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Lisa McClendon

Lisa McClendon

At age 15, while singing in the choir, I began to have difficulty breathing. My father, a Pentecostal preacher, and my mother, a Baptist missionary, rushed me to the ER. The diagnosis: a panic attack.

“Oh! That’s what they call it,” I thought to myself.

Interestingly, I had been having “panic attacks” since I was 7, often waking up from nightmares of my little frame behind the wheel of a car that always ended the same way—me running off a cliff or waking up in a sweat just before crashing into a wall.

Being raised in a religious home, mental health was never discussed. Being raised in a Black home, mental health was considered a “white person’s issue.”

My parents and I left the ER and never discussed the doctor’s diagnosis.

I was forced to navigate the next 20-plus years of my life as a touring recording artist without any tools to manage my anxiety disorder.

After a very traumatic divorce, at age 44, I enrolled in college to study Psychology. My entire life changed. I began learning about the power of the mind and understanding human behavior.

Then I was diagnosed with adult-onset ADHD. I thought, What is happening to me?

But finally, I began to make sense of myself. I continued my studies and discovered a passion for neuroscience and supporting mental health, but music still had a hold on my heart.

In 2022, I was introduced to the world of Art and Health, and I knew I had struck gold. I found my new purpose: to merge the arts and science to support mental health.

In 2024, I launched Yeye’s Village, an expressive arts community that utilizes the arts to support mental health. Currently, we serve students in Hillsborough County Parks and Recreation programs as well as public schools, including my most recent partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Tampa Bay at Giunta Middle School.

My goal is to give students the tools I never had, empowering them to navigate life with resilience, creativity, and purpose, so they can become leaders in transforming their communities and the world.

Resources That Helped

Therapy, Other

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