The SHI Center for Learning and Healing

Born and raised in Detroit, Dr. Shelly Harrell is an award-winning Harvard-educated and UCLA-trained psychologist, as well as a certified meditation teacher.  As an experienced therapist, mentor, and professor she has been helping, healing, teaching, and training for over 30 years. She is a researcher and published author in the areas of culture and psychotherapy, sociocultural and sociopolitical aspects of stress, racism and mental health, and  psychological well-being among Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Her soulfulness approach to wellness and resilience represents an integration of her work that is informed by cultural, African-centered, and liberation psychologies, contemplative practices, and stress science. Most recently, she has developed Sankofa Theory & Practice, a comprehensive, culturally-grounded, and evidence-informed approach to healing interventions inspired with the deep wisdom of the Sankofa adinkra symbols. Dr. Shelly has presented Sankofa Theory & Practice at the annual conferences of the American Psychological Association and the Association of Black Psychologists, as well as published about it in the American Psychologist.