Biography
Dr. Shawna Murray-Browne (she/her/hers) is a liberatory strategist, community scholar, mind-body healer, and professional speaker. She is the Principal Consultant at Kindred Wellness LLC and trained as an integrative psychotherapist. Dr. Shawna is curious about what happens when we question colonial thinking and make space for the ways of knowing held by folk of African descent in every aspect of life.
In her hometown of Baltimore City, Dr. Shawna is known for holding grassroots healing circles to equip Black families and change-makers with the tools to heal themselves. For more than 13 years, she has worked in residential treatment, grassroots community organizing, child welfare policy, research, community school settings, and juvenile detention centers. She initially opened Kindred Wellness LLC as a liberation-focused healing private practice. Now, trailblazers across the country know her best for her training intensive, Decolonizing Therapy for Black Folk, where she co-creates space for deconstructing and reimagining mental health as we know it. She pulls from her lived experiences of navigating carceral, oppressive institutions and co-creating free, radical healing space for Black folk young and wise.
Dr. Shawna works at the intersection of healing, ancestral wisdom, and deep support for organizations, corporations, and everyday humans seeking liberation. Her clients have included human service and political advocacy organizations, foundations, and universities. Intuitive, authentic, and high energy, she is committed to helping communities reclaim collective wisdom to triumph over the effects of historic and present-day trauma. Dr. Shawna was named by The Huffington Post as one of the “Ten Black Female Therapists You Should Know,” featured on the PBS special Mysteries of Mental Illness, and was a two-time guest on the popular, Therapy for Black Girls podcast.
She completed her doctorate at the University of Maryland, School of Social Work where she gained her Master of Social Work. Her dissertation explored oral histories as a decolonial site of inquiry around the healing ways of Black women advocates during the civil rights movement. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Criminology and Family Science from the University of Maryland, College Park. She serves on the Advisory Board of Cllctivly, the former Committee Co-Chair for the Trauma Informed Care Task Force for the City of Baltimore, and is a former Minority Fellow for the Council on Social Work Education and SAMSHA.
Dedicated to continued growth, her practice in QiGong, Black spiritual traditions, and sitting at the feet of elders maintain. She lives in Baltimore with her excitable 6-year-old, and her husband, "B."
Curriculum Vitae
Education
Licensure
Research Experience
Independent Teaching
Presentations
Community Initiatives Support
Training and Consulting
Clinical Social Work Experience
Community Service
Honors
Headshots
