UNLEARN THAT SH*T: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF THE STRONG BLACK WOMAN
A Framework for Clinicians to Truly support Strong Black Women
This is not counseling. This is teaching. And it will challenge you.
Whether you’re a therapist, clinical supervisor, counselor educator, or mental health coach, Unlearn That Sh*t: The Psychology of the Strong Black Woman offers the tools, frameworks, and cultural clarity you didn’t get in grad school—but absolutely need in the therapy room.
You can’t help Black women heal if you’re uncomfortable talking about how strength has been weaponized against them.
The Strong Black Woman (SBW) narrative is an inherited survival strategy
It teaches Black Women to:
Never rest
Always be strong
Suppress emotions
Put everyone else first
This identity was never meant to be healthy. And it wasn’t created by us.
Black Women Deserve Better Than Performative Therapy.
As a therapist, if you aren’t trained to recognize how the SBW stereotype shows up in your clients and in yourself, you risk:
Reinforcing the very narrative your clients are trying to escape
Misdiagnosing or pathologizing culturally informed behaviors
Avoiding conversations about race, rest, and identity because they feel "too personal”
What Is Unlearn That Sh*t?
Unlearn That Sh*t: The Psychology of the Strong Black Woman is a 6-module training for therapists and healing professionals. It teaches the historical, psychological, cultural, and embodied layers of the Strong Black Woman narrative and offers a bold, liberatory framework for disrupting it.
This is not surface-level cultural competency. This is real, radical work.
It’s the work I did in my doctoral research. It’s the work I do with Black women clients every day. And now, it’s the work I’m teaching to clinicians like you.
This Is for:
✔ Therapists and counselors who work with Black women and want to show up with more clarity, cultural awareness, and confidence
✔ Clinicians who want to break away from Eurocentric models that pathologize Black strength
✔ Black therapists who see themselves in this narrative and want to unlearn it personally and professionally
✔ Counselor educators and supervisors who are ready to integrate culturally grounded frameworks into their teaching and mentoring
✔ Social workers, coaches, and community healers committed to anti-racist, identity-affirming mental health work
What You’ll Learn
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Module 1: The Origin Story of the Strong Black Woman
→ Where the SBW identity came from
→ How it was socially constructed during slavery, media, religion, and economic policy
→ The psychological toll of inherited strength
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Module 2: The Psychology of a Belief
→ How beliefs are formed, stored, and reinforced
→ Why the SBW narrative feels like truth
→ How to recognize belief systems in Black women’s language, behavior, and nervous system
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Module 3: The Cost of Chronic Strength
→ Chronic stress, emotional suppression, and cultural burnout
→ Black women’s relationship to labor, achievement, and productivity
→ Somatic signs of survival mode
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Module 4: Reappropriate, Redefine, Recover
→ My 3-part framework grounded in my dissertation research
→ How to help clients reframe strength as choice, not obligation
→ Tools to facilitate recovery without reinforcing shame
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Module 5: Rest, Resistance, and Recovery
→ The psychology of rest and how it disrupts internalized capitalism
→ How to help clients unlearn urgency and over-functioning
→ Recovery practices that honor the cultural body
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Module 6: Clinical Applications + Ethical Considerations
→ How to ethically use this framework in session
→ Questions to explore in supervision and case conceptualization
→ Why centering cultural context is a clinical skill, not a political opinion
What Makes This Different:
It’s research-based: This isn’t fluff. This is rooted in my doctoral dissertation and grounded in psychological theory, clinical case studies, and Black feminist scholarship.
It’s culturally specific: This training centers the lived experiences of Black women. Period. No watering it down.
It’s bold: We don’t tiptoe around whiteness, respectability, or fragility here. We speak truthfully and with compassion.
It’s made by a clinician for clinicians: I’m not just theorizing. I live this work. I am a licensed therapist, supervisor, educator, and a Black woman who has unlearned this narrative, too.
What is included:
Six rich, audio-based lessons (you can listen anytime, anywhere)
Downloadable workbooks and reflection prompts for each module
An accompanying email series to support integration
A bonus module on ethical use of the SBW framework in clinical and educational spaces
Optional certificate of completion for CE tracking
(check with your state board for approval)
Why This Work Matters.
Therapists co-create spaces for healing, walking alongside clients rather than leading them. The work is collaborative, not prescriptive—rooted in trust, mutuality, and cultural humility.
If we’re not actively unlearning the Strong Black Woman narrative within ourselves and our clinical work, we become part of the harm—no matter how good our intentions are.
Your clients don’t need saviors. They need space. They need to be witnessed, not managed. They need therapists who can:
Recognize how strength has become a trauma response
Create culturally affirming pathways to rest and recovery
Challenge systems of oppression without re-traumatizing their clients
This work is necessary. This work is overdue. This work is for all of us.
Ready to Learn What They Didn’t Teach You in Grad School?
Whether you identify as a Strong Black Woman or work with clients who do, this framework will:
Expand your clinical lens
Strengthen your cultural humility
Deepen your anti-oppressive practice
Offer tools rooted in liberation, not pathology
About the Creator
Dr. Cecily Moore is a licensed mental health counselor, clinical supervisor, counselor educator, and Black woman scholar.
Her dissertation research centered on helping Black women reappropriate strength and unlearn the Strong Black Woman narrative.
She teaches therapists, educators, and healing professionals how to do the same in their work.
Her work is bold, research-informed, culturally grounded, and emotionally liberating.
Ready to Do the Real Work?
Don’t keep wondering how to help your clients without reinforcing the very beliefs that are burning them out.
Unlearn That Sh*t is a radical invitation to shift from performance to presence, from pathology to power, from strength as survival to healing as a right.
Join the training today. Let’s build a better way—together.
You’re Ready For This If…
✔ You’re tired of superficial diversity trainings that never go deep
✔ You want language and tools that actually help your clients unpack internalized strength
✔ You believe therapy can be both rigorous and revolutionary
✔ You want to grow into a therapist who holds space for the whole of your client’s identity
This training might not be a fit if:
✘ You’re uncomfortable exploring race, gender, and power dynamics in your clinical work
✘ You want a quick, checkbox-style training with no emotional labor
✘ You’re unwilling to examine your own internalized beliefs about strength, success, or wellness