Wellness Empowered Counselling & Consulting Services

09/06/2025

What’s your latest addition to , , and ? 📚

As we remain passionate about epistemic and linguistic freedom, we recently elevated our collection with works from the legendary Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (may he rest in power) and the powerhouse Dr. Ndlovu-Gatsheni (who deserves his flowers while he is still here 🌺).

So we ask you: How are you decolonizing your mind? How decolonial is your bookshelf?

Many academic institutions love the sound of equity and diversity in their mouths and mission statements, but when it comes to the blueprint of their curriculums, nothing changes. Too often we see wishy-washy, tokenistic gestures, something during Black History Month here, another seasonal “allyship” event there, all for showmance and optics.

At Wellness Empowered Community Services, we understand, as Dr. Wade Nobles profoundly reminds us that, “culture is to people what water is to fish.” Our commitment to decolonization is not performance, branding, or strategy. It is a living praxis: a lifelong journey of unlearning and relearning. A way of being. A sacred responsibility to truth, liberation, and intergenerational healing.

🌍 Visit www.wellnessempowered.com if you are looking to:
✅Join our trauma informed, anti-oppressive and culturally responsive supervision groups
✅Access mentorship or coaching
✅Bring training to your organization

We are always ready to collaborate and serve where our core values align.

09/05/2025

September 5 is recognized annually as the International Day of Indigenous Women, held in honor of the Aymara warrior , who led resistance against colonial oppression in Peru during the late 18th century.

It’s important to note that the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples of all genders and gender non conforming is observed on August 9, as designated by the United Nations.

On this day, we not only honor the courage and resilience of Indigenous women past and present, but we also call attention to the ongoing crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two-Spirit People (MMIWG2S). Their lives matter, and their stories must never be erased.

Let us also remember and honour indigenous elders as wisdom keepers, carrying ancestral knowledge and teachings that guide communities toward healing, strength, and survival. To honor Indigenous women is to listen, to protect, and to uphold their legacies in our homes, our workplaces, and our policies.

✨ Today and every day:
✅ Honour Indigenous women as leaders and protectors.

✅ Listen to and respect elders as wisdom keepers.
✅Stand in solidarity to end violence against Indigenous women and girls.

09/04/2025

Dear .pilula,

The world witnessed cruel comments on your selfie that qualify as cyberbullying. Yet you gracefully turned pain into power through Radical Acceptance, refusing to internalize hatred.

Thank you for reminding us that to mock your appearance is to mock the God who created you and that your nose is not a flaw but a sacred gift from your father, a feature that connects you to love, not shame.

You modeled the power of community when you shared the impact of your conversation with your sister, a reminder that while strangers’ opinions can wound, we always have control over how we choose to respond.

Your courage is a timeless lesson in self-esteem, self-worth, positive body image, and mental health for daughters, sisters, and mothers everywhere. If more women embraced the self-acceptance you model, beauty industries built on insecurity would collapse.

These false standards often fuel anxiety, depression, eating disorders, and even thoughts of su***de.

As we mark Su***de Prevention Month, may we remember prevention is not only about crisis response. It is also about choosing kindness, dismantling the systems that profit from pain, and teaching our children that their worth is never defined by Eurocentric beauty standards.

Your resilience shows us that kindness and compassion are not just free, they are su***de prevention.

👉🏾 What would happen if we taught self-acceptance instead of shame?
👉🏾 What would happen if we had more lovers than cyberbullies?
👉🏾 Who would lose, and who would benefit if more women accepted and loved themselves in their natural wholeness?
👉🏾 And how many lives might be saved if we normalized dignity instead of bullying?

🎥: Naomie P

09/04/2025

We often demonize and judge what we don’t fully understand, when grace, empathy, and compassion are free to extend. People who are suicidal need love and compassion, not judgment, and love and judgment cannot coexist, they cancel each other out. Before dismissing someone as ‘attention seeking,’ consider the underlying needs that drive them to ask for help in that way. Who would consciously choose to die if they felt well and had a good life? Not many.

09/04/2025

In the Nguni languages of isiNdebele and isiZulu, we say “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu,” a person is a person through other people. In other words, Ubuntu is about our relationship with fellow humans, with the earth, and with all her living beings.

Ubuntu yibuntu ngezenzo: our Ubuntu is revealed through our actions, for it is our behaviours that embody and reflect who we truly are.

