How & Why Intersectionality Plays a Role in Mental Health Treatment, Now More Than Ever 

​By Caroline Val
Published December 2020
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This year, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly devastated the world both physically and mentally. In the United States, many BIPOC communities have been impacted disproportionately by the virus, and with large social justice movements sweeping the nation over the summer, these disparities between white communities and communities of color are finally being acknowledged on a larger scale. Even more so, the lockdown gave everyone front-row seats to witness some of the most horrific displays of police brutality in the nation, contributing to even more negative impacts on people’s mental health in varying ways. Yet, there have also been new conversations on how to navigate mental health crises in communities of color to steer away from the brutal mishandlings of cases like these (i.e. Elijah McClain, Daniel Prude, Walter Wallace), as well as how to help those who identify with these communities when it comes to providing more thorough and accessible mental health treatment. 

One of the ideas that has become crucial in mental health treatment in BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities is intersectionality. According to the Oxford Dictionary, intersectionality can be defined as “The interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage.” The term was coined by UCLA Law and Columbia Law Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw, specifically in her 1989 paper “Demarginalizing The Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politics.” While intersectionality draws on legal ideas, Crenshaw mainly drew on the Combahee River Collective theory on black feminism that emerged during the Civil Rights era. With this theory, black women highlighted the significance of their intersecting race and gender in opposition to predominantly white feminism and male-dominant black movements. Since then, the idea of intersectionality has expanded to all facets of race, religion, sex and gender identity, and socioeconomic status that make up one’s identity, which has come to play a significant role in mental health treatment that pushes to be culturally responsive. 

Dr. Thomas A. Vance of Columbia University defines “culturally responsive” mental health treatment as “a mental health provider’s ability to recognize and understand the role of culture, both the client and the clinician’s, and the ability to adapt the treatment to meet the client’s needs within their cultural framework.” This idea can be seen as a direct response to the systematic barriers and unique factors that contribute to BIPOC communities and LGBTQ+ communities facing greater amounts of mental health stigma and less access to mental health care in general. Some of these factors include a greater amount of financial insecurity, violence and criminal injustice, distrust because of historical mistreatment between healthcare and black/LGBTQ+ communities, and less access to adequate insurance. If a mental health clinician is better able to understand and address these unique circumstances and cultures that surround clients that come from traditionally marginalized communities, they can more effectively  form relationships with their patients and develop better, individualized methods of treatment. 
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So what does this look like in practice? How can you use the premises of intersectionality to ensure a culturally responsive treatment in your mental health care or the mental health care of a loved one? When you examine the many identities of you or your loved one, you can begin to understand what typical practices of discrimination or misunderstanding take place around those identities and be more aware of how to avoid these practices when looking into a mental health practitioner. When looking into providers that are more culturally responsive, here are three things you can do, according to Dr. Thomas Vance of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center: 

1) “Ask the provider questions about their treatment approach and if they provide care including ones’ culture.” 
​2) “Seek attention from someone who is aware and affirming of your intersecting identities (social categorizations such as race, class, and gender, that are overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage) and your cultural background.” 
3) “Be mindful that some providers do not use methods that involve a cultural treatment framework, so ensure your provider is culturally responsive and respectful of your needs and how to infuse these beliefs into treatment.” 
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Additionally, there are several mental health resources that cater towards BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities more specifically and take these ideals of intersectionality and cultural responsiveness to heart. Some of these resources include the Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective (BEAM), The Trevor Project, the Black Mental Health Alliance, the Trans Lifeline (877-565-8860), and more. If you want to look more at resources similar to these, you can also find them at NAMI’s list of Black Mental Health Resources or Talkspace’s “7 Mental Health Resources for LGBTQ Teens,” for those in a younger demographic. With a continued focus on intersectionality, we can begin to make strides towards finding and providing culturally and personally sensitive mental health care, hopefully pushing towards a better future for all when it comes to mental health and closing the mental health treatment gaps between communities altogether.

