+
Health

Therapist offers a lighthearted take on therapy, normalizing it for people of color

Therapists are more than just professionals, they can be funny too!

therapist, humor, therapy, tiktok

Therapist on TikTok offers lighthearted take on therapy.

Therapy can be intimidating for many people, especially in communities of color, where therapy and mental health is stigmatized. This alone can delay or even cause someone to avoid a diagnosis and subsequent treatment. Often, family members of individuals with a mental health condition just learn to adjust because addressing it can be a difficult, if not fruitless task. Dr. Antionette Edmonds, who also goes by Dr. Toni and "the therapist next door," is trying to change perspectives on therapy by using humor mixed with real-life situations to show what happens behind the scenes. Her often hilarious encounters with imaginary clients gives prospective clients a chance to see that therapists are real people and are not going to judge what you come into the therapy room to discuss.


Edmonds doesn’t just talk about what clients experience, she also brings humor to what happens when clients aren’t in the room. In one video she records herself pretending to cry on the phone with her partner while a TikTok sound plays in the background saying, “I’m just literally on the verge of a mental breakdown.” She quickly hangs up the phone and puts away the tissue before going to seemingly greet her next client. Edmonds doesn’t shy away from the hard topics, but she does it in such a funny way that it remains relatable and familiarly human.

Edmonds often breaks out her dance moves to participate in TikTok trends, reminding folks that just because someone has the occupation of a therapist doesn’t mean they can’t let their hair down. Her twerking skills are up on legendary, as Lizzo would say, but while she’s grooving to the beat, you can bet that she has an informational message typed out on the screen.

Edmonds achieves a unique balance of professional, informative and hilarious. Normalizing therapy for everyone should be promoted more, but especially in communities of color where increased stigma around therapy keeps people from seeking help. Access to culturally competent affordable mental health care is also a barrier for some seeking services, as communities of color are often underinsured or uninsured.

Culturally in Black, Hispanic and Asian communities, mental health issues are stigmatized by older generations, so kudos therapists like Edmonds who work to bring normalcy to therapy to combat the cultural narrative. While Edmonds doesn't only see clients of color, her humor in approaching situations that would likely occur working with clients from an urban neighborhood hopefully sparks more interest in seeking therapy. One commenter said, "I don't find therapists like this on Psychology Today," complete with a defeated emoji, to which Edmonds replied, "We on there, Psychology Today just keep us on page 36 and not on the first 5 pages." She finished her comment with several crying laughing emojis.

@antionettethegirlnexdoor Yes, because the 1st of the month will be here soon and we need to make sure he pays the rent #blacktherapistoftiktok#therealtherapistsoftiktok♬ umm.. yeah - andrew

In another video a commenter said, "I wish you were my therapist," while someone else commented "Listen!!! Imma need a session with you!" It's clear that her approach to incorporating her profession into her social media use is changing minds about what to expect from therapy and therapists. Therapists don't have to be cardigan wearing people who do no wrong, they can also be hilariously human.

If you’re in South Florida, you’re in luck because that’s where her practice is located. Unlike many therapists, as Edmonds confirms in one of her videos, she also weekend office hours available. Hopefully this “therapist next door” keeps dancing and laughing her way through normalizing therapy for everyone.

All photos courtesy of The Coca-Cola Company

Behind the Scenes Making Recycled Records with Mark Ronson

True

You’re walking down the sidewalk, earbuds in, listening to your favorite hip-hop beats. As your head bobs to the sounds, the sun warms your back. It’s a perfect day.

When the chorus hits, the empty Sprite bottle in your hand becomes a drumstick, passing traffic becomes a sea of concertgoers, and the concrete beneath your feet is suddenly a stage. Spinning on your heels, you close out the song with your face to the sky and hands in the air.

Keep ReadingShow less
@penslucero/TikTok

Pency Lucero taking in the Northern Lights

Seeing the northern lights is a common bucket list adventure for many people. After all, it ticks a lot of boxes—being a dazzling light show, rich historical experience and scientific phenomenon all rolled into one. Plus there’s the uncertainty of it all, never quite knowing if you’ll witness a vivid streak of otherworldly colors dance across the sky…or simply see an oddly colored cloud. It’s nature’s slot machine, if you will.

Traveler and content creator Pency Lucero was willing to take that gamble. After thorough research, she stumbled upon an Airbnb in Rörbäck, Sweden with an actual picture of the northern lights shining above the cabin in the listing. With that kind of photo evidence, she felt good about her odds.

However, as soon as she landed, snow began falling so hard that the entire sky was “barely visible,” she told Upworthy. Martin, the Airbnb host, was nonetheless determined to do everything he could to ensure his guests got to see the spectacle, even offering to wake Lucero up in the middle of the night if he saw anything.

Then one night, the knock came.

Keep ReadingShow less

Baby Cora bears a striking resemblance to actor Woody Harrelson.

We can all get a little fascinated by doppelgängers and it's fun to find people who look alike. But what do you do when your baby girl looks uncannily like a famous middle-aged man?

Mom Dani Grier Mulvenna shared a photo of her infant daughter Cora side by side with a photo of Woody Harrelson on Twitter, with the caption "Ok but how does our daughter look like Woody Harrelson." The resemblance truly is remarkable, and the tweet quickly racked up hundreds of thousands of likes, shares and replies.

Keep ReadingShow less
Image by sasint/Canva

Surgeons prepared to separate 3-year-old conjoined twins in Brazil using virtual reality.

The things human beings have figured out how to do boggles the mind sometimes, especially in the realm of medicine.

It wasn't terribly long ago that people with a severe injury had to liquor up, bite a stick, have a body part sewn up or sawed off and hope for the best. (Sorry for the visual, but it's true.) The discoveries of antibiotics and anesthesia alone have completely revolutionized human existence, but we've gone well beyond that with what our best surgeons can accomplish.

Surgeries can range from fairly simple to incredibly complex, but few surgeries are more complicated than separating conjoined twins with combined major organs. That's why the recent surgical separation of conjoined twin boys with fused brains in Brazil is so incredible.

Keep ReadingShow less
Education

Unearthed BBC interview features two Victorian-era women discussing being teens in the 1800s

Frances 'Effy' Jones, one of the first women to be trained to use a typewriter and to take up cycling as a hobby, recalls life as a young working woman in London.

Two Victorian women discuss being teens in the 1800s.

There remains some mystery around what life was like in the 1800s, especially for teens. Most people alive today were not around in the Victorian era when the technologies now deemed old-fashioned were a novelty. In this rediscovered 1970s clip from the BBC, two elderly women reminisce about what it was like being teenagers during a time when the horse and buggy was still the fastest way to get around.

Keep ReadingShow less
via Pexels

Parents who just can't stop fighting

Whitney Goodman, a licensed marriage and family therapist, shared a video about kids who grew up in homes where their parents were always fighting, which made many people feel seen. It also started a conversation about who deserves more empathy in the parent-child relationship: the parents or the children.

Goodman is known as the “radically honest” psychotherapist and the author of “Toxic Positivity: Keeping it Real in a World Obsessed with Being Happy.”

"If you grew up in this kind of house, you may have noticed that your family would split off into different alliances or teams to try to manage the material discord. Because the marriage wasn't a good or safe foundation for the family, everybody else had to kind of go and form these new teams,” Goodman explained in an Instagram post.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

People fell in love with Marty the cat after his owner wrote a heartbreaking goodbye letter

“I know this is a small tragedy in the grand scheme of the world, but one that I feel acutely knowing that I expected many more years with my friend."

Photo by Juanita Swart on Unsplash

RIP Marty

Tons of people found themselves clicking on the trending hashtag #RIPMarty, expecting to hear tragic news about a celebrity of some sort.

Instead, they learned about Marty the cat, whose owner shared the most heartbreakingly beautiful goodbye letter following his passing. That letter quickly went viral online, leaving folks completely invested Marty's story, not to mention utterly devastated.

Will Menaker, who shared the letter on Twitter, began by sharing how he and Marty first met. Or more accurately, how Marty introduced himself by emerging from under a car and unapologetically following Menaker up to the steps of his apartment seeking pets. Eventually, as the weather began to get colder, Menaker experimented with bringing Marty inside.

“From that moment on I was in love. I wouldn’t say I ‘had’ a cat, but from then on I shared a house with a tuxedo cat I would name Marty,” Menaker wrote.

Keep ReadingShow less