Hello and thank you to all who are taking the time to read! While approaching the final hurdles of my clinical psychology doctoral training I am faced with a systemic barrier, one many my black and brown peers are all too familiar with. In my training, I am advised to apply to multiple internship sites (15) and travel to those sites that respond to my applications with an interest in interviewing me. After 5 long years of financially finessing my way through expenses whether they be personal or professional, I am met with a seemingly unwieldy cost. With the excitement of acceptance from multiple sites, and an anticipated continuation of acceptance I am also met with the grim realization that my underprivileged financial status serves as a gatekeeping barrier. I am also reminded that I have never made it alone, and so I am inspired to reach out to you, the reader, whether you be family, friend, or stranger for support.



Below I have provided excerpts from several of my internship essays and cover letters to provide a bit more context. I hope they provide a better picture of who I am and what I hope to accomplish moving forward.



“I was born a slave, but nature gave me the soul of a free man.” -Toussaint Louverture



The evident need for multiculturally-oriented practitioners in the professional realm of psychology has only grown more apparent as I continue developing into a culturally sensitive and responsive clinician. With the unabated rampage of historical and systematic oppression on ethnically diverse populations follows an imperative call to action for healers who either share their struggle or are able to empathize with them. There is an overpowering demonstration of resiliency from minoritized populations, and like a warrior returning from battle, there needs to be spaces of healing in the community, the home, the schools, and in the therapy rooms which require a dedication to people of color. In my clinical experience I have not only provided a reflection for clients, whether they be Black, children of immigrants, or raised in financial poverty, I have also provided culturally responsive, research-based interventions and assessments to combat the systemic harm caused by psychological services that nationally and historically misdiagnose, misunderstand, and mistreat marginalized people.



“If you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.” - Toni Morrison



In the bonds I’ve formed with Congolese refugees and torture survivors, in the comradery, I’ve experienced alongside my diverse peers, and in the pride I embody for my African roots, I have found liberation. From within, my purpose rings out to heal where there was once hurt, to build where there was once breaking, and to empower where there was once powerlessness. My dedication to changing this harmful system is why I chose to become a psychologist.



“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” - Marcus Garvey



My culture and history are etched in my bones, so I carry the lives and experiences of those that came before me, including their trauma and unshakable will to reject physical, mental, and spiritual bondage. Though I have learned to carry my own identity with pride, I have also

learned that it is in love and connection that I will find liberation, and therefore my work is to help guide others to that same freedom through my clinical work.

To be truly free I renounced my mask and embraced the cultural root from which I stem, a lesson I learned much later than my family and forebearers intended. For the world that has not allowed a space for me, I have begun carving a space for myself, my kin, and those who continue to face oppression. I pursued psychology for the sake of my personal freedom and found even greater liberation in helping free others. To this end, to this cause, to this purpose, I am

simultaneously tethered and made free.



With nothing but love,



Jimmy Joseph

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