DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC) – Lauryn Bergert, MA, QMHP is a Quad City native who graduated from Dominican University in 2021 with her B.A. in Psychology and Black World Studies. She also recently received her M.A. from Roosevelt University in Clinical Psychology. Currently, she is a Doctoral Student in the Clinical Psychology PsyD program.
Born and raised in the Quad Cities, Lauryn knew from a young age that she wanted to be involved in the “helping field” when she grew up.
As a biracial Doctoral Extern, Lauryn shared her perspective on different topics regarding the biracial culture in the mental health field.
Being a biracial psychologist comes with a set of skills and barriers that White psychologists may not have to ever worry about. “To be a psychologist, we are all under ethical obligation to serve our clients to the best of our ability. As a biracial clinical psychologist-in-training, my identity as a Black woman fully impacts my clinical judgement and how I conceptualize my work.” Bergert says. “Each of us have a different driving factor that influence our work. While I wish we would all work to address systemic barriers and advocate for more access, that is not everyone’s calling. My hope is that all clinicians will strive to always remain culturally humble, which will ensure we are serving our clients to the best of our ability and putting their overall well-being first.” says Bergert.
When it comes to mental health accessibility, racism, and other factors, there are racial inequities that Black clients have to worry about that many white clients don’t. Bergert says the statistics show that only 25% of Black Americans seek mental health treatment in comparison to 40% of White Americans. “The system is flawed. We know that our society was built on discrimination and oppression of marginalized people, which results in the persistence of inequalities. I see this mistrust and lack of representation in the field contributing to the disparity in seeking mental health treatment.” says Bergert.
When addressing the topic of representation, Bergert was sure of the reason why there is a shortage of Black therapists. “Representation. In the US, only 4% of psychologists are Black. We must increase the representation of people of color in the many different fields to let young Black and Brown children know that they can do anything they set their mind to. Before I met one of my mentors, I have never met or seen a Black psychologist and I did not even know my degree I’m pursuing, a Psy.D. (Doctorate of Psychology).
Regarding clinician diagnosis in the Black community, Bergert says “I will say that there are some disorders that tend to be over-diagnosed in our community- like Bipolar and PTSD. This is because symptoms will manifest differently for different communities and if some clinicians are trained through a culturally competent lens, it can be easy for them to overlook or misinterpret symptoms which leads to misdiagnoses or overdiagnoses.”
Lauryn is a firm believer that every single person could benefit from therapy. She says that we all can benefit from learning more about how our past influences our current state and learning more about healthy emotional regulation and coping techniques.
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