New Haven psychologist addresses urban trauma; challenge blacks to seek mental health professionals

Feb. 12--Editor's note: This story is part of an occasional series highlighting Black History Month 2017.

NEW HAVEN -- When Maysa Akbar was 13, she was abandoned by her parents in Brooklyn, New York.

"I'm a child of immigrant parents and when I was 13, my parents decided to move back to the Caribbean and (were) not going to take me with them," said Akbar, who's from the Dominican Republic and moved to America when she was 5.

And at that point, said Akbar, "they left me with family members, who, a year into me staying with them, decided that it was too complicated to care for a teenager."

She was homeless.

Now a practicing psychologist, Akbar said she turned her trauma that resulted from rejection, abandonment, poverty and homlessness into energy through which she is focused on helping others, "dig into their resilience and make something of themselves." She does this through her Integrated Wellness Group -- a psychotherapy practice dedicated to supporting children, adults, and families on their unique journey towards mental health and wellness.

"I had to figure it out and working against the odds," Akbar said, of her struggles during her youth. "Folks would tell me all the time, I would end up pregnant and on welfare anyway; why am I fighting so hard?"

"I remember most nights crying myself to sleep on the streets and asking God, why me?" she said.

Akbar said she fought every day to get to school despite her circumstances.

"For whatever reason, I understood that education was the ticket out -- I spent a lot of time in school, because, I didn't have a place to go," she said.

After years of perseverance, Akbar finally made it to college and while in school, she realized her life's purpose.

"When I got to college, I decided that I had to help other kids that I knew who have gone through my life circumstances find their path and to fight like hell to not be a victim of their trauma," said Akbar, who completed her undergraduate degree at the State University of New York at Albany and her master's degree at Florida A&M University.

Akbar opened Integrated Wellness Group in 2008.

Urban Trauma

Akbar's research looks at trauma in black communities, not only from the traditional clinical lens, but also from a historical perspective of racial injustice, oppression and discrimination- which Akbar dubbed "urban trauma."

"We started working with young people in New Haven through our veterans mentor program VETTS and tasked with the idea of bringing solutions on how to deal with kids that are in the inner city/ urban communities, but are afflicted by community violence, poverty, homelessness and single-parent homes or incarcerated parents," said Akabr, who earned a doctorate in clinical psychology from Saint Louis University in 2003.

"I started to realize there was something unique about the kids that we were seeing,"she said. "We were doing these measures that looked at trauma and identified their trauma history in addition to other things."

The Veterans Empowering Teens Through Therapeutic Support, or VETTS, matches youth who are highly at risk through gang involvement, legal problems, truant, or otherwise delinquent in the eyes of the community with U.S. Military-trained, honorably discharged veterans, who serve the function of a committed positive role model.

Some of the program's initiative's focus primarily with de-escalation of suicidal and homicidal ideation, gang intervention and conflict resolution among others.

Research goals

Akbar, who did her doctoral fellowship at Yale School of Medicine, decided to remain in the city.

Akbar said she and others research practitioners began assessing patients' racial identity and how they viewed themselves, their self-esteem, how they handled traumatic events that have happened in their lives and patients' relationships with parents and community members.

"I started to realize that urban kids or at-risk kids do have trauma and have had trauma if they're in communities that are full of violence," said Akbar, whose clinic recently launched a partnership with Yale Child Study Center.

When Akbar started putting the pieces of her research together, she thought from a historical perspective dating back to slavery.

"We've struggled around the issues of oppression, discrimination and colorism which have existed in our communities and that we continue to struggle with," said Akbar, who began practicing clinical psychology 15 years ago.

According to Mental Health America, historical adversity, which includes slavery, sharecropping and race-based exclusion from health, educational, social and economic resources, translates into socioeconomic disparities experienced by African Americans today.

Socioeconomic status is linked to mental health: People who are impoverished, homeless, incarcerated or have substance abuse problems are at higher risk for poor mental health, the website said.

But, "It's not quite as simple as looking at it just from the lens of trauma or the lens of our historical plight," she said. Instead, "when you put it together -- urban trauma manifest itself in a very different way," she said.

According to Akbar, urban trauma may appear as heightened emotions, flashbacks, irritability and anger.

"There are moments of depression and lack of motivation, giving up, due to hopelessness, and overstimulated by situations that are happening in their community," she said.

A study by The United States Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health showed that blacks of all ages are more likely to be victims of serious violent crime than are whites, making them more likely to meet the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder.

The study also noted that "blacks are also twice as likely as whites to be diagnosed with schizophrenia."

One of Akbar's colleagues, Dr. Linda Mayes, said Akbar brings a special sensitivity to the importance of individual and community culture to understanding the generation-to-generation impact of trauma on children and families.

"She is a thoughtful and skilled clinician who understands that individuals live in families who live in neighborhoods that make for thriving or struggling communities," said Mayes, who's the Arnold Gesell professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics, and Psychology and director of the Yale Child Study Center.

"She is creative in her approaches to the very difficult and pervasively impactful issues of individual and community trauma," she said.

A Resilient People

Akbar said she believes there is something special existing within the spirit and soul of African Americans, which allows individuals to continue to overcome challenging hurdles.

"It's almost genetic, said Akbar, .

"It doesn't revert the trauma to a paralyzing situation, but sometimes ignites within us an ability to get through the worst of circumstances; that's the different lens on trauma," she said. "We have established some kind a new normal each time we overcome one of these horrific circumstances."

State Rep. Robyn Porter, D-New Haven, who has been a proponent of Akbar's work, said her work and clinical programs are pivotal for the black community.

"I think her character and life story contributes to her skill-set, not just as a doctor, but someone who has street credit with the patients she serves; they know she's the real deal," said Porter.

Porter, who represents southern Hamden and the Newhallville neighborhood of New Haven, said black youth suffer from PTSD and have traumatic experiences daily.

"You can do the best job as a parent, but when you live in the inner-city, the streets have access to your kids more hours out of the day than you do; the mental health piece for our community is very important."

Removing the Stigma

Mental illness is frequently stigmatized and misunderstood in the African American community. African Americans are much more likely to seek help though their primary care doctors as opposed to accessing specialty care, according to Erlanger Turner, a licensed clinical psychologist in an article that appeared in Psychology Today.

Cultural biases against mental health professionals and health care professionals in general prevent many African Americans from accessing care due to prior experiences with historical misdiagnoses, inadequate treatment and a lack of cultural understanding, the article noted.

"I'm going to make sure that people start incorporating it (urban trauma) in their way of treating black communities in particular," said Akbar.

"If folks are going to consider themselves culturally competent in this work, we can't isolate the historical component, the race, the oppression, and the racial disparities; we have to understand both in the context of what we're doing."

But Akbar also is challenging the black community to seek mental health professionals.

"We come from a community that doesn't have what we call help-seeking behaviors -- we come from a community where mental health and the stigma associated with mental health has plagued our ability to really seek treatment in the way that we need to," said Akbar.

"We go through generational trauma and we never really talk through what these issues look like for us," she said.

The stereotype of being weak and vulnerable are other reasons why blacks don't seek mental health treatment, according to Akbar.

"The first commitment I am going to put out there or challenge to the black community is for us to start really thinking about how do we personally begin to destigmatize mental health in our community and begin to invite it as a common place at our table," said Akbar.

"It should have a chair at our table and shouldn't be excluded," she said. "I think we will be able to start down the road of recovery for understanding how to manage our urban trauma."

Reach Community Engagement Editor Shahid Abdul-Karim at 203 680-9343.

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