We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sharifa Ahrendsen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sharifa below.

Sharifa , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

What I know my parents did right is be their authentic self. Both of my parents were radical in this, considering the context. Leaving a small island and everyone they know to go to a new country and pursue the unknown.

This impacted my life and career In the way of confidence, an irreplaceable human characteristic. My career has flourished in fertile soils of lifelong possibility. Risks look more like untapped markets and unknowns breed inevitable growth.

We had a very active life in my childhood, so much so people asked if I was a military brat. To that I always answer no, my parents are just Jamaican geniuses. To succeed as a Jamaican is to try your best, to move when you need to move, to make something so nice from next to nothing, to continue your education, to face betrayal and starting over. With confidence anything is possible and I am living the life I was meant to live.

Sharifa , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a psychotherapist healer by training, and myself, an alchemist, a model, a mom, and abolitionist by birth. In 2023 I founded Sit With, a social good startup that innovates solutions from conversations that matter.

Sit With began as a self expression, a seed that sprouted into a welcoming garden combining my expertise with art and social studies. A place to cope with the crazy parts of society.

Growing in this garden is:
-Sit With, an automated 8-week support group in person & online for coping with societal problems.
-Walk With, a choose your own adventure nature therapy mobile game that makes coping easy and accessible.
-Help With, a social platform to share & access existing free resources quickly and publish “good news”.
-Stand With, a data collection and analysis powerhouse driven by rewarding online surveys to power the 99%.
-Rest With, an inside out healing tool that turns journaling into community capital for reparations.

All of these tools are inspired by lifelong observation. My curiosity for human behavior began in 2010 assisting research in college and grew into a qualitative professional experience. Working in an hospital emergency department rerouted my interest from research/ macro trends to one on one interventions, as this is where people need support more than ever. My work after securing a masters in clinical social work from University of North Carolina Chapel Hill include a child abuse prevention agency, university counselling centre, private practice and community alliances.

As a lifelong immigrant, I always strive for harmony even after leaving the “American dream”. My hustle can help a lot of people even if I have to work with less. I use my genetic advantage as a child of STEM geniuses to solve systemic issues fast, similar to my parents solving income, racial, and systemic problems before they impacted us children as new US citizens. Everything in my life lead me to this. What sets Sit With apart is the commitment to solving dangerous global crisis’ like colonialism, geopolitical stress, and economic manipulation, fast. Sit With tools are free for individuals and powered by fun(draised) capital without investment return. An unconventional approach that has a path to paying user to just exist. Musk mentioned a similar idea, Universal Basic Income, but do most people trust him?

Either way, I know social consciousness over fiscal conservatism will be the new norm. Sit With user wellbeing is the bottom line for this project, not profit. I am most proud of this fact, pioneering hope in a hopeless field like tech in mental and social health. I want people to know everything I’ve created so far is a direct response to witnessing my own struggles alongside my clients and society majorities (BIPOC, poor, lonely). Embodying myself released an entire empire. To me, it’s imperative that entities with power prioritise the fact that humans matter. Or, maybe im just a big sensitive softy ;)

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

A lesson I had to unlearn, and still unlearn daily is that the world so far has not been built for someone like me to enjoy. Yet here I am, here to make my world safer for everyone. This is my daily affirmation of the power within anyone. Sovereignty is the right to be in complete and total control of one’s body and life. So when these rights are threatened, I don’t look for solutions from others more than I’m looking for solutions from myself. I am my own first responder; here to assess damage, secure resources, and live a life I’m proud of. Unlearning this lesson birthed Sit With.

In counselling hundred of individuals my pattern recognition popped off and I learned confidence isn’t the norm. Especially if you grew up under organised religion, class/caste systems etc. that rely on human hierarchy. In anyone’s darkest moments, conversations happen within that no one will ever hear, so it’s really important to have a relationship with myself that transcends what others think I deserve. You can imagine how important it is to unlearn harmful imposed beliefs and rediscover what is best for you. This has catapulted me to create somewhere for likeminded people to connect and be free..

Training and knowledge matter of course, but beyond that what do you think matters most in terms of succeeding in your field?

Trying! In my experience, this low risk daily action has pushed my life beyond work earn repeat. I wanted something that didn’t exist, and I had no clue where to start. So, trying was the only tool I could use daily, for free, to begin building. I try so hard to: talk to my family and friends about my imagination, to research, to try things I don’t know how to do, to code, to network, to listen to scepticism of my beliefs and goals, to be empathetic in the face of impossible conversations/feelings.

I could stop trying now and never scale this project, but even then the experience of trying will never be cancelled out. I am a new person due to trying, I know this is so important for any creative or generator. Trying is the difference between filling the welcoming garden I’ve built with users and changing their world, versus paralysing fear for my child’s future on earth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Sitwith.net
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sitwithsociety/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/S8tW8th/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharifa-ahrendsen-281a8235
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoddessGrief/status/1697642689158693163
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sitwithsociety
• Other: https://discord.gg/95sNpsvKEb

Image Credits

Beatriz Marcelino
Rachel Joseph