{"id":117594,"date":"2023-08-24T14:19:56","date_gmt":"2023-08-24T19:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/?p=117594"},"modified":"2023-08-24T14:40:01","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T19:40:01","slug":"dr-brian-humphrey-prescribing-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/psychology\/dr-brian-humphrey-prescribing-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Brian Humphrey: Prescribing community"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the West Side of Chicago, childhood memories are as likely to include drugs, gangs, and guns as they are cartoons, candy, and first crushes. Often, those memories yield trauma and hardship. Sometimes, however, they produce something better: faith and resilience.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the case for Brian Humphrey, Psy.D., MSCP, who graduated from The Chicago School in 2019 with a master\u2019s degree in clinical psychopharmacology<\/a>. In 2023, he made history as the first Black male in Illinois to become a licensed prescribing psychologist.<\/p>\n

Although he grew up surrounded by addiction and violence in Chicago\u2019s blighted Austin neighborhood, Dr. Humphrey turned adversity into inspiration. \u201cI come from really humble beginnings,\u201d he says. \u201cThere were times when bullets came into our home and we had to jump on the floor. I\u2019ve even seen people killed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where others saw oppression, Dr. Humphrey saw opportunity. \u201cGrowing up that way made me curious,\u201d he says. \u201cI wanted to know why people did drugs and what made them be violent. I wanted to understand why it took two or three hours for someone to respond when a Black man in my neighborhood was shot. That\u2019s what started my proverbial journey to psychology. I didn\u2019t know what a psychologist was, but even as early as 6 years old, I knew I wanted to be a doctor and that I wanted to help people understand the way they think so they could change their behaviors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Decades later, he\u2019s doing exactly what he wanted to do, exactly where he wanted to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve served my entire career working in the kinds of places that most people don\u2019t want to work in,\u201d says Dr. Humphrey, who spends most of his time working with people of color in Chicago\u2019s Austin, Englewood, and Woodlawn neighborhoods. \u201cThose are three highly populated Black communities with a lot of poverty and violence. I work in those communities because I understand them. I connect with people who are oppressed or in really bad places. That\u2019s truly, genuinely where my heart is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finding his destiny<\/h3>\n

Although he now feels he was destined for a career in clinical psychology, Dr. Humphrey almost took a different path. After finishing his undergraduate career at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, he spent a brief spell working a corporate job before going to medical school. He was well on his way to becoming a medical doctor when a car accident left him immobile for the better part of a year, forcing him to pause his studies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in rehab, so I couldn\u2019t go to school,\u201d recalls Dr. Humphrey, who audited a few psychology classes to keep his mind sharp while he was recovering. \u201cWhen I did that, I realized, \u2018Wow. This is what I actually want to do. So I never returned to med school.\u201d<\/p>\n

After earning a doctoral degree in clinical psychology, Dr. Humphrey immediately set to work helping the underserved communities about which he is so passionate. His first job as a clinical psychologist, for example, was working at Dixon Correctional Center, a medium-to-maximum-security prison two hours west of Chicago. After that, he worked at Lawndale Christian Health Center in Chicago\u2019s Lawndale neighborhood, where he enjoyed marrying his faith with his profession. Finally, he landed at Cook County Health, where he spent four years working as a behavioral health psychologist. All the while, he taught classes part time, including seven years as an assistant professor at The Chicago School.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Dr. Humphrey went from teaching at The Chicago School to becoming a student there. While he was at Cook County Health, he applied to The Chicago School\u2019s M.S. Clinical Psychopharmacology<\/a> program and was accepted into its inaugural class. Upon graduating summa cum laude, he resigned from Cook County Health to complete an 14-month residency encompassing nine medical rotations at AMITA Health. He completed that in 2022 and received his prescribing license this spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Chicago School has been pivotal to my career,\u201d Dr. Humphrey says. \u201cI couldn\u2019t have accomplished what I\u2019ve accomplished without going there. \u2026 People there took a chance on me. It\u2019s my relationships with those people that allowed me to get my degree in clinical psychopharmacology, and without that degree, I wouldn\u2019t be able to practice in the capacity that I\u2019m now practicing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Battling stigma<\/h3>\n

