TAMPA, Fla. — July is National Minority Mental Health Awareness Month. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s goal is to raise awareness of the challenges that impact racial and ethnic minorities.

Dr. Raquel Martin is a psychologist who is also a professor at Tennessee State University, who encourages mental wellness on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok.

“I got on social media randomly. Because my caseload filled up,” Dr. Martin said.

Dr. Martin has more than 700,000 followers on TikTok and another 195,000 on Instagram.

“Therapy is not the only way to make mental health progress,” Dr. Martin said. “I focus on Black mental health because when I focus on everyone, I focus on no one. A lot of times, we do better with race-concordant relationships when clinicians look like us.”

Dr. Martin said there aren’t many specialists in her line of work who are Black, making it difficult for some people to find the help they need.

“In 2019, Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment published a study stating that when it comes to expressive symptoms for Black people, it’s more disabling, more persistent and more treatment-resistant than depression among European American individuals. And then when it comes to Black psychologists, only 5 percent of psychologists are Black.”

Despite all of her followers, she said there are plenty of people who doubt the need for what she’s doing.

“It’s not received appropriately, because they’re not ready to receive it,” said Dr. Martin.

“You really have to specialize,” Dr. Martin continued. “And I feel like we deserve that. People will be like, ‘This applies to me too, and I’m not Black.’ That’s amazing. I’m glad that applies to you. I also want to specify the fact — that’s not my goal.”

You can listen to Dr. Martin’s full conversation on a Frank Conversation wherever you get your podcast.