Developing Healthy Relationships With Our Children with Stefanie Belnavis

On today's episode, I am speaking with Stefanie Belvnavis, LMHC, R-DMT.

Stefanie wears many hats as a Jamaican-born Dancer, Independent Artist, Disabilities Advocate, Dance Movement Therapist/Consultant, Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Clinician and Creative Arts Therapist. We take a deep dive into the parent/child relationship, how we can break generational parenting cycles and develop healthy relationships with our children that will help them to be all they can be and thrive in this world.

 

Here's some more information about Stefanie.

 

Founder of The Diahann Project and A Bucket For the Well, Stefanie specializes in multicultural mental health advocacy for children, families, community educators, and community partners within the Caribbean Diaspora, with a focus on the parent-infant mental health and intergenerational immigrant trauma/lived experiences. An immigrant herself, Stefanie’s work is charged by seeking to create intersectional dialogue around diverse, inclusive and equitable trauma-informed mental health approaches, namely dance movement psychotherapy, within underserved/marginalized communities that marry culturally empathetic mental health practices, creative arts therapy interventions, and intergenerational studies within immigrant communities. 

 

Stefanie is also the founder of A Bucket For The Well, which is is a multiplatform trauma-informed and culturally affirming community-arts centered mental health collaborative and wellness blog and resources network that facilitates and celebrates the intersectionality of the arts, cross-cultural nuances, minority mental health advocacy, minority health and wellness, minority self-care practices, creative arts therapy approaches, early childhood mental health advocacy, intergenerational trauma and research within underserved/minority communities, and disability advocacy within communities throughout the Caribbean Diaspora.

 

Stefanie has also embraced her creative roots and mental health background through also founding The Diahann Project (TDP). TDP is a trauma-informed + culturally affirming visual storytelling collaborative that centers the intersectional stories of people of color, primarily black + brown people/creatives through self-reflective portrait photography. TDP was birthed out of my own intersectional duality as a differently abled (blind + visually impaired), immigrant (Jamaican-American), mental health clinician (licensed), dance movement therapist (registered) + black + mixed race creative amongst other identifiers. “Diahann” being my middle name, is somewhat of my own creative health center point from which I am often reminded that we can continue to evolve creatively in our varying passions + that we never have to subscribe to being defined as simply one thing or one part of ourselves. As a self-taught photographer, who literally has always loved photography but only began to invest in + share my passion a few years ago, I am drawn to the layers within a person’s story/lived experience + how facets of their experience + vulnerability can be thoughtfully + collaboratively conveyed through photography. 

 

 

 

The Diahann Project

Founder/Photographer

IG: @thediahannproject

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