Melissa M. Shepherd-Williams, Marriage Family Therapist

12/13/2025

¡Claro que lo escribí en español también!
¡La pre-venta ya está abierta en el enlace!

https://www.melissamshepherd.com/shop

La nueva edición de Jornada del Desgaste a la Felicidad ya se puede ordenar.

Esta versión trae nuevas reflexiones, guía compasiva y una mirada cultural más profunda para acompañarte en tu proceso de sanación — personal y colectiva.

📘 Ordénalo hoy para recibirlo el día del lanzamiento, 18 de diciembre
🎁 Un regalo perfecto para las fiestas: “Que descanses, que te levantes, que florezcas.”

Gracias por caminar conmigo en esta jornada.

12/09/2025

Pre-sale is officially open here: https://www.melissamshepherd.com/shop/p/from-burnout-to-bliss-rest-as-revolution-because-healing-is-the-new-hustle
The new edition of From Burnout to Bliss is ready for preorder.

This version brings fresh reflections, gentle guidance, and a deeper cultural lens to support your journey toward healing — individually and collectively.

📘 Order now to be among the first to receive it on release day, Dec 18
🎁 Perfect timing for a holiday gift that says: “May you rest, may you rise, may you thrive.”

Thank you for walking this journey with me!

12/08/2025

Today, on Mother’s Day in Panamá — a day that honors strength, tenderness, and the women whose wisdom has shaped us — it feels especially meaningful to reveal the new cover of From Burnout to Bliss.
So much of the healing journey is inherited… and so is the courage to return to ourselves.
The new cover of From Burnout to Bliss — a book born from lived stories, cultural memory, and the deep work of returning to ourselves.
This revised edition reflects our collective journey: the exhaustion so many of us inherited… and the delicious possibility of healing, rest, and wholeness that is still ours to claim.

✨ Pre-sale opens tomorrow, Dec 9
✨ Official release: Dec 18
(Just in time to gift someone you love a breath of restoration.)

I can’t wait for you to hold this in your hands.

11/18/2025

What if cultivating new practices aligned with our ancestors’ intentions for our flourishing is the most revolutionary act of all? What if it matches their commitment to resistance? What if we embrace our mission as one of transformation?


Let’s allow ourselves to see success and true thriving as what can be accomplished while centering wellness. This will uphold their vision for our lives.

You know the saying: “We are our ancestors’ wildest dreams.”

May the dream be wilder than they ever envisioned.

11/05/2025

Something beautiful is blooming again… 🌺

When I first wrote From Burnout to Bliss, I wanted to remind us that healing doesn’t have to wait until we’ve reached the breaking point.



Now, a new chapter is emerging — one that honors everything we’ve lived, learned, and released.



✨ The new edition is almost here.

💌 Subscribers will be the first to see the cover and pre-sale date.



Stay close. The transformation begins soon. 🦋

10/29/2025

10/17/2025

Entre mis experiencias del verano de 2025 estuvo pasar tiempo con mi familia en Nueva York y, finalmente, visitar el Centro Schomburg para la Investigación de la Cultura Negra. Desde los 21 años, este ha sido mi objetivo. La razón por la que no sucedió entonces es una historia para otro día... Aun así, me pareció muy oportuno visitarlo en un momento en que se están produciendo tantos cambios y esfuerzos para sanar el dolor intergeneracional. Agradezco a este antepasado puertorriqueño, Arturo Schomburg, por crear un legado de protección de nuestra historia y destacar nuestras contribuciones al mundo. Después de recorrer el Centro, me senté en el patio y grabé estas reflexiones.

10/10/2025

Hoy conmemoramos el Día Mundial de la Salud Mental. Gracias, Tesón Magazine, por permitirme invitar a nuestra comunidad a priorizar la salud ❤️🙏🏾
Aquí está el artículo:

https://tesonmagazine.com/edicion-4

10/08/2025

I’m honored to be included in the latest edition of ! Thank you for the work you do to uplift the culture and heritage of Afrodescendant communities. Your magazine is a powerful space to reflect on our journey and the rich ways we contribute to our healing and thriving. As we approach World Mental Health Day, it was great to have an opportunity to discuss restfulness as a revolutionary way to move forward—instead of running ourselves to the ground just to survive. It’s time to thrive! Onward with love!
📸, you ROCK!🙏🏾

¡Es un honor para mí formar parte de la última edición de ! Gracias por el trabajo que realizan para promover la cultura y el patrimonio de las comunidades afrodescendientes. Su revista es un espacio poderoso para reflexionar sobre nuestra trayectoria y las valiosas maneras en que contribuimos a nuestra sanación y desarrollo. Con la llegada del Día Mundial de la Salud Mental, fue fantástico tener la oportunidad de hablar sobre el descanso como una forma revolucionaria de avanzar, en lugar de agotarnos solo para sobrevivir. ¡Es hora de prosperar! ¡Adelante con amor!
📸, ¡eres GENIAL!🙏🏾

09/24/2025

09/22/2025

Among my summer 2025 experiences was to have time with family in New York and, finally, visit the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Since I was 21, this has been a goal of mine. The reason why it didn’t happen then is a story for another day… Still, it felt so timely to visit when so many shifts and efforts to heal intergenerational pain are in progress. I thank this Puerto Rican ancestor, Arturo Schomburg, for creating a legacy of protecting our history and highlighting our contributions to the world. After touring the Center, I sat in the courtyard and recorded these reflections.

09/10/2025

Sadly, many of us have experienced the loss and grief in our communities following the death by su***de of loved ones or people we knew. This is a profoundly painful experience to cope with and move through. We all need and deserve support—whether we are contemplating this path due to a sense of hopeless sorrow or are devastated by the loss of someone.

Within our communities, pain has been transmitted from one generation to the next. When that pain goes unspoken in the interest of "staying afloat," it festers and debilitates us. These wounds have gone without much—if any—professional attention for centuries. By this, I’m not referring strictly to psychotherapy, as there are many rich and well-informed resources that support healing journeys.

In the absence of proper and consistent help, pain deepens. It keeps us stuck and unaware of the difference between surviving and thriving. Additionally, our relationships suffer because of our inner conflicts.

Depression, anxiety, loneliness, and burnout are among the roads that can lead to death by su***de when left unaddressed. Suicidality in marginalized communities is an urgent public health issue—rooted in systemic racism, historical trauma, and inequities in mental healthcare.

Since the pandemic, more people in these communities have become receptive to seeking help that was once associated with systems of oppression. Still, more bridges of trust must be built—especially by the growing number of helping professionals who also come from historically excluded communities.

Thankfully, our bodies didn’t only inherit pain. Healing and hope also live within us. We know this through the consciously and unconsciously practiced traditions that stem from our roots. It's in the way we move, the affirming words we speak, the foods we eat, and our natural tendency to prioritize community-building. These are protective factors—and they must be practiced more intentionally so we can move from mere survival into true thriving.

Let’s create lives that, while not devoid of pain or challenges, are filled with tools that allow us to understand and navigate pain in ways that uplift us—rather than deplete us.

Let’s create lives that, while not devoid of pain or challenges, are filled with tools that allow us to understand and navigate pain in ways that uplift us—rather than deplete us. https://conta.cc/45WRHgI

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