My name is Dr. Christine Sainvil and I am a licensed psychologist and Founder of Shades of ME. As a Haitian American psychologist, one of my main goals throughout my career has been to create spaces where clients can feel seen, heard, and understood. In my educational and professional journey, I noticed that folx of color often struggled with identifying and communicating their emotions. The prevalent societal pressures and stigma associated with emotional vulnerability, as well as limited resources that authentically portrayed the experience of Black and Brown folx, increased this difficulty in identifying emotions. Emotional expression is often culturally bound; as people we express and interpret emotions in different ways based on our upbringings and how we communicate.I started Shades of ME as a way to fill this gap in resources. My goal is to create a resource that would help people of color feel seen, heard, and understood. It is my hope that these resources are a concrete step in making psychology/emotional education more culturally inclusive and relatable.
