Meet Camille Belle, Ph.D. | Therapist, Counseling Psychology

We had the good fortune of connecting with Camille Belle, Ph.D. and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Camille, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
Two things that impacted who I am the most are where I grew up and how I grew up. While each overlapping piece of my experience came with its own set of challenges to navigate, I appreciate the journey for leading me to where I am today. Choosing the path of focusing on the mental health and wellness of Black women is something that just made sense for me, especially after putting together all the pieces of my story so far. As a therapist, I feel that noticing the experiences of myself and others, and trying to figure out ways that we all can move towards peace and healing has been a part of my life from the beginning. My family and I moved around a lot following my father’s career when I was growing up, and it’s always been a long story when people ask where I’m from. I was born in South Carolina, then we moved to Wisconsin when I was around age two, and Texas when I was in 7th grade. I graduated high school and attended college in Texas, but my parents relocated again during my sophomore year of undergrad, while I ended up staying in Texas to complete my masters and doctoral degrees.
Though I never attended school in South Carolina, I’ve spent holidays and school breaks there for as long as I can remember. All of the moving and shifting made it hard for me to consider any place a true home. While I was completing my education, the rest of my nuclear family ended up permanently settling in South Carolina. Years later the pandemic provided me with the opportunity to have an “accidental prolonged visit” for a year while I waited for the next phase of my life to begin. While most of the important people in my life are there, I often still feel like a tourist in the land. Similarly with Texas, the space felt transient as time went on, especially with my family being elsewhere, as my purpose for remaining there was always to complete my degrees.
This feeling of being a visitor or not entirely connecting with spaces where I was spending most of my time also extended to the context in which I grew up. My family always lived in the suburbs, and there were very few people who looked like me around. There is a myriad of research around the impact that this experience can have on Black children. However, to summarize the personal impact: I had to become very comfortable with standing out, making my own path, and choosing to be myself regardless of how others felt, or what stereotypes they may try to apply to me. Later, I attended a predominantly white university (Texas A&M) and joined the Corps of Cadets, which in some ways intensified this resolve.
Further, I was raised in a branch of Christianity which today might be classified as “charismatic” or “evangelical”. Although church had been a large part of my family’s life, I never felt fully connected to all of the legalistic interpretations of scriptures and “conservative values” that often end up being the focus of attention in these spaces. Despite my confusion and discomfort, asking questions was difficult when I was growing up. Part of what got in the way was knowing that many of the people in my environment were providing me structure and values out of love- doing the best they could with what they knew. However, I still did not feel at home in any of these boxes. I spent some years in shame and confusion, but over time I started to question why. Living inauthentically is exhausting, why do so many people continue that way? As an adult I have grown to accept that my definitions of spirituality and social justice do not have to be in conflict with each other, and it is more than ok if they are not confined within the walls and definitions that were handed to me. I have been encouraged to keep digging and redefining by many others who have started conversations about religious deconstruction in social media within recent years.
As Black women there are many things in society, our social circles, or even our families that can make it hard to feel at peace or at home wherever we are.The default seems to be for us to think that there is something wrong with us for not simply being able to fit in and be quiet, when in reality there is often space for the people and environments around us to change and allow us to grow in ourselves as well. I believe we all possess the magic to create that space within ourselves. Additionally, the pandemic further highlighted the need to redefine what home, comfort, and security can look like. It has been important for myself as a therapist and many of my clients to work on grounding ourselves to our own identities and getting creative with expanding our definitions of “home”.
Since the context and location in which I was raised never felt like it could hold or define me, I learned to look within for that comfort, and to seek it in spaces that were not always the most apparent. Choosing a career in counseling psychology has allowed me the space to research and reflect on ways to understand myself and others.These days, identity exploration and religious deconstruction are some recurring themes in the work that I end up doing with clients. Years ago, a former supervisor told me that the universe always brings us the clients that we need. This has proven true over the years, and I am realizing more and more that “whether you are ready for them or not” should have been added to that phrase. While I am constantly provided with opportunities to remember that I am still learning and growing, it means that I have to be intentional about continuing that research and exploration for myself to maintain enough space to share with those who might come to see me. I am always humbled and excited by the process.
Overall, I would say that my background has given me perspective. It encouraged me to continue being myself and continue wanting to help create space for others to be themselves as well. So much deep movement can happen when we have the courage to pause and ask- “Am I at home in this body or this place? What needs to change so that I can be?” It took a lot of processing to come to the understanding that there may not always be a clear answer, and what is right for some may not be right for others- but peace can still exist in between as long as we are willing to meet each other where we are at, and see each other for exactly who we are. What I wish I had understood growing up is that who you are as you are right now is enough, and you have your whole life to decide who you are/discover your home. This is a message I try to convey to clients as much as possible.
Experiencing friction while learning how to express myself and my values has caused me to really have to define and stand firm in them for myself, which makes me equipped to sit with others on that journey. Not being tied to or solely identifying with a specific location as my home has given me the opportunity to explore the concept of home within myself, and provided deeper empathy and connection with people who also find themselves feeling on the outskirts. Not having roots in soil or a community can mean there is more space to be rooted within myself and the people and experiences that matter.
These days, I firmly believe that home is who you are. As long as I am me, I am home. I am excited to be here in Atlanta with new opportunities to create and define home, and engage in that journey with others.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I am currently working as a post doctoral fellow in a private practice here in the city called The Worth, Wisdom, and Wellness Center. What sets me apart from others is my commitment to the decolonization process, the deconstruction process, and the acknowledgment of “little t” trauma or identity based trauma. So often mental health spaces can be a microcosm of broader society, where Black women can feel pressure to present a certain way to be accepted. I feel that this is detrimental to the healing process, and I want to encourage everyone to follow the concept of come as you are. This was not an easy journey by any means, there are so many barriers for Black women in academia and on the other end of mental health services. Again, the field can mirror society, and Black women therapists can often be pressured to take on more than we can carry at the moment and accept less than we deserve because that is “just how it’s been done”. Going on like this can lead to burnout, and I never wanted that for myself because I am so passionate about the work that I do. I have had somewhat of an unconventional route to my journey, as a lot of people who plan to be therapists after getting a PhD in counseling psychology engage in what is known as a “formal” post doctoral fellowship, at a location where there is a certain structure and guaranteed client hours or experiences. I could have chosen to continue on in, for example, a university counseling center setting, but it did not feel right for me at the time. Rather than taking the “safe” route logistically, and continuing in a path that had become heavy on my spirit, I chose to take a gamble on a vision I believed in by seeking a private practice space that catered to Black women on both ends- for the clinicians and for the clientele.
It was challenging to accept that I could not remain intact within the systems I had come to rely on, and it has been a different kind of challenge to learn a new way of engagement in order to reach the populations I want to work with outside of those systems. Further, it has been a challenge to learn how to take up space, how to dream bigger and stop selling myself short, and to “say with my whole chest” that I want to focus on doing the work of decolonization and deconstruction within the wellness field.

