'Iresha Da Hood Therapist' is helping improve mental health in West Philly

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- A West Philadelphia woman is combining her skills as a behavioral therapist and love of bike riding to offer a new program meant to bring joy to her community.

Iresha Picot, who's better known as "Iresha Da Hood Therapist" on Instagram, is launching Black Girl Joy Bike Rides this spring as a way to improve mental health.

"I grew up in Virginia, so I rode bikes all the time," said Picot, who admits she lost touch with the hobby when the moved to Philadelphia 13 years ago and started her career as a behavioral therapist.

Then COVID-19 hit and we were all shut in.

"I have to do something in order to fill all of this new space and time," she said.

She started taking long bike rides to improve her own mental health and posting videos on Instagram to help her community.

"I was like, 'what could I do to share the things that I know with other people?' So I started doing these affirmation videos," she said.

Now, thanks to a $2,000 Penn Medicine Gree Grant from their Deeply Rooted program, Picot is combining her self-care project and love of bike riding into Black Girl Joy Bike Rides.

But she's come across an unexpected obstacle.

"I started to talk to my friends about it to join me and I realized so many of my friends in Philadelphia did not know how to ride a bike," she said.

Beginning this spring, Picot plans to buy Indego memberships for 10-12 of her friends and organize weekly outings.

But first, she needs to teach them how to ride. One pedal at a time, Picot plans to help her community learn this skill.

"I feel like Black women give so much labor to this world and I find Black women who I encounter always struggle with self-care," she said.

She hopes on a bike they too will rediscover a sense of childlike joy.