Dr. S. Kent Butler, a professor of counselor education at the University of Central Florida, has become a key figure among experts speaking on Black mental health around the country. He’s often led conversations with other Black men about the obstacles they face, including at the Healing While Black conference held this year in St. Petersburg from July 28-31.
Butler, who just completed his term as president of the American Counseling Association, said when entering the counseling field, he didn’t realize that he would be called to help Black males. He recently spoke with WUSF’s Octavio Jones, where he said he discovered a need to help educate counselors in the profession about supporting Black males.
WUSF: What made you become a counselor?
Butler: I started working in a middle school as a school counselor. And that’s when the drive really, really set in to help Black males to kind of come to grips with who they were, as individuals raise their self-esteem, and do things that were really supportive and help them in their development, their growth. Read more at theweeklychallenger.com
