PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas (August 9, 2021) — With her graduation in sight, Marsja Stearnes, Ph.D., has gotten a big head start on some heady post-doctorate goals.
Marsja Stearnes, Ph.D.
The Galveston, Texas, native used the pandemic to found and develop Pause Therapy, a mental health tech platform committed to providing culturally competent care.
“I think for a lot of people, the pandemic was, unfortunately, a time of stress and fear,” said Stearnes. Stearnes leaves Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) this summer with two master’s degrees (one in clinical community psychology from Texas Southern University and the other in clinical adolescent psychology from PVAMU) and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. “I did experience a lot of those feelings, but I was kind of in a unique position because, completing the last year of my Ph.D., I had a little more freedom.”
That’s the kind of can-do attitude that you get when talking to Stearnes, who, while at PVAMU, completed health psychology internships at San Antonio State Hospital and Sam Houston University. She also studied abroad in Ghana, where she provided psychological services through Recovery Africa.
“All my internships provided diverse experiences in the field of psychology and enriched my educational experience at PVAMU,” Stearnes said. “At the San Antonio State hospital, I worked in the forensic unit. I was able to provide psychological services in the form of assessment to individuals who were found not competent to stand trial or found guilty by reason of insanity. This experience allowed me to hone my assessment skills and work with a multidisciplinary team committed to providing superb mental health treatment. At the Sam Houston Counseling and Health Center, I was responsible for providing individual, group therapy, and assessment to college students, and I conducted workshops and outreach for faculty and staff. And my time in Ghana helped further my understanding of the role of culture in mental health diagnoses and treatment.”
Pause Therapy has already signed up 50 therapists and is targeting a few niches where larger, more established sites have not been as successful, she said. “Culturally competent care” is something that other sites don’t necessarily tout. Whereas, Pause is making a special effort to ensure its therapists are trained and ideally have experience in handling diverse populations. “I’m aware as a Black woman that lots of the modalities have been normed on a population that doesn’t look like me,” Stearnes said. “And for sure, there are biases that exist in technology just because the people creating the technology are not diverse. It’s not purposely biased; it just reflects the people who made it. When I create a website, it’s coming from my lived experience.”
The timing, she said, is just right for her approach.
“Honestly, I think there has been increased interest in mental health across the board,” Stearnes said. “There are people who want services, and there are therapists who desire a platform that centers on their needs too. What’s really different on my platform is that I offer group therapy, and I have a function called Milieu, which is a social community where people can have active discussions with licensed therapists.”
The front-end work necessary to start her site was a bigger hill to climb than what will follow, as many aspects of the site are directed by individual therapists or, essentially, automated (such as processing payments). “Like any new start-up, it does take time,” said Stearnes. “Taking on a big project like this, you have to be prepared not to have a lot of free time for it to be successful. But I think that’s one of the things that getting a Ph.D. prepares you to do — to multitask effectively and handle really big projects.”
Stearnes credits two members of the PVAMU faculty, in particular, as mentors.
“Logan Yelderman, the committee chair of my thesis and dissertation and my advisor, is an excellent research mentor,” she said. “He really believes in students, and as a result, they really believe in themselves. He creates a safe space for exploration, and I’m forever grateful for his guidance and support. Also, Susan Frazier-Kouassi, director of the [Texas Juvenile] Crime Prevention Center, from day one, has always been a mentor, connecting me to resources, convincing me to apply to different programs, helping me with really good insights. All of us came into PVAMU together, and we kind of learned the ropes of the program together.”
Even with such a full plate — a pediatric post-doctoral fellowship at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas, and a new business to run — Stearnes has further aspirations. She hopes to secure a longer-term position in a hospital setting with pediatrics and has eyes on expanding into tech. “Just do it — don’t let fear be the reason you don’t go after your goals,” her advice to Prairie View’s students, is exactly what you’d have imagined.
“One of my advisors asked me for a metaphor to compare processes, and I said, ‘Growth is a slingshot,’ ” Stearnes recalled. “All these years of tension and pulling back, and when you let it go, it moves fast. Everything has moved so fast in the last year, but all the work is paying off.”
By Andrew Cohen
-PVAMU-