Kia Brown, like many Black Americans, credits her introduction to church to her mother and grandmother, but insists that her current conviction is a personal one. “I started studying the word more, because I really wanted to understand the word. I just didn’t want to get it from my grandma,” shared Brown. “The more I read it for myself, the more I started getting a different view of what kingdom living was, of who God really was, and who I was.”
Now Brown, 47, is stepping into a space that has long been underserved, and often misunderstood. With the debut of her new podcast, the release of her first book — both titled “Get Your Mind Right” — and the expansion of her ministry, Brown is building a platform that speaks directly to Black women navigating the complex intersection of faith and mental health.
“I realized that there’s not a lot of safe spaces for us as women of color,” explained Brown, who earned an International Business degree from Howard University, attended undergraduate and graduate seminary at Christian Bible College and Seminary in Blue Springs, Mo., and is currently completing her MDiv in Christian counseling. “So I wanted to create a safe space where we can connect deeply with each other, deeply with God, and then nurture our own spiritual goal, nurture our mental wellness, nurture authentic sisterhood, empower each other to flourish in every area of our lives.”
For years, conversations about mental health in many Black and Brown faith communities have been shaped by silence, stigma, or spiritual bypassing, the idea that prayer alone should be enough to heal. Brown doesn’t dismiss the power of faith. Instead, she reframes it. Her work insists that faith and mental health are not in opposition, but in conversation.
Brown’s book functions less like a traditional self-help guide and more like a companion. Structured around themes such as rest, identity, grief, and resilience, the book integrates biblical reflection with journaling prompts and mental health frameworks. She doesn’t write from a distance; she situates herself within the narrative, drawing from her own experiences in ministry and personal struggle. Brown’s previous books include, “First Light: Your New Journey With Jesus” and “Surrender: A 40-Day Journey.”
Her first podcast episode, “The Cereal Aisle Doesn’t Get to Win Anymore,” recounts her own experience defeating negative thoughts. She recommends a tool she calls a thought audit.
“We get out of control with our thoughts. Sometimes we get stuck in our heads,” explains Brown. “We’re overthinking, and we don’t even understand how we go down a rabbit hole in our own minds, and we allow our own minds to take us into places where it’s not even reality.”
She encourages her community to document every thought over a 24-hour period, then fact-check the origin and validity of each thought.
“Ask yourself, how many are factually, demonstrably, evidently true, because feelings are real, but they are not always reliable reporters of reality,” says Brown. She then encourages listeners to find a scripture that speaks against every negative thought.
The “Get Your Mind Right” podcast blends personal testimony, pastoral insight, and conversations with therapists and community leaders. It is designed to feel both intimate and expansive. Episodes move fluidly between scripture and science, and prayer and practical tools. Brown’s voice, measured, warm, and direct, anchors the listener in a sense of permission to question, to feel, to seek help without shame.
Brown sees the podcast as a natural transition from her book and other online courses, but says it’s a different product. In conjunction with her new project, “She Flourishes,” she’s creating space for faith-based conversation, rooted in practical mental health support. This medium is again curated for Black women but every woman has a seat at the table. The project includes virtual meetups with keynote mental health experts.
“In March, I had a keynote speaker, Miss Rheeda Walker. She wrote the book “The Unapologetic Black Guide to Black Mental Health,” said Brown. Brown is careful not to position herself as a replacement for licensed mental health care. Instead, she consistently emphasizes collaboration. Therapists are featured on her podcast. Resources are shared openly. The message is clear. Seeking professional help is not a failure of faith; it can be an expression of it.
What distinguishes her approach is her refusal to flatten the experience of women of color into a single story. As a wife and mother of four, she acknowledges the layered pressures, familial, cultural, spiritual, and systemic, that shape how mental health is experienced and expressed. The expectation to be strong, the fear of being misunderstood, and the historical mistrust of medical systems all surface in her work, not as obstacles to overcome individually, but as realities to be named collectively.
Her passion project is helping Black women. “I want to encourage, show them what it looks like. Show them what everyday living by the word looks like. It’s messy. We are fallible people,” says Brown. Brown believes that not everyone is called to the pulpit, but everyone has a ministry. “You can show up where you are, but we can also come together as a community, as a connected body, as women, to get you to the place where God purposed you to be, because where you are right now is where God purposed you to be, because you are still here.”