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Welcome to WELLS

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The WELLS Healing Center is a non-profit organization that provides workshops and training using counseling psychology and Black feminist principles. The WELLS Healing Center also provides mentorship and training for mental health and wellness healers (e.g., counselors, coaches, etc.) that incorporates scholarship and activism.

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Welcome to
The WELLS Healing Center

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Our History

Originally named the Wellness, Equity, Love, Liberation, and Sexuality (WELLS) Healing and Research Collective, WELLS was founded in 2018 by Dr. Della, then a professor in the University of Florida’s Psychology Department. In the summer of 2021, Dr. Della resigned from her position at UF and liberated WELLS from the academy. Since then, the organization has expanded far beyond university walls and has grown into Wellness, Equity, Love, Liberation, and Survival (WELLS) Healing Center, a non-profit now based in Durham, NC. The timeline below highlights a few key pieces of our story.

Timeline

Spring 2018

Dr. Della dreams up the Wellness, Equity, Love, Liberation, and Sexuality (WELLS) Healing and Research Collective while working at Duke

Timeline
Fall 2018

Dr Della starts tenure-track assistant professor position at the Counseling Psychology department at the University of Florida

Dr. Della starts recruitment process and welcomes the first cohort of the WELLS Healing and Research Collective, a Counseling Psychology research lab at the University of Florida aimed at promoting wellness, particularly among ethnic minority, queer, trans and/or gender-expansive people and communities under a Black Feminist framework.

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Dec. 2018

The WELLS Collective launches its first Day of WELLness, where members of the collective opened up their lab space to promote wellness for students during their end-of-semester exams. The collective set up rooms for relaxation, rest, and study and hosted activities to facilitate healing and joy.

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December 2018

Dr. Della formally graduates and walks to receive their doctorate’s degree at the University of Kentucky.
Fall 2018
Spring 2019

The collective expands, welcomes more undergraduate students

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April 25, 2019

The WELLS Collective hosts Day of WELLness

Sprin 2019
Fall 2019

Pearis Bellamy, Garrett Ross, and Jeannette Mejia join the collective.

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Aug. 2019

The WELLS Collective attends the American Psychological Association (APA) Convention 2019 in Chicago, IL, where multiple graduate and undergraduate members of the collective received awards for their work towards the wellness and liberation of marginalized communities.

Oct. 2019

Pearis Bellamy successfully defends her Master’s thesis becoming the first member of the collective to graduate with her master’s degree under Dr. Della’s advisory.  “Association of Weight Misperception with Weight Loss Effort and Engagement in Healthy Behaviors among Black Church-Goers who are Overweight or Have Obesity”