{"id":18711,"date":"2026-03-05T13:48:02","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T13:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=18711"},"modified":"2026-03-05T13:48:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T13:48:02","slug":"how-understanding-consciousness-and-subconcious-in-mental-health-therapy-aids-in-the-healing-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/05\/how-understanding-consciousness-and-subconcious-in-mental-health-therapy-aids-in-the-healing-process\/","title":{"rendered":"How Understanding Consciousness and Subconcious In Mental Health Therapy Aids in the Healing Process"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_9520\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-9520\" style=\"width: 193px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-9520\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Bernadette-Joy-Graham-193x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"193\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Bernadette-Joy-Graham-193x300.jpg 193w, http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Bernadette-Joy-Graham-161x250.jpg 161w, http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/Bernadette-Joy-Graham.jpg 216w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 193px) 100vw, 193px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-9520\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bernadette Joy Graham, MA, LPCC, LLC<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>A Mental Health Moment<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>By Bernadette Joy Graham, MA, LPCC<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Truth Contributor<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>When we talk about\u00a0<strong>consciousness<\/strong>, we\u2019re talking about what you\u2019re aware of right now \u2014 your thoughts, your choices, your reactions, your emotions in the present moment. It\u2019s the part of you that decides, \u201cI\u2019m going to pray,\u201d or \u201cI need to calm down,\u201d or \u201cThat comment hurt my feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But the\u00a0<strong>subconscious<\/strong>\u00a0is deeper. It\u2019s where our experiences, memories, trauma, beliefs and learned behaviors live \u2014 even the ones we don\u2019t actively think about. It\u2019s shaped by childhood experiences, generational patterns, cultural messages, church teachings, racial experiences and even unspoken family rules like, \u201cStay strong,\u201d or \u201cDon\u2019t tell our business.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In mental health therapy, we help bring <strong>subconscious<\/strong> material into <strong>conscious<\/strong> awareness. For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A person may <strong>consciously<\/strong> say, \u201cI don\u2019t know why I keep sabotaging relationships.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>But <strong>subconsciously<\/strong>, they may have learned early on that love equals abandonment.<\/li>\n<li>Or they may carry generational trauma from racism, poverty or family instability.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Therapy gently helps uncover those hidden patterns so the person can choose differently instead of just reacting automatically.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u00a0Therapy provides tools, language, and emotional safety.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0Therapy helps you understand the \u201cwhy.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When we heal <strong>consciously <\/strong>and <strong>subconsciously<\/strong>, we stop repeating generational cycles.\u00a0 We learn to respond instead of react.<\/p>\n<p>As a Black mental health therapist, I want to speak directly to us. In our community, we\u2019ve learned how to survive. We\u2019ve learned how to push through. We\u2019ve learned how to \u201cbe strong.\u201d But rarely were we taught how to understand our own minds. Healing begins with understanding the difference between our <strong>conscious<\/strong> and <strong>subconscious<\/strong> selves.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Your <strong>conscious<\/strong> mind is what you\u2019re aware of right now. It\u2019s your thoughts, decisions, reactions, and the stories you tell yourself:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cI\u2019m just tired.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThat didn\u2019t bother me.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cI\u2019ll deal with it later.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It\u2019s logical. It analyzes. It tries to make sense of things.\u00a0 But it\u2019s only part of the picture.<\/p>\n<p>Your <strong>subconscious<\/strong> holds the experiences you don\u2019t actively think about\u2014but that still shape you.<\/p>\n<p>It stores:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Childhood messages about worth and safety<\/li>\n<li>Generational trauma<\/li>\n<li>Survival strategies<\/li>\n<li>Pain you didn\u2019t have space to process<\/li>\n<li>Beliefs about love, success, and identity<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For many Black people, the <strong>subconscious<\/strong> carries not only personal experiences, but collective ones\u2014racial trauma, code-switching fatigue, unspoken grief, and the pressure to overperform just to be seen as \u201cenough.\u201d You may <strong>consciously<\/strong> say, \u201cI know I\u2019m worthy,\u201d but <strong>subconsciously<\/strong> feel anxious in rooms where you\u2019re the only one.<br \/>\nYou may <strong>consciously<\/strong> want healthy love, but <strong>subconsciously<\/strong> fear vulnerability. That\u2019s not weakness. That\u2019s conditioning.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Therapy helps bridge the gap between the <strong>conscious<\/strong> and <strong>subconscious.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In therapy, we:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Slow down enough to notice patterns<\/li>\n<li>Identify emotional triggers<\/li>\n<li>Explore where beliefs came from<\/li>\n<li>Connect present behaviors to past experiences<\/li>\n<li>Learn new ways of responding<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Insight is powerful. When you understand <em>why<\/em> you react a certain way, you gain choice.<\/p>\n<p>And choice is freedom. Therapy is not about \u201cfixing\u201d you. You are not broken.<br \/>\nIt\u2019s about increasing awareness so you can live intentionally instead of automatically.<\/p>\n<p>Many of us were taught to normalize stress, silence pain, and spiritualize suffering without processing it. Therapy does not replace faith, community, or cultural strength\u2014it complements them. It gives language to what we\u2019ve carried quietly.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>When the <strong>subconscious<\/strong> becomes <strong>conscious<\/strong>, healing accelerates.<\/p>\n<p>You start to notice:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cThis anxiety isn\u2019t random\u2014it\u2019s connected to past instability.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThis anger isn\u2019t who I am\u2014it\u2019s unprocessed hurt.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u201cThis fear of rest comes from survival mode.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That awareness allows you to respond differently.\u00a0 Healing is not about erasing your story.<br \/>\nIt\u2019s about understanding it deeply enough to rewrite the parts that no longer serve you.<\/p>\n<p>As a Black therapist, I believe our healing is both personal and collective. When one of us chooses self-examination over silence, growth over shame, and therapy over stigma, we shift generations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Your mind is not your enemy.<br \/>\nYour subconscious is not a flaw.<br \/>\nThey are parts of you waiting to be understood.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>And therapy is one of the tools that helps you listen.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Take a <strong>conscious<\/strong> mental health moment and consider things in your life that are challenging, seem out of your control and seem to have no solution; take a deeper look inward and realize there are things running over and over in your <strong>subconscious<\/strong>, which by the way is very tricky but with therapy you can begin to find solutions to things that seem out of your control and free your previous and unchanged patterns, behaviors and coping mechanisms that have not worked and will not work on your journey in life<strong>.\u00a0 Consciously<\/strong> make a decision to consider seeking therapy to allow your life journey other paths that offer not just happiness but joy.\u00a0 You can get and keep your mind right.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Bernadette Joy Graham is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Therapist. Email:\u00a0 <\/em><\/strong><a href=\"mailto:graham.bernadette@gmail.com\"><strong><em>graham.bernadette@gmail.com<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>For Appointments: Maumee location \u2013 419-866-8232 \u2013 Toledo location \u2013 419-578-2525<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>If you feel you may be in a mental health crisis, please call 988 or go to the nearest emergency room.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Mental Health Moment By Bernadette Joy Graham, MA, LPCC The Truth Contributor &nbsp; When we talk about\u00a0consciousness, we\u2019re talking about what you\u2019re aware of right now \u2014 your thoughts, your choices, your reactions, your emotions in the present moment. It\u2019s the part of you that decides, \u201cI\u2019m going to pray,\u201d or \u201cI need to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[337],"class_list":["post-18711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18711"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18712,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18711\/revisions\/18712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18711"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=18711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}