Cierra Bengel in conversation with Sophia Stopper
Published: March 1, 2024
Cierra Bengel sits at a cafe in Sibiu, Romania. Photograph taken by Sophia Stopper, 2016.SS: Please introduce yourself. What are you passionate about professionally and personally?
CB: Before introducing myself, it feels important to address my support for Palestinians everywhere, and to call for an end to the American government supported genocide in Gaza.
I’m a mental health clinician and advocate based out of Michigan, the lands of many indigenous people including the Ojibwe, the Odawa, and the Potawatomi people. I often find it easier to focus on my work than myself. So right now, I’m working to cultivate a passion for rest and nurturing connection with those I love.
Professionally, I look for ways to evade, reduce, and remove barriers to accessing mental health care, and am particularly devoted to promoting health and wellness for BIPOC birthing people. The idea that the personal is professional is political resonates with me. I’m a Black woman with anxiety who experienced medical neglect early in my pregnancy. In my case, my child and I survived my pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum care. That, unfortunately, is not the case for too many others. The U.S. has a high maternal mortality rate across groups of birthing people with Black birthing people are about three times as likely as white birthing people to die. It’s unacceptable. Perinatal health has become a major area of specialization and focus for me in the last five years.
SS: Please tell us about the evolution of your career since your undergraduate experience. Where did you go to college and what did you do immediately after graduation? Where are you now and what led you there?
CB: A 10 year story as short as possible: I went to Northwestern University for undergrad. In my fourth year I interned with an innocence project hoping to combat the criminal punishment system’s injustices and find ways to interrupt the school to prison pipeline. I planned to apply to law schools after undergrad, but another intern very bluntly told me that I didn’t want to be a lawyer and that I wanted to be a social worker. Unclear about what social workers did, I dismissed her advice.
A year later I was supporting student wellness programming as part of a fellowship at New York University Abu Dhabi. A clinical social worker led this work and I loved the student centered and supportive nature of her approach. I too wanted to resource students to feel successful in and out of classrooms, and I saw social work’s potential to interrupt structural oppression. Still unclear of what a social worker was or did, I enrolled in a master’s program at the University of Michigan with the intention of doing school-based social work.
I spent the next year and a half working and interning in schools and community centers. At graduation I felt disillusioned and disempowered. Racism, classism, and other forms of oppression harm children long before they enter a preschool or kindergarten classroom. Reading about Serena Williams’ birthing experience in 2018, I started to reflect more on medical racism and how birth can be traumatic in so many ways. I saw a new value in supporting gestational parents during pregnancy and postpartum. I started doing research and eventually clinical practice and training with a program called Zero to Thrive at Michigan Medicine. I now provide outpatient mental health services and work primarily with folks who are caregivers in their personal and/or professional lives.
SS: What have you learned throughout your career that has benefited your perspective on your profession?
CB: I have been told in so many personal, education, and professional settings that I am too intense, too critical, and too loud. I’ve been told that I need to better accept things as they are. Fuck that.
It’s a constant state of work for me to recognize that these responses are manifestations of racism and misogyny. It takes self-reflection and critical thinking to identify different forms of oppression and the ways they emerge to silence those who are hurting and those who would challenge existing inequities. My communication is not always graceful; it is not always effective. I’ll continue this work for the rest of my life in both personal and professional spaces. Embracing that this work is iterative and messy is an empowering and exhausting truth.
SS: Where do you see yourself in 5 years, ten years time?
CB: It’s really hard to say! My life is so different than I would have guessed it would be even 6 months ago, and I’m learning to better embrace change and the unknown. I hope to grow into a more thoughtful and grounded partner and parent. I have wonderful people around me and I want to love and be loved by them.
Long term, I would love to find ways to shape programs and policies that would address the external stressors that impact my clients and community. Working with the perinatal population, this looks like advocating for affirming and accessible reproductive healthcare, a minimum of 6 months of paid parental leave, state funded child care and preschool, and so many other things. Thankfully, I do love what I do, but I would love to make my job unnecessary.
SS: How does your work and research benefit the communities you serve?
CB: This is a question for the individuals in these communities to answer. I can only tell you what I hope to do. I hope to be an advocate and a co-conspirator. I hope to better resource individuals and communities. I hope that whether meeting with a client or publishing a journal article that people feel heard and empowered. I hope that my intentions align with my actions and impact. I am self-aware enough to know that this isn’t always the case, but I hope to continue to listen, to learn, and to challenge myself to do better.
SS: What is your outlook on mental health care?
CB: I’m heartened by the discourse around mental health and the increased access to telehealth services that began during COVID. It’s great that we’re integrating behavioral health into primary care settings and schools. It’s amazing that there are apps and that discourse around mental health is becoming more normalized.
All that being said, mental health services remain expensive and difficult to access for so many. Insurance coverage varies greatly and the financial impact of treatment can itself create additional stressors. We need a better pay structure. Waitlists for treatment are long and can prevent folks from ever engaging in services. We need more clinicians, and clinicians with varying identities and experiences. Representation matters and can help foster bravery and growth for those receiving care.
Also, I hope that we can start to think about mental health outside of the clinical office. The best social workers I know don’t have degrees. Peer support and community knowledge are life giving. Creating spaces for peer and elder connection and vulnerability is powerful. We know that connection can be so protective as it relates to symptoms ranging from stress to suicidal ideation and attempt.
SS: What cause are you most dedicated to right now?
CB: Can I say two? I’m a Gemini and a Scorpio rising living my birth chart to the fullest. What I’m fiercely angry about and focused on changes moment to moment.
Loneliness and isolation are public health emergencies. I feel strongly about creating feelings of connection. It is important across the lifespan. It is protective for adolescents, during pregnancy and postpartum, and for our aging populations. When you can, reach out to someone, find a way to connect with nature, take time to nurture yourself. It is radical and healing to connect with ourselves, our environment, and other beings.
And it feels right to start and end this writing in centering Palestine. Palestinian liberation stays on my heart and mind. In the spirit of Fannie Lou Hamer, in the spirit of Maya Angelou, in the spirit of so many who came before–none of us are free, until we are all free.
CB: Before introducing myself, it feels important to address my support for Palestinians everywhere, and to call for an end to the American government supported genocide in Gaza.
I’m a mental health clinician and advocate based out of Michigan, the lands of many indigenous people including the Ojibwe, the Odawa, and the Potawatomi people. I often find it easier to focus on my work than myself. So right now, I’m working to cultivate a passion for rest and nurturing connection with those I love.
Professionally, I look for ways to evade, reduce, and remove barriers to accessing mental health care, and am particularly devoted to promoting health and wellness for BIPOC birthing people. The idea that the personal is professional is political resonates with me. I’m a Black woman with anxiety who experienced medical neglect early in my pregnancy. In my case, my child and I survived my pregnancy, delivery, and postpartum care. That, unfortunately, is not the case for too many others. The U.S. has a high maternal mortality rate across groups of birthing people with Black birthing people are about three times as likely as white birthing people to die. It’s unacceptable. Perinatal health has become a major area of specialization and focus for me in the last five years.
SS: Please tell us about the evolution of your career since your undergraduate experience. Where did you go to college and what did you do immediately after graduation? Where are you now and what led you there?
CB: A 10 year story as short as possible: I went to Northwestern University for undergrad. In my fourth year I interned with an innocence project hoping to combat the criminal punishment system’s injustices and find ways to interrupt the school to prison pipeline. I planned to apply to law schools after undergrad, but another intern very bluntly told me that I didn’t want to be a lawyer and that I wanted to be a social worker. Unclear about what social workers did, I dismissed her advice.
A year later I was supporting student wellness programming as part of a fellowship at New York University Abu Dhabi. A clinical social worker led this work and I loved the student centered and supportive nature of her approach. I too wanted to resource students to feel successful in and out of classrooms, and I saw social work’s potential to interrupt structural oppression. Still unclear of what a social worker was or did, I enrolled in a master’s program at the University of Michigan with the intention of doing school-based social work.
I spent the next year and a half working and interning in schools and community centers. At graduation I felt disillusioned and disempowered. Racism, classism, and other forms of oppression harm children long before they enter a preschool or kindergarten classroom. Reading about Serena Williams’ birthing experience in 2018, I started to reflect more on medical racism and how birth can be traumatic in so many ways. I saw a new value in supporting gestational parents during pregnancy and postpartum. I started doing research and eventually clinical practice and training with a program called Zero to Thrive at Michigan Medicine. I now provide outpatient mental health services and work primarily with folks who are caregivers in their personal and/or professional lives.
SS: What have you learned throughout your career that has benefited your perspective on your profession?
CB: I have been told in so many personal, education, and professional settings that I am too intense, too critical, and too loud. I’ve been told that I need to better accept things as they are. Fuck that.
It’s a constant state of work for me to recognize that these responses are manifestations of racism and misogyny. It takes self-reflection and critical thinking to identify different forms of oppression and the ways they emerge to silence those who are hurting and those who would challenge existing inequities. My communication is not always graceful; it is not always effective. I’ll continue this work for the rest of my life in both personal and professional spaces. Embracing that this work is iterative and messy is an empowering and exhausting truth.
SS: Where do you see yourself in 5 years, ten years time?
CB: It’s really hard to say! My life is so different than I would have guessed it would be even 6 months ago, and I’m learning to better embrace change and the unknown. I hope to grow into a more thoughtful and grounded partner and parent. I have wonderful people around me and I want to love and be loved by them.
Long term, I would love to find ways to shape programs and policies that would address the external stressors that impact my clients and community. Working with the perinatal population, this looks like advocating for affirming and accessible reproductive healthcare, a minimum of 6 months of paid parental leave, state funded child care and preschool, and so many other things. Thankfully, I do love what I do, but I would love to make my job unnecessary.
SS: How does your work and research benefit the communities you serve?
CB: This is a question for the individuals in these communities to answer. I can only tell you what I hope to do. I hope to be an advocate and a co-conspirator. I hope to better resource individuals and communities. I hope that whether meeting with a client or publishing a journal article that people feel heard and empowered. I hope that my intentions align with my actions and impact. I am self-aware enough to know that this isn’t always the case, but I hope to continue to listen, to learn, and to challenge myself to do better.
SS: What is your outlook on mental health care?
CB: I’m heartened by the discourse around mental health and the increased access to telehealth services that began during COVID. It’s great that we’re integrating behavioral health into primary care settings and schools. It’s amazing that there are apps and that discourse around mental health is becoming more normalized.
All that being said, mental health services remain expensive and difficult to access for so many. Insurance coverage varies greatly and the financial impact of treatment can itself create additional stressors. We need a better pay structure. Waitlists for treatment are long and can prevent folks from ever engaging in services. We need more clinicians, and clinicians with varying identities and experiences. Representation matters and can help foster bravery and growth for those receiving care.
Also, I hope that we can start to think about mental health outside of the clinical office. The best social workers I know don’t have degrees. Peer support and community knowledge are life giving. Creating spaces for peer and elder connection and vulnerability is powerful. We know that connection can be so protective as it relates to symptoms ranging from stress to suicidal ideation and attempt.
SS: What cause are you most dedicated to right now?
CB: Can I say two? I’m a Gemini and a Scorpio rising living my birth chart to the fullest. What I’m fiercely angry about and focused on changes moment to moment.
Loneliness and isolation are public health emergencies. I feel strongly about creating feelings of connection. It is important across the lifespan. It is protective for adolescents, during pregnancy and postpartum, and for our aging populations. When you can, reach out to someone, find a way to connect with nature, take time to nurture yourself. It is radical and healing to connect with ourselves, our environment, and other beings.
And it feels right to start and end this writing in centering Palestine. Palestinian liberation stays on my heart and mind. In the spirit of Fannie Lou Hamer, in the spirit of Maya Angelou, in the spirit of so many who came before–none of us are free, until we are all free.
Image description: A picture of Cierra who has light brown skin and black curly hair. She is wearing thick framed tortoise shell glasses and a blue and white striped shirt.
Bio: Cierra is a clinical social worker who supports the nurturing and growth of the intrinsic strength and vulnerability that exist in all of us. Cierra looks to partner with individuals, creating validating, gentle, and generous spaces that center each person. She has training in perinatal mental health, dialectical behavioral therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and mindfulness.
Bio: Cierra is a clinical social worker who supports the nurturing and growth of the intrinsic strength and vulnerability that exist in all of us. Cierra looks to partner with individuals, creating validating, gentle, and generous spaces that center each person. She has training in perinatal mental health, dialectical behavioral therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and mindfulness.
Sophia Stopper (they/she) is a visual artist, poet, and curator. They received their MFA in Performance from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and their BFA in Studio Art from New York University. Sophia has held positions as Curator at the Bridgeport Art Center (Chicago, US) and Exhibitions Coordinator at GoggleWorks Center for the Arts (Reading, US). Exhibiting internationally, Sophia has shown in the NYUAD Project Space Gallery (Abu Dhabi, UAE), Kalerie s čupr uměním Saigon (Ostrava, CZ), and the Water Tower Art Festival (Sofia, BG). They were an artist in residence at De Liceiras 18 (Porto, PT). Sophia has had their writing published by HeadwayLit, in a car on a road going to a place, and Pen Street: City of Poems. Their spoken word poetry has been featured by Old Ways New Tools (Chicago, US), IMPACT: Performance Festival (Chicago, US), and Signal to Noise (Brighton, UK). Traveling by bookstore, Sophia has lived on four continents and cherishes flying in a hot air balloon above a field of poppies in the Turkish countryside as one of their fondest memories.