Author Spotlight: Shonta L. Thomas

Shonta L. Thomas was born and raised in Jacksonville, FL, and currently resides in the Atlanta metro area with her two children (1 and 17 year old). Shonta is a National Certified Counselor (NCC), Licensed Associate Professional Counselor (LAPC), author,pPoet, 10 year navy veteran, disabled veteran, breast cancer survivor and sexual assault survivor. Shonta is currently a doctoral candidate, pursuing her Doctoral Degree in Counseling Psychology, holds a master’s degree in forensic psychology, a second in community counseling, and a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice. Shonta has a background in logistics, security, investigation, mental and behavioral health, crisis intervention, training, mentorship and sexual assault advocacy.    

 Shonta has been writing for years and absolutely enjoys creatively formatting words into stories, whether long or short. Shonta’s first book titled Matters of the Mind: Life Edition is a compilation poetry book with poems that are focused on various, real life situations. Matters of the Mind: Life Edition was published in July 2018 and is available through Amazon and Barnes and Nobles. Shonta will release her 2^nd published book titled The Strength to Leave: Identifying, Accepting and Walking Away from Red Flag Behaviors and Situations in your Relationship which is a self-help book for women. Shonta is very passionate about the awareness and prevention of Domestic Violence and seeks to help and inspire women to leave unhealthy relationships. While domestic violence is not limited to women, Shonta hopes to encourage anyone that is in an unhealthy, volatile relationship to leave. Shonta will be releasing several other books to include a second poetry book titled Matters of the Mind: Love Edition and four children’s books in the near future. Shonta is very passionate about our youth and their overall physical and mental health. Shonta’s passion is what motivated her to start her non-profit organization, Hustle and Grow Youth Development Center which focuses on childhood obesity and mental health and promotes positive and healthy mental and physical fitness and awareness. Shonta believes that the future of our children starts now and with instruction, guidance, examples and understanding, they can learn healthy dietary patterns that they can carry with them into adulthood in an attempt to prevent adult obesity.   

Fancy: How would you describe your swagher? What makes Shonta, Shonta?

Shonta: What makes Shonta, Shonta…..that is a great question. My personality, my drive, my dedication, motivation, my nonstop mind, my thoughts, determination, outspoken and upfront demeanor, my desire to learn and work to get all that I want. My ability and desire to help others because I love seeing other people win. My understanding of how patience is all a part of the process, and how my ability to follow the lead of those before me has prepared me to be an amazing leader. My realness, openness and just knowing that nothing is perfect nor is there ever a perfect time to do what you want. I like to step out and take chances and I understand that I won’t always win everything but I do know that there isn’t anything that I’m incapable of winning or getting if I give my all to obtain it. Not even the sky is the limit and we are our own distractions so I no longer stand in my own way and instead I am paving the way for others…… 

Fancy: First, I must ask, how do you find the time to wear so many hats?

Shonta: Honestly, I don’t even know, lol. I just find a way to make time for all the things that I really and truly want to accomplish, and then I do what is needed to get it done.

Fancy: What sparked your interest in counseling?

Shonta: What sparked my interest in counseling honestly is that I always found myself listening and talking to others about things they were going through, and I made it a point to ensure that there was some sort of resolution to what they were dealing with within a certain timeframe. Along with that I’m a talker, so I found myself literally up at 1, 2 am listening and talking to friends on FB IM about their problems. So in that moment I decided maybe this is something that I need to be doing professionally, because I was actually good at it. 

Fancy: What inspired your first book “Matters of the Mind: Life Edition”?

Shonta: The inspiration behind my first book was really me wanting to accomplish something that I’ve been wanting to do for years. However, somewhere along the way of wanting to complete this book I got sidetracked and just stopped writing. But last year around this time, I started writing again and decided that I was going to make it happen, and I did. I connected with a young lady that is just amazing at what she does and she made my dream come true. So, I compiled specific poems that I had written and decided that since they focused on situations that people experience in their day to day life, that it would be awesome to put it all on paper. But along with wanting to write this book, I wanted the readers that could relate to my poems to be able to process them and reflect and also just to be able to communicate their thoughts when they read it. Even if they have not experienced anything presented in the book, they are still able to process their thoughts on it.

