What About the Mental?
Managing the mental side of fighting a life-threatening illness.
Joe Greene highlights the importance of early colonoscopies, especially with the high risk of colon cancer for the Black community.
His first book, The Next Chapter: Early Screening Saves Lives, describes his entire journey as a young Black man with advanced colon cancer through symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment. Now, in What About the Mental, he takes readers through the later stages of his treatment and surgeries and the growing difficulty of managing the mental side of fighting a life-threatening illness.
He and his collaborator and therapist, Jay Wilson, discuss the strong reluctance held by many men, especially Black men, to seeking mental health therapy. Joe intended to tough it all out on his own, but he gradually came to the realization that getting professional help from someone he could relate to was the better choice.
The book discusses the cultural roadblocks to therapy for Black men, including the severe lack of support for attracting more Black men into therapist careers. This book sheds important light on the need for much more accessibility to professional therapy by Black men for Black men. Resources to help raise awareness in your own community, along with tips for starting support groups specifically for Black men, are provided.
Attend a book signing with Joe Greene on Friday, July 18, 2025 from 6-9 p.m. at My Daddy Taught Me That, 3 Hunthill Place in Asheville. Books will be available for purchase.
