Dr. Edith Langford, PhD
Edith Langford is a psychotherapist with four decades of experience. After a lifetime of experiencing ongoing medical mistreatment, she is working on a memoir about mental health and trauma related issues in our society.
Psychotherapist, Writer, Advocate
From a newborn mysteriously infected with osteomyelitis, to the shocking neglect of doctors after a shooting which took one of her kidneys, appendix, and part of her large intestines at the age of 9, to waking up on a gynecological operating table as a young woman, to the current saga of fixing shoddy dental surgery, Edith Langford has experienced the full spectrum of trauma inducing experiences.
The writer, a Black woman, has her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in Research, Statistics and Evaluation. She brings her academic background as an ethnographic researcher to her own personal memoir, as well as the larger story of Black women’s experiences with mental health in America. In this book, which narrates the undocumented and often misdiagnosed mental health issues of Blacks in America, the writer brings together stories with a clarion call for truth and reconciliation—with resource recommendations included.
She has responded to individual and mass traumas such as the Gilpin Court Massacre and to the survivors of Hurricane Katrina.
She serves as program director for Brooklyn Art Incubator, a non-profit focused on utilizing the arts to help at-risk youth. She has taught at St. John’s University in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology as well as the College of New Rochelle, Graduate School of Psychology. Dr. Langford has also designed and evaluated national crime and drug prevention programs for the Department of Justice. She is also licensed as a professional counselor and addictions specialist in Alabama and New York. Born in Chicago to a family of the Great Migration from Alabama, Dr. Langford was raised in Cleveland and New York City. She is a wife, mother and grandmother, and lives in Brooklyn, NY and on the Gulf Coast of Alabama with her husband.
“I search and then I research.”
Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC, LMHC)
Writer, Ethnographic Researcher & Clinician
Addiction Specialist (CASAC, ADC)
Clinical website: therapy.edithlangford.com
Edith is available for media interviews and as a source for journalists working on stories about mental health, and related issues.
Can average Americans fix a deeply broken system?
Our systems of justice, education, politics, health care – including mental health, and many others are systematically killing Americans of color. These systems were simply not designed—and currently do not function—to support the existence of Black and Brown people as human beings.
More Americans are waking up to these facts and feel a compelling urge to relieve the pain brought on by their recent awareness of systemic mental health injustices.
This is at the heart of Dr. Langford’s new book. Presented through often unsettling vignettes that put real names and faces to micro and macro trauma inducing situations and social analysis and recommendations applied to each vignette. This book helps to make those who are traumatize feel visible while also providing answers for those wishing to create true change from their living rooms and hometowns. Ultimately, readers will see that there is hope for a promising mental health future.
This book will be an insider perspective of how the mental healthcare system affects women especially women of color and aligns with the narratives of titles like,
Dr. Langford supports a common belief that we all need to grasp and understand mental health disparities in the health care system as one of the main issues that threatens the success of our efforts to define, identify and end systemic racism in America. The writer is determined to tell a clear, concise, true, and credible story. One that cites what, when, where, and how systemic bias has been sewn through the lives of many people of color. She wants to put an end to people saying, “Oh my God, I had no idea.”
Sign up to hear news about the upcoming book.
Understanding Mental Health Bias and the Impact on Our Physical Health
The days of using holistic and still separating mental health are passed. We need to think of mental health as part of or overall health.
We are concerned about the constant use of federal funds to support this most notorious expression of segregation. Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhuman because it often results in physical death.
The issue of racism in health care is widely known in America. People of color experience significant health disparities in the United States. In fact, these health inequities have persisted for centuries, and they are only getting worse. This is due to the pervasive reach of systemic racism on Black communities and other communities of color. Healthcare organizations must act now to address these root causes and mitigate the negative impacts of racism in achieving mental health equity.
Here are a few resources that provide more detail about the crisis we face as a country.
Bias in Healthcare
Jelan Agnew, LCSW — Black Folk Mental Health: Generational Trauma, Traditions & Truth
Jelan Agnew, LCSW is a psychotherapist, professor, facilitator and public speaker, with 16 years in the mental health field. She is the founder of Nalej of Self, LLC, a private practice dedicated to addressing Black generational trauma, identifying cycles/patterns and creating new ways of being through healing Mind, Body, Spirit.
Dr. Curtis Jasper, PhD, MEd
Dr. Curtis Jasper talks about the current state of The Mental Health industry and how it does not address, support, or sustain the current state of Black Mental Health— specifically Black Males and the struggles and challenges of receiving effective, culturally specific, accessible mental services from qualified mental health practitioners. Dr. Jasper addresses how these deficiencies sustain the prolonged struggle faced by Black Men regarding their unique-lived experiences filled with grief, trauma, injustice and abuse.
Dr. Thema Bryant-Davis, PhD
Dr. Thema Bryant is currently a tenured professor of psychology in the Graduate School of Education and Psychology at Pepperdine University, where she directs the Culture and Trauma Research Laboratory. Dr. Bryant-Davis shares pearls of wisdom from her deep knowledge of science, faith, and art in this interview from Mt Sinai Health System in New York.
Contact Dr. Edith Langford
Questions? Stories? Need a mental health expert to discuss Black health issues, medical racism, etc for your media story? Get in touch via the form below.