We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Daniella N. Shaw a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Daniella N. , appreciate you joining us today. Have you ever experienced a times when your entire field felt like it was taking a U-Turn?

The COVID19 pandemic caused me to take a career “U-Turn”. I went from serving in the hospital setting as a medical social worker to starting The Mental Exchange nonprofit organization and transiting to full time in my private practice Peace at Last Counseling. The pandemic also ignited economic, social, and racial crisis which caused a shift in the mentality, environments, and workforce of many people. During that time I engaged in much prayer, quality time with family, and took time to revaluate my career and overall life goals. I realized that the reason I pursued a career in social work was to help the youth and their families, especially those from lower income backgrounds like myself. To help those with lack of educational, mental health, and financial resources learn and connect with mentors who could teach them the skills to be successful. This caused me to transition from medical social work to one on one care with clients and community based services. It allowed me to fully embrace my role as a community leader and advocate.

Daniella N. , 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?

Hello everyone! I’m Daniella N. Shaw, Licensed Clinical Social Worker by trade, Community Leader and advocate! At my core I’m an empathic, creative, genuine soul passionately operating in my God given talents and destiny. My form of artistic expression is poetry and advocating for mental health awareness as well as providing therapeutic and enrichment services. I am dedicated to helping others navigate their healing journey (as I continue in my personal healing journey).

My private practice Peace at Last Counseling is dedicated to helping you life life peacefully and abundantly. In the mental health field I am referred to as holistic, acknowledging the mind body and soul connection as it impacts our mental health, emotional reactivity, behavioral patterns, and ability to maintain healthy relationships.

My nonprofit organization the Mental Exchange is dedicated to uplift, inform, and restore our underserved Black and Brown communities. We execute our mission through student mentorship, mental health support groups, financial education groups, and building community partnerships.

In my journey of grief recovery after losing my mother in my early twenties, suffering through emotionally abusive dating partners, and experiencing environmental stressors common in low income households, I found peace and solitude in visualizing a better future and writing down my thoughts and emotions in the form of poetry and short stories.

Having a very intuitive nature and humble personality allows me to view every client, student, couple, and mentor/advisor from a lens of genuine understanding and wanting to learn more about their journey and perception of talent and purpose.

My overall purpose in this moment is to help my community heal from generational trauma and find peace at last. My mantra is “its not about me, its about the legacy”. My faith in God and understanding that my purpose is to help this generation collectively heal creates a unique experience and interaction that you will remember long after we meet.

I am most proud of bringing people together and helping them improve their communication, emotional awareness, and self perception. Helping them view themselves in a more realistic view with no limits, so they can improve their confidence, vocalize needs, and maintain health supports around and within them. The Mental Exchange & Peace at Last Counseling differ from other businesses because we focus on the aligned foundation and authentic relationships with those we serve. We are very in depth with learning each person and helping them find their reason for setting goals and improving their quality of life.

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

Empathic understanding and listening are very important within the mental health field and nonprofit industry. We have to see the persons whole self and examine in depth to help them understand why habits and experiences are repeated and not changed. We have to understand that our human existence is beyond meeting specific criteria, and we must acknowledge that a persons perception frames their reality. Once we build that trust and understanding, our clients are more receptive and we can educate and equip our clients/community members with practices and methods to help them cope and adapt effectively.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Resilience has always been a difficult concept for me to describe for myself due to my Perfectionist mind constantly telling me I am not doing enough. Failure is never an option in my mind, to stop helping others is not an option, to accept that there is no help for our future generations is not an option. Those thoughts motivate me to overcome every challenge, heal from past, current, and future traumas, and improve and adjust to new requirements and responsibilities.

Experiencing complicated grief, ending emotionally abusive relationships, overcoming the financial debt and barriers to completing college and grad school, and facing multiple barriers and redlining within the business and housing industry are all different years in my journey in which I persisted and eventually achieved my goals, despite experiencing multiple losses and refusals of service.

Contact Info:

• Website: Mentalexchange.org
• Instagram: mentalexchange2020
• Facebook: The Mental Exchange
• Other: Peaceatlastcounseling.com