Our story
Rooted in Community. Rising Together.
The Somatic Wellness Initiative was born from a simple truth: every woman deserves to feel at home in her own body — and healing should never be a privilege.
Our mission
Healing as a Human Right
We bring evidence-informed somatic care to women of color in under-resourced communities — centering culture, community, and the wisdom of the body. We believe that when women heal, families heal, and communities transform.
"When women heal, communities rise."
How we began
The Story Behind the Work
The Somatic Wellness Initiative was founded after witnessing firsthand how mainstream wellness spaces consistently failed women of color — offering practices that were culturally disconnected, financially inaccessible, and rooted in systems of exclusion. We set out to build something different: a community-centered healing space where every woman is seen, honored, and supported.
What began as a small healing circle has grown into a full suite of somatic services, workshops, and community programs — all grounded in the belief that healing is not a luxury, it is a birthright.
What guides us
Our Core Values
Community First
Every decision we make centers the needs, voices, and wisdom of the women we serve.
Cultural Humility
We honor the full complexity of identity and bring deep respect to every healing space we hold.
Radical Accessibility
We work to remove every barrier — financial, geographic, and cultural — that stands between women and healing.
Body Sovereignty
We trust each woman as the ultimate authority on her own body, experience, and healing path.
Collective Liberation
Individual healing and collective freedom are inseparable. We hold both as sacred.
Trauma-Informed Care
All of our work is grounded in trauma-informed principles — safety, trust, choice, collaboration, and empowerment.
Meet our founder
Carolyn Pierre-Outlar, PA-C
Founder & Executive Director
I'm a physician assistant and holistic practitioner who learned the truth about healing not from a textbook but from life — in my patients, in my own family, and in a friend whose body gave way under unspoken guilt and recovered once she released it.
Emotions carry energy, and the body holds what we don't set down. The Somatic Wellness Initiative exists to help women of the diaspora release that weight and rebuild wellness from the nervous system up, because regulation isn't the warm-up to healing — it is healing.
Join Our Community
Whether you are seeking healing, want to volunteer, or are ready to support our work — there is a place for you here.