Black Mental Wellness Conference: Healing Across Generations
About this Event
We are excited to announce the , which will be held on November 6, 2026 at the Silver Spring Civic Center, 1 Veterans Pl, Silver Spring, MD 20910.
The 2026 conference will highlight the strengths and distinct intergenerational perspectives that shape Black mental health, with the goal of broadening our understanding of wellness and healing in the Black community.
Since launching in 2020, the Black Mental Wellness Annual Conference has welcomed over 1,500 attendees and continues to grow each year. The conference brings together mental health professionals, students, community advocates, educators, faith leaders, and individuals with lived experience to create a space for learning, dialogue, and communitycentered healing.
This is a conference for anyone who is invested in Black mental health and wellness.
APA Continuing Education
Black Mental Wellness, Corp. is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. 6.5 continuing education for psychologists are available for registrants who attend the live conference. Black Mental Wellness, Corp. maintains responsibility for this conference and its content.
For more information:
Website: https://www.blackmentalwellness.com/blackmentalwellnessconference
Conference
Conference
Conference
Donations
Donate today to support our training programs, therapy access, and educational events sponsored by the Black Mental Wellness Foundation.
If you wish to cancel your registration and receive a refund, contact Nicole Cammack at [email protected] BEFORE September 30, 2026. A $75 administrative fee will be applied to all refunds.
No cancellations will be accepted after September 30, 2026 including medical, personal, or work-related reasons.
Hotel Accomodations
Courtyard Silver Spring Downtown
8506 Fenton St
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Start Date: Wednesday, November 04, 2026
End Date: Tuesday, November 10, 2026
Agenda
🕑: 08:00 AM - 05:00 PM
Shop with our Vendors
🕑: 08:00 AM - 09:00 AM
Conference Registration
🕑: 08:15 AM - 09:00 AM
Pre-Conference Session: Am I Healing or Just Surviving?
Host: Shawnti Boswell
Info: Many people believe they are healing when they have just become more functional in survival mode. “Am I Healing or Just Surviving?” challenges participants to examine the difference between coping and true emotional healing. In many Black communities, survival strategies like emotional suppression, hyper-independence, and constant productivity are
normalized and even celebrated. Over time, these patterns can lead to burnout, disconnection, and unprocessed emotional pain.
This session creates space to slow down and reflect on what healing actually looks like beyond just getting through it. Participants will explore how survival mode shows up in their thoughts, behaviors, and relationships and learn how to recognize when they are avoiding instead of processing.
Through guided reflection, practical tools, and culturally grounded conversation, this experience will help participants begin shifting from survival-based patterns into intentional healing.
🕑: 09:00 AM - 10:15 AM
Opening Session: Generational Healing
Host: Nicole L. Cammack, Ph.D.
Info: This opening panel will set the stage for the Black Mental Wellness Conference: Healing Across Generations by exploring how mental health, coping strategies, cultural strengths, and community experiences have evolved across generations within the Black community. This panel will also introduce the themes that will be explored throughout the conference—including men’s mental health, women’s wellness, intergenerational trauma, children and youth development, and the intersection between faith, emotional expression, and spirituality across generations. Panelists representing diverse age groups and professional backgrounds will reflect on the historical, cultural, and social contexts that have shaped mental health experiences for youth, adults, and elders. Through dialogue and storytelling, the discussion will highlight the ways generational wisdom, resilience, and evolving conversations around mental health can foster deeper understanding and collective healing.
🕑: 09:00 AM - 10:15 AM
Generational Healing Speakers
Host: Bridgette Reed
🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Healing Session: Sonic Tonic: Gongs and Sound Bowls as Aids to Healing
Host: Reggie Hubbard
Info: Sound and harmonics are an ancient technology that has even more power in modern times. In a world full of noise and distraction, quality of mind is a precious resource to healing and well-being. And the overall political landscape as well as the way words have been weaponized lately via social media have degraded our overall mental health.
This healing session will feature gongs, Tibetan sound bowls and silence as a means to reset the nervous system – allowing for rest, creativity and release. Participants will have an immersive experience in community and receive tips on how sound can help them maintain peace of mind.
🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Healing Session: We Carry Healing Too: A Somatic Healing Circle Reconnecting
Host: Bernasha Anderson King, Ph.D.
Info: This healing circle invites participants into a nurturing, community-centered space rooted in connection, ancestral wisdom, and embodied restoration. While we often speak of intergenerational trauma, this experience also honors intergenerational healing—the wisdom, resilience, and practices carried through our lineage.
Guided by Dr. Bernasha, a licensed psychologist, somatic therapist, and certified yoga teacher, the session offers a meaningful pause from the pace of everyday life.
Participants are invited to soften, breathe, and reconnect with the body as a place of safety, insight, and renewal. Through trauma-informed somatic practices, breathwork, meditation, and reflective journaling, we explore pathways back to ourselves and to one another.
🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Poster Session
Host: Crystal Young, Psy.D., M.Ed., CT
Info: Poster Session: will allow presenters to visually share and present research practices related to the conference theme, Healing Across Generations.
🕑: 10:30 AM - 11:45 AM
Sister to Sister. Black Women and Mental Health Panel Discussion
Host: Dasha Carver, Ph.D.
Info: Black women often carry the weight of multiple identities and roles, from caregivers to community leaders, and each generation has faced distinct mental health challenges due to systemic oppression, racial trauma, and gendered expectations. This session will center the intergenerational experiences of Black women and provide a safe space for sharing, healing, and empowerment. Attendees will engage in conversation on the importance of self-care, community support, and mental health advocacy across generations, with an emphasis on creating sustainable practices for mental wellness.
🕑: 11:45 AM - 12:35 PM
Lunch provided by Black Mental Wellness
🕑: 12:35 PM - 02:05 PM
Healing Session: The Power of Holistic Mental Health and Healing
Host: LeNaya Smith Crawford, M.A., LMFT
Info: This healing session explores a holistic approach to mental health that integrates mind, body, and spirit to support healing across generations. Grounded in the Holistic Therapist Model, which includes the Five Layers of Self: physical, energetic, mental and emotional, spiritual, and communal, participants will gain insight into how trauma and stress impact the whole person, particularly within the Black community.
The session will begin with brief psychoeducation on the nervous system and the role of holistic practices such as yoga, breathwork, and sound healing in supporting emotional regulation and overall well-being. Participants will then be guided through an experiential practice incorporating gentle movement, intentional breathwork, sound, meditation, and affirmations. This session is designed to offer both personal restoration and practical tools for therapists, healers, and helping professionals.
🕑: 12:35 PM - 02:05 PM
Brother to Brother. Black Men and Mental Health Panel Discussion
Host: James E. Harris Jr.
Info: In this session, we will explore the unique generational challenges that Black men face, including the pressures of masculinity, societal expectations, and systemic barriers. This discussion will focus on varying intergenerational strategies for healing, strengthening mental resilience, and creating supportive spaces for Black men. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage in a candid, open conversation about breaking down mental health stigmas and fostering brotherhood in healing.
🕑: 12:35 PM - 02:05 PM
Intergenerational Trauma
Host: Nyerere Billups, SCPM, HHP, ETP
Info: This session examines the roots of intergenerational trauma and its enduring impact within Black communities. Participants will explore how trauma is transmitted across generations and how it shapes physical and emotional health, parenting practices, and identity formation. The session will also highlight culturally grounded strategies for cultivating healing across generations.
🕑: 02:20 PM - 03:50 PM
Understanding and Supporting Black Youth
Host: Rev. Dr. Christian Frazier
Info: Mental health among youth is often shaped by family systems, cultural values, and intergenerational experiences. In this roundtable discussion, presenters will explore how family communication patterns, beliefs about mental health, and experiences with racism influence emotional development and well-being among Black youth. While conversations about youth mental health often center on challenges, this session intentionally shifts the lens to also highlight resilience, strength, and the capacity to thrive, and strategies that can support youth in navigating current stressors. Attendees will be introduced to strength-based, culturally grounded approaches that support youth mental health and promote overall wellness.
