“Black Generational Health Is The Goal”: This Former NFL Player Launched A Mental Wellness Platform After Facing Depression Following A Career-Ending Injury
It’s a tale as old as time.
A young boy falls in love with football. Plays through high school and college. Then lives his lifelong goal of getting drafted to the big leagues. Unfortunately, for Ryan Mundy, his dream unexpectedly turned into a nightmare.
After a successful eight-year professional run with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Chicago Bears and the NY Giants, he suffered a major injury in 2015. That was the beginning of the end of his career as he knew it.
“I was physically hurt, and I was emotionally hurt, and so I left the game wounded,” Mundy told ESSENCE. “I’ve always been a football player. It’s done so much for me. It has been my life. I left the game so, so hurt, and so I was mad, and upset, and jaded. That initial transition out was not good for me on multiple levels, and it really kind of set the course for how I got here today.”
That path involved years of deep introspection, therapy and hard truths.
“It took me a while but I really had to be honest about never being able to play again,” Mundy said. “And that took so much out of me.”
After officially retiring in 2016, Mundy said he stood found himself at a crossroads filled with endless possibilities and boundless fear. Then in his early thirties, he had no idea what to do with his life.
“I had to figure life out all over again,” he explained. So, anxiety, depression, identity issues, and imposter syndrome all set in. This was back in 2016, 2017, and it wasn’t commonplace for people to be talking about mental health back then, nor were resources readily available and accessible. So I set out to fix myself, and help others do the same.”
Mundy underwent psychotherapy, and participated in meditation rituals and other homeopathic wellness methods to set his mindset back on track. Along the way, he harnessed his learnings and launched Alkeme, an online community that provides mental health resources specifically curated for Black people.
Inspired by one his favorite books The Alchemist, Mundy said he’s on a mission to help the Black community overcome limiting thought patterns and fill health access gaps. Th wellness network provides therapist and expert-led wellbeing courses, guided meditation and livestream sessions centered around the Black experience.
Now, less than three years since its launch, the company is partnering with McDonald’s to provide a mental health course specifically for HBCU students. Through the partnership, Alkeme will provide all 2023 McDonald’s Black & Positively Golden Scholars (McDonald’s HBCU scholarship program) access to a clinical workshop series that centers the HBCU experience and empowers students to achieve their personal goals, for 1 year.
“It’s important to build a community of culturally competent practitioners who truly understand and represent the Black experience to best support the needs of Black students,” Mundy said. “We want to empower our community to be the best and highest versions of themselves, and that is why we are honored to partner with McDonald’s to help remove mental health barriers for HBCU students and provide resources to inspire wellness.”
Beyond the success of Alkeme, Mundy’s said this growth journey has taught him so much more about himself than he’d imagined.
“I’m never going to stop being an athlete, but I’m more than that now. That doesn’t dominate my life anymore. And it’s a scary proposition, but it’s a beautiful one.”
