My Approach to Helping
Davynte Pannell is an African American Indigenous, heterosexual, millennial male from Newark, NJ, currently providing therapy services in Washington, D.C. as a licensed professional counselor. Pannell graduated from Howard University with his Bachelor’s in Philosophy and Psychology, then from New York University with his Master’s in Counseling for Mental Health and Wellness. Pannell has worked with clients of all ages since 2018. Pannell’s style of therapy follows the trope, “Two eyes, one mouth; listen twice as much as you speak.” Pannell uses an interdisciplinary and eclectic approach to therapy, drawing from life experiences to tailor interventions to support clients. His experiences growing up in various parts of America – from the hood to the suburbs, to summers spent in rural areas, to Catholic schools, to public schools, to HBCUs, to PWIs – have all been coals for the fire fueling his understanding of life itself and his ability to support others. Throughout these different life experiences, he has gained first and second-hand experiences of mental illness (depression, anxiety, trauma, grief, anger, bipolar, schizophrenia, and psychosis, to name a few). By encountering these experiences in his personal life, he has developed empathy for others going through them. His motto is “make it good for something,” which speaks to the alchemical process of converting one form of energy into another – taking these seemingly negative experiences and transforming them into lessons that can be drawn from in the service of others. His role as a therapist is to empower clients to help themselves.