Josh Odam

Josh Odam (he, him) is the Founder & Curator of Healing While Black LLC, an online platform dedicated to the mental health and wellness of Black queer, transgender, and gender non-conforming people. He understands mental (un)wellness is inextricably linked to antiblackness, queerantagonism, and other forms of oppression. Josh believes his role is to introduce possibility to clients and journey alongside them during the therapeutic process. His approach is multi-disciplinary and incorporates Person-Centered (Rogerian) Therapy and Strengths-Based Therapy within the context of Ignacio Martin-Baro’s concept of Liberation Psychology. Josh’s areas of interest include critical engagement with masculinity, QTGNC teens and adults processing their sexuality and/or gender identity, economic exploitation as a social determinant of health, anxiety and depression found among high achievers, ethnostress within BIPOC studying/working in Historically/Predominately White Institutions (HPWIs), and communal care for activists and organizers. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is pursuing his Master’s in Social Work from Springfield College and a Master’s in Labor Studies from UMass.