Fancy: When do you anticipate releasing your second book, “The Strength to Leave: Identifying, Accepting and Walking Away from Red Flag Behaviors and Situations in your Relationship” and was it inspired by your own domestic violence experience?

Shonta: I plan to release my next book before the end of the year. This book was actually inspired by my relationship with my son’s father. That relationship involved a lot of verbal abuse, threats, harassment, cyberbullying, and a controlling/possessive environment which resulted in me obtaining a protective order. Along with that, I hear too often about women who are losing their lives by men that they are or were in intimate relationships with. A lot of these women have reached out to the court system and have taken steps to leave but still end up being injured or killed. It’s just really sad, and I believe that sometimes we stay too long even after seeing that first red flag. So, I felt that it was really important to do something that can help other women who may find themselves in these situations.

Fancy: If you don’t mind sharing, how did you escape your relationship?

Shonta: My relationship with my son’s father was a matter of breaking up and getting a protective order in place in order for him to leave me alone. And even then, I would still receive calls from random numbers and get reports of him reaching out to my Facebook friends in an attempt to slander my name and just try to embarrass and shame me. The great thing in my situation is that we live in different states, so that eliminated some things once I was able to get the legal system involved. Looking back, I have to say that the break up appeared to be mutual but then that’s when he got worse.     

Fancy: You have also beat breast cancer; do you mind telling us more about that?

Shonta: Of course. I had this lump in my right breast for years. I continued doing my regular checkups, and in 2007 when I was stationed in Manama, Bahrain, I had a biopsy done that came back normal. In 2013, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer which prompted me to get my lump checked out again, and in October 2014, I had it removed. That lump had cancerous cells and to prevent it from spreading or getting worse, I just decided to have it removed so that I wouldn’t have any issues with it going forward. I was diagnosed with DCIS and the Atlanta VA performed my surgery which went very well.

Fancy: What course of treatments did you seek and why?

Shonta: A month after my surgery I was scheduled to start radiation treatments which consisted of me driving to Decatur, Ga from Fairburn, Ga, Monday-Friday at 6am for a 1hr treatment. This lasted from November 2014-February 2015. That was a lot of radiation!  At first I was like ‘ok, it’s not too bad’, but about a month after starting I started experiencing the physical changes that progressively got worse. My skin burned fairly quickly and pretty bad. It was to the point where my skin was somewhat blistered and eventually came off. Those physical changes took a toll on me mentally, and I wanted to stop my treatments altogether. Seeing my body change was something that I didn’t really prepare myself for, so when it happened…..it was devastating. I was tired a lot from radiation. This was a time that took a lot out of me, because while doing this I was also in school and working doing in home counseling. But once I completed radiation, I started hormone treatment for a little while, as they say to prevent the cancer from coming back. I didn’t like the medication or how it made me feel. So I basically made some lifestyle changes and I am here doing great.

Fancy: Many survivors I’ve interviewed confessed that they gained clarity or more purpose in a sense, after surviving intimate partner abuse or beating breast cancer, would you agree or disagree and why?

Shonta: I have to agree. I know that I have a purpose, and I know that I have a story that is relatable to so many other people. So, I make it a point in my life to do everything that I want to do, live life in its entirety and just enjoy myself with no “what ifs”. I truly believe that we all have a purpose and once you find what that purpose is, life just seems so much clearer, and it flows so much smoother.

Fancy: Do you have any upcoming events or other projects that you care to share?

Shonta: I am one of the female authors who will be speaking and mentoring with young girls ages 7-11 as a part of the Space 2 Launch Book Club through the Young Dream Chasers Girls Club located in Jacksonville, Fl which is my hometown. I will be releasing my next book The Strength to Leave before the year ends, I am a part of an anthology that will be released in January 2019 where I am sharing my breast cancer story, and I will be releasing a few children’s books in 2019 as well. I am in the process of starting my non-profit organization, but I will definitely keep you up to date on that and all other events and projects.

Connect with Shonta below.

My website is www.shontalthomas.com

My IG is www.instagram.com/@_yourmindmatters_

My FB is www.facebook.com/shontalthomas  

My Twitter is www.twitter.com/@ShontaLThomas1