Maya Gwynn
With KVCR Public Media, I'm Maya Gwynn with Black Perspectives IE, a show where you learn about the amazing things members of the Black community are doing in the Inland Empire. My guest today is Dr. Sayeda Peprah-Wilson, Licensed Psychologist, Doula, and Founder and Executive Director of the nonprofit Diversity Uplifts. Thank you so much for being here.
Dr. Sayida Peprah-Wilson
Thank you for having me.
Maya Gwynn
Diversity Uplifts provides both direct services and training for providers. How do you balance those two approaches to create meaningful and sustainable impact?
Dr. Sayida Peprah-Wilson
So, the direct service side, how do we make sure that when we're training, people are actually understanding the real scenario that this is related to. Give me the story. Tell me your most difficult client. Now, let's look at that from this framework and really understand what the whole person's like social determinant situation is, and like what was their, you know, zero to seven experience with parenting and attachment, and like how did that impact how we got to this foster care situation, or this domestic violence situation, or this depression and suicide, like, how did we get here? It always has me thinking about making the threads more practical, and so I bring that to the trainings, to policy recommendation, the stories that we actually hear, what's happening on the ground to people wanting to improve their services.
Maya Gwynn
I'm sure that is so helpful too, and I love how you keep talking about seeing people as the whole person, not just the situation that they're in. Your international experience studying mental health and indigenous practices have informed your work, which I think is amazing. How do those perspectives influence the programs and trainings offered by Diversity Uplifts?
Dr. Sayida Peprah-Wilson
Well, it certainly does help that I have seen culture and tradition practice in its original setting, so it gives me a context for, like, particularly with immigrant communities, and all of us, unless you're an indigenous person, have some tradition that has threaded through, whether it's multiple generations ago. I've seen the root of several aspects of culture, and then sort of conceptual parts, like communal society. There are ways that people in different parts of the world have a similar communal way of thinking about raising children, about being in partnership, about the role of family, the role of elders. So, I've traveled and spent time a lot in Ghana, in India, in Mexico, particularly in Oaxaca and Puerto Escondido, where we were studying, like, Afro Mestizo community, which at that time I was coming out of college, and I didn't know that there was black slavery in Mexico. When people are, you know, in a room with me as a client and understanding their cultural background, even if they don't know it themselves, there's often a through line of the influence of it, and sometimes the expiration of that individually, like in individual or in group therapy, is like really powerful for people, because they realize they were influenced by something that they did not have awareness of, but it was a part of that's why my mother did that, that's why we, you know, moved so much. I find it to be really liberating to understand that. And so there's this concept of like a genogram, where you kind of take your family, it's like a family tree, you tell a story, a narrative through the family trees. All of those things inform the way that we build things to reflect both what people are living now and what cultural experiences could have influenced them.
Maya Gwynn
Yeah, and it's so important that someone like you is leading this, because I feel like so many times when people share their culture experiences with someone who isn't a part of their culture, they feel judged, but because you've been all around the world, you have like a respect for it. What challenges have you faced in promoting culturally informed care and DEI practices in this climate? And how is your background preparing you to address them?
