Therapist Shabree Rawls has been posting mental health content on her TikTok for a year and a half. She’s used her growing platform, now surpassing 260,000 followers and 2 million likes, to open up conversations about mental wellness within the Black community and guide viewers on a path toward healing. But when she recently posted a TikTok urging Black men to go to therapy last week, she received backlash.

In the TikTok video, Rawls discusses a Psychology Today article about how more men are “single and lonely” because they’ve neglected their mental health. Rawls agreed with the article and its findings, but many viewers did not and came for Rawls in the comments.

The therapist doubled down on her beliefs, saying that Black men need to “expand your emotional vocabulary” and go to therapy.

Followers criticized her tone and said she was perpetuating an unsavory stereotype that Black men have mental health issues.

“This is such a dangerous pop culture articulation of Black male mental health issues. Pathologizing & speaking down to patients struggling to find words for trauma is not best practice in any literature I have read. This shaming tactic is why many BM don’t pursue therapy,” one user tweeted.

“This is the 2nd or 3rd video I’ve seen with a black female therapist implicitly denigrating black men. i can see why they don’t go to y’all tbqh. i don’t go either, because of the racial-sexual chauvinism and the western individualism that pervades these spaces,” another added.

One user felt like Rawls was part of the problem she was describing in the video.

“1) Says men don’t go to therapy but then says 90% of her clients are Black men. 2) Acknowledges the world is hard on BM, but signifies no compassion Imagine BM going to therapy and the therapist is a carbon copy of the person who traumatized them as a child in the first place,” they wrote.

Following the backlash, Rawls said she lost her job a few days later as a result of the criticism. She said that people who viewed the video as controversial reported her to her employer.

@unusuallybree

One door closes, 1 million others open✨ #imtired #storytime #bbtho #terminated #mentalhealthmatters #fypシ

♬ original sound – Bre

In a follow-up video posted on Tuesday, Rawls said that her clients will also be impacted by her termination. In the newest video, the therapist breaks down crying while talking about the impact on her clients.

@unusuallybree

Replying to @Big Bro Bear true allyship stands up against ALL ADVERSITY #allyship #mentalhealthmatters #bbtho #imtired #fypシ

♬ original sound – Bre

“I want you guys to understand that you didn’t just hurt me. Yeah, I may have lost my employment, but all of the clients I had that I’ve spent five, two, three, four, five years with establishing therapeutic rapport now no longer have a therapist,” she said in the TikTok video.

Rawls explained that her former clients, who she’s worked with for years, “have very severe mental disorders, severe abandonment issues” and some were navigating “cancer diagnoses” with her help and support.

 

“While you guys did this s**t for clicks and views, my clients lost a support system,” she said. “You’ve caused irreparable damage and I need you to sit with that.”

 

 

It’s been traumatizing for Rawls, too. She shared that she’s had to change her phone number, following an enormous amount of alarming text messages. She added that her boundaries have also been “violated.”

“It’s terrifying,” she said in the video.

“Honestly, how you can support is never shutting the f**k up, it’s true allyship,” she said, sharing her Cash App for those looking to provide financial support.

“If someone is being sprayed by the f**king water hose, ask yourself what part of this scenario are you at,” she continued.

 

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