Dr. Tammy Lewis Wilborn, PhD
Dr. Tammy Wilborn (she/her) is a board-certified licensed professional counselor-supervisor and owner and Chief Clinical Officer of Wilborn Clinical Services, LLC, a multi-service practice based in New Orleans, Louisiana, that provides mental health counseling, clinical supervision, continuing education workshops, consultations, and wellness events. Dr. Wilborn previously served as visiting assistant professor of counselor education at the University of New Orleans and adjunct professor of counseling at Xavier University of Louisiana. She has more than 20 years of clinical experience working with a diverse clientele of children, adolescents, and adults. She is an in-demand keynote speaker who has spoken at premier events such as the inaugural HuffPost How to Raise a Kid parenting conference, ESSENCE Fest, and LinkedIn’s TransformHER conference for Black and Latinx women in tech. Dr. Wilborn has presented extensively on wellness, mental health, Black women’s work experiences, self-care, cultural responsiveness, and women’s empowerment to national, regional, state, and local organizations and professional associations.
Drawing on first-hand clinical insight and scientific research, Dr. Wilborn offers much-needed advice on how women of color can be high-performing and successful professionally, without sacrificing their physical, mental, and emotional wellness.
Playing a New Game offers women a new way forward, in which ambition and wellness can not only coexist, but bolster each other. With insights from her 20 years of professional counseling experience and extensive research, mental health expert Dr. Tammy Wilborn expands the dialogue on BIPOC women’s experiences of race and gender stereotypes at work, exploring them as a wellness issue. Through her evidence-based best practices that promote self-care and self-empowerment as necessary tools for professional success, Black and brown women can flip the script by prioritizing their wellness even as they advance professionally.
My favorite place to read is a coffee shop where I can get a good cup of coffee (or two), grab a snack, and get a good window view. My family relocated to Nashville, TN in August 2022 and my new favorite coffee shop Dose meets all of my criteria.
Playing A New Game is the culmination of my me-search, doctoral research, and clinical practice as a licensed professional clinical mental health counselor. When I considered my personal struggles and the collective struggles of Black women to maintain our mental and physical well-being amidst toxic work environments, writing this book was both a no-brainer and a necessity. How could I not write this book knowing what I knew about what Black women have to deal with to survive and succeed at work?
I think if I had to describe Playing A New Game in three words, I would use: witty,
wise, and transparent.
I love listening to music and podcasts! My favorite music genres are rap (not this new stuff though—I have no idea what the young people are saying these days), R&B—my favorite artist is Mary J. Blige but Beyonce’s Renaissance is in constant rotation, contemporary gospel (loving Naomi Raine’s album), and even country (love Allison Russell and Mickey Guyton). I am also into podcasts. Some of my favorite podcasts are Jemele Hill’s Unbothered, The Bible for Normal People, Unlocking Us with Brene ́ Brown, and Making Space with Hoda Kotb.
I love a good double cheeseburger with barbecue sauce and Cajun fries from Five Guys! At least once a week, Five Guys gets my money.
One of my favorite movies is the screen adaptation of The Color Purple by Alice Walker. I cannot count how many times I’ve watched that movie. It’s just excellent! I watch it every time it comes on television. I love it so much that there is even a reference to the movie in my book.
One superpower I wish I had was teleportation. I would love to have the ability to move across space and time. This is probably because I love to travel but more likely because I would be able to escape somewhere else whenever or wherever. Sometimes you just want to get away—or maybe that is just me.
