The Black Mental Health Counselor
Reparations Foundation

During the fall of 2020, St. Mary of Bethany Parish began an initiative called the Equitable Healing Reparations Initiative to financially repent for complicity in racial and economic injustices in the history of the church in the United States. The specific area of our reparations were directed toward paying the student loan debt of Black therapists in Nashville. The EHRI was action with desire rooted in John the Baptist’s call to produce fruit that keeps with repentance. Between August of 2020 and July of 2023, a group of over 100 people have given more than $143,000.

Dr.Layla Bonner, Dr. DeAndrea Witherspoon Nash, and Fr Danny are the founders of the foundation. Dr. Bonner is President of the foundation and a licensed mental health counselor, author, professor at Belmont, Dr. DeAndrea Witherspoon Nash is the Secretary and is also a licensed counselor and the Director of Mental Health Counseling at Lipscomb. Fr. Danny Bryant is the Treasurer.

The mission of the Black Mental Health Counselor Reparations Foundation is to empower and provide financial support to licensed, or licensed-eligible Black mental health counselors through student debt relief, supervision grants, and scholarships as a form of reparations.

You can visit the Foundation’s website here and give via Kindful.