You're My Shrink For The Hour

The Black Woman Therapist

4 percent of people who work in psychology are African American. 5.7 percent of physicians are African American.

I got discharged from the hospital yesterday. All my visitors include...

Kasen

Carter

Sierra

Landen

Leilani

Grace and Max

Trevor

What I find interesting is that Alex did not visit me. Sierra said she sent out an email to all the staff about what happened to me so that they could fill in the gaps in classes I would miss. Alex, who was my first everything, did not visit me which put the nail in the coffin of our relationship.

Kasen was sitting with me in the waiting room of Dr. Reese's office. Her office smelled like freshly baked cookies and her furniture was comfortable. She had snacks, drinks, and a tv.

"I think I need to change my snack menu at the office," Kasen grumbled and I ate my Chex Mix.

"Honestly, because Dr. Reese it is making your office look like you're a first-year therapist," I said and he pinch my arm.

"Ouch... That is so childish Kasen."

"Whatever." He said and drank his coffee.

"Serenity Taylor?" The receptionist asked.

"Yes!" I boomed.

"Dr. Reese is ready for you now." She said and I smiled.

"Keep an open mind. She could be your dream therapist." Kasen said before hugging me.

..................

Dr. Addison Reese is a Marriage and Family Therapist and one of the best in her field from all the reviews that I read about 10 times. I had been to a variety of therapists so honestly, I was open to seeing her.

I sat on Dr. Reese's plush couch and she had a cookie jar on her desk. Her brown skin was glowing, she had her naturally curly hair out on display, and she wore a lavender suit that just made her skin-pop.

"Hi, Serenity." She said knocking me right out of my daze.

"Hi, Dr. Reese," I said and sat back.

"I was looking over the records that the hospital sent me. I see that you had a panic attack a couple of days ago after not having one for 97 days. Did you want to start with that day or some of the things that may have been on your mind leading up to this day?" She asked.

"I can't really remember what I was thinking of before the panic attack, so it would probably be more effective for me to talk about some things that have been on my mind before that day," I responded.

"Okay, let's talk about the assignment that Dr. Johnson gave you." She mentioned.

"Yes, I had been thinking about that and writing the list since Dr. Johnson gave me the exercise. It made me think about a lot of things like an Ideal Partner and Life Goals." I mentioned.

"So, were these lists equally on your mind, or was there one list on your mind more than the other?" She asked.

"The Ideal Partner since the person I thought would be my ideal partner was turning out not to be and a guy I just met had been more ideal than the man I had known for what seems like forever.

"Okay, if you are comfortable getting more into detail that would be great. Dating though it is fun can also be a stressful process especially if you don't know where you stand." Dr. Reese acknowledged.