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

Shenelle, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

I am a trauma therapist. I have spent many years learning skills to help my clients to work through their trauma. While I have helped so many people through their trauma journeys, I too have embarked on my own healing journey. By the end of 2020, my trauma felt different. Racial trauma was on an all time high, human rights were being violated, hate was running rampant, and the trauma of a pandemic and living in a world that was altered so drastically and not knowing what would come next had begun to affect me. I was overwhelmed, burned out and exhausted and I knew that I needed something more than the self-work I had been doing for so many years. I asked the universe for an opportunity for me, a Black, Caribbean, Latina woman, to have an opportunity to do my work with people who looked like me.

In January 2022, that opportunity presented itself. I attended a healing retreat that pushed, stretched and healed me in so many ways. It was held on one of my ancestral lands and I was excited and scared about this opportunity. I have never done anything like this. I knew that I wanted a different type of release, transformation and healing. In this space I was free and vulnerable in ways that I never thought possible. The pieces of me that I thought were hidden were on full display and being called out, and all I could say was OUCH, but yes. Had that not happened, I would not be where I am today, taking the best risks for myself.

As a result, I have learned to say YES! Yes to every opportunity that allows me growth, continued healing and joy. From this experience, I solidified the 13 year vision in progress for my business. I have created a coaching membership program and curriculum, to serve women, especially women of color. This program, I Luv Me Some Me, is a membership program designed to create safe spaces for women to exhale and heal from their hurt and build a supportive community. These efforts will lead to empowerment, self-love and joy. We should all be free of the burdens that hold us down., I Luv Me Some Me is that space. I want every woman to be affirmed in their worth, living a joyful life, healed from life’s wounds and living fearlessly. By taking a risk, I have affirmed my purpose in the work that I do and will continue to invest in joyful, empowered and fearless activities.

Shenelle, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Kuumba Therapy, LLC embodies my vision of providing mental health wellness to marginalized populations. Mental Health stigma is a real thing, but it does not have to be. Kuumba Therapy, LLC provides individual, group and family therapy. I am an Afro-Caribbean-Latina, who understands the intersectionality of race, identity and the impact on mental health. I am an ally to the LGBTQIA community and continually seek training and support to best serve this community. I am a trauma-trained therapist who specializes in modalities such as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Somatic Practice, and Ancestral Healing, among other techniques to help heal wounds related to generational trauma, racial trauma, mental health, unhealthy family dynamics or just living life.

Kuumba Therapy, LLC philosophy is about mental, physical and emotional wellness. We are hardwired to look for the negative which contributes to feeling stuck in our issues. It is possible to have liberation from the heavy stuff, it just takes consistent work and attention to resolve and heal. The healing process can be difficult and can be made easier with the right therapist fit and client motivation to address hard topics.

Recently, Kuumba Therapy has expanded into coaching using a framework developed by Shenelle Roebuck, LCSW called I Luv Me Some Me, This program is designed to have supportive spaces for women of color in healing through a collective community model, which is inherent to healing indigenous populations. This program is focused on the concept of for us by us, which allows us to heal in a collective, collaborative and reciprocal way. Additionally, there are community spaces for all women who are seeking support in having the ability to practice self love and empowerment. This program uses a membership model with monthly live group virtual calls to develop and maintain a sisterhood, discussion of topics that are important to the communities served and offer opportunities for healing.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I grew in spaces that many would consider are not for me. In many of my experiences, I was the only Black person, navigating these spaces. I have always had to work 2-3 times harder than other counterparts to be seen, understood and validated. Knowing that my identity would be challenged in many spaces, I decided that I would not be placed in any boxes that would be limiting. It has been a journey. Thankfully, I have been self assured, grounded and confident which has allowed me to address situations and obstacles in healthy ways.

While I have learned the skills to support myself, navigating this world where my identify has been a challenge for others has not been easy. I recognize the weight that I have been asked to carry, and at times I have had to push my own feelings aside to get the job done. I have spoken up and been gaslit, ignored, blamed for white fragility, but that has not stopped me. Resilience is about assessment, what got me here and what do I need to move forward. I have taken all the challenges and rather than stay stuck in the muck, I have learned why that was the impact and how to use what I learned to keep moving forward.

Having many opportunities for resilience, I am often reminded that I have to stand in who I am and function from that place. Knowing who I am, helps me to keep my head held high, focused on my goals and achieving success.

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

The lesson that I have had to unlearn is that it is unsafe to use my voice. Throughout my life I have always been the quiet and shy one, the quiet observer, who would speak up when necessary. I was scared into a place, where I would not allow my perfectionism to be challenged., and struggled to feel like what I had to say was important or even mattered. From the day I learned that shutting down and being quiet was a trauma response, I made a commitment to begin to use my voice in ways that matter.

I have a friend who helped to pull me out of my shell and began to help me externalize the confidence that I was feeling inside. This started in a fitness class, movement and allowing trauma to exit my space in a positive way. That movement was translated into advocacy. While I may not have known how to use my voice to support myself fully, I knew how to do that for my clients. This foundation helped me to grasp the necessary skills to speak. If I could stand in from of a judge on behalf of my clients and advocate, then why could I not do that for myself?

I have learned how to harness my voice to support myself, the people that I serve as well as friends and family. Now, I speak with intention and conviction and am fearless. I call out injustices and speak on issues that are important to me, knowing that I will never be silenced again.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kuumbatherapy.godaddysites.com/coaching-and-wellness-1
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kuumbatherapyllc/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KTStigmafree/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shenelle-roebuck-64a7b2199/

Image Credits
Ayo Nsude