By Kerry Breen, Today, August 30, 2021
A Chicago coffee shop that focuses on mental health wants to make sure its customers have a place to "talk about hard stuff."
Christopher LeMark, the founder of "Coffee, Hip-Hop and Mental Health," has dealt with trauma for much of his life after being "abandoned and abused for a span of 12 years." LeMark said that he didn't know either of his parents and struggled with "a lot of complications," including "physical, mental and emotional abuse" for 30 years of his life.
In 2018, that trauma caught up to him, and he "started crying uncontrollably" in a Starbucks in Chicago's Southside neighborhood.
"I just couldn't stop ... So I went to therapy," LeMark, a hip-hop artist and performer, told TODAY's Carson Daly. "After some challenging sessions, my therapist sat up in his seat and he said 'It wasn't your fault you were abused.' And now, for the first time, I heard it. I had been feeling like it was my fault, because that's what happens. It's so much shame that comes with being abused."
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