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Self-Care for Black Men: 100 Ways to Heal and Liberate
A self-care guidebook full of activities for Black men everywhere pursuing joy, creating connections, confronting racism, and working through intergenerational trauma.
Black men desperately need care and restoration. But what does that restoration look like when you’re a Black man in today’s world? How do you take care of your mental health when men who look like you die at the hands of police? How do you find peace and refuge when you’re not sure how to keep up with your partner? Or navigate a challenging workplace? While scrolling through social media feeds, you may feel like you don’t have access to wellness like women do. But Black men need a space for self-care too.
In Self-Care for Black Men , you will find practical answers to your questions. This book contains self-care strategies that address some of the most common issues Black men face, such as dealing with racism, navigating prejudice in the workplace, managing romantic relationships, and working through intergenerational trauma.
This is your guide to wellness and self-discovery written specifically for Black men. There will opportunities to learn new skills to manage your mental health, as well as do more deep reflection on your own terms. It’s time to take your health firmly within your own hands and Self-Care for Black Men will help you do that.
Black men desperately need care and restoration. But what does that restoration look like when you’re a Black man in today’s world? How do you take care of your mental health when men who look like you die at the hands of police? How do you find peace and refuge when you’re not sure how to keep up with your partner? Or navigate a challenging workplace? While scrolling through social media feeds, you may feel like you don’t have access to wellness like women do. But Black men need a space for self-care too.
In Self-Care for Black Men , you will find practical answers to your questions. This book contains self-care strategies that address some of the most common issues Black men face, such as dealing with racism, navigating prejudice in the workplace, managing romantic relationships, and working through intergenerational trauma.
This is your guide to wellness and self-discovery written specifically for Black men. There will opportunities to learn new skills to manage your mental health, as well as do more deep reflection on your own terms. It’s time to take your health firmly within your own hands and Self-Care for Black Men will help you do that.
- GenresSelf HelpNonfiction
224 pages, Hardcover
Published November 7, 2023
74 people are currently reading
199 people want to read
About the author
Jor-El Caraballo
6 books24 followersJor-El Caraballo is a licensed therapist and cofounder of Viva Wellness, a therapy practice based in New York City. Caraballo received a BA in psychology from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and MA and EdM degrees in psychological counseling from the Teachers College at Columbia University. He has been featured as a mental health expert across many magazines and websites, including Mind Body Green, Men’s Health, Healthline, Insider, Self, and more, sharing advice and insight on self-care, interpersonal relationships, dealing with trauma, and more.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
October 30, 2023
I had several reasons for wanting to read this book. I hoped it would improve my communication with my husband and that he might also find it beneficial. I genuinely enjoyed the book. The stigma associated with African Americans seeking therapy, especially for black men, is a terrible cycle that needs to be broken. If this book can serve as a starting point for healing, it's a wonderful step.
As a person in therapy, both in my personal life and marriage, and as a person of color, I had to persuade my reluctant husband to join me. However, it's essential to break destructive cycles for ourselves and our children.
A book like this holds immense potential. It offers African American men/ people of color a better opportunity to connect with their emotions.
I cannot emphasize enough how much I recommend this book, and my husband shares the same sentiment.
I'd like to express my gratitude to Jor-El Caraballo and NetGalley for granting us the chance to read this book. When it's released, my family will purchase a physical copy.
As a person in therapy, both in my personal life and marriage, and as a person of color, I had to persuade my reluctant husband to join me. However, it's essential to break destructive cycles for ourselves and our children.
A book like this holds immense potential. It offers African American men/ people of color a better opportunity to connect with their emotions.
I cannot emphasize enough how much I recommend this book, and my husband shares the same sentiment.
I'd like to express my gratitude to Jor-El Caraballo and NetGalley for granting us the chance to read this book. When it's released, my family will purchase a physical copy.
December 16, 2023
I have to go five stars because of the importance of such an undertaking. A mission of bravery that asks men to look internally and embrace/ heal the mental self and the emotional self. The ways to liberate are simple and straightforward and each entry is followed by a short “take action” paragraph that encourages you to do something towards activating that particular healing prompt. Although it’s titled Self-Care for Black Men, anyone who loves a Black man can benefit from reading this book as it may aid in helping you love that Black man deeper and with greater intensity. This is a book that I will continually access throughout the rest of my life.
