Soulfulness and African-Centered Healing with Dr. Shelly Harrell

According to Dr. Shelly Harrell, soulfulness is a healing, transformative depth of experience that brings us into our interconnected presence. In this special Juneteenth episode, Diana and Dr. Harrell explore the wisdom of African-centered traditions that bring us a more soulful way of living. Dr. Harell shares how she came to soulfulness, the relationship between mindfulness and soulfulness and the role of soulfulness in liberation from oppression-related trauma.

Listen and Learn:

What is Soulfulness
Music as a path to soulfulness
What’s missing in westernized mindfulness
African-centered practices such as Ubuntu, Sawubona, and Sankofa as paths to interconnection
Ancestor Metta as a different perspective on self-compassion
Non-verbal practices to cultivate connection
What is and is not cultural appropriation

About Dr. Shelly Harrell

Dr. Shelly Harrell is an award-winning Harvard-educated and UCLA-trained psychologist, as well as a certified meditation teacher. She is a tenured Full Professor at Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Education and Psychology. As an experienced psychotherapist, mentor, teacher, and researcher she has been helping, healing, teaching, and training for over 30 years. She is a scholar and published author in the areas of culture and psychotherapy, sociocultural and sociopolitical aspects of stress, racism and mental health, and psychological well-being among Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Her “soulfulness” approach to mind-body and contemplative practices is informed by cultural, African-centered, and liberation psychologies, resilience research, and stress science. Dr. Harrell is an expert therapist contributor to NICABM’s Next Level Practitioner Program, an Advisory Board Member and Consultant for the Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute, and a Consulting Faculty Member at the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy.