Shawnee Benton-Gibson, Founder & Executive Director of The Griots' Healing Circle, is a licensed practitioner and intuitive healer with over 19 years of experience in the field. As a graduate of New York University's Silver School of Social Work, a healer, performance artist, community activist, motivational speaker, writer, mother and friend, Shawnee has devoted her life to serving, supporting and partnering with individuals, families, groups and organizations to elevate and transform their experiences in the realms in which they live, work and play. Shawnee has an extensive experience as a clinician which includes work in the areas of chemical abuse and dependence, mental health, child welfare, adolescent development, trauma, grief, loss and bereavement as well as individual, group, family and spiritual counseling. Her priniciple healing tools consist of actions methods, psychodramatic techniques, energy work, the performing arts and storytelling as mediums to facilitate transformation and to initiate catharsis. In addition to her work as a clinician, Shawnee is also the Co-Founder and Co-Director of Spirit of A Woman (S.O.W.) Rites of Passage & Leadership Development Institute, which was established in 2002, in partnership with Monica C. Dennis. S.O.W.'s mission is to educate, elevate, and effect positive and sustainable change in the lives of young people, their families and communities. According to Shawnee, healing work is "a labor of love and liberation". For more information about S.O.W., visit www.sowleadership.com. 

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION:

Spiritual, Mental and Emotional Dis-ease

Grief & Bereavement (Ascension Counseling)

Life Transition Rituals

Child Welfare Advocacy & Policy

Parent Education & Advocacy

Chemical Abuse & Dependency

Child & Adolescent Development

Women's Health & Policy

Domestic Violence

Race, Culture & Gender Issues

PARTNERSHIPS & AFFILIATIONS

S.O.W. Rites of Passage & Leadership Development Inst.

The People's Institute for Survival & Beyond

The Sankofa Center for Health & Healing

Monroe College

National Association of Social Workers (NASW)

Every Person Influences Children (EPIC)

The RiteStep

The Single Parent Resource Center

The Hudson Valley Psychodrama Institute

Sister S.A.G.E.

The Brooklyn Public Library

Councilman Charles Barron

Forte Greene Senior Citizen's Center

Sistas In Motion

GLM Counseling

Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church (The Women's Project)

Souls of My Sisters

New York University School of Social Work

St. Paul Community Baptist Church

Chionesu Bakari

The Greater Allen Cathedral Chosen Vessels Rites of Passage (CVROP)

The Board for the Education of People of African Ancestry (BEPAA)

International Sociometry Training Network

Big Apple Playback Theatre Troupe

Administration for Children's Services (ACS)

New York City Housing Authority

New York City Department of Education

The Brooklyn Job Corps

The Manhattan Neighborhood Network (MNN)

A Call To Men

CEMOTAP

New Day Academy

Boys & Girls High School

The Forte Green Senior Citizens Center