Couverture de Return to Presence with Dr. Shawna

Return to Presence with Dr. Shawna

Return to Presence with Dr. Shawna

De : Shawna Murray-Browne Ph.D. LCSW-C
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Women's Leadership | Healing & Ancestral Wisdom | Mental Health & Burnout Recovery

Black women have always known how to transform what's in front of them—even when no one was watching, even when it wasn't called leadership.

Return to Presence is a podcast for women leading in high-stakes environments—whether you're running an organization, raising a family, building a business, shepherding a faith community, teaching, healing, creating, or holding your community together. If you're carrying the weight of other people's survival and your own, this is for you.

Hosted by Dr. Shawna Murray-Browne, LCSW-C—integrative psychotherapist, executive advisor, cultural historian, and womanist scholar—each episode draws on nearly 100 years of Black women's oral histories, from elders who lived through Jim Crow to modern-day changemakers, to explore what their wisdom can teach us about leading without losing ourselves.

For too long, women—especially Black women—have been expected to lead under conditions that shorten lives and diminish humanity. This podcast examines burnout, the weathering hypothesis, chronic stress, and the toll of leading through systemic barriers while offering pathways to healing and transformation. We explore what it means to prepare our children for uncertain times, to sustain ourselves and our communities, and to lead with our full humanity intact.

Each episode offers mental health tools grounded in cultural wisdom, spiritual practices backed by research, and embodied healing strategies.

This is Black women's wisdom. It's for anyone ready to lead differently.

Return to presence—to the quiet place where you can feel your essence, hear yourself clearly, and access the highest version of who you are.

Kindred Wellness 2024
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    Épisodes
    • Embodied Martyrdom & the Release Practice

      Embodied Martyrdom & the Release Practice
      Jan 17 2026

      Season 1: Episode 1

      Anna Arnold Hedgeman and Bertha Cooley fought for racial justice inside the YWCA decades before "DEI" existed—and paid a steep price.

      In this opening episode of Return to Presence, we examine Black women's burnout, workplace racism, and the health crisis created by being "the only one" in the room. We explore how racialized workplaces fracture Black women's health, the weathering hypothesis, and how capitalism and martyrdom culture demand we sacrifice our bodies for the work.

      I share my own experience of burnout as a Black woman PhD student running a nonprofit and consultancy—the embodied martyrdom, chronic stress, inflammation, and mystery medical problems that came from overgiving and overworking.

      Through their stories and mine, we explore what gets passed down: the beliefs that keep us stuck, the weathering that shows up in our bodies, and the mindset shifts and somatic healing practices that create space for something different.

      We close with a guided release practice—letting go of what no longer serves us and beginning the return to presence.

      Featured Oral History Clip:

      Dr. Anna Arnold Hedgman (with attention to the legacy of Bertha Cooley)

      A civil rights strategist, educator, and the only woman on the March on Washington planning committee, Anna Arnold Hedgman navigated race politics, gender bias, and organizational pressure with a clarity that shaped generations of Black leadership.

      Presence Practice

      Release an old mindset that keeps you tethered to overwork. Establish one small ritual this week—breath, movement, affirmation, or boundary—that honors your body’s wisdom.

      Journal Question: Who affirms your convictions, not just your credentials?

      Two Ways to go Deeper:

      1.) Join me on Patreon to continue the conversation, unpack these themes in community, and practice the tools shared in this episode. https://www.patreon.com/c/shawnamurraybrowne

      2.) If you’re a woman of color leader, explore Cadence—my signature Liberatory Leadership Incubator for women leading in high-stakes environments: www.kindredwellness.net/cadence

      This episode is also available as a video on YouTube.

      If you enjoyed it, please like, share, subscribe, and leave a 5-star review—your support helps this work reach those who need it.

      Archival credit: Oral history excerpts courtesy of the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University, Black Women’s Oral History Project.
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      29 min
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