Tytannie Harris’s original dream was to become a sports broadcaster. Her journalism major and education minor soon switched to social work, reluctantly at the time, but the change turned out to be a divine redirection. 

Growing up in the foster care system, she never imagined that she’d become a therapist, let alone build out an organization, partly due to the lack of representation in the field. “I didn’t have therapists who looked like me,” she says. “So I became who I needed.”

Today, Tytannie is the therapist she once needed—founder and force behind TMH Behavioral Services (TMH), a thriving mental health organization delivering healing-centered, culturally relevant care to under-resourced communities in Chicago.

Growth Through Grit—and Community Support

For the first three years, Tytannie ran TMH solo. One woman, all the hats. “I realized I couldn’t be the visionary and make the vision happen by myself.” She manifested a team. A vision board goal to “hire one therapist” turned into a staff of six by April of the same year. 

TMH now delivers yoga therapy, sound therapy, mother-daughter workshops, new mom support groups, and teen workshops, all designed through a healing-centered lens.This work is supported by Blue Cross and Blueshield of Illinois.  Most of the team lives in the same communities they serve. They meet clients in homes, assisted living facilities, schools, and libraries. The reach is wide, and the impact is real.

Later in 2020, just four years into her business, a friend sent her an application for the Chicago Sky’s Small Business Bootcamp. She applied the day before the deadline, and got in.

That cohort changed everything.

“Before, I didn’t think about the fact that I was a business owner,” she says. “I was just doing the work.”

The boot camp helped her build infrastructure and leadership—HR, operations, marketing—and gave her access to funding and mentors. Her first-ever pitch competition was also held during the cohort. During that same year, her grandmother passed. 

In her grandmother’s honor, she launched The Annie Harries Gift Back Grant, which now provides funding and consulting to other  entrepreneurs. This year, the program secured a $15K anonymous donation and turned it into five $5K grants for Black-owned wellness businesses. 

While Tytannie recognizes the value of grant money and funds, she emphasizes the importance of incubators like the Small Business Bootcamp. Feeling seen and cultivating a community of business owners is an invaluable experience. Her way of paying it forward involves mentorship, sharing resources, and encouraging entrepreneurs to keep going. 

Her advice to all business owners, aspiring and seasoned: Be clear on your “why.” Build a team. Gain the business skills. And know there’s power in the journey. 

From Foster Care to Full Circle

Her journey to therapy wasn’t about theory, it was lived experience. A childhood spent in a transitional home and group homes led her to a defining relationship with an RA named Tina. That connection planted a seed.

Years later, she’s building a home in Tina’s honor: Tina’s Home, a Transitional Living Placement (TLP) for young women aged 18–24 who are in foster care or aging out of the foster care system while facing housing insecurity. It’s a full-circle moment—Tytannie once relied on such services, now she’s creating a contemporary version of them.

Everything at Tina’s Home will be done in-house: case management, community support, individual therapy, job placement,  gardening, after-care planning, and more. The goal is a path to permanent housing, sustainable healing, and futures unique to each young woman. 

TMH MANCAVE: Healing for Black Men and Boys

But Tytannie didn’t stop there. She saw first-hand how Black men are often left out of the mental health conversation after witnessing her father’s struggles.

So, she created the TMH ManCave, a nonprofit dedicated to the mental wellness of Black men and boys. Led by an all-male advisory board, it offers monthly group therapy, healing circles, boxing and mental health sessions, and workshops on grief, gun violence, and emotional regulation—all free of charge.

“We give men their own space. Not just a corner in the house—a whole house,” Tytannie explains.

A Legacy of Healing, A Vision for the Future

Tytannie’s goals are clear and it’s not lost on her that she lives them out daily: 

• Open 4–5 TLP under Tina’s Home by 2030
• Expand TMH MANCAVE’s reach across the city
• Launch more community-rooted healing initiatives
• Help other Black therapists build and sustain private practices

For Tytannie Harris, therapy isn’t just a career—it’s a calling. And TMH isn’t just a business. It’s a lifeline.

How to Support TMH Behavioral Services:

• Donate 
• Spread the word
• Attend their events and workshops 
• Volunteer or intern