April 30, 2024
“Self-Care for Black Men” is a nonfiction book focusing on providing black men with interactive strategies to better prioritize their mental well-being.
The book consists of a letter to the reader, an introduction, one hundred self-care strategies, further reading, acknowledgements, and an index.
The book begins with a letter to the reader in which author Jor-El Caraballo expresses gladness to male reader for reading the book. Caraballo discusses how hard self-care can be for black men, especially with the additional pressure of racism, stigma, and oppression. Through this book, Caraballo provides the black male reader with opportunities to explore his feelings about masculinity and blackness while also focusing on the unique lived experiences of black men as a foundation on a path to healing.
In the introduction, Caraballo aims to help black men restore themselves by learning how to employ self-care techniques in their daily life. Through one hundred self-care strategies, Caraballo wants to help the reader live a more balanced life daily, reject internalized beliefs, unpack cultural programming, release trauma, and recognize the importance of relationship building and community care. Caraballo informs the reader in the introduction that they can read the book in any order and complete the action step at the end of each strategy daily, weekly, or monthly.
Each of the one hundred strategies is followed by an action step for the reader to complete.
Through the one hundred self-care strategies presented, Caraballo provides easy steps that the reader can complete as soon as possible as well as provides the rationale for making each suggested strategy. Within the book, Caraballo refers to the expectations put on black men through American culture such as having the language to express themselves and connect to their emotions more deeply as well as expectations put in black men to be strong.
Although I am a woman reading this book targeted towards black men, some of Caraballo’s strategies resonated with me such as the importance of having a clean workspace since your workplace (or living space) reflects your internal psychological space, the importance of reexamining your relationship with your body and food, the importance of doing a “worry dump” to relieve anxiety, as well as the importance of acknowledging and addressing intergenerational trauma.
In the further reading portion of the book, Caraballo provides four additional books to assist the reader on their self-care journey which focus on racial healing for people of color, black masculinity, and helping men to embrace their emotional selves.
As I finished this book, I enjoyed the conversational tone Caraballo uses throughout the book. In addition, I enjoyed that each of the one hundred self-care strategies he suggests consists of a page and a half which can help make the book more appealing for reluctant male readers. Considering that self-care focusing on black men has been a long-overlooked topic, this book is a must read for all black men (or anyone who has a black man in their life) to serve as an introduction to self-care or as a support to black men who are already exploring self-care strategies.
The book consists of a letter to the reader, an introduction, one hundred self-care strategies, further reading, acknowledgements, and an index.
The book begins with a letter to the reader in which author Jor-El Caraballo expresses gladness to male reader for reading the book. Caraballo discusses how hard self-care can be for black men, especially with the additional pressure of racism, stigma, and oppression. Through this book, Caraballo provides the black male reader with opportunities to explore his feelings about masculinity and blackness while also focusing on the unique lived experiences of black men as a foundation on a path to healing.
In the introduction, Caraballo aims to help black men restore themselves by learning how to employ self-care techniques in their daily life. Through one hundred self-care strategies, Caraballo wants to help the reader live a more balanced life daily, reject internalized beliefs, unpack cultural programming, release trauma, and recognize the importance of relationship building and community care. Caraballo informs the reader in the introduction that they can read the book in any order and complete the action step at the end of each strategy daily, weekly, or monthly.
Each of the one hundred strategies is followed by an action step for the reader to complete.
Through the one hundred self-care strategies presented, Caraballo provides easy steps that the reader can complete as soon as possible as well as provides the rationale for making each suggested strategy. Within the book, Caraballo refers to the expectations put on black men through American culture such as having the language to express themselves and connect to their emotions more deeply as well as expectations put in black men to be strong.
Although I am a woman reading this book targeted towards black men, some of Caraballo’s strategies resonated with me such as the importance of having a clean workspace since your workplace (or living space) reflects your internal psychological space, the importance of reexamining your relationship with your body and food, the importance of doing a “worry dump” to relieve anxiety, as well as the importance of acknowledging and addressing intergenerational trauma.
In the further reading portion of the book, Caraballo provides four additional books to assist the reader on their self-care journey which focus on racial healing for people of color, black masculinity, and helping men to embrace their emotional selves.
