Founded in 2019 by Shayla S. Dube, Wellness Empowered was born out of a passion and strong desire to de-pathologize, de- stigmatize and decolonize the therapy experience for racialized, minoritized and all equity seeking and deserving people.
Shayla’s unapologetic approach to healing racial trauma using Africentric, anti- oppressive and identity affirming approaches has earned Wellness Empowered a reputation as one of Canada’s leading culturally responsive, inclusive and decolonizing mental health care.
Although Wellness Empowered began with solely focusing on individual therapy, we have now extended our service to include groups, workshops and clinical supervision because we believe that the world needs collective healing approaches because as “no individual exists as an island.”
We also started with exclusively serving residents of Alberta and we have expanded to Ontario and Nova Scotia and our team is currently working hard to ensure that by the end of 2023 we will be serving 7/10 provinces in total.
Our team is growing and we are in the process of curating aligned associates to collaborate with you as you embark on a journey of unpacking the stories and life’s challenges that are either keeping you stuck and/ or stopping you from reaching your potential.
Thank you for being courageous and trusting us with your healing needs, we are here for you!
Destigmatizing, Decolonizing and Depathologizing Mental Health Together- Where SANKOFA meets UBUNTU!
To promote Wellness Empowered sacred spaces, Collective Liberation, Radical Healing and Equitable Co-Existence in Culturally, Psychologically and Somatically Safe Communities!
To provide Canada-wide Africentric centred mental wellness services that are culturally responsive, collective liberation focussed, and identity affirming to people of African descent who are racialized as Black, Indigenous Peoples and all aligned, racialized and minoritized people.
✅De-colonize mental health services using culturally responsive healing practices.
✅De-stigmatize and normalize accessing mental health supports.
✅Prevent burnout, promote self-care and collective resilience.
✅Promote achievable and sustainable work-life balance.
✅Promote healing and healthy love.
✅Promote school- home- social life balance for children and youth.
✅ Promoting equitable co-existence for all humans.
✅Enhance psychological health and promote emotional well-being.
✅Building healthy communities where everyone is included and valued.
✅Providing equitable and inclusive clinical supervision.
We are a people first and community centred organization that strongly believes "it takes a village" to build healthy communities, hence we work in collaboration with our clients and partner with other professionals and stakeholders to promote collective healing and intergenerational healing.
We believe celebrating all intersectional identities promotes diversity, inclusion and equity that contribute towards building equal access to quality mental health and wellness services for all people, which fosters solidarity & unity.
We embody kindness at all levels of our work, from the first phone call or email all the way to the continuation and termination of services.
We are grounded in love and anchored in spirituality, which allows us to non- judgementally bear witness to sacred stories that create psychological safety with utmost respect, cultural humility, understanding and unconditional acceptance.
We believe all voices deserve to be empathetically heard and all stories are sacred; hence we pledge to respect and mindfully honour all lived experiences with compassion and curiosity.
We conduct all aspects of our work with transparency, honesty and truthfulness; always acting in the best interest of the clients and abiding by all the ethical standards and Code of Conduct put forth by ACSW, OCSWSSW and ASWNC.
Our ways of knowing are grounded in the teachings of many elders that we have met along the way and we continue to learn from everyone that we meet. The unlearning, relearning and learning journey is lifelong long one, always shifting, always evolving.
SHAYLA S. DUBE, BSW., MSW., RSW
https://www.psychologytoday.com/profile/704921
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