Whole Community

“The way is one, and the paths are many. We all need to go somewhere to restore our souls. We need to be on that path to recovery and to wholeness.”  bell hooks

 

The WHOLE Story

The first WHOLE Mini-Retreat for academics who felt they were being squeezed into the margins (but who really were - and are - ready to embody their expansive and spacious nature) was in November 2019. It was birthed out of my Yoga Nidra practices, my most recent and ongoing research projects, and my mentoring relationship with my teacher, sister, and friend, Octavia Raheem.

In Fall 2020, on the heels of intersecting pandemics, the first year of the WHOLE online community began to gather together to reconnect to ourselves and to begin to re-imagine our approaches to work in academia, and beyond.

For me, the word "Whole" meant integration, connection, and expression of all of our stories, callings, and dreams so that we can individuate - do the work that is uniquely ours to do. It affirms that our inner work is just as important as our outer work as we move along our path.

Importantly, wholeness also meant that we, too, can be connected in such a way that each of our unique gifts are amplified and supported. That our whole world is blessed by our connectedness.

We met for 4 years, 10 months at a time, engaging in these practices and being in community.

In 2024-2025, we've paused.

In 2025, WHOLE is returning.

WHOLE 2025 is for PhD program graduates, post-docs, junior faculty (Assistant Prof, Assistant Lecturers) and recently tenured faculty (2023 or later) who experience the ivory tower in the margins, but who know that they are spacious and expansive. They just want help and community to remember and take the bold steps that they know are theirs to take.

Members of WHOLE, over 10 months, will do the following:

  1. Boldly dream and develop ways to translate their research into their own impactful offering (be it consulting, a new course, coaching, speaking, non-academic writing, etc.).
  2. As they create their offering, they are supported in re-imagining how they do their work, and invited to practice generative, sustainable, and authentic approaches to being and working - in academic spaces and beyond.

How do we do this?

  1. Online meditation practice with community, once a month, on Tuesdays at 7:30 pm Eastern
  2. 8 group coaching sessions online on Saturdays at 12:30 pm -2:45 pm Eastern. These sessions will be facilitated by me and special guest facilitators: Octavia Raheem, Dr. Chanti Tacoronte-Perez, Dr. Natalie Watson-Singleton, and Dr. Yara Mekawi.

When do we begin(again)?

Tuesday, September 9, 2025

What are all of the date sessions?

Here are the dates. Please ensure that you are able to commit to meeting on the following dates/times before committing:

- Meditation Sessions - - 2nd Tuesday of each month (7:30 pm - 8:15 pm Eastern):

  • September 9
  • October 14
  • November 11
  • December 9
  • January 13
  • February 10
  • March 10
  • April 14
  • May 12
  • June 9

- Saturday Sessions -- the following Saturdays in 2025 and 2026 (12:30 pm - 2:45 pm Eastern):

  • September 13
  • November 1
  • November 15
  • December 13
  • January 17 (2026)
  • March 14 (2026)
  • May 9 (2026)
  • June 13 (2026)

Join us. Keep reading to learn more about our facilitators, the investment, and to apply.

About Our Facilitators

Octavia Raheem is a wife, mother, author of best selling books Pause, Rest, Be and Gather, upcoming (Fall 2024) Rest is Sacred, rest / restorative coach, yoga + meditation educator, and former wellness studio owner. She is the creator of Devoted to Rest™, a transformational rest focused experience for visionary women leaders making a high impact in their fields. Within her rest and work she threads time tested practices, depth skill and knowledge about what supports rest and what doesn’t, wisdom rooted in Black American Southern traditions, and intuition into a blanket of experience under which individuals can gather and rebuke stress, fatigue, and burnout. Her offerings lead driven, inspiring, creative, and purpose centered individuals and companies to awaken the fullness of their potential and power through rest.

 

Dr. Chanti Tacoronte-Perez is a Cuban-American artist-author, ritualist, and non-clinical depth psychologist. She believes that images speak a profound language; her life’s work is a translator of the unseen and an advocate for the imaginal. She holds two master's degrees in Engaged Humanities and Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute. In 2023 she completed her doctoral dissertation Navegando Liminal: Rituals to Translate the Image of the Wound. Her work and teaching follows and welcomes, imagination, creativity, dreaming, and deep rest.

Dr. Natalie Watson-Singleton is Associate Professor of Psychology at Spelman College, co-founder of the DEAR Project, and owner of NWS Wellness + Consulting, LLC - an independent, Black-woman owned clinical service, research, and consulting organization dedicated to promoting the health and mental wellness of individuals, communities, and organizations.

The common theme throughout her services is empowering people with the knowledge and skills to improve their life and community as well as helping organizations meet the needs of their members.

