Welcome to WELLS
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.
Welcome to
The WELLS Healing Center
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
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.
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.
December 2018
Dr. Della formally graduates and walks to receive their doctorate’s degree at the University of Kentucky.
Spring 2019
The collective expands, welcomes more undergraduate students
April 25, 2019
The WELLS Collective hosts Day of WELLness
Fall 2019
Pearis Bellamy, Garrett Ross, and Jeannette Mejia join the collective.
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”
Members of the collective attend and present at the National Latinx Psychological Association (NLPA) Conference 2019 in Miami, FL.
The WELLS Collective at Pride Gainesville
Spring 2020
Feb. 2020
Garrett Ross successfully defended his master’s thesis titled “Beyond the narrative: The importance of critically examining substance use dominant narratives and the stigmatization of college students of color”
Members of the WELLS Collective present at the Latina Empowerment Symposium at the University of Florida.
WELLS members developed a curriculum based on the Critical Consciousness of Anti-Black Racism Start of a Black Consciousness Group for 18-25 year old Black people. Group was led by Garrett Ross and Della Mosley.
Apr. 2020
Members of the collective present at the Psychology Graduate Student Organization Undergraduate Research Forum 2020 at the University of Florida
Jeannette Mejia’s successfully defends her Master’s thesis, “The Miseducation [and Re-educaccion] of Dominicans of African Descent: How Internalized Anti-Black Sentiments and Black Consciousness Impact Anti-Hatianismo and Personal Wellness for Dominicans in the Diaspora”
Summer 2020
May 2020
The collective designs and distributes a “Resource Guide for College Students Quarantining in Unsupportive Environments” during the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Pearis Bellamy and Dr. Della dream and co-create Academics for Black Survival and Wellness (A4BL), a personal and professional development initiative for Non-Black academics to honor the toll of racial trauma on Black people, resist anti-Blackness and white supremacy, and facilitate accountability and collective action, as well as serve as a space for healing and wellness for Black people
Juneteenth 2020
A4BL launches its first round of anti-racism trainings and Black wellness events, gathering over 10,000 participants worldwide.
Fall 2020
Dr. Della and Dr. Hannah Bayne created and launched the Social Justice Consultation Corps, a program matching undergraduate level social justice based campus organizations with mental health professionals (graduate level trainees learning to provide consultation) as free consultants
Spring 2021
Jan. 2021
Dr. Della is an invited expert panelist on the POLITICO panel on COVID-19
Dr. Della delivers TEDx Talk “Moving from ‘woke’ to working for Black futures”
Apr. 2021
Pearis Bellamy successfully defends her dissertation proposal “Responding: A Decision-making Model for Black Graduate Students and Early Career Professionals Facing Racism”
May 2021
Sunshine successfully defends their Master’s Thesis “Building Academics for Black Lives: Reflections from a Black Queer Disabled Organizer”
Summer 2021
Juneteenth 2021
Dr. Della resigns from their role as faculty in the University of Florida Psychology Department and liberates the WELLS Collective from the academy
Aug. 2021
The collective launches “A4BL 2021: the Rewind and Remix,” providing a second round of anti-racism trainings and wellness events for new and returning participants for 21 days in August.
Fall 2021
Oct. 2021
Brittany Bridges successfully defends their Master’s thesis “Black, Queer, Woman Inextricably: a Qualitative Metasynthesis of Exiperiences of Mysogynoir at the Intersection of Sexual Identity”
Dec. 2021
The WELLS Healing and Research Collective becomes the Wellness, Equity, Love, Liberation, and Survival (WELLS) Healing Center: a non-profit organization now housed under Radical Healing Durham
Mar. 2022
The WELLS Healing Center launches its first healing retreat, open to all members of the collective
Apr. 2022
April 2022 - Jess Trochez successfully defends their Master’s thesis: “Con todo mi corazón y alma: A love letter to sex workers in Honduras and a critical interrogation of colonial violence against queer communities of color”
April 2022 - Jess Trochez successfully defends their Master’s thesis: “Con todo mi corazón y alma: A love letter to sex workers in Honduras and a critical interrogation of colonial violence against queer communities of color”
WELLS website launches
Spring 2022
Feb. 2022
The WELLS Healing Center launches its first group: “Creating Our Black Feminist Future: a Bootcamp for Graduate Students with Big Ideas” facilitated by Pearis Bellamy. This workshop series was designed to help graduate students launch their ideas while reaching their academic goals.
Maria Saldana successfully defends her master’s thesis titled: Cuentos De Amor: Meditations and Reflections from the Queer Peruvian Diaspora