Episode #254 Testimony Therapy with Dr. Makungu M. Akinyela

Psychologist and author, Dr. Akinyela joins Dr. Thema to explore identity, culture, and healing. Based on African American culture, this narrative approach empowers people to build lives of liberation and resilience. Dr. Makungu M. Akinyela is a leading authority on cultural democracy, narrative practice, anti-racist resistance and mental health. He is a licensed psychotherapist practicing in Atlanta, Georgia and an Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Georgia State University. He is the creator of the African Centered approach to narrative practice called testimony therapy. He is the author of the book Culture, Politics, Spirituality and Practice: A book of resistance and critical theory for disturbing times published by Dulwhich publications, as well as the author of the forthcoming book on his clinical ideas entitled Testimony therapy: Decolonizing Mental Health for Black Therapists and Clients, published by W.W. Norton. As a scholar activist and a therapist. Dr. Akinyela is a lifelong committed social justice organizer with a focus on struggles for human rights and justice for Black people in the United States and the African diaspora. His research and writing include such subjects as cultural democracy and mental health care; cultural domination and therapeutic resistance; reparations and the role of mental health workers in repairing oppressions wounds and African centered family therapy. He is a Clinical Fellow and an Approved Supervisor of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT). Don’t forget to subscribe and share. Music by Joy Jones. Mixed & Edited by Next Day Podcast [email protected]