Healing Together: A Community Invitation

I was born into a rich tapestry of life. My dad and I moved to Harlem in 2002, and it was here that the community nurtured me — mothers, neighbors, and teachers showed me how to share, begin anew, and bloom.

I was sensitive, shy around strangers, and a chatterbox with those I knew. School felt like another home, and I adored my elders like my aunts and uncles. Despite these blessings, I struggled to embrace my true Self and often felt lonely as my father’s only daughter.

Grief first found me when I lost my abuela. Her funeral sparked my first conversation with the sky — I wanted to know why. This moment opened me to a deeper understanding of the spiritual connections that would shape my life, even though I couldn’t fully grasp it at the time.

At fourteen, I began working as a peer leader, educating others on reproductive health. This role helped me discover my complexity and deepened my commitment to service, laying the foundation for my future work in birthwork. But at seventeen, I faced grief again when my father’s spirit transitioned from lung cancer. Navigating early adulthood alone was challenging, and the truth is, I am still learning because grief is always present.

At first, the mundane felt trivial. I was enraged, shaken in faith, and overwhelmed by a lack of hope. Everything had shifted, unhealthy relationships held me underwater, and friends drifted away. I was navigating a world completely changed by loss.

A year later, I began college, where grief continued to intensify with each adjustment. At my lowest, I turned to western medicine for support, but it wasn’t until I turned to ancestral veneration, honoring the vast spiritual framework of my lineage, that I began to heal. 

During my time abroad, I saw the world through my ancestors' eyes and mine. I remained open to new worlds, seeing grief as rebirth and travel as possibility. Strangers became reflectors, consciousness became a shared spirit, and love became a political act.

Since then, I have devoted myself to learning and embracing the sacred medicines that allow us to connect with God in many ways. Reiki, as a tool for balance, bridges scientific understanding with ancestral wisdom. These teachings shape my support for women, families, and our shared journey through struggle and healing, fragmentation and unity.

My story weaves together the reality of navigating life without the support we all deserve. It speaks to the gaps left when community is absent and the strength it takes to rebuild connection. It also reveals the shared responsibilities we carry—as women and men, students and teachers, youth leaders and elders—to create the support systems we long for. How will you show up? How will you help build the community we all need?

As a full-spectrum doula, I meet families where they are, offering support and guidance through the profound transitions of birth, loss, and life itself. By merging ancestral wisdom with modern practices, I ensure that each family feels seen, heard, and held. But healing and transformation don’t happen in isolation—we need each other. Together, we birth new possibilities, rooted in our shared history and the Love that binds us all.