Black Men’s Mental Health
Episode Overview
In this episode, we focus on men’s mental health. We are joined by Ontonio Dawson who talks about his journey through the Clinical Psychology profession, as well as some of the challenges men from minority backgrounds encounter within practice. Ontonio also draws on how he incorporates aspects of spirituality within therapy.
“I recognized there’s so limited amount of us, black male therapist out there, especially minority groups when it comes to therapist. So one of the things I’ve been trying to do is build connections with male therapist that are from the BAME community, but I’ve not met a lot.”
About Ontonio Dawson
Current Role: CBT Therapist
Episode Title: Black Men’s Mental Health
Episode #: Series 1: Episode 10
Link to Episode: https://anchor.fm/afsana9/episodes/Season-1-Episode-10--Black-Mens-Mental-Health-ejfrtf/a-a5g0os
Ontonio Dawson served as a Police Officer in the Jamaica Constabulary Force for 5 years and obtained his BSc Psychology. In 2016, Ontonio migrated to the United Kingdom and worked in forensic mental health, specialising in supporting people with personality. Ontonio then became a Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner (PWP), Senior PWP and is currently completing his training to become a Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist. Ontonio started the #SpeakBlackMan movement aimed at encouraging black men to speak about difficult thoughts and emotions.
“A lot of young men [black] are not able to articulate how they’re feeling and there’s a lot of young men who don’t trust the system so by seeing someone like myself… they recognize that they can identify with someone from their community and as a result of that I was led to start this movement called #SpeakBlackMan…”
Social Links
Twitter - @OntonioDawson
Books
Dawson, A. (2020). God’s Seed for Success: A 31-day devotional to transform minds from drought to growth. https://ontoniodawson.com/gods-seed-for-success/
Networks
ontoniodawson.com and Founder of #SpeakBlackMan
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