Now that he\u2019s a licensed prescribing psychologist, Dr. Humphrey wants to grow his private practice serving clients of color.<\/p>\n

\u201cMental health historically has been a bit of a taboo topic in the Black community,\u201d says Dr. Humphrey, who cites as one reason for his career path the passing of a childhood friend who died by suicide while Dr. Humphrey was in college. \u201cNobody understood what happened, but I later learned that he had bipolar disorder. He had a medication change and slipped into a manic episode during which he jumped out of a car and ran in front of a train. It was devastating to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

That experience led Dr. Humphrey to make it his mission to educate minority communities about mental health. \u201cI grew up in a community where people said, \u2018You can\u2019t go to therapy. If you go to therapy, that means you\u2019re crazy.\u2019 I want to help dismantle those myths and the stigma around mental health, and I think being a Black man helps me do that, because a lot of times, people feel more comfortable talking to somebody who looks like them,\u201d he says. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of trauma in the Black community because of our history and because of our lived experiences with racism and discrimination. I understand that trauma because I have lived it too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Humphrey\u2019s prescribing authority is especially significant given the Black community\u2019s history with pharmacology\u2014going back to the Tuskegee experiment that took place between 1932 and 1972, during which time the U.S. Public Health Service surreptitiously denied treatment to Black men with syphilis in order to observe the disease\u2019s natural course.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a general distrust of medicine in the Black community, but my patients trust me because they know I\u2019m not in it for money or clout,\u201d Dr. Humphrey says. \u201cI\u2019m in it to open doors for people to help them reach their full potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leading by example<\/h3>\n

Dr. Humphrey empowers patients not only with his counsel but also with his example. \u201cI like to encourage people to be imaginative and to think the impossible, because it\u2019s always impossible until someone does it,\u201d he says. \u201cI grew up in poverty, in a really disenfranchised neighborhood. Most of the peers I had growing up, unfortunately, are either deceased or in jail. The fact that someone like me exists is proof that Black people can do really big things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doing really big things isn\u2019t always easy, especially for people of color, many of whom\u2014including Dr. Humphrey\u2014face systemic obstacles that hinder their health and happiness. Growing up with a single mom who worked three jobs, he didn\u2019t have the same resources and professional role models that kids in wealthier communities had. Even when he was completing his residency at AMITA Health, he had to make financial sacrifices that some of his white classmates didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love them, but some of my colleagues and peers decided that they weren\u2019t going to work during their residency. I didn\u2019t have that luxury,\u201d Dr. Humphrey says. \u201cMy family really helped me, but the time I spent doing my residency was rough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, he insists the hardship was worth it. \u201cBecause I love the Black community, and because I feel so connected to it, I want there to be more individuals who serve and uplift it,\u201d he says. \u201cI love being one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