As we grapple with overlapping meta-crises and enduring public health crises, may we lean on Ubuntu, the wisdom that reminds us we are bound together in our humanity, in relationship with the earth, and through the care we show in our actions.

09/03/2025

Culturally affirming and trauma-informed care is su***de prevention.

Equity-responsive mental health care is su***de prevention care.

Black-affirming care is cultural competency care.

As a multi-identity affirming and culturally responsive organization, we call upon mental health professionals to join us in supporting and endorsing this health-equity responsive, community-centered research led by Dr. Sandra Dixon in collaboration with .

They are inviting community members and service providers to join trauma-informed and culturally responsive online World Café gatherings to share your experiences with Africentric approaches to mental health care. Your insights will help create stronger resources to support the mental health and wellbeing of Racialized as Black Albertans.

📌 Interested or want to learn more?
Scan the QR code on the poster or contact Millie Batta at millie.batta@uleth.ca

Please share widely with your networks!

In community and solidarity.

Wellness Empowered Community Services
Where Sankofa Meets Ubuntu

09/03/2025

Language matters. It can perpetuate harm or facilitate healing. It can reinforce stigma or dismantle it. It can dehumanize or rehumanize. The choice is always ours, but it requires cognitive flexibility, because change is never easy. As you amplify su***de prevention awareness this month, be mindful of choosing language that facilitates healing, de-stigmatizes, humanizes, and shows empathy. People sometimes choose death over suffering not because they are criminals, but because the weight of pain, isolation, or hopelessness can feel unbearable without connection and support.

Alt Text: A rectangular digital graphic with a gradient background fading from green on the left to orange on the right. A silhouette of a flying bird appears in the top right corner, and green open helping hands are in the bottom left. The main text reads: “Part of su***de prevention involves adopting de-stigmatizing language. Because su***de was once criminalized, the phrase COMMITTED SU***DE became common. The current, more humanizing and accurate language is DIED BY SU***DE.” The footer shows: “www.wellnessempowered.com | .”

09/02/2025

From time to time, I say yes to podcasts that align with my values and mission. That’s why it was such a wholesome delight and privilege to join Professor Ace and Alicia for a dialogue on all things revolutionary social work.

Episode coming out soon

09/02/2025

✨ Thank you for hosting our founder and clinical director, Shayla, in a powerful dialogue on restorying anti-racism.

🎙️ If you’d like to listen, be sure to follow their podcast, and we’d love to hear your reflections and thoughts!

We owe each other not just an anti- racist world, but a racism free one!

09/02/2025

In our mental health organization, every single day is su***de awareness. Still, we join the global community in amplifying September as Su***de Awareness Month — a time to reflect, unite, and strengthen our collective efforts to support life and hope.

💡 You don’t have to be a professional to make a difference.
✔️ Check in on a friend or family member.
✔️ Listen without judgment.
✔️ Share resources and encourage help-seeking.
✔️ Remind someone they are not alone.

Together, we can create communities where reaching out for help is met with compassion, care, and connection.

09/02/2025

09/01/2025

🌍✨ Publication Announcement ✨🌍

I am humbled and grateful to share that our article has been published in the JORMA International Journal of Health and Social Sciences:

Mason, S., Dube, S., & Ortiz, C. (2025). Decolonising antiracism: A collective intervention in race, resistance, & identity. JORMA International Journal of Health and Social Sciences, 3(5), 35-43.

📖 Read here: https://jormajournals.com/JORMA-ijhss/index.php/1/article/view/18

This collaborative work was born from collective dialogue, courage, and deep commitment to truth-telling. I am honored to have co-authored alongside Dr. Sheena Mason and Afro- indigenous kin/ sib Christian Ortiz ✊🏽, whose brilliance and solidarity shaped every page.

Profound gratitude also goes to Dr Mvikeli Ncube CPsychol, [SFHEA], the editors and the journal team at JORMA International Journal of Health and Social Sciences for creating space for critical conversations that challenge, disrupt, and reimagine what healing and justice can look like.

This is more than scholarship, it is a collective liberation call to action, a weaving of lived experience, collective resistance, and fervent hope into a shared intervention for a world where self- determination extends to self-identification, where we live the labelling to the labellers.

Let’s decolonize race and identity together.