Angela Reed is a mental health professional, here in Madison, working day by day to deliver high-quality service, community support and break generational thought about the importance of mental health. Her journey began as an addiction counselor in 2002 when she quickly realized that people who looked like her can and should benefit from representative professional mental health services. So, she created her very own “non-judgmental space”, her agency, True Believers LLC.
True Believers LLC is a Wisconsin Department of Health Services certified and contracted outpatient mental health and substance abuse clinic. True Believers is built on meeting people where they are to “have optimum living and well-being”. Her agency provides psychotherapy, psychoeducation, coping and/or grounding skills, meditation, and medication management along with staff that specialize in gender dysphoria, transgender care, and transitioning. Reed credits collaboration as the backbone of her practice with both licensed substance abuse professionals and counselors on staff. The staff of True Believers work to simply support their clients, regardless of their background or religious beliefs, Reed’s inspiration for her agency’s name.
Reed is originally from Chicago, but has been a resident of Madison for over 30 years. She founded True Believers at the end of 2016. With an associate’s degree from Madison Area Technical College, she considers herself self-taught. She leans on her years of wisdom while diligently staying abreast of innovations in the field.
As Reed grew in the mental health field, she began to identify the negative attitudes some groups hold towards mental health treatment and care. She expresses that there is “certainly a population of us folks that think mental health is still taboo”. This generation is then ironically sicker because they get help much later. This population of older, people of color “believe that you can pray about everything”. While that may be the answer for some, she asserts that “sometimes people need a little bit more support” – and that “more support” is just what she provides as a self-proclaimed community go-to. This support from her begins with just listening.
In addition to listening, Reed helps get people set up with essential services. “I work with a lot of people that don’t even have a PCP (Primary Care Provider).” She says some clients rely on hospitals. When this information is revealed to her, she helps people create a plan to guarantee access to reliable healthcare providers. These plans may even include other mental health providers that assist uninsured, low-income, and/or undocumented people. She uplifts the work of UW Compass Clinic, a walk-in care program for people with substance and opioid use disorders, Rebalanced-Life & Wellness Association, that offers medical, dental, and behavioral services to Black men, and BadgerCare Plus, a public health care coverage program for low-income children, pregnant people, and adults in Wisconsin.
“If we’re being honest, everybody has something”, as in a small or larger mental health concern we’ve experienced or experience. Thus, everybody deserves access to proper mental health. She also recommends daily activities like meditation, yoga, quality sleep, and dieting to enhance treatment. She shows folks how to navigate and live with the challenges of life, teaching people to not hold onto “that word” – their diagnosis. Whether it’s depression, bipolar, or anxiety she encourages folks to start by normalizing their own experiences so we all can live in a world that normalizes healthy minds and the work of mental health professionals here to support us on the way.
