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My
Story
"Knowing that God and miracles reside where my capacity stops, I live on the edge – at the end of myself and the beginning of divinity."
Dylesia Hampton Barner, LCSW is an interpersonal trauma expert who specializes in equipping Black, millennial, generational-curse breaking women with the mental, emotional, and spiritual tools to recover from mother-daughter dysfunction, toxic friendships, poverty trauma, professional marginalization, unhealthy romantic relationships, spiritual abuse, and sexual violence.
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In addition to Trap Therapist, Dylesia is the Founder of MESH (Mental, Emotional, & Spiritual Health), Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit organization established to prepare elementary, middle, high school, and college students from disadvantaged communities to enter careers in the wellness and mental health fields. She is also the Founder of the Co-Dependent or Cut Off (COCO) Conference, an event series aimed at equipping Black women with the tools to acknowledge and communicate their pain, deepen their intra and interpersonal awareness, and develop the skills to stop repeating toxic-mother daughter patterns.
Dylesia was born and raised in Portsmouth, VA as the oldest of three children whose primary caregiver was a single mother. The family of four resided in neighborhoods like Ida Barbour and Swanson Homes, urban, low-income communities known as “projects." Dylesia’s passion for individuals from similar areas is a result of the many traumatic experiences she faced during childhood and adolescence, including poverty, kidnap, rape, family dysfunction, and spiritual abuse.
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Dylesia uses transparency to humanize therapists in a way that breaks mental health stigma by regularly sharing her experiences living with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and creating conversations around emotional healing, breaking generational curses, and the differences that exist within minority sub-cultures. She has traveled as far as to Europe to deliver presentations to practitioners and laypersons on unique topics impacting the Black community. Dylesia is the author of Encouragement at Your Fingertips: 365 Days of Inspiration and a contributing author for Working with Grief & Traumatic Loss: Theory, Practice, Personal Reflection, and Self-Care. She is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and the Prince Hall Order of the Eastern Star.
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than what I saw, so I did the opposite
I wanted something different
Growing up. I didn’t have role models. I had what I like to call 'reverse role models.'
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of what everyone else did. I think inspiration is great, but because I lacked a lot of it, I’m also able to see the downside of it – that it can threaten originality.
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