#217: The Essential Guide for Counseling Black Women with LaNail R. Plummer

Dr. LaNail R. Plummer is a visionary mental health expert, educator, speaker, and author dedicated to redefining how minorities are seen, supported, and healed in clinical spaces. Her book, The Essential Guide for Counseling Black Women (Jan 2026, Norton & Co), is her first of three serving as both a professional resource for educators and mental health providers, and an accessible guide for Black women looking to heal. For Dr. Plummer, the book is more than theory but a response to a gap witnessed in her entire career; the need for healthcare (especially within mental health) that affirms and reflects the real lived experiences of Black women.

Dr. Plummer brings two decades of clinical expertise and lived experience to inform her work. In 2013, she founded Onyx Therapy Group, a mental health organization with a team of 40+ BIPOC counselors and consultants serving Washington, DC, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Louisiana, with an international footprint in South Africa. Onyx's work spans across culturally responsive mental health care, consultation for local and government agencies, executive coaching, mentorship, and even prison reform work.

We discuss topics including:

• Black women can have clinicians that understand how to work with black women

• Understanding that we are not all the same as our perspectives are different

• Exploring the stereotypes with black women

• The importance for black women to be seen and heard

• Reviewing the messages that you have been taught about black women

• Countertransference makes every black woman not enjoy the experience of therapy or be willing to give another therapist a chance

SHOW NOTES:

Website: http://www.onyxtherapy.com

Book: The Essential Guide for Counseling Black Women

IG: @Mahoganysunshine

IG: @onyxtherapygroup

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