Support your team or community with joy-flavored virtual wellness programming.

From Literary Therapy writing sessions to Mental Health First Aid trainings and support group facilitation, you have options for helping your folks thrive the War on Spiritual Ashiness.

Learn more here.

Want to connect? Let’s talk about it.

#getsomejoy

my latest…

a couple things I’ve been working on lately

Resistance Through Wellness

For EAB

SPEAKER/FACILITATOR

In addition to joining EAB’s employee resource groups MOSAIC and Healthy Minds for a conversation on community wellness, I gave a presentation on using joy as a tool to navigate, unpack, grow through experiences with grief and loss, supported by activities in GetSomeJoy’s griefKit: Crowdsourced tools and considerations for raggedy times.

Mental Health Monday with Alexander Hardy

View past episodes of Mental Health Monday with Alexander Hardy right here.

at SelfCareCheckIn.com, we provide self-care tools and wellness resources to be great(er) at home, school, and work.

and “we” is this fine group of Black excellence right here…

team getsomejoy

a few getsomejoy greatest hits:

• GetSomeJoy Launches SELFCARECHECKIN.COM with Wellness Resources to be Great(er) at Home, Work & School

• One time, GetSomeJoy did a Self-Care Check-In: Higher Education Pop-up Experience at the 2017 National Black MBA Conference in Detroit, MI (here and here and here).

• BlackGirlMagic Creator CaShawn Thompson on Nothingness as Self-Care

• We hosted our first official event, Wine & Words: A Mixer For Mental & Emotional Wellness, at WeWork Harlem.

• GetSomeJoy brings a Self-Care Check-In Experience to Sylvia’s 56th Community Soul Food Breakfast

• Self-Care Check-In with Toni Blackman (Part One)

“how would you rate your self care?”

The Self-Care Check-In,™ developed and used by Team GetSomeJoy, asks:

bonus:

do the Self-Care Check-In™ with your friend/lover/co-worker/classmate/family member and ask,

#selfcarecheckin

why i work in mental health advocacy

After a near-fatal first dance with lupus at 20, I spent the following decade moving around the hemisphere chasing waterfalls and dreams, seeking excitement and satisfying curiosities, fueled by fear of leaving life goals unmet upon the disease’s inevitable tragic return. That time spent “living like a motherfucker” showed me the healing ability of joy, the paralyzing power of hopelessness and fear, and the strength in storytelling.

Navigating mental illness, homelessness, and the accompanying hopelessness and shame in my 30s inspired the launch of GetSomeJoy, a creative wellness agency promoting wellness through dynamic storytelling, interactive events, and accessible wellness resources. Wanting fewer people to experience the bewilderment, isolation, and cluelessness I felt led me to tap into my experiences and traumas in an attempt to offer solutions amidst governmental shortcomings and presidential swamp-donkery.

My method of creating a world where Rita Louise Watson would thrive involves testifying, spacemaking, trainings, and pushing joy. But no single ChocolateyWonder—not even one on the right side of The Grits Debate—can fill care, infrastructure, and health equity gaps left by decades of dumpster-hearted policy, structural exclusion, and institutional melanin envy-flavored hateration in the socioeconomic dancerie.

But I can partner with community organizations and passionate organizers harnessing soul, brilliance, magic, and wisdom to make the world less terrible.

I can also put my years dancing, teaching, and studying in Panama to use by leading Youth and Adult Mental Health First Aid Trainings in English and Spanish.

I can host events and lead group therapy sessions and publish content and share stories and distribute resources that encourage folks to bust their emotions open, seek treatment, choose joy, and support loved ones when possible while loving on oneself. And I can implore folks to always ask more more gravy. Every time.

And so here we are.

past situations

• Curator/Moderator, Exploring: Black Queer & Trans Lives Matter @ The Each-Other Project. Brooklyn, NY

• Facilitator, GetSomeJoy LGBTQ Peer Support Group @ GMAD (Gay Men of African Descent). Brooklyn, NY (ongoing, monthly, message for info)

• Facilitator, Mental Stimulation: A Youth Open Mic & Panel Discussion on Mental Health @ Brooklyn Public Library. Haitian American Caucus. Brooklyn, NY

• Facilitator/Panelist, “The Art of Healing: A Conversation On Mental Health, Substance Abuse, and Trauma” @ Impulse Group DC Annual Retreat. Upper Marlboro, MD

• Facilitator, Literary Therapy: Writing (for) Your Life Workshop. Adler University. Chicago, IL; New York University. New York, NY; AIDS Health Foundation/Carl Bean House. Los Angeles, CA; DENIM. Hyattsville, MD

• Keynote Speaker, “Joy & Healing: Your Self-Care Check-In” @ Sentara Careplex. Peninsula Lupus & Fibro Support Group. Hampton, VA

• Keynote Speaker, “Saving Yourself While Saving The World.” @ Young People For’s national summit. Arlington, VA

• Panelist, First Lady of New York City’s Mental Health & Technology Roundtable @ Gracie Mansion. New York, NY

• Panelist, "The Check Up: Healthy Minds/ Healthy Bodies” @ 2018 Brooklyn Hip-Hop Festival. Brooklyn, NY

• Producer/Host, #GetSomeJoy: A Blackstravaganza for Mental Health Awareness @ Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Harlem, NY (recap)

• Producer/Host, Colored Boy and Friends: Mental Health Edition @ Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz Center. Washington Heights, NY (recap)

• Trainer, English & Spanish Adult Mental Health First Aid @ 199SEIU Healthcare Workers Education Fund. New York, NY