The Need for Black (Healing) Spaces

Why We Need Black Spaces Na'Tasha Jones wrote a blog post entitled The Importance of Black Spaces in Wellness. While her writing is a longer, more detailed look that addresses why healing is important and some of the challenges that exist, Jones has this to say about the need for Black spaces.

For most Black people in America—and in particular, Black women—feeling safe, seen, and supported on our wellness journeys is far from the norm. There’s a great chance that the newest fitness studio and the best local gyms and running trails aren’t ripe with people that look like us, despite the fact that our music, our culture, and our vernacular are prevalent in these spaces.

From mental health to body representation to safety, Black women experience wellness in ways that are unique and nuanced. Creating Black spaces in wellness for us, by us, is vital to being seen, to addressing these nuances, and to creating places—whether online or in-person—where we find safety, comfort, and community. Where we have the ability to relax and enjoy the pursuit of wellness and healing without having to explain, without being questioned, and without being mocked or regarded as a curiosity.

This is a reason why so many of the programs and offerings by The Healing Center or spaces designed for us by us. The myth that we as Black people just cope, or the anachronism that we have to heal in spaces that are not designed for healing (i.e. Barbershops and Beauty Salons) just don't hold. Black people are creating spaces where we can heal. Spaces where our shared experience and our cultural can be present in small and major ways.

The Healing Center is glad to be one of these spaces.