We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Djuan Short a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Djuan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

I am building a legacy that encourages women to understand their value and worth in the world by tapping into their inner strength, healing old wounds, and empowering them to live fully-expressed lives. I believe that building a legacy with this goal in mind aids me in my daily work of servicing my clients and community because when women are happy, healthy, and healed they live fulfilling lives of purpose and joy by transforming their thoughts, changing their behaviors, and gaining a deeper understanding of their emotions.

I hope to be remembered for my love of service, travel, food, all things bright and colorful, and my smile.

I love life and believe we all have a purpose here on earth. The day I am called home will be a glorious one because it is then that I know my work has been done and I get to be with my Heavenly Father.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Dahlia Rose Wellness Center (DRWC) is a Mental Health and Wellness Counseling and Consulting practice servicing the Greater Philadelphia Metro Area and South New Jersey. We help high-performing women of color with anxiety develop happy, healthy, and healed lifestyles without fear of abandonment and rejection. We offer clinical and consultation services, self-care recommendations and educational resources, bodywork sessions, and integrative healing practices.

DRWC was founded in 2019 based on the idea of promoting the concept of holistic living. This approach to wellness encompasses the mind (cognitive development), body (physical, emotional, and energetic), and spirit (including relationships and a sense of purpose). The ultimate goal has always been to empower individuals to be their most authentic selves and live a fulfilled life where they can have great relationships, meaningful work, peace of mind, and be happy, healthy, and whole.

My passion is to help women understand their value and worth in the world by tapping into their inner strength, healing old wounds, and empowering them to live fully-expressed lives. This passion grew from personal experiences of healing my thoughts, shifting my behaviors, and understanding my emotions. My experiences allowed me to develop an awareness of the power self-worth and self-compassion have on a woman who desires to live a life of purpose and joy. Initially, I worked primarily with youth helping them understand who they are while developing language to communicate their newfound self-awareness to others, such as their parents. Through this work, I started supporting more mothers who had difficulty understanding how to meet their children’s needs when they had not learned how to meet those needs for themselves. I decided to use what I had learned to open a mental health and wellness counseling and consulting practice to support women in learning self-worth, self-compassion, self-love, and other skills.

I am most proud of my clients and the hard work they commit to day in and day out to heal themselves and create a happy, healthy, and healed life.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

There are a few books that immediately come to mind that I love and have reread because of the impact the concepts have made on my life and the lives of those I serve. The book I want to reference in this moment is, “The Magic of Thinking Big” by David J. Schwartz. I learned about the book from watching a clip from Steve Harvey when he mentioned the books that helped him to change his mindset.

“The Magic of Thinking Big” encourages the reader to shift their perspective about how they get to experience life. The perspective shift leads to being positive, dreaming big, and working hard yet smarter. As a business owner, you are always learning about yourself and others. In order to have a business and a life that is worthwhile, you have to:
– believe that success is possible and the how-to will follow
– take action to cure your fears and keep moving forward
– never sell yourself short and always believe that you are right where you need to be
– build healthy and strong relationships

“The Magic of Thinking Big” is a timeless piece of work that you can resist at any stage of your career and find new ‘ah ha’ moments to change your life.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

I have had my business for almost four years this May (2023) and I have been full-time in the business since Jan 2022. In October 2022 I woke up on a Friday and checked my bank account because my check should have been deposited the night before. However, to my surprise, the money was not there. I spent a few hours that morning calling around trying to figure out what happened only to hear from the payroll processing company that the issue occurred in Sept 2022 and continued with each pay period.

I was so upset. I was upset for a few reasons: 1. I missed payroll by miscalculating how much money needed to be in the account for payroll to process 2. The payroll processing company never said anything until I called to figure out what was happening 3. I had to pay extra fees because of the issue.

On the other hand, it was a learning experience and I learned the following: 1. Pay attention to the business budget 2. Know your numbers 3. Know who to call on your financial team when there is an issue 4. Always have emergency savings.

Since then I have not missed payroll nor do I ever plan to in the future.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.dahliarosewellness.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dahliarosewellness
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/djuan-d-short-lcsw/

Image Credits
Image 1: Alexander Aperture Images 2-4: Gisele Bonds Image 5: Kia Caldwell