MINNEAPOLIS — After the death of George Floyd, Stephanie Jensen was searching for a way to give back.
"I started to think about my skill set. Where could my skill set be utilized the most?" she says. "I was trying to find my lane."
As a therapist, and owner of St. Paul Therapy, Stephanie decided to start offering free consultations to black, indigenous and people of color. Those consultations are aimed at helping them find BIPOC therapist to work with.
"Hopefully reduce the labor on their part and on the therapists part," she says.
Stephanie says it's difficult for people in the BIPOC community to find proper mental health services and that finding BIPOC therapists can be a challenge, even for her.
"Even when I’m going to make referrals myself, someone who knows where to find providers of color, it’s still hard for me to find them," she says.
So far, she says she's done free consultations with over 100 people in the BIPOC community.
"I just thought this would be a way for BIPOC to not have to work so hard or be too intimidated to reach out and heal from everything that’s happened, not only in their lives, but here in the city of Minneapolis and St. Paul," she says.
Stephanie says she's offering some of her BIPOC clients free or reduced rates, in addition to the free consultations she's providing to those who reach out.
She's started a Go Fund Me page to help fund the free services she's offering.