As I finished this book, I enjoyed the conversational tone Caraballo uses throughout the book. In addition, I enjoyed that each of the one hundred self-care strategies he suggests consists of a page and a half which can help make the book more appealing for reluctant male readers. Considering that self-care focusing on black men has been a long-overlooked topic, this book is a must read for all black men (or anyone who has a black man in their life) to serve as an introduction to self-care or as a support to black men who are already exploring self-care strategies.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 3, 2023
Thank you to Netgalley, the publishers and of course the author for gifting me this advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
Fantastic! I downloaded this as I wanted to read it to see if I could gain a better understanding of my nigerian husband and the ways in which I can support him better, before I hand the book over to him to read. Such an important script as trying to navigate in today's society as a man must be tough, but to navigate as a black man comes with its own additional set of challenges.
Thank you for such an inspiring and thought provoking book.
Fantastic! I downloaded this as I wanted to read it to see if I could gain a better understanding of my nigerian husband and the ways in which I can support him better, before I hand the book over to him to read. Such an important script as trying to navigate in today's society as a man must be tough, but to navigate as a black man comes with its own additional set of challenges.
Thank you for such an inspiring and thought provoking book.
March 11, 2024
I loved the idea of it. I feel it was very repetitive but overall a good book.
January 19, 2024
I saw this book at the library and thought it would be an interesting read. It is not written for me but all the same I was interested in how self-care might look for Black Men, who face very specific challenges in the US (the author is in NYC). The book claims it provides practical and doable actions for Black Men to take.
The book is fairly straightforward: the author offers one action (journaling, meditation, writing a letter, etc.) and describes a bit what it can do, why it is an act of self-care, what it can look like, etc. What I thought was super valuable was the author's acknowledgement that sometimes it can look different and there's nothing wrong in adapting a practice for you, the reader, or in utilizing technology, etc.
For example, journaling is one where the approach can be adapted. I realized that there might be a very particular trope that is prevalent at this time in year with people asking on social media about buying a planner, journal, etc. and when they planned to abandon actually using it. While this was meant to be a joke and really funny, I thought where the author talked about audio journaling (for example, using your phone to take "notes" for your thoughts) might work if you're not a writer.
This book is not for me but I am also learning in my own ways of adapting certain practices, activities, etc. that are for me that may not "fit" the tropes (for example, I know I would definitely abandon a paper journal because I don't really handwrite things anymore, despite the studies and reports that say handwriting is better). So this really resonated with me and I appreciated that.
Depending on your preference, you may not appreciate that it is very straightforward (self-care activity and then how the reader can take said action and why) approach. Some people may prefer a workbook style, others might like pictures, etc. Personally this was the format and style that worked for me but I did want to acknowledge that for some, this might be a self-help/self-care type of book that might not meet their expectations or needs, etc.
I liked this book a lot but also want to acknowledge that while this book is not for me, you may take my words with a grain of salt.
Borrowed from the library and that was best for me, but it would absolutely make a great gift or book to keep on your shelf if you need ideas.
The book is fairly straightforward: the author offers one action (journaling, meditation, writing a letter, etc.) and describes a bit what it can do, why it is an act of self-care, what it can look like, etc. What I thought was super valuable was the author's acknowledgement that sometimes it can look different and there's nothing wrong in adapting a practice for you, the reader, or in utilizing technology, etc.
For example, journaling is one where the approach can be adapted. I realized that there might be a very particular trope that is prevalent at this time in year with people asking on social media about buying a planner, journal, etc. and when they planned to abandon actually using it. While this was meant to be a joke and really funny, I thought where the author talked about audio journaling (for example, using your phone to take "notes" for your thoughts) might work if you're not a writer.
This book is not for me but I am also learning in my own ways of adapting certain practices, activities, etc. that are for me that may not "fit" the tropes (for example, I know I would definitely abandon a paper journal because I don't really handwrite things anymore, despite the studies and reports that say handwriting is better). So this really resonated with me and I appreciated that.
Depending on your preference, you may not appreciate that it is very straightforward (self-care activity and then how the reader can take said action and why) approach. Some people may prefer a workbook style, others might like pictures, etc. Personally this was the format and style that worked for me but I did want to acknowledge that for some, this might be a self-help/self-care type of book that might not meet their expectations or needs, etc.
I liked this book a lot but also want to acknowledge that while this book is not for me, you may take my words with a grain of salt.
Borrowed from the library and that was best for me, but it would absolutely make a great gift or book to keep on your shelf if you need ideas.
