by Dr. Evan Auguste and Veronica Agard
Dating back millennia, African peoples have devised and depended on methods of care involving self-exploration, communal purpose, and spirit knowledge. African-centered practices were among the earliest inquiries into what it means to be well at the level of self, culture, community, and spirit.
According to Cedric Robinson, they were also among the earliest and most radical rejections of Western colonialism, land dispossession, racial capitalism, and enslavement.
In the modern day, African-centered approaches to caring for the mental health of Black people, in part, as a response to the need to decolonize mental health care and to provide an alternative to mainstream western-centric clinical approaches. Moving beyond the Socratic roots of modern talk therapy, African-centered healing is a key practice that has often taken place in community settings in the form of ritual, ceremony, and circle.
According to Shelley Harrell, such practices cultivate Black wisdom. Black Wisdom represents “A transformative, liberatory, and healing resource with particular applications for disrupting the five dynamics of oppression dehumanization, disconnection, destruction, delusion, and disempowerment.”
Today there are a range of African-centered healing circle offerings happening transnationally.
The Emotional Emancipation Circles
The Emotional Emancipation Circle (EEC) is a specific kind of healing circle launched in 2007 to inspire people of African ancestry to do the work necessary to heal from, and extinguish, the most destructive lie ever told about Black people—the lie that we are inferior.
EECs are delivered by the Community Healing Network (CHN) and developed in collaboration with the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi). They are a self-help support group process grounded in the principles of African psychology. They were designed to empower us as African people to free ourselves completely from the lie of white superiority and black inferiority. That lie is the root cause of the dehumanization of Black people and the unique challenges we face everywhere in the world. From 2012 through 2023, the seeds for the EECs were planted in more than 75 cities in the United States, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom, Ghana, and South Africa.
Sawubona Healing Circles
The Association of Black Psychologists consulted and collaborated with the Black Family Summit to develop and pilot the Sawubona Healing Circle initiative as a rapid response aimed at interrupting racial trauma responses, providing cultural grounding, and affirming Black people. Sawubona is an isiZulu greeting meaning "I see you/we see you," and represents the collective nature of being.
The Sawubona Healing Circle is designed to be shaped by the local articulations of Black and African culture to curate a space for virtual healing, support, and validation for Black people navigating life, mental health, and other health challenges while dealing with the stress and trauma of racism in its various manifestations. Since the launch of the program, SHC has been used in response to an array of racial and cultural traumas and stressors including police killings in the United States, community violence in Haiti, and the African refugee crisis following the invasion of Ukraine.
BEAM Heart Space Circles
Heart Space, an offering of BEAM (Black Emotional and Mental Health), is a monthly, online support group and emotional skills-building space for Black folks looking to learn, support and grow in their own healing. These are peer support spaces in which Black people check in and connect with community in a space that centers Black wellness.
Heartspace is BEAM’s very own virtual healing circle where Black people come together and discuss matters of the heart concerning our community. Healing can be messy, conflicting, and we don’t always have it figured out! The mission is to learn, share, and discuss tools for healing TOGETHER and hold each other accountable! No matter where people are in their healing journey, people are encouraged to join the conversation.
Ancestors in Training™ Circles
Ancestors in Training™ is an educational project and lived experience that centers sacred traditions, new technologies, intergenerational healing, and grief work. Founded by Veronica Agard, also known as Ifáṣadùn Fásanmí, she brings core beliefs from her ancestral practice around good character, being a part of nature, and our innate sense of belonging, throughout all circles and programs.
Writing with the Ancestors is the core offering of a healing circle that embodies curiosity and healing. Through storytelling and healing writing prompts, a brave container is set as folks are given the framework of what it means to be Ancestors in Training and time for deeper reflection. Since 2017, the project has held circles, courses, and curated discussions to center like-minded practitioners of the Global Majority around themes of sustainable legacies, sacred connections, tending to grief, and community care.
Recommended reading
The Book of Juju by Juju Bae
The Spirit of Intimacy: Ancient African Teachings in the Ways of Relationships by Sobonfu Somé
Of Water and the Spirit by Malidoma Patrice Somé
The Future of Healing: Shifting From Trauma Informed Care to Healing Centered Engagement by Shawn Ginwright
Healing Justice Lineages by Cara Page and Erica Woodland
Connecting Through Circles by Cecilia B Loving and Gina Leow
Seeing One Another: The Creation of the Sawubona Healing Circles - Evan Auguste, Tania Lodge, Niara Carrenard, Jana Robina Onwong’a, Ashley Zollicoffer, Dana Collins, and Laneay London
Breathe, Baby, Breathe: Clearing the Way for the Emotional Emancipation of Black People by Cheryl Grills, Enola Aird, and Daryl Rowe
Rising Up Rooted: Black Wisdom as Emancipatory Contemplative Practice for Resilience, Healing, and Liberation by Shelly Harrell