Being able to go to work each day and be connected to a room full of Black women who simultaneously have different perspectives and common experiences yet are still able to fully accept, support, and encourage each other is very new. I have learned that validation breeds validation, and I don’t always have to fight so hard, because when I am in the right space I will be surrounded by those who will work with me and not against me.
This freedom has given me space to affirm that I have to commit to freeing myself in order to be completely available to walk with others in their journey. I know that I have to be my best self to encourage my clients to be their best self, and I am in an environment where that is applied in actions not just words. I hope to carry this sentiment with me as I make therapy a lifelong career.
I am most proud of and excited about seeing more and more of my ideal clients as time goes by. I see the growth in myself which reflects as growth in my clients, and it’s such a wholesome space for healing and wellness that never runs dry. I want the world to know that my story is my brand, and my brand is authentic and liberated– and that I want to share that freedom with everyone.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
One of my favorite things about Atlanta is how easy it is to connect with live music here. It’s a big enough city to be a tour stop for a lot of more mainstream artists, but cozy enough to connect with newer artists in smaller venues as well. If I was planning a trip, I would definitely want to see a show every night. I’d suggest The Roxy, The Masquerade, Eddie’s Attic, Buckhead Theater, Smith’s Olde Bar and Tabernacle. Then, I suppose we could take a break on Sunday for brunch at Cultivate!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Graduate school was one of the most difficult experiences of my life for several reasons. I would not be where I am today without the support of several Black women who were able to see and understand me and provide me with the support that I desperately needed in those spaces. I would first like to recognize Dr. Esther Wright and Dr. Santana Simple, who supervised me years ago at Texas A&M University Counseling and Psychological Services when I was what we call “a baby therapist”. They were the first Black women who supervised me and I felt free to be myself, to ask questions, to acknowledge flaws in the system, and to dream about how to change those flaws in their presence. Next, I would like to acknowledge Dr. Leann Smith, who was the co-chair of my dissertation committee. She saw the vision for my project in ways that many did not, and took the time to guide me through the long and arduous journey of producing a dissertation. Finally, I would like to recognize Dr. Cynthia Whitehead-LaBoo and Dr. Karis McClammy, who both supported me in various ways through my pre-doctoral internship at Emory University Counseling and Psychological Services. Each of these women taught me to keep pushing, to stay proud of who I am, to never forget where I came from, and to always reach a hand back for those who will follow behind. I absolutely want to be like them when I grow up!

Website: www.DrCamilleBelle.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/savedbythe_drbelle/

Other: https://providers.therapyforblackgirls.com/listing/dr-camille-belle/

Image Credits
Todd Barron, Ankita Sahu, Alia Azmat, Kim Craven