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CENTERING BLACK LESBIANS IN COUNSELING
Our Story
Black lesbians sit at the intersection of race, gender, and sexual orientation. Yet most mental health research study these identities separately. When identities are separated, lived experiences become flattened.
Research shows that intersectional stigma can be measured and that layered identities influence mental health outcomes and access to care (Tran et al., 2025; Olisaeloka et al., 2025). However, Black lesbians are often grouped into broad categories like “LGBTQ+” or “Black adults,” making it difficult to understand their specific experiences in therapy.
When data is missing, services follow suit.
This research centers Black lesbians directly. It examines treatment access, provider competence, stigma, and culturally responsive care. The goal is simple: improve counselor training, strengthen therapeutic relationships, and make mental health care more equitable. But first, we have to understand the basics. Centering Black lesbians in research is not about creating separation. It is about increasing accuracy. And accuracy leads to better care.
Why This is Important
There are conversations happening in mental health that sound inclusive but are not always precise. We talk about race. We talk about gender. We talk about sexual orientation. But we do not always talk about what happens when those identities live together in one body.
Black lesbians live at the intersection of racism, sexism, and heterosexism. Yet much of counseling research and training still studies these identities separately. When identities are averaged, experiences disappear. And when experiences disappear from data, they often disappear from treatment models too.
On The Day Is Won Podcast, I talk about anxiety, trauma, identity, and resilience. I talk about how systems shape our decisions and our relationships. This work is an extension of that same belief.
We do not win the day by pretending structures do not exist.
We win the day by naming them.
We win the day by advocating within them.
We win the day by building better ones.
This research is about building better systems of care.
Because when counseling truly centers intersectional realities, healing becomes more accessible. And when healing becomes more accessible, entire communities move differently.
And that is how the day gets won.