Ayanna Abrams, Psy.D., possesses a combination of curiosity, compassion, and drive that has propelled her to where she stands today: a licensed clinical psychologist running her own practice, spreading her message of self-empowerment through storytelling. “Storytelling is a big part of how I interact with the world,” she says.
At Ascension Behavioral Health, the practice she founded in Atlanta, Dr. Abrams harnesses the impact of stories by using personal and societal narratives to help her clients.
“Because I work primarily with Black clients and clients of African descent across the diaspora, identifying and finding empowerment in their narratives is vastly, vastly important,” Dr. Abrams explains. Witnessing these results firsthand has only strengthened Dr. Abrams’ belief that stories can hold immeasurable power.
“Historically, the narratives of marginalized populations have been stripped away in favor of revisionism. It’s important to offer a space for people to claim their narratives; a space for them to talk about themselves in their own words, not the words of their parents, not the words of the teacher they had in third grade, not the words of the media,” Dr. Abrams says. “Oftentimes the language our society uses for Black people is negatively skewed, deficient, harmful, and ultimately very dangerous. Offering them a space where they get to tell their story in their own words and in words that have a lot more compassion, a lot more empowerment, a lot more congruence for them is transformative for clients.”
This penchant for storytelling was an inevitable extension of Dr. Abrams’ natural interests. “I’ve always been interested in how people came to be how they are,” she recalls. The daughter of Caribbean immigrants, her upbringing in the suburbs of New Jersey exposed her to cultural differences at an early age, sparking the curiosity that would lead to her life’s pursuit.
Studying psychology allowed her to enrich and expand on her interests with the depth she truly desired. “Psychology blended science, human behavior, and family dynamics in a way that was just fascinating to me,” she explains.
Dr. Abrams received undergraduate degrees in psychology and African American studies but believed that she’d still only learned part of the greater story of mental health needs in the United States today.
“I saw the focus on diversity in The Chicago School’s programs along with the diversity of the faculty and knew they could help me fill in the gaps,” she says.
The diversity of her peers at The Chicago School also encouraged her to expand her own perspective and further enrich relationships through finding commonalities. “Being able to connect with people who were from all these different places but who had similar goals and interests as me in terms of career path was really important,” she says.
Dr. Abrams, who graduated with both an M.A. and a Psy.D. in Clinical Psychology from The Chicago School, credits the institution with providing her a better understanding of the communities she’d be serving and how she wanted to approach her work with clients. “I think the relationships The Chicago School helped us foster in the community as students were profound, and they have been a huge help to me,” she recalls.
Dr. Abrams also brings the power of storytelling to another project: The Not So Strong Initiative. Not So Strong aims to create spaces for Black women to find power in vulnerability and to foster and maintain better relationships with each other. They have hosted webinars, virtual retreats, and several Black women speakers, all focused on what they refer to as vulnerable storytelling.
“I’m helping underscore for women the importance of their relationships with other Black women and really helping them understand the history of how we got severed over time due to racism, misogyny, and gender dynamics,” she explains.
Dr. Abrams hopes to expand her efforts even further. “It’s always been important for me to find ways to get out of the room, get creative, and make information about therapy more accessible,” she says.
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