Mental Health Matters: Blog Series Highlighting Black Therapists

This blog Series will Focus on Black Therapist in the Field of Mental Health.

The first therapist featured is Monét C. Shell, MMFT, (Master in Marriage & Family Therapy). She is located in Nashville, Tennessee.

Her Trained Specialties are: Conflict Management, Restoration Therapy (Level I), and

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)

1. What led you to pursue a career in the mental health field?

Monét Shell: Initially I chose psychology as a minor while obtaining my bachelor’s degree in business management. My hope was that it would assist me in my then career as human resource personnel. After taking freshman psychology classes, I was intrigued. I decided to switch my major to psychology and my minor to business management.

I would say it was intrigue and curiosity regarding why humans think and behave in some of the counterproductive ways that we do.

2. Why does mental health matter to you?

MS: I remember watching movies or seeing television shows with psychologists/psychiatrists, but mental health was not a part of the conversation in my community, my family, or my culture.

1. Now that I have been educated in the healthiness and unhealthiness of a person’s brain, I understand that many people simply do not realize that they could live a different life. They are living life with the tools that they were given, but there are many more tools available to address what is distressing them.

3. What are some areas that you specialize in?

MS: My concentration while completing my master’s degree was conflict management, which is especially useful with couples and families.

I am certified as an Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapist, which is helpful for clients suffering from traumas.

I am a trained Restoration Therapy therapist. This model of therapy addresses the need to realize and identify unhealthy cycles and offers interventions that lead to the creation of healthy cycles.

4. In your experience, what are some of the benefits of counseling? What are some of the challenges?

MS: One benefit is that clients can decipher the parts of their lives that they can control,which deserve focus, from the parts of their lives that they are focused on without the likelihood of change. This concept helps clients release the consequent hurt, anxiety, and unrealistic expectations.

The biggest challenge for many clients is that they come to therapy with the expectation that the “fix” will be quick and concise, but therapy does not work that way. Therapy is a process that involves periods of time that involve pain, periods of regression, but also periods of progress.

5. What are some good things to know when looking for a therapist?

MS: A therapist is meant to provide support, validation, affirmation, insight, and safety. Even if the therapist can provide these elements, connection is not guaranteed.

When a client feels that a therapist does not (or no longer) offer any of these important components of therapy, she has the right to address her concern with her current therapist or find a therapist who does meet her needs.

6. Any recommendations on ways to protect your mental health during this difficult time we are in? 

MS: One way is to give yourself permission to do things differently, to need different things and to feel different emotions than you do on average. The ways that we normally deal with stress are certainly applicable but may not be complete for this time that is complex and compounded with MANY variables of trauma.

7. How can someone reach out to you about making an appointment for a session?

MS: www.MonetShell.com