr. Thema Bryant completed her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Duke University and her post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical Center’s Victims of Violence Program. Upon graduating, she became the Coordinator of the Princeton University SHARE Program, which provides intervention and prevention programming to combat sexual assault, sexual harassment, and harassment based on sexual orientation."

She's an important voice shaping the landscape of psychology. I'll just highlight that by including references to spirituality Dr. Thema Bryant is practicing much needed inclusivity in the field of clinical psychology: encompassing the meaningful experiences of many humans for whom spirituality is an integral part of healing experiences. Clinical psychology has long eschewed religion and spirituality as antithetical to the field's ambitions/insecurities to be recognised as 'scientific'. This has come at great expense for people seeking mental health support for whom spiritual experiences - individually or as part of their communities, ancestral ways - was at best dismissed and at worst pathologized or racialized. Spirituality can be a part of healing, resilience, solidarity, and culturally-based interventions.

You can listen to Dr. Thema Bryant's podcast here: YouTube, Soundcloud or on Apple podcasts