I’m Alishia McCullough, a healer, author, and cultural practitioