Who is Dr. Broderick Sawyer?
Originally a college basketball player from a small Connecticut city on the edge of NYC, I'm now a clinical psychologist, teacher, activist and consultant living in Louisville Kentucky. In my graduate training, I studied mindfulness meditation, compassion, and behavioral techniques for healing racial trauma (and other forms of generational harm).
I was formally trained in cognitive behavioral mental health interventions by the University of Louisville. From there, I completed an internship at Stony Brook University, where I received in-depth experience with mindfulness meditation, compassion-based therapy, and psychodynamic therapy. Shortly after graduating, I dove into practicing psychotherapy full-time. My goal was to understand what it really takes for human beings to move from a place of stress, sorrow, and fear, to a place of sustainable joy.
Seeing the transformational power of attention and compassion skills within myself and former patients, I recognized that I could maximize my impact by teaching people in larger settings, outside of the therapy room. My goal was to remove the barriers to learning accurate mental health information, especially for change-makers (i.e., non-profit employees, activists, therapists, etc.), and people who don't have access to 1 on 1 psychotherapy. I wanted to connect with people in their own everyday spaces, and share what psychology has to say about 'best practices' for mental wellbeing and performance in everyday life.
As an independent contractor, I now personally collaborate with non-profits, businesses, therapy clinics, universities, grassroots organizers, and other organizations, to provide custom-fitted training events, psychology curriculums for in depth skill-building, and ongoing consultation and mentoring. By working closely and directly with you, I offer my full attention and adaptability to ensure that our collaboration generates positive, growth-promoting outcomes.
Many are looking to improve the inclusivity, wellness, and sustainability of their organizations. With my knowledge, flexibility, and down to earth communication style, together we can accomplish any goals you set.
What are Dr. Sawyer's Areas of Expertise?
Inclusivity and Racial Healing: Dr. Sawyer's main area of expertise is in healing race-based generational trauma. In addition to successful DEI education, organization members also need skills in managing emotional discomfort to ensure sustainable, embodied changes in inclusive behavior- especially in non-profit sectors. Dr. Sawyer covers all bases in this area, combining his expertise in compassion, racial trauma, and mental wellness to create a solid "psychological foundation" within your organization. He achieves this by assisting you in developing and teaching customized programming, speaking to your entire organization or to select stakeholders, and providing ongoing consultation support.
Mental Wellness Skill-Building: In his time as a psychotherapist, Dr. Sawyer gained plenty of experience teaching his patients scientifically-backed skills of mental wellness. When teaching outside of the therapy environment, he approaches mental wellness like building muscle: Transforming mental health into a routine hygienic activity, rather than an intimidating process. He uses his extensive experience, combined with his background as an athlete, to teach you the fundamentals of mental wellness from a down-to-earth, skill-based perspective.
Training for Mental Health Professionals and Trainees: Dr. Sawyer was trained to provide psychotherapy using several theoretical perspectives (cognitive-behavioral, liberation psychology, mindfulness, relational psychodynamic, attachment, exposure, humanistic, compassion-focused, and more). Often, therapy clinics, training programs, and other treatment settings may desire exposure to diverse and integrative approaches to psychotherapy, but may not be able to hire full-time experts. Dr. Sawyer's offerings resolve this dilemma by collaborating with you to provide training and ongoing mentorship support across many topic areas, delivered with ultimate flexibility.
Mental Wellness for People of Color: For the past several years, Dr. Sawyer has personally created and taught flexible programming for mental wellness and generational healing in people of color, primarily in collaboration with grassroots organizers, non-profit organizations, and employee resource groups within businesses. He uses his expertise in racial trauma and generational healing to put on wellness workshops, create digital curriculum to develop resilience against racism, facilitate growth-promoting discussion, and much more.
Attention, Meditation, and Compassion: With 7 years of experience teaching and practicing attention, meditation, and compassion-based technology for 'engineering' joy and wellness, Dr. Sawyer is a well-practiced and embodied teacher. While also being grounded in a personal study of Eastern philosophy and ancient texts, Dr. Sawyer keeps these approaches culturally-authentic, all without sacrificing a need for practicality in the modern world.
What is his philosophy?
Mental wellness is a skill.
In Dr. Sawyer's years of experience providing psychotherapy in 1 on 1 settings, the patients who learned to skillfully work with their inner environments were able to find and maintain wellness. He found that learning techniques to keep one's mental health running 'smoothly' was the fast-track to improving health, life performance, and becoming more compassionate to oneself and others. This was especially true for social change-makers looking to find emotional sustainability in grassroots justice work.
Using this skill-building approach, altering the wellness and inclusivity of organizations is made possible- especially given the many barriers to receiving psychotherapy. By becoming happier through skill-building in a non-threatening, educational, accessible way, people gain access to sustainable wellbeing, and they become more joyful, powerful, and compassionate.