On Oliver Sacks

By Ishmam Khan
Published December 2020

Oliver Sacks (1933-2015) was a famous physician, professor, and author. Throughout his lifetime, Sacks wrote an assortment of wonderfully crafted stories  detailing how brain lesions may result in a loss of self in some patients, either physically or mentally. However, he also documents the miraculous ways in which these patients choose to compensate for that loss in order to gain some sense of normalcy and control back. His optimistic style emphasizes seizing the day and not letting the worst parts of yourself take away from the great things that you could be doing. This is especially the case for Sacks himself, as he suffered from prosopagnosia, or face-blindness, where he could see things clearly but remained unable to recognize people, including himself. He lived in a constant uncertainty that sounds like a curse a witch would cast upon a princess for being too innocent. This disagreement between sensation and perception is one we live with constantly everyday, and it often discourages us from our potential. After all, if we can't trust what we can't see, how can we really believe it? 
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However, Sacks inspired everyone by implementing the lessons he chose to spread in his everyday life. Despite his challenges, he lived by example and found a way to do something similar to his patients: use his failures/challenges to embrace life in its entirety. It's this optimism that inspires me to think ahead of my own failure and not become a slave to my environment. Similarly, we can all take away from this example. In this highly uncertain climate where many hurtful things are bound to happen, it's up to us to push forward knowing we can make things better for ourselves and live life in the most hopeful of manners. I highly encourage reading "The Mind's Eye" or really any one of Sacks' books, since he is an influential neurologist after all. However, you don't have to know that because it's important to feel inspired and invigorated since there's always a way to change negative situations into positive ones that ultimately benefit yourself in the process.

​The Surprising Complexity of "Self-Care", and Mental Health
Katherine Wu 
Published November 2019
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In recent years, the conversation around mental health has experienced great strides,
becoming more prevalent on college campuses, public health advocacy organizations, and
other public realms. While this is a wonderful development in a world where mental health will
always be an ongoing problem and conversation, this has also resulted in an increasing
amount of obscurity and ambiguity around the notions of “self-care” and mental health care.
As a side-effect of this new positivity-oriented, “take care of yourself!” spiel that is now being
promoted on social media, there is more importance placed on these buzzwords and less on
the substance of what they mean and why they are helpful.
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On Instagram, we often see inspirational quotes and lighthearted jokes about how “putting on
a face mask” or “taking a night to yourself” can act as a temporary catch-all solution to a bad
day or when we’re feeling down. While this is actually a product of internalized capitalism and
consumerist culture engrained in America, as well as its corporate monopolization over our
personal lives (but that’s another conversation), it risks presenting an even more dangerous
assumption — that self-care can be performed in a series of simple actions and is not the
ongoing commitment to yourself that it is.
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In reality, self-care is so much more than doing a few things that satisfy a temporary urge, or
indulgence. Self-care is the proactive promise to yourself to prioritize your mental, emotional,
and physical health. Self-care is not always pretty and scented with candles; in fact, it is often
times painful, inconvenient, and full of growing pains. It’s breaking old patterns, setting up new
habits, and re-organizing your mental space to make more room for your mental health to truly,
constructively thrive. Whether its evaluating your close relationships, and setting new
boundaries for those who may be toxic to you or your mental health, seeking professional help
for larger underlying problems (everyone should go to therapy!), adopting healthier eating and
exercise habits, or just being more mindful of the things that trigger and/or disrupt your
emotional inner world, taking care of yourself is a complex, but highly important process.


In truth, there is no simple 3-step process, or even 30-step process that can alleviate you of
the pains of bad mental health days or personal issues. Taking care of one’s health is a
complex and highly individual practice that takes experience, knowledge with one-self, and
most importantly, consistency, before you wake up on day and notice that you’re feeling better.
Whether it’s evaluating what’s best for you and your mind, or deciding to take your own advice
for once, I still believe that everyone should take the first steps to taking care of themselves.


Remember, our brains are all different, and it’ll take time to get to know our brains on an
emotional level. Self-care has been revolutionized as a simple practice, but in reality, it is so
much more multifaceted than that. This, however, doesn’t make it any less difficult. Taking care
of yourself will reap benefits that improve the quality of your life for months, or even years to
come.
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So take that first step: find a therapist! Cut off that toxic friend. Evaluate what brings you the
most peace, and what makes you upset. Commit yourself, TO yourself. Take care!