Dr. Sayida Peprah-Wilson
I am very comfortable having conversations that are difficult for most people, I think that comes with experience as a psychologist. I've worked with people, often a lot of trauma and suicide intervention, and so you know people at the worst moments of their life, and they're like, "You want me to have hope about what? And, like, I've had to have those existential conversations and walk alongside people through very impossible scenarios, you know, people who are in solitary confinement for over a decade, and it's like, what am I supposed to do? I can't take you out of the cell, but I can teach you meditation, I can teach you to liberate your mind from this experience, you know. I had a white supremacist and incarcerated man, who, he was there, I had to see him, because I'm the psychologist, and he was upset about having to see me, and you know all kind of disrespect. He called me out of things on my name, and I'm just like, I understand that you need something, and I'm going to be here for you, because that's my role, to be of service to you as a human, because you're going through a hard time now. You don't like that a black woman is the one that is here to help you, and that's okay. You don't have to receive this help, but I'm going to be here if you decide you need it, like being able to move my own emotions aside, being able to not get defensive. I mean, we end up having, like, I feel like a very beautiful healing experience, because even though he didn't want my help, and a lot of our team, actually, were people of color, he needed it, he had to acquiesce to. Fine, I'll let you help me. And then, obviously, he found it helpful, and ended up being, you know, I feel like a bit of a champion mental health supporter among the other inmates in the community. If you're a provider of care for humans, you're a doctor, you're an OB, you're a nurse, you're a psychologist, you're a dulo, you're a midwife, like you're a case manager - you're here for the people, that's your job. You are required by the nature of the job to be able to show up for any human standing in front of you, and to offer the support that you do. And if you can't do that, you are not a professional. If you want to be about your business as a masterful, powerful healer in the community doing the work you do, then you need to know how to talk to people differently. You need to know how to listen to people in a way that they feel heard, that is the professionalism that I dream of for all the providers out there, and that's where the spirit that the courses are coming from, and even the, you know, recommendations for policy, for there to be more courses for people to gain more information, like implicit bias training, like everybody has biases,. You're not a bad person, you're human, like there are things that make sense for why we were raised the way we are, but once you become a provider of care, you need to be able to see past that and not think, oh well, she looks like she's okay, she's not in that much pain, like you need to have more skills in that.
Maya Gwynn
Yeah.
Dr. Sayida Peprah-Wilson
it's very unfortunate that people have lost vision around the importance of diversity and equity work, but I know from being in the community human beings need care and it's individualized, not just black people, not just Latinos. I had many white clients that needed an individualized approach that I was able to give them because of my cultural competency, and so even the idea that it's black and white, like it's very juvenile. So I can remain hopeful, because I feel like I know what actually the world needs, and no matter what, people gonna keep having these babies and keep needing care. This workforce and the need is not going to end. This is not a part-time thing. So I'm just here.
Maya Gwynn
Yeah, thank God. We're gonna move to our rapid-fire portion. If your work had a theme song, what would it be?
Dr. Sayida Peprah-Wilson
It'd have some soul, and it would be soothing enough to like put you to sleep, but also like with a rhythm enough to like keep you going.
Maya Gwynn
I love that. Yeah, and if you have to teach a master class or give a TED talk on a random skill you have, besides the work you already do, what would it be?
Dr. Sayida Peprah-Wilson
I would say it's my ability to innovate. If they were going to take people to Mars, and there was no plan. I will be very comfortable. My intuition will turn on, and I will pay attention to what's happening, and I will notice the inclinations of the Martians, and I would be helpful. People really would benefit from that. I think people are afraid of things being unexpected, and that's life.
Maya Gwynn
Yeah, that's a good answer. And what's your favorite I.E. restaurant or a landmark that reminds you of the Inland Empire?
Dr. Sayida Peprah-Wilson
Island Breeze. It's a Jamaican spot.
Maya Gwynn
That's good food. And how can people keep up with you and support your work?
Dr. Sayida Peprah-Wilson
You could follow me at Dr. Sayida Uplifts on Instagram. When I do trainings, I post it, and Diversity Uplifts has an Instagram as well, and you can follow us there.
Maya Gwynn
Awesome. Thank you so much for this conversation. It was so necessary. I really appreciate the work you're doing.
Dr. Sayida Peprah-Wilson
Thank you.
Maya Gwynn
Of course. Dr. Sayida Peprah-Wilson is the Founder and Executive Director of the nonprofit Diversity Uplifts. Find this segment and others at kvcr.org/bpie. Support for the segment comes from the Mecca IE Fund at IECF, advancing racial equity and supporting long-term investments in Black-led organizations in Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Join us again next week for Black Perspectives IE. For KVCR Public Media, I'm Maya Gwynn. Thank you.
