The Los Rios Community College District is holding a nine-week long support group for black women over Zoom.
The group is called “In the Company We Keep” and is available to all black women enrolled in LRCCD, according to the group’s event page. The group is led by Chioko Grevious, an associate marriage and family therapist, who said she formed the group to address mental health disparities for black women.
Grevious said the goal of the group is “to normalize this idea of participating in therapy or therapeutic interventions and being around other people who possibly share the same experiences.”
In addition to the therapeutic services provided at each meeting, Grevious said the group can provide black women with a sense of community.
“If somebody brings something up, there’s somebody else in the group who’s like, ‘Oh my gosh I know something about that,’ and then give insight,” Grevious said. “So a lot of times, I can just sit back and just kind of watch that organic relationship build, but it’s about developing these relationships within the peer group that definitely makes it something that is being offered besides my therapy services.”
Tiffany Mimms, the founder of the Rosetta Center for Counseling and Wellness in Sacramento, aided Grevious in the formation of the group as her clinical supervisor.
“One of my specialty areas is working with black women on just life issues and supporting them in their mental health and wellness,” Mimms said. “I just often hear about the need for a space for black women to come together and support each other and learn from each other, so we thought this was a great opportunity to offer that support to the black women at Los Rios.”
Grevious said the therapy group covers a new topic every week, with past discussions involving microaggressions and boundaries. She said future discussions will involve topics, such as vulnerability, eating disorders, anxiety, depression and sisterhood among black women.
While this is the first “In the Company We Keep” support group being held at Los Rios, Grevious said she hopes to hold another therapy group next semester as well depending on the success of this group.
Meetings for this support group began on Sept. 28 and will be held every Tuesday until Nov. 16, according to the group’s event page. To learn more or sign up, visit In the Company We Keep: Therapeutic Support Group for Black Women.