Yara Mekawi, PhD, is a licensed psychologist, co-founder of the DEAR project, and assistant professor at the University of Louisville. She earned her bachelor’s degree in applied psychology at the University of Illinois Chicago and her PhD in clinical-community psychology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her work focuses on understanding how racism is maintained and how it affects the mental health of BIPOC. Dr. Mekawi has published over 50 empirical research papers on topics like dehumanization, denial of racism, and racial microaggressions. Dr. Mekawi’s clinical work emphasizes culturally informed assessment, contextually driven hypothesis generation, collaborative goal setting, and implementation of evidence-based, culturally informed intervention. Administratively, Dr. Mekawi is interested in the assessment and integration of anti-racism and social justice oriented practices within organizations and the implementation of interventions designed to effectively dismantle White supremacy at individual, cultural, and systemic levels.

 

Are you ready?

In June 2026, members of this WHOLE cohort will leave our closing session with:

  1. A remembering of their 'why' for graduate school, the original dream they had when they applied to graduate school.
  2. A renewed boldness to express and share this dream so that those who are looking for them can find them and the solution they are offering for us.
  3. Practices that supports continuous remembering and renewed boldness.
  4. Strategy and resources to be with the very real emotional and psychological currents experienced when going about living and working in a way that centers our well-being, our wholeness.
  5. Community to journey with, to witness, and to be witness.
  6. Actionable steps towards developing the soul-centered offering that translates their research into an impactful practice for the world; an offering that will not only begin to fulfill their dream and help others, but also generate financial benefits in the process (because wholeness includes this too.).
  7. A more spacious experience of working and being in the process of taking these steps.

TLDR: They will not be the same.

Investment:

$7000 or $700/month

Payment plans are available.

Submit Your Application Here

WHOLE Testimonials

WHOLE has been a key self-care practice for maintaining my joy and stability in the chaos of 2020. I first attended the WHOLE retreat in November 2019 when this idea was a baby and I am so honored to be part of this growing community that Tiffany has created. I admire Tiffany and the way she holds space. She is both a teacher and a sisterfriend in the way that she relates to the community. Her themes and journal prompts are always right on time with what I am needing. Through WHOLE I have gained clarity about the ways academia has conditioned me to feel like I am not whole. I have defined what spaciousness means in my calendar, relationships, and in my mind and body. I have expanded my understanding of what I am capable of. And most importantly, I fell in love with dreaming. Spending time in the liminal space that Yoga Nidra facilitates has been powerful for envisioning and manifesting what I want. From Nov 2019 - Dec 2020, I proposed my dissertation, I enrolled in and completed YTT, and founded @BlackJoyYoga (my own Yoga community) and @CiSunshine_Consulting (my own psychology grad school coaching business). These accomplishments were all dreamed of and nurtured through WHOLE.

I'd highly recommend WHOLE to those looking for more accountability to rest and dream. I love that WHOLE is offered at the same time and day every week, but if I miss it I can always catch up on the replay. I love that when I am needing a little more rest in my week I can go back and pick a replay of a class to gain a new perspective about what the practice will bring the second time around.

- Ciera Lewis

Being a part of the Whole community was much more than I expected; believe me when I say this practice was beyond transformative! Being in a space with other women of color who share similar experiences in the workplace, personal life, and otherwise had a very different impact on mindfulness. You'd be surprised how connecting mind and body through movement affects you. Through this experience, I discovered my boundaries and better understood what I needed to function optimally. I learned so much more about who I was and how to bring my full authentic self to all I do. I developed a self-love routine that embodied and impacted all parts of me, both professionally and personally. Altogether, I gained clarity on (and I'm not exaggerating), literally, my whole life's purpose! I feel prepared to take action that incorporates my whole "being" with what I do, both inside and outside of the academy. I look forward to continuing this journey as part of a collective with the Whole community!

-Dr. Indira Turney

I truly enjoyed the live sessions. The live sessions were truly the only times this past semester that I was still. I was disappointed that I didn’t make more time to attend the live sessions, because they were so enriching. For this reason, I was truly grateful for the regular emails. They were helpful reminders that it was still important to make space, when I could. I gained a great deal of clarity moving forward that I must make more space in my life to be still.

-Dr. Nameka R. Bates

Dr. Johnson's WHOLE Community practice has been a life saver, particularly in this pandemic season with so much uncertainty and anxiety. The yoga and meditation practices have allowed me to create the necessary care time I need, have allowed me to focus on what fills me in all areas of my life, and has provided a wonderful supportive community of other women of color. I feel so calm and motivated after our sessions, and I am so grateful for Dr. Johnson's time and talent. I am eager to see how our WHOLE Community continues to manifest in 2021!

- Holly Smith

**The expressed thoughts and ideas here are my own, and they do not reflect the thoughts, opinions, or ideas of Georgia Tech.