At first, Renee Jackson chalked it all up to a case of the blues, stoked, perhaps by the Devil himself.

So she prayed.

Her father died, and the melancholy deepened. Pleas to God failed to lift her, but she feared turning to professional therapists because of the stigma it carried among blacks.

When she did, she found the medicine and psychotherapy they proffered as sterile as a textbook, devoid of any spiritual solace. "All those things are good," the 46-year-old Southeast Washington woman said of the therapists' suggestions, but they felt foreign to her.

Then, the pastor of her Prince George's County church referred her to Baraka Pastoral Counseling Center in Largo, a hugely popular ministry that five years ago was among the nation's first to offer a culturally sensitive, Christianity-based mental health program for blacks.

For black Christians accustomed to turning to their religion in times of distress, Baraka's unusual blend of gospel music, prayer and psychotherapy was like manna. The independent clinic now has about 1,000 clients -- and a waiting list of middle-class black parents eager for black therapists for themselves and their teenagers.

Baraka and others like it have broken through a barrier in black culture, which tends to look down on those who seek treatment for mental illness. And the timing is critical.

In a report last year, U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher referred to the culturally imposed stigma of mental illness and poor access to quality care as reasons that people of color suffer a "disproportionate burden" of mental illness.

Blacks are less likely than non-Latino whites to suffer from major depression. But 15 percent suffer from somatization -- the manifestation of a psychological problem through a physical disability -- compared with 9 percent of whites, the surgeon general's report concluded.

And although whites are nearly twice as likely as blacks to commit suicide, the suicide rate among black males ages 10 to 14 has increased 233 percent in the last two decades, compared with 120 percent among their white counterparts.

In another survey cited in the report, "Mental Health: Culture, Race and Ethnicity," 85 percent of black respondents described themselves as "fairly religious" or "very religious" and said that prayer is their most common coping mechanism.

And only 34 percent of blacks responding to a National Mental Health Association survey said they would take an antidepressant prescribed by a doctor, compared with 69 percent of all respondents. Another significant factor in mental health care among blacks is the cost: Nearly 1 in 4 blacks is uninsured, compared with about 1 in 6 of the total U.S. population.

"The church is critical, because it embodies so much of the culture and history of black people. The opportunity to make progress lies in the church," Satcher said.

Mental health experts offer varying explanations for blacks' traditional aversion to mental health care, beginning with a deep distrust of medical culture shaped by well-documented instances in which blacks were used as virtual guinea pigs for research.

The experts also suggest a perception among many blacks that only whites seek therapy and that white therapists do not understand black cultural nuances. Misdiagnoses have often followed, they say. The idea of mental illness also runs counter to blacks' view of themselves.

"After 250 years of slavery and 150 years of barbaric apartheid, we tend to see ourselves as strong, so mental illness seems like a weakness," said Harvard University psychiatry professor Alvin F. Poussaint, a leading expert on the mental health of blacks.

At the same time, he added, "we're used to thinking that life is the blues, that it's normal, that you have to deal with it."

Pastoral counseling is hardly a new concept, but few of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors' more than 3,000 members are black. And few pastoral counseling centers such as Baraka's, are affiliated with mostly black churches.

Seven years ago, psychotherapists within the congregation at EbenezerAfrican Methodist Episcopal Church in the Fort Washington section of Prince George's expressed alarm at the increasing incidence of depression among their largely black, Christian clientele. Equally troubling was their clients' unwillingness to seek further professional help, primarily because of their faith's heavy insistence on perseverance and praying away pain.

"There's some apprehension" about discussing mental illness, acknowledged the Rev. Jo Ann Browning, co-pastor at Ebenezer, which has more than 10,000 members. "Just saying the phrase . . . it's jarring." For many of the church's affluent members, "pastoral counseling," Browning said, feels safer than "mental health care."

But if any church was to shatter the stigma of mental illness, socially progressive Ebenezer ought to be it, said the therapists who lobbied the church to underwrite Baraka's launch. The creation of a mental health care ministry meant breaking a "Jesus-only" formula that bluntly dismissed professional counseling.

"And to say the pastor doesn't have to be the end-all, be-all is a challenge," said Michele Balamani, the executive director of Baraka and a psychotherapist who also is an ordained minister.

When prayer did not quell Renee Jackson's depression, she turned to Baraka. "This is a satanic force sent to destroy me," she told herself, hoping to regain composure. "And if he can get your mind, he's got everything else."

Baraka's therapists casually referred to instances of depression in the Bible, including Elijah, who entered a despondent state of seclusion. Their use of rhythm-and-blues gospel music during massage sessions was soothing.

The therapists prescribed standard medicines to ease Jackson's depression and placed their hands across her head in prayer. And, just like other therapists, they asked her to retrace her upbringing, recalling patterns of depression and what triggered the bouts.

Jackson's depression has lessened significantly, and she can now say the word without flinching. Without Baraka, she said, she "probably would still have been battling depression. Now, when I get up, whatever I'm going through, God's presence is with me. So all is going to be well."

The surgeon general's report strongly encouraged mental health care providers to make a more earnest effort to understand the nuances of the nation's ethnic and racial cultures. Recognizing the dearth of research on this topic, the National Institute for Mental Health last month awarded Howard University's College of Medicine a $6.5 million grant to study mood and anxiety disorders among blacks.

Universities nationwide, meanwhile, are rushing to increase the small number of mental health professionals of color. Blacks, for instance, account for only 2 percent of psychiatrists, 2 percent of psychologists and 4 percent of social workers, according to the surgeon general's report.

"Culture is one of those things that has to be addressed. For a therapist not to deal with it is like ignoring a whole part of the patient," said Ekwenzi Gray, 27, a black psychology graduate student at Howard University who contemplated suicide as a teenager.

Doris Berringer, a 48-year-old black District entrepreneur, spent weeks searching for a black therapist for her foster children and eventually found Progressive Life Center, an Afrocentric mental health clinic in the city.

Initially, she took her children to white psychotherapists, who had urged her to accept their placement in special-education courses. "I wanted to prepare my kids for college, push them, and they thought it was a joke," she said.

They also recommended that she not force her children to sit together for the family's Sunday dinner and that she order a "timeout" after their temper tantrums, she recalled.

But, Berringer said, "In growing up, when we had issues, our parents dealt with it" using a tougher form of discipline, which the black therapists affirmed. "We're working with black kids, and at some point, you have to deal with kids from a holistic perspective."

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