Decolonizing Therapy for Black Folks
School for Liberation -Focused Healing
A Kindred Wellness® Program
CLAIM YOUR SEAT!A virtual learning experience where you will explore the colonial foundation of the mental health profession, uncover ways to help Black folks heal from race-based trauma and gain access to the tools needed to provide therapy that liberates.
On-demand access to 8 pre-recorded lectures, readings, and reflective activities to explore when it works for you. Access personalized clinical consultation on the critical application of the Liberation-focused healing framework.
Transform what you do, how you do it and who you do it with.
600+ Practitioners Trained
Network of 200+ Folk, Ready to Grow Together
Access Personalized Insight on Developing Liberatory Praxis
What You'll Learn
In Module 1, Whitewashed Wellness, the colonial foundation of the mental health and human service sector in the United States.
In Module 2, History of Black Healing + Resistance, how Black folks healed themselves through enslavement and how their collective fight is relevant to the African American health today.
In Module 3, Creating Space for Black Queer and Trans Folx (w/ Randall Leonard, LCSW-C), insight around Black SOGIES (Sexual orientations, Gender Identities, and Expressions) people and gain a foundation for its unique history, terminology, and culture. Explore how colonization has assisted in the erasure of Black Queer identities and how systemic oppression has implemented barriers that maintained health disparities for this community.
In Module 4, Modern Mental Health Needs of Black Folks, the present day implications of historical trauma and demystify mental health challenges prevalent in the Black community to include race-based trauma, internalized oppression, racial battle fatigue and suicide.
In Module 5, Black Thought in Psychology and Social Work, the insight, theories and practices of Black scholar trailblazers in the mental health field.
In Module 6, Liberation-Focused Healing Framework, the major tenets of liberation-focused healing, why each is important and what steps should be taken to apply the concepts in clinical practice.
In Module 7, Healing and Raising Critical Consciousness, how to apply the framework in client scenarios; treatment planning, treatment modalities and processing. We will discuss how to move from crisis to the development of critical consciousness in a client.
In Module 8, Locating Self as Practitioner, what it takes to embody these concepts to heal yourself so you can hold space for your client's healing.
What Folks are Saying ...
This training was the best professional and personal development training I've ever attended so far in my career. Being a black woman, navigating the clinical space can be both challenging and frustrating when you recognize the drawbacks of what you learned in school and how it perpetuates colonial and oppressive ideals. This training not only acknowledged that challenge, it also provided a creative and innovative framework for how to change the stuck and frustrating feelings and therefore changing how you service the folks you work with. It was dope! And if you are not afraid to question everything you know about yourself and your perspective-then you are coming to the right place!
Grace Moore, Cohort 1
I have learned so much more about how to help my Black clients heal than I ever did in grad school and have gained so much from the community that Shawna cultivates through the training as well. I would encourage all my colleagues to take this training so we can continue to move towards the healing and liberation of Black people.
Zoë Carter-Woodbridge, Cohort 3
This training is a must for all White-identified clinicians. If you are looking for guidance in how to work with Black folx and Non-Black folx of color in a way that uplifts their experience and limits harm, this is it.
Matthew Spector, Cohort 2
Secure Your Seat
- Access to 8 pre-recorded lectures in the Decolonizing Therapy for Black Folk Training for 10 months beginning February 20, 2024
- Get detailed, personalized feedback on your critical application of liberatory praxis in therapeutic scenarios through the completion of a Growth Assessment (For those that register for the Collaborative Curriculum, see below)
- Eligible for 13 Category II Continuing Education Units sponsored by the University of Maryland, School of Social Work, Office of Continuing Professional Education (additional fee, see below for details)
- Real-Time (Virtual) Q&A Consultation Sessions for Connection and Processing with Randall Leonard, LCSW-C, a DTBF Co-facilitator (For those that register for the Collaborative Curriculum, see below)
Critical Reflection & Consultation
Day/Duration: 90 minutes on Mondays
Time: 6:00pm EST on Zoom
Module 1: March 11, 2024
Module 2: March 18, 2024
Module 3: March 25, 2024
Module 4: April 1, 2024
Module 5: April 8, 2024
Module 6: April 22, 2024
Modules 7 and 8: April 29, 2024
Course Options & Pricing
This training, Decolonizing Therapy for Black Folk has existed in differing formats since 2017. Each time the experience has been enriching. We have learned of the value of online on-demand access, payment flexibility, and collaborative engagement.
We trust your ability to commit to a journey best suited for your needs, and learning style.
What Folks are Saying ...
Robert "Bobby" Marvin Holmes, LMSW
Cohort 1, July 2020
Jess Wynn-Grant, ASW
Cohort 3, January 2021
CeShaun Hankins, LCSW
Cohort 3, January 2021
Meet The Team
Dr. Shawna Murray-Browne, LCSW-C
Instructor & Founder of 'Decolonizing Therapy for Black Folk'
Dr. Shawna Murray-Browne (she/her/hers) is a liberatory strategist, community scholar, spiritualist, mind-body healer and professional speaker. She is the Principal Consultant at Kindred Wellness LLC and trained as an integrative psychotherapist. Shawna is curious about what happens when we question colonial thinking and make space for the ways of knowing held by folk of African descent in every aspect of life.
In her hometown of Baltimore City, Shawna is known for holding grassroots healing circles to equip Black families and change-makers with the tools to heal themselves. Over a span of more than 13 years, she has worked in residential treatment, in grassroots community organizing, child welfare policy, research, in community school settings, juvenile detention centers and initially opened Kindred Wellness LLC as a liberation-focused healing private practice. She pulls from her lived experiences of navigating carceral, oppressive institutions and co-creating free, radical healing space for Black folk young and wise.
Shawna is supported by her own council of elders who offer guidance and have been committed to the fortification of her life's path for a collective of over 20 years. She identifies as a Womanist and is informed by African-Centered and Black Radical teachings.
She completed her doctorate at the University of Maryland, School of Social Work where she gained her Master of Social Work. Her dissertation explored oral histories as a decolonial site of inquiry around the healing ways of Black women advocates during the civil rights movement. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Criminology and Family Science from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Dedicated to continued growth, her practice in QiGong, Black spiritual traditions, and sitting at the feet of elders maintain. She lives in Baltimore with her excitable 6 year old, and her husband, "B."
Randall Leonard, LCSW-C
Instructor & Co-Facilitator
DTBF Cohort 1 Participant
Maryland-native Randall Leonard (they/them/theirs) is a proud nonbinary licensed clinical social worker specializing in the care of LGBTQIA, poly, and kinky individuals. They currently hold healing space focused on the liberation of Black and Queer people through encouraging authenticity, reconnecting to history and lineage, and empowering shared lived experiences. Their healing roles include independent therapy within community, public advocacy, and facilitating a weekly group for trans and gender-diverse Black folx focusing on the intersections between race, culture, and gender.
Randall is also an avid gamer geek, sex educator, and storyteller. They find pleasure in enjoying cuisines, connecting people, interacting with nature, and shared storytelling
Randall holds a Master of Social Work from the University of Maryland School of Social Work. As a strong advocate for transgender and gender non-conforming individuals, their recent achievements include testifying for the “X” gender marker on Maryland driver’s licenses passed and enacted in 2019.