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Therapists of color might be hard to find in Minnesota, but changes could be on the way

"I think a lot of it right now feels like it’s word of mouth, referrals from somebody who has a therapist they like," Dr. Shonda Craft said.

MINNEAPOLIS — Remember in elementary school when you dreamed about what you wanted to be when you grew up? Well Dr. Shonda Craft didn’t just dream, she knew.

"I’m one of those people who just knew from a very young age I wanted to help people," Dr. Craft said. "I was reading books by Freud when I was in elementary school, in middle school and really became really intrigued with psychology," she said.

Dr. Craft is now a licensed marriage and family therapist. She is also the dean of the School of Health and Human Services at St. Cloud State University and the higher education representative for the Minnesota Board of Marriage and Family Therapy. Dr. Craft has served two terms over seven years so far. In her experience, she noticed a discrepancy when it comes to therapists of color. 

"By and far, do not see very many Black applicants coming through to our board in particular and I would say just kind of broadly you know other clinicians of color," Dr. Craft said. "I think a lot of it right now feels like it’s word of mouth, referrals from somebody who has a therapist they like who is a Black therapist," she said.

According to the Minnesota Department of Health's most recent data from 2019 to 2020, there are 24,303 licensed therapists in the state. This includes licensed professionals like social workers, marriage and family therapists, counselors, clinical counselors and psychologists.

MDH reports almost 13,873 licensed professionals took the survey. While that's more than half statewide, it is not all. But it gives us some insight.

When you look at the available data for therapists by race, Black or African Americans make up 6.1% of the state’s population. Yet, based on the survey responses, 2.2% of licensed therapists identify as that. Asian Pacific Islander therapists are around 2.5% , but make up 5% of the population. Almost every group besides those who identify as multi-racial or white are underrepresented in licensed therapy based on these numbers.

Simply put by Dr. Craft, we need more diverse licensed clinicians.

"We need more people who are Black, Indigenous and other people of color and frankly other marginalized and underrepresented groups to be in our graduate programs and under graduate programs so that they can be out there and be licensed and better fit the demographics that we're continuing to see in our communities," Dr. Craft said.

Dr. Craft said the most recent omnibus bill passed included provisions to provide different avenues and opportunities to increase the diversity and cultural training of therapists across the state. She said one recommendation calls for the state to develop a mental health task force that focuses on being culturally informed. She said that could include representatives from health licensing boards, members of the community, licensed individuals, and educators to look at the standards in place to ensure there is a more robust workforce of people who do represent diversity, racial ethnicity or ability, genders, and orientation. That group of people could then present recommendations on how to better represent all communities.

"It’s not enough now to just say, 'Well, I’m culturally informed because I work with a wide variety of people,'" Dr. Craft said. "We need to be able to have that felt and lived experience as part of what we’re doing as clinicians and for these who aren’t Black, Indigenous or people of color, it is really important to hear from people with felt and lived experiences to understand how you can better serve your client population," she said.

Dr. Craft said there are other promising ideas around programs helping to support people to pay back loans, or removing barriers to access around supervision towards the licensure aspect. There are also conversations on resources to increase the number of Black-owned practices and businesses.

"I think mental health and well-being is something that is a universal human experience," Dr. Craft said. "We all want to feel good, we all want to be in good relationships, we all want to be in safe communities and I think our mental health professionals are really part of the backbone of making that happen."

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