Bio

About Shale

I'm Shale Maulana (she/her), a licensed therapist specializing in liberation-based mental health care for BIPOC individuals, high achievers, and anyone seeking deep, transformative healing.

My practice integrates evidence-based therapeutic approaches—including EMDR, somatic therapy, neurofeedback, and clinical hypnotherapy—with holistic modalities rooted in mindfulness, ancestral wisdom, and nervous system science. I help clients heal from trauma, break free from limiting patterns, and reclaim their authentic power.

My Approach

True healing addresses the whole person: mind, body, and spirit. I work with clients who are ready to go beyond surface-level coping strategies and do the deep work of transformation.

Whether you're navigating the impacts of systemic oppression, healing from complex trauma, managing anxiety or depression, or simply feeling stuck despite doing everything "right," my practice offers a space where you can be fully seen, deeply supported, and genuinely liberated.

I combine:

  • Clinical expertise: EMDR, somatic therapy, neurofeedback brain training, and clinical hypnotherapy

  • Liberation framework: Understanding how racism, oppression, and systemic harm impact mental health

  • Holistic integration: Mindfulness, Reiki, yoga philosophy, and connection to ancestral wisdom

  • Nervous system focus: Addressing trauma at the physiological level for lasting change

My Journey

My path to this work began in public health research, where I spent nearly a decade with the NYC Health Department addressing health disparities in central Brooklyn. Working on health equity and racial disparities revealed how deeply trauma—both personal and collective—lives in the body and shapes our health outcomes.

When my own unresolved trauma and chronic stress reached a breaking point, I discovered that traditional approaches alone weren't enough. I needed healing that honored all of me: the clinical researcher, the spiritual seeker, the person navigating systemic oppression, the human longing for wholeness and connection.

That journey led me through yoga, Reiki, meditation, herbal medicine, and eventually to graduate training in social work at Columbia University (MSW, 2023). Along the way, I became a Reiki Master, Kemetic yoga instructor (trained by Yirser Ra Hotep), and meditation teacher—not as separate identities, but as integrated tools in service of healing.

Today, I bring that full integration to my practice. I understand what it's like to be high-achieving and still struggling. I know the unique weight of navigating the world as a Black woman. I've experienced firsthand how trauma lives in the body and how liberation requires more than just talking—it requires nervous system regulation, somatic release, and reclaiming connection to self and community.

What Guides My Work

I believe healing is both personal and political. We can't separate individual trauma from systemic oppression, and true liberation requires addressing both.

I believe the body holds wisdom that talk therapy alone can't always access. That's why I incorporate neurofeedback, EMDR, and somatic practices—to work with the nervous system directly.

I believe you are the expert on your own life. My role is to provide tools, hold space, and walk alongside you as you reclaim your power.

I believe in joy, pleasure, rest, and play as resistance. Healing isn't just processing pain—it's remembering how to be fully alive.

My Credentials

  • Master of Public Health (MPH)

  • Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW), pursuing LCSW

  • EMDR trained therapist

  • Certified neurofeedback practitioner (Myndlift)

  • Clinical hypnotherapy training

  • Reiki Master

  • 200hr Kemetic Yoga Teacher (Yoga Skills School)

  • Meditation teacher

Beyond the Credentials

I'm also a lifelong learner, a nature lover, a person committed to my own healing journey, and someone who believes deeply in the power of community. I publish writing on mental health and liberation, lead transformative retreats, and facilitate group healing experiences because I know we heal better together.

It's my honor to support you in your journey toward wholeness, liberation, and becoming who you were always meant to be.

“You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.”

- E C K H A R T T O L L E

Professional Training and Certifications

EDUCATION

  • Master of Social Work, Advanced Clinical Practice, Columbia University - 2023

  • Master of Public Health, Population Health, Thomas Jefferson University - 2012

  • Bachelor of Arts in American Ethnic Studies, University of Washington - 2007

TRAININGS

  • Neurofeedback Experts Basic Training, Dr. Trish Leigh - 2026

  • MindValley Certified Hypnotherapist Program, Paul McKenna - 2025

  • Introduction to Hypnosis, Erickson Foundation - 2025

  • Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Level 1, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute - 2025

  • Relational Life Therapy Level 1, Relational Life Institute - 2024

  • Somatic Experiencing Beginning II - Somatic Experiencing International - 2024

  • Somatic Experiencing Beginning I - Somatic Experiencing International - 2023

  • Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Levels 1 and 2, Trauma Institute and Child Trauma Institute - 2022

  • Meditation Instructor Training, Susan Piver, Open Heart Project - 2021

  • Usui Reiki III Master Level Class and Attunement, Selome Araya - 2020

  • 200-hr Yoga Teacher Training and Certification in Kemetic Yoga, YogaSkills, Yirser Ra Hotep Lawrence - 2018

  • Usui Reiki II Class and Attunement, Selome Araya - 2018

  • Usui and Tibetan Reiki I and II Workshop and Attunement, Healing Reiki Brooklyn, Kristin Reed - 2018

  • Usui Reiki I Class and Attunement, Selome Araya - 2017

  • Teaching Yoga and Mindfulness in Prison, Kath Meadows and Whitney Ingram - 2017