As much as he loves being a change agent, what Dr. Humphrey loves even more is inspiring other change agents to work alongside him. So even as he builds his private practice, he has made it a priority work with community agencies and continue his participation in advocacy and legislative changes to remove barriers to mental health treatment within the black community. Additionally, Dr. Humphrey continues teaching classes at places like The Chicago School that nurture the next generation of mental health practitioners.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I leave the Earth one day, I want to know that I\u2019m leaving it in a better place than it was when I got here,\u201d Dr. Humphrey says. \u201cThat\u2019s why I try so hard to mentor and guide and supervise and teach, so that there are more culturally sensitive clinicians in the world who are aware of biases and don\u2019t allow them to be a hindrance.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On the West Side of Chicago, childhood memories are as likely to include drugs, gangs, and guns as they are cartoons, candy, and first crushes. Often, those memories yield trauma and hardship. Sometimes, however, they produce something better: faith and resilience. That\u2019s the case for Brian Humphrey, Psy.D., MSCP, who graduated from The Chicago School in 2019 with a master\u2019s degree in clinical psychopharmacology. In 2023, he made history as the first Black male in Illinois to become a licensed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":117617,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[113],"tags":[734,1367],"coauthors":[1033],"class_list":["post-117594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","tag-alumni","tag-clinical-pharmacology"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nDr. Brian Humphrey: Prescribing community - Insight Digital Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Chicago School alumnus Brian Humphrey, Psy.D., MSCP, has dedicated his life to serving Black America; now he\u2019s the first African American male in Illinois to become a licensed prescribing psychologist.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/psychology\/dr-brian-humphrey-prescribing-community\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dr. Brian Humphrey: Prescribing community - Insight Digital Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Chicago School alumnus Brian Humphrey, Psy.D., MSCP, has dedicated his life to serving Black America; now he\u2019s the first African American male in Illinois to become a licensed prescribing psychologist.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/psychology\/dr-brian-humphrey-prescribing-community\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Insight Digital Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-08-24T19:19:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-24T19:40:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/The-Chicago-School-2023-Blog-Header-scaled.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1401\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matt Alderton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Matt Alderton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dr. Brian Humphrey: Prescribing community - Insight Digital Magazine","description":"The Chicago School alumnus Brian Humphrey, Psy.D., MSCP, has dedicated his life to serving Black America; now he\u2019s the first African American male in Illinois to become a licensed prescribing psychologist.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/psychology\/dr-brian-humphrey-prescribing-community\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dr. Brian Humphrey: Prescribing community - Insight Digital Magazine","og_description":"The Chicago School alumnus Brian Humphrey, Psy.D., MSCP, has dedicated his life to serving Black America; now he\u2019s the first African American male in Illinois to become a licensed prescribing psychologist.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/psychology\/dr-brian-humphrey-prescribing-community\/","og_site_name":"Insight Digital Magazine","article_published_time":"2023-08-24T19:19:56+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-08-24T19:40:01+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1401,"url":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/The-Chicago-School-2023-Blog-Header-scaled.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Matt Alderton","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Matt Alderton","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/psychology\/dr-brian-humphrey-prescribing-community\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/psychology\/dr-brian-humphrey-prescribing-community\/"},"author":{"name":"Paul Ciampanelli","@id":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/#\/schema\/person\/e6fefa395f57f666d5af25a9ea6bc2e9"},"headline":"Dr. Brian Humphrey: Prescribing community","datePublished":"2023-08-24T19:19:56+00:00","dateModified":"2023-08-24T19:40:01+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/psychology\/dr-brian-humphrey-prescribing-community\/"},"wordCount":1457,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/psychology\/dr-brian-humphrey-prescribing-community\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/The-Chicago-School-2023-Blog-Header-scaled.jpeg","keywords":["Alumni","clinical pharmacology"],"articleSection":["Psychology"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/psychology\/dr-brian-humphrey-prescribing-community\/","url":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/psychology\/dr-brian-humphrey-prescribing-community\/","name":"Dr. Brian Humphrey: Prescribing community - Insight Digital Magazine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/psychology\/dr-brian-humphrey-prescribing-community\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/psychology\/dr-brian-humphrey-prescribing-community\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/The-Chicago-School-2023-Blog-Header-scaled.jpeg","datePublished":"2023-08-24T19:19:56+00:00","dateModified":"2023-08-24T19:40:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/#\/schema\/person\/e6fefa395f57f666d5af25a9ea6bc2e9"},"description":"The Chicago School alumnus Brian Humphrey, Psy.D., MSCP, has dedicated his life to serving Black America; now he\u2019s the first African American male in Illinois to become a licensed prescribing psychologist.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/psychology\/dr-brian-humphrey-prescribing-community\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/psychology\/dr-brian-humphrey-prescribing-community\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/psychology\/dr-brian-humphrey-prescribing-community\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/The-Chicago-School-2023-Blog-Header-scaled.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/The-Chicago-School-2023-Blog-Header-scaled.jpeg","width":2560,"height":1401,"caption":"dr brian humphrey prescribing community"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/psychology\/dr-brian-humphrey-prescribing-community\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dr. Brian Humphrey: Prescribing community"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/","name":"Insight Digital Magazine","description":"The Chicago School","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/#\/schema\/person\/e6fefa395f57f666d5af25a9ea6bc2e9","name":"Paul Ciampanelli"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117594"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":117618,"href":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117594\/revisions\/117618"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/117617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117594"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thechicagoschool.edu\/insight\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=117594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}