Dakotah Aiyanna 🌻

Girls just wanna have fun = food + good convo 🫧

Wash Days with @morroccomethod 🧼🫧 Have yall ever tried using shampoo bars ?! Clearly im obsessed because I haven’t stopped using it since I got it ! Let me know in the comments if you would try a shampoo bar! Use code: DAKOTAH for 15% off Links in my bio! healthy hair goals, natural hair, curly girls, black girls hair care

In the midst of the craziness at work, God knew how much I needed to be reminded that the right people see you! I received an email this week that started with “we are pleased to inform you…” – and I just could not believe what I was reading. 1. because I forgot I even submitted a proposal for this textbook but 2. because sometimes I doubt my own abilities because I am such a nontraditional student I think “how can I compare to…” When they talk about writing the vision and making a plan, it’s more so about talking to God about the visions he’s giving you less about talking about what you want God to do. It’s always his will over yours and when I slip up and get anxious, I’m always reminded that ultimately I’m just living out his plan. So now let me pop my ishhh ITS BIG DK not the little one and soon to be DR. DK ! Black PhD students, black doctoral students, PhD journey, psychology

f r e e ~

Sun-kissed and unbothered 🫶🏽

So I don’t always talk about everything I do in detail but last year I was published as a co-author in the PHILLIS Journal which is a journal for research on African America Women! I took the non-traditional route for school so it comes with less connections from professors, and sometimes less exposure and more “putting yourself out there,” which definitely gets exhausting. But eventually you get YOUR yes. Everyone may not understand your path, what you do or who God is calling you to be but it’s not for everyone to understand. “Write the vision” means write out what Gods shown you, and pray over it to be sure that it’s in Gods will and you’re fulfilling his will and way not yours. I can’t wait to frame this and put it on my “wall of fame” next to my degrees. I worked my tail off for my masters and now I’m doing the same for this PhD, I’m a psych girly through and through — I love it. Thanks to @dr.aliciaoctavia for the opportunity !

Britt’s Bridal shower was just as beautiful as she is! I can’t wait to celebrate you two this week 😜💕

She’s a lifestyle 💕

Color enhances the quality of life — life gets sweeter when you do what makes you happy 🫶🏽

AI psychosis being discussed as a clinical term right now is wild to me—but I also understand why it’s happening! We keep asking: what comes first, the chicken or the egg? Is it the people… or the technology? The truth is, AI is still an inanimate system. It learns from us. It reflects us. So when things go left, we can’t skip over accountability and place the blame entirely on something we created. We’ve been in a mental health crisis for years now—and adding new tools into an already vulnerable space doesn’t remove responsibility, it magnifies it. At some point, we have to be honest with ourselves. About our habits. Our emotional awareness. Our decision-making. Because growth, real growth, yea it requires self-reflection. And that’s the foundation of becoming better, not just blaming better. We need better technology and we need better choices! #blackpsychologist #blackmentalhealth #psychologytoday #chatgptprompts #claudeai

Random Dump ✨ There will be times your faith is tested, and everything about your being will be questioned. And you will start to question yourself BUT don’t allow any room for chaos to commence in your mind. Years ago I went to Tulum and it’s by far my fave place bc it truly did something to me, I learned how to trust myself and the love for solo travel started then and now I honestly crave that alone time with me because life is noisy chile. We are busy because we have to be, we are unlearning, grinding, healing, trying, and some of us are exhausted but lowkey it’s us living in survival mode. It’s us being on autopilot. It’s us being more fearful than fearless. Turn off the autopilot for a while.

One of our favorite classics growing up was The Proud Family !!!! and honestly, revisiting it hit differently this time ✨ Something I realized is how casually we joke about racial differences between Black and white communities, but there was actually a deeper truth showing up right in the shows we watched as kids. On many Disney shows, young characters dated openly. It was normal, expected, even part of growing up. But for many of us, that wasn’t our reality. In Black households and communities, dating young was often viewed differently most times discouraged, sometimes protected against but ultimately shaped by culture, safety, expectations, and how maturity was defined. And looking back, it’s interesting that this existed on the very screens we shared. We were consuming the same shows, but interpreting them through completely different cultural lenses. It makes me think about how media quietly teaches norms and how culture decides which of those norms we actually live out. Which show should I do next?! #blackpsychologists #phdjourney #disneychannel