Healing in the Face of Adversity: Celebrating the Resilience and Advocating for Black Women’s Mental Health

BY YOLANDE CLARK-JACKSON

Key takeaways:

We need to redefine strength through sustainable self care practices.
We need to build intergenerational community networks that encourage activism and vulnerability.
We need to embrace and balance historical resilience with mental health advocacy and resources.

“Given the state of our country, it is not lost on any of us that there is a high need to protect not only our physical and financial well-being but most of all our mental health.”- Christiana Ibilola Awosan

In the face of intersecting oppressions, Black women are often carrying not only their own burdens but those of their families and communities as well. As Audre Lorde reminds us, self care for Black women isn't merely a luxury—it's "an act of political warfare" in a world that has historically demanded their sacrifice and service to others.

Redefining strength through sustainable self care practices

The strength of Black women that is often celebrated doesn’t come from enduring suffering silently or shouldering burdens alone. Rather, it emerges from the courage to acknowledge wounds, as Alice Walker suggests when she writes that "healing begins where the wound was made."

It manifests in the wisdom to recognize that how we carry our burdens matters, that resilience often involves knowing when to set down heavy loads, when to slow down and pace yourself and when to invite others to help carry them.

"We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty." — Maya Angelou

For too long, the "strong Black woman" archetype has been both a celebration of remarkable endurance and an impossible standard that can discourage vulnerability and help-seeking.

The revolutionary act today is to honor this legacy of strength while reimagining it to include the courage to rest, to grieve, to heal, and to accept support. Maya Angelou's butterfly metaphor reminds us that transformation requires protected space for vulnerability—the chrysalis is both where the caterpillar dissolves and where new wings form.

We need to build intergenerational community networks that encourage activism and vulnerability.

Christiana Awosan, founder of Ibisanmi Relational Health says Black women have to remember that “we're our sister's keeper.” She emphasizes how important it is to stay connected for support. “We have to truly be there for each other in order to take care of our mental and emotional health,” she adds.

She also says we need to tap our networks and think, “Which 2 or 3 women can you rely on to remind you of the deep sense of resilience that resides in you ?”

She adds that women in your life are often the ones who will not only affirm you but also “challenge you to take care of yourself because you're part of the whole.”

Balancing historical resilience with mental health advocacy and resources

"I have learned over the years that when one's mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear." — Rosa Parks

Black women, who have long stood at the intersection of race and gender disparities, often offer especially powerful insights on traversing difficult terrain with grace and strength. Their words remind us that healing is not merely about returning to who we were before trauma or hardship, but about emerging as someone new—someone who carries both scars and wisdom.

“We need to connect to the memories, knowledge and practices of our ancestors who cultivated and worked hard to maintain resilience in the face of devaluation, oppression and hatred. Making sure that we create and maintain self-care, self-love and self-affirmation circles (communities) as it relates to our relationships, mental, emotional, spiritual, physical, financial, creative and intellectual well-being,” adds Awosan.

We celebrate the indomitable spirit of Black women who have overcome unimaginable adversity throughout generations. And we also affirm that this very legacy of resilience deserves to be supported by robust mental health resources, healing-centered communities and cultural spaces where Black women can exhale, process, and rejuvenate.