We recently had the chance to connect with Dr. Orisha Bowers and have shared our conversation below.
Dr. Orisha, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What makes you lose track of time—and find yourself again?
The thing that makes me lose track of time—and somehow find myself again—is dancing with silk ribbon streamers. When I move with them, it’s more than a physical expression; it’s a kind of embodied release. The flowing motion of the ribbons mirrors the emotional currents within me—grief, joy, longing, even confusion—and allows them to surface without needing to be named aloud or explained to anyone.
Unlike verbal processing, which can sometimes feel too linear or constrained, dancing with streamers gives me access to emotions that live deeper in the body. I feel the tension begin to soften as the ribbons arc through the air, as my breath syncs with movement, and as my body starts to speak in its own language. It’s a spiritual practice as much as a creative one—a way of praying through motion, of reclaiming space within myself, and of honoring feelings that words can’t always hold.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
✨ **Meet Orisha A. Bowers: A Visionary Leader in Healing, Movement, and Spiritual Empowerment** ✨
Dr. Orisha A. Bowers is a dynamic force at the intersection of scholarship, spirituality, and embodied healing. With a rich academic background—including a BFA, two MA degrees, a MEd, a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies, and multiple certifications in chaplaincy, complementary alternative medicine, and women and gender studies—Orisha brings over 25 years of experience in social services, nonprofit leadership, grants management, and civic engagement.
What makes Orisha’s work truly unique is her intentional merging of disciplines: she integrates education, creativity, spirituality, and wellness to create transformative experiences for communities of color, particularly in the realms of reproductive health, women’s issues, and faith-based healing. As a licensed and certified interfaith chaplain as well as an ordained minister through the Universal Life Church, she infuses her work with deep spiritual grounding and a commitment to radical self-care.
Orisha is also a certified Dancing Mindfulness facilitator, using movement as a therapeutic and spiritual tool. Her workshops and retreats—offered across the U.S. and internationally—invite participants to explore healing through breath, rhythm, and embodied presence. She believes that movement can unlock emotions that words cannot, and that healing is most powerful when it honors the whole self: mind, body, and spirit.
🌿 **Currently, Orisha is curating a transformative retreat experience:**
**_“Radical Self-Care for Women/Womyn: A Healing Retreat”_**
📅 *December 19–21, 2025*
📍 *Elohee Retreat Center*
This immersive, collaborative retreat is designed to empower and rejuvenate women and womyn from all walks of life. Participants will gather in a safe, supportive space to connect, share, and grow through practices that nourish the soul and awaken the body. The retreat features:
– 🌸 Sound healing, meditation, and Dancing Mindfulness
– 🍎 Mindful eating and spiritual self-care rituals
– 🕊️ A wellness chapel and opportunities for fellowship
– 💬 Engaging sessions led by inspiring speakers
– 💖 Daily programming to uplift, empower, and restore
Whether you’re seeking renewal, connection, or a deeper sense of purpose, this retreat offers a sacred space to begin—or continue—your healing journey.
Thanks for sharing that. Would love to go back in time and hear about how your past might have impacted who you are today. What relationship most shaped how you see yourself?
🌺 **The Relationship That Most Shaped How I See Myself**
The relationship that most profoundly shaped how I see myself is the one I shared with my mother. She was my fiercest advocate, my unwavering cheerleader, and the person who believed in my potential long before I fully saw it myself. Her love wasn’t just nurturing—it was empowering. She instilled in me the belief that I could do anything I set my heart and mind to, and she backed that belief with constant support, no matter what path I explored.
When I first dreamed up the idea for **Orixa Healing Arts Wellness and Spiritual Centre**, it was my mother who helped me give that vision shape and voice. I remember sitting with her, sharing my hopes for a space that would honor healing, creativity, and spiritual care—especially for women and communities of color. She listened deeply, then said, “Let’s write it down.” Together, we put the first words to paper, and she encouraged me to “put it out there,” to trust that the world needed what I was offering.
Today, I serve as the **Executive Director of Orixa Wellness**, a center dedicated to holistic healing, embodied spirituality, and radical self-care. Our work is rooted in the values my mother modeled: love, belief, and the courage to create something transformative. Her memory and legacy live in every workshop and every moment of healing we facilitate. Our annual retreat is dedicated to her and is hosted on or around her birthday each year.
You can learn more about our offerings at [www.orixawellness.com](http://www.orixawellness.com)—a space born from a mother’s faith and a daughter’s vision.
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
✨ **If I could say one kind thing to my younger self, it would be…**
Orisha, you are sacred and blessed—divinely crafted by the Most High God with intention, beauty, and purpose. There is nothing accidental about you. Your brilliance, your boldness, your sensitivity, your fire—they were all woven into your being with holy precision. You do not have to shrink to be loved. You do not have to edit yourself into smaller, quieter pieces to fit into spaces that were never built to hold your fullness.
You are not too much. You are exactly enough.
You were never meant to be a diluted version of yourself just to make others comfortable. You were born to take up space, to radiate light, to speak truth, and to move through the world with power and grace. Be big. Be bold. Be bright. Be brilliant. Let your voice carry. Let your spirit shine. Let your presence be felt.
And when the world tries to convince you otherwise, remember: you are sacred. You are blessed. You are loved—fully, fiercely, and without condition.
Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
🌿 **What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?**
I am deeply committed to growing **Orixa Healing Arts Wellness and Spiritual Centre** into a full-scale, 24-hour retreat and wellness center—a sanctuary where radical self-care, spiritual healing, and holistic wellness are accessible to all, regardless of their ability to pay.
This isn’t just a project; it’s a calling. I believe that healing should never be a luxury. Wellness is a birthright, especially for those who have been historically marginalized, spiritually wounded, or emotionally exhausted by systems that were never designed to nourish them. Orixa Wellness is rooted in the belief that every person deserves a space to rest, to be restored, and to reconnect with their sacred self.
My vision is to create a center that operates around the clock, offering everything from sound healing and Dancing Mindfulness to trauma-informed spiritual care, meditation, and embodied movement practices. I imagine a place where people can walk in at any hour—whether they’re grieving, seeking clarity, or simply needing to breathe—and find compassionate support, ritual space, and community.
Scaling Orixa Wellness means building infrastructure, cultivating partnerships, and securing sustainable funding models that honor both accessibility and excellence. It means training practitioners who share this ethos of radical care and spiritual integrity. It means creating a culture where healing is communal, creative, and deeply rooted in justice.
No matter how long it takes, I will continue to nurture this vision. Because I know what it means to need healing and not know where to turn. And I believe in building the kind of space where no one has to face that alone.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. What pain do you resist facing directly?
💔 **What pain do you resist facing directly?**
The pain I most resist facing is the fear of dying alone—in physical pain, yes, but also in emotional isolation. It’s the ache of imagining a final moment where I am unseen, untouched, and uncared for. Beneath that fear is something even more tender: the possibility that I might leave this world without having truly known love in its fullest, most intimate form.
It’s not just romantic love I long for—it’s the kind of love that sees me completely. That holds me without needing me to perform, produce, or protect. That allows me to be soft, vulnerable, and unguarded. The fear whispers that maybe I’ve been too strong for too long, too focused on healing others, too wrapped in purpose to be held in that kind of love myself.
I resist facing this pain because it touches something primal: the human need to belong, to be cherished, to be chosen. And because I’ve built a life around service, leadership, and spiritual care, it’s easy to tuck that longing away—to tell myself that divine love is enough, that community is enough, that purpose is enough.
But the truth is, I still yearn. I still wonder. I still grieve the possibility that love might pass me by.
And yet, even in that resistance, I know that naming the fear is a form of healing. That by speaking it aloud, I begin to soften its grip. I begin to make space for love—not just as a hope, but as a possibility. Not just in the future, but in the present. In every moment where I allow myself to be seen, held, and known.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.orixawellness.com/
- Instagram: @orixawellness23; @oahenry01
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/orisha-bowers-bfa-med-ma-phd-0667b0143/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/959028854190759/