June 3, 2025
Great launching pad to discovering who you are within your definition of who are you. Often times, I've noticed how I have confused the idea of me with the prescribed reality for me, and the two are not the same. What I am learning is how to delve deep into my own truth to discern identifiable traces of authentic essence that will lead me to developing a more comprehensive understanding of who I am holistically. It is not easy, has not been easy, and I am sure will not be easy to strip away the layers of conditioned thought to arrive at a place of organic occurrence within my spirit. From where do I bloom, and should beauty frame the view, is my launching pad. Truly appreciative for the reference as I continue along this quest.
October 6, 2025
Self-Care for Black Men: 100 Ways to Heal and Liberate (Self-Care for Black Men Series)
by Jor-El Caraballo
from the library
good
needs pages on sexuality and how to heal from an accident but otherwise quite good
ALSO this really is a good book for everyone
look here for a complete Table of Contents:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/...
Self-Care for Black Men: 100 Ways to Heal and Liberate (Self-Care for Black Men Series)
by Jor-El Caraballo free PDF
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/vie...
by Jor-El Caraballo
from the library
good
needs pages on sexuality and how to heal from an accident but otherwise quite good
ALSO this really is a good book for everyone
look here for a complete Table of Contents:
https://www.google.com/books/edition/...
Self-Care for Black Men: 100 Ways to Heal and Liberate (Self-Care for Black Men Series)
by Jor-El Caraballo free PDF
https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/vie...
January 27, 2025
Several takeaways from this book:
1. Self-care isn’t reserved for Saturdays
2. Being uncomfortable is sometimes a good thing
3. Avoidance of pain is the avoidance of healing
4. Not being honest is the weakest thing one can do
5. Chasing attention from different women will cost you something special
6. Friendship is essential to the soul
7. Confront the difficult emotions. It’s ok to cry.
8. Men should take xare of their daddy issues
9. Always be grateful. Especially for those who see your efforts and how you’ve grown and don’t treat you how you used to be
10. God is good
1. Self-care isn’t reserved for Saturdays
2. Being uncomfortable is sometimes a good thing
3. Avoidance of pain is the avoidance of healing
4. Not being honest is the weakest thing one can do
5. Chasing attention from different women will cost you something special
6. Friendship is essential to the soul
7. Confront the difficult emotions. It’s ok to cry.
8. Men should take xare of their daddy issues
9. Always be grateful. Especially for those who see your efforts and how you’ve grown and don’t treat you how you used to be
10. God is good
May 17, 2024
A good blend of broadly applicable ways to take care of oneself (with a similarly good balance between focusing on the self and developing in the broader world) with specific acknowledgement of and actions for Black men. I'll leave others to speak to how accurate and/or actionable they really are, but it struck me as a solid introduction to self-care for Black men who may not have had the opportunity or desire to before.
June 8, 2025
It was alright he extrapolated some common struggles of not just black men but all men to racial issues if the past even when the tie in wasn't really casual. Most of the book is common sense (to me) like take care of your body, learn to cook etc but this can be helpful for those who didn't come from a positive nuclear family (if they even come across and read this) overall it was hit or miss but mostly forgettable.
February 6, 2024
Finished the audio book today and it was one of those books when you didn't realize it ended. I picked up some useful tips to try and also was reminded of essential parts of my life I used to maintain, but, then let go off. I wasn't satisfied with the depth of the discussions or nuance, so, I imagine this is a good starter book to Kickstart or remind yourself to take care of yourself.
February 7, 2024
This is the type of book you return to over and over again. A timely and poignant work that speaks to the needs of Black men in particular during these chaotic and trying times. This is a lifetime resource for restoration, reflection, and renewal.
March 3, 2024
Definitely not a book you just “read” you must apply the lessons and keep putting those things into practice constantly. Great book!
October 11, 2024
Simple. EVERY BLACK MAN SHOULD OWN A COPY
May 2, 2025
In a world where the mental health of black men is overlooked, having such a book is very handy and resourcefull
March 19, 2024
For someone considering seeking help, this book can be overwhelming with the many suggestions. There is also frequent references to journaling or writing things/feelings down. By in large, I believe it is easier for Black Men to verbalize their feelings versus writing them out, initially.
January 14, 2024
Very helpful
I found this book very helpful and want to read it again. Self care is now my goal for the rest of my life. Thank you.
I found this book very helpful and want to read it again. Self care is now my goal for the rest of my life. Thank you.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews