Today we’d like to introduce you to Edwin Swaray.
Hi Edwin, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My co-owner, Dr. Vivian Ballah-Swaray, and I started VEEMAH in 2018. Dr. Vivian is also my wife, and we have been a couple for 36 years and married for 25 years.
– Vivian’s Background: A year after we arrived in the United States, we both enrolled at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Vivian intended to study nursing. However, during her second semester, she registered for an introductory psychology class as a part of my prerequisite for the nursing program. The class sparked her interest in psychology. It resonated with her and provided insight into her experiences during the civil war in our home country, Liberia. Psychology helped her to understand the root causes of her various reactions to trauma. At this juncture, she switched her major to psychology, which provided her with the opportunity to begin the journey of healing from her traumatic experiences in the war and helped her support others who shared similar experiences.
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– Edwin’s Background: I was motivated to pursue a career in addiction counseling because of my mother’s issues with alcohol use disorder. However, growing up in Liberia, addiction was not considered a disease. It was a moral issue. Therefore, my family and community had difficulty understanding my mother’s problems and behaviors. A year after I arrived in the United States, my mother died from alcohol related illnesses in Liberia. A few years later, I earned a master’s degree in health and human services administration, but I was unsure about how I wanted to utilize it. So, I spent a year volunteering at the Hennepin County Government Center. It was during my volunteering as a vocational services program assistant at the Government Center that I realized that my mother was not a morally bad person, but instead that she had a disease of addiction. This realization came about because I saw good men and women who, because of addiction, had lost nearly everything, like my mother. My task at the Government Center was to help them find employment. But as I listened to their stories about the gaps in their work history and their struggle with addiction, I could not help but notice the parallels between their stories and my mother’s. It was during this time that I decided to go back to school to pursue a career in addiction studies. I reasoned that since I was unable to help my mother, I would spend the rest of my life helping those who struggle with substance use disorder.
– With our backgrounds and based on our personal experiences in our previous places of employment, our hope of maximizing our skills could only be made possible if we did so as a TEAM. Therefore, we founded VEEMAH. It has been both a challenging and rewarding experience thus far, and we hope to continue doing our best in serving those who need it most.
– Meaning of VEEMAH
– VEE – is from Dr. Vivian’s.
– MAH – Comes from the last three letters of Edwin’s middle name, Nyumah
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
We are first and foremost clinicians. Therefore, when we leaped from being clinicians to business owners, it was the proverbial “baptism by fire.” We did not have anyone to guide us or role models to look up to. Therefore, we made numerous mistakes and incurred a significant loss of money during the first few years of starting the business. Nonetheless, we prefer to look forward because, in our view, the mistakes we made during those formative years were learning opportunities.
As you know, we’re big fans of VEEMAH Consulting. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
VEEMAH is a community mental health organization whose staff includes a licensed psychologist (LP), a licensed alcohol and drug counselor (LADC), licensed social workers, and mental health therapists. VEEMAH offers accessible, compassionate, culturally responsive, and evidence-based mental health services to individuals and families. VEEMAH specializes in providing culturally specific treatment to BIPOC clients, including African immigrants and refugee populations. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, 88 percent of its mental health workforce is white, and less than 3 percent is Black. This positions VEEMAH, co-owned by Black immigrants from Africa, to help alleviate the acute needs by providing culturally responsive mental health services for immigrants and people of color. This presents both an opportunity and a challenge. Therefore, in addition to providing mental health services to BIPOC clients, we are also intentional in offering training to students, particularly BIPOC students, to confront the critical shortage of providers of color.
Who else deserves credit in your story?
VEEMAH team consists of 12 full-time employees, 4 independent contractors, and 3 mental health interns, all of whom have contributed to the success of the organization.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://veemah.com/
- Instagram: veemahconsulting
- Facebook: veemah integrated wellness and consulting services, LLC
- LinkedIn: VEEMAH Integrated Wellness & Consulting Services, LLC
- Twitter: @veemahwellness
