Black men in Cleveland seeking a space to discuss mental health and healing will soon have a new resource: Bruh’s Healing Brothers.
The effort is launching with a panel discussion on Sept. 11. That will be followed in later months with a series of small-group “breakout sessions.” There, therapists will lead discussions about mental health, grief, trauma, relationships and more, said Jerome Cash, the panelist and therapist organizing the effort.
In these sessions, licensed professionals will share therapeutic techniques with the community, Cash said. That could include grounding strategies to calm anxieties or EMDR — eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy, a method of moving your eyes in a specific way to process traumatic memories.
“We’re bringing our modalities and interventions that we do in private practice and bringing them into the community,” Cash said. Many people needing support are not necessarily going to walk into a therapist’s office and ask for help, he added.
The Sept. 11 discussion is titled “A Journey to Psychospirituality.” Cash – who is also a deacon at East Mount Zion Baptist Church — said that psychospirituality involves looking at how faith connects to purpose, mental health and emotional well-being. He is a Christian. But the conversation is not limited to people in the same religion or even to those who practice religion, he said.
“Spirituality doesn’t have anything to do with religion,” Cash said. “ … It’s just, how do you make meaning out of life? Like, what’s your purpose?”
Cash and the panel’s moderator, Stephanie Lewis — who is also a licensed therapist — are gathering community members’ questions for the event. So far, many concern the rise in domestic violence, a rise in suicide rates among young Black men and how men deal with emotions like jealousy and rage, Cash said.
“My biggest thing is, what has it cost men, and Black men in general, to be strong?” Cash said. “What has it cost us to mask and not cry and not be vulnerable?”
He encourages women, teens and families to come to the event as well. Cash intentionally chose a woman to moderate the panel in order to represent their perspective.
The Sept. 11 event is free thanks to donations from a variety of sources, including Cuyahoga County Community College, the Greater Cleveland branch of the NAACP and Erie Bank. But Cash is still fundraising to support the ongoing “breakout” sessions that he hopes to start in January.
Cash brings mental health care into Cleveland’s community
This isn’t Cash’s first time bringing therapeutic techniques into community settings.
For several years, he facilitated sessions for Ghetto Therapy, another free mental health resource for Cleveland families. He works closely with a program called Peel Dem Layers Back, which brings “hip-hop therapy” to young men and boys. The group learns coping skills like journaling from licensed mental health workers. People also learn to channel emotions into music.
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He also holds a mental health discussion series called “Holding Space” for Black men. And he presented at churches to share why parishioners might want to seek mental health care on top of their faith.
“Even at church, there’s the stigma with Christians and other religions that prayer just works for everything. Prayer is the answer,” Cash said.
And he recently began NeuroXcel, a free monthly support group of adults who identify as neurodivergent. That includes people with ADHD and/or autism.
His latest project, Bruh’s Healing Brothers, is in partnership with the Washington Wellness Institute. The therapy practice also offers yoga and reiki healing.
