A first-of-its-kind wellness conference on the West Coast, which focuses on Black, Indigenous and people of color, returned for its third year in Washington.
The founder of the Therapy Fund Foundation, Ashley McGirt-Adair, created the Reclaiming Wellness Conference.
"I wanted to create a space for us. A space where we could come and be intentional about our healing and our wellness, and really reclaim wellness. Which is why I titled [it] that because wellness is all of our birthright,” McGirt-Adair said. “But for centuries, it’s been stolen from us and colonized and made to look a different way.”
The conference drew nearly 500 attendees in the middle of July to Lumen Field in Seattle, where the Seattle Seahawks play.
McGirt-Adair is also a psychotherapist. She’s been on a mission to break down barriers to mental health and destigmatize it in Black and brown communities.
She says the event is for all people, including those who aren’t licensed, who work with people of color, and it offers the opportunity to be trained by BIPOC clinicians.
“I think it is so important that we acknowledge that healing comes in all forms. You don’t have to have a letter behind your name. I always give it up to the barbers, stylists, the big mamas, the pastors, the artists. So all of those other creatives that have created spaces for healing, and I incorporate that into our Reclaiming Wellness Conference,” she said.
Throughout the day, clinicians, educators and advocates participated in more than a dozen workshops.
Mental health therapist Toni Williams led a workshop called “Bridging the Gap: Culturally Responsive Mental Health Strategies for Today’s Youth.”
“Oftentimes, a lot of our youth don’t have the same resources, and [we are] making sure that we are getting to a space where we are not only letting them know what resources are out there, but how these resources can be a huge piece in productivity and helping them be successful out in the real world,” Williams shared.
Williams says part of her talk focused on the tools people need when working with students from kindergarten through 12th grade within the therapeutic space.
“I love not only the focus on the BIPOC community, but I also love the focus on the integration of mind and body,” said first-time attendee Leila Woolsey, who works in social services and health care. “It’s not just about talk therapy and sort of standard conventional old practices.”
Williams says the mental health needs of young people are on the rise and vary culturally.
“I am seeing a huge influx of youth needing support when it comes to therapeutic counseling. But the Therapy Fund has been huge and instrumental in linking those youth to the resources,” Williams said.
A free therapy fund is available to Washington residents year-round through the Therapy Fund Foundation. You can find that application on their website here.
McGirt-Adair hopes attendees lean into the exploration of culturally rooted practices, challenging colonial frameworks in mental health and reimagining wellness for BIPOC communities.
“We make it accessible so that everyone can take away something and then bring it back to their communities. So it’s not just pouring into one person. It’s pouring into a collective. And when we heal ourselves, we heal a generation,” she said.