🕑: 02:20 PM - 03:50 PM
Healing Session: From Inherited Survival to Intentional Stillness
Host: Tanika Barber, LCSW
Info: Generational trauma often lives beyond memory—it is carried in the body, embedded in the nervous system, and expressed through patterns of chronic stress, hypervigilance, and emotional disconnection. Within Black communities, where resilience has been a necessity, many individuals have learned to function in survival mode without access to true restoration.
This experiential session explores sound healing as a powerful modality for interrupting inherited patterns of stress and supporting nervous system regulation across generations. Led by TanikaBarber, LCSW, also known as The InnerG Healer, this session integrates clinical understanding
with holistic practice to examine how sound frequencies can help shift the body from fight-or-flight into rest-and-digest states—creating space for healing that is both personal and ancestral.
🕑: 02:20 PM - 03:50 PM
Faith, Emotional Expression, and Healing
Host: Brianna Ruff, M.A.
Info: This session will examine intersections of faith, emotional expression, and healing within Black communities, with attention to how these experiences are shaped across generations. Participants will examine how faith and spirituality can serve as sources of strength and directly influence beliefs about emotional expression and methods of coping. This session will also highlight unique generational differences in how emotions are understood and expressed, and offer culturally grounded strategies that foster dialogue, connection, and healing across generations.
🕑: 04:00 PM - 05:00 PM
Closing Session. Lived Experiences Panel Discussion
Host: Aaliyah Strong
Info: The conference will close with a powerful panel featuring individuals who have lived experience with mental health challenges and triumphs. These speakers will share their personal journeys of healing, resilience, and reclaiming their power. The panel will serve as a reminder of the intergenerational strength within our community and will inspire all attendees to continue their own journeys of mental wellness and healing.
🕑: 07:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Pre-Conference: October 5, 2026. Healing of the Soul for African Americans
Host: Dr. Roz Caldwell Stanley, LPPC (retired)
Info: Healing of the Soul for African Americans invites professional counselors, spiritual care providers, and ministry leaders to engage with a culturally grounded soul healing model designed specifically for Black Americans. This workshop introduces HOSM4AA (Healing of the Soul Ministry for African Americans), a prayer counseling modality based on 10 Essential Ingredients that address generational trauma, soul wounds, spiritual disconnection, grief, and mental-emotional distress rooted in historical and racialized pain.
Objectives:
Identify the core concepts and cultural distinctives of the HOSM4AA soul healing modality.
Recognize the 10 Essential Ingredients of Healing of the Soul Ministry and how they relate to trauma-informed care for African Americans.
Experience a simulated soul healing session to illustrate practical application of HOSM4AA in a therapeutic or ministry setting.
🕑: 07:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Pre-Conference: October 12, 2026. Group Ancestral Healing: Journey to a Place
Host: LaVerne Price
Info: Group Ancestral Healing: Journey to a Place of Beauty
The Sacred Ancestry Method emphasizes direct connection with one’s own ancestors. Through embodied experience, intuition, and guided practice, participants learn to listen for ancestral guidance and restore supportive relationships within their lineage. Participants often report relief from emotional burdens that feel older than their own lifetime, release of inherited family patterns, a stronger sense of belonging, and renewed access to ancestral wisdom and support.
Objectives:
Group Ancestral Healing: Journey to a Place of Beauty
Participants often experience A deeper sense of belonging and connection to their roots
Participants often experience a release of inherited patterns held within families or lineages
🕑: 07:00 PM - 08:00 PM
Pre-Conference: October 19, 2026. Protecting the Healer: Radical Preservation
Host: Dr. Sherronda Banks, DSW, LCSW, LISW-CP,
Info: This session intentionally moves beyond traditional self-care models by positioning wellness as a collective, culturally grounded, and necessary practice for both clinicians and communities. Participants will leave with a personalized Radical PreservationTM Plan and practical strategies to support continued healing and implementation beyond the session.
Objectives:
Participants will be able to identify at least three ways systemic stress, generational trauma, and emotional labor impact mental health within Black communities and helping professionals.
Participants will engage in at least two culturally responsive, evidence-informed healing practices (e.g., reflection, movement, storytelling) to support emotional regulation and restoration.
Participants will develop a personalized Radical Preservation™ Plan that includes actionable strategies for sustaining individual and collective wellness beyond the session.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 39.19 to USD 500.00
