An evening sharing doctoral research on parentification, identity & the hidden cost of being the Strong Black Woman.

A year ago, I completed my doctoral research exploring parentification and identity among Black female Clinical Psychologists.

This October, I get to bring that research out of the thesis and into the room.

A thought-provoking evening of research, reflection and real conversation, exploring parentification, identity, and the cost of being the Strong Black Woman. Hosted by Dr Paris Capleton, Clinical Psychologist and founder of Dr Paris Psychology.

Why?

Why do so many Black women learn to carry before they learn to be carried? Why does being "the strong one" so often begin in childhood and what does it cost to keep being her?

Black women often experience parentification – a role reversal where they take on adult roles and responsibilities as children - within intersecting gendered, cultural, racial and socio-economic pressures. It shapes identity, relationships, careers, and how we move through the world. And because it so often looks like maturity, capability and strength, it can go unnamed for decades.

Black Womanhood Interrupted draws on Dr Paris Capleton's doctoral research into the lived experiences of eight Black female Clinical Psychologists, asking:

What happens when nurturing others begins as a necessity?

How does early responsibility shape personal and professional identity?

What sits beneath the expectation to be the "Strong Black Woman"?

What you'll take away

A deeper understanding of parentification: what it is, how it happens, and why it so often goes unnamed within the black community

Insight into the hidden costs of always being "the strong one"

Space for honest reflection and real conversations

A different way of thinking about Black womanhood, strength and selfhood

Who is this for?

Everyone. This evening is for anyone who:

Identifies with the experience of being an eldest or parentified daughter

Loves, raises, teaches or works alongside Black women

Supports, supervises or cares for Black women

Wants to better understand parentification, identity and strength

No clinical background needed, just curiosity and openness.

On the evening

Refreshments, music and mingling

A facilitated warm-up to settle us into the room

Dr Paris in conversation: the research, the reflections, the real talk

Discussions and networking

Refund Policy

All ticket sales are final and non-refundable.

About your Speaker

Dr Paris Capleton is an award-winning Clinical Psychologist (DClinPsy) with over 10 years of experience across the NHS, private practice, teaching and consultancy. She currently works in NHS Perinatal Mental Health and is the founder of Dr Paris Psychology, an independent practice based in London offering psychotherapy, coaching, medico-legal reports and psychologically informed training.

Dr Paris lectures on the Clinical Associate Psychology MSc at the University of Essex and sits on Doctorate in Clinical Psychology selection panels. Her doctoral research sits at the intersection of parentification, professional identity and self-abandonment and she brings to this work not only clinical expertise but lived experience of the very themes she explores. Black Womanhood Interrupted is the public home of that research: an invitation to move beyond strength, towards selfhood.

I can't wait to see you there.

Description supplied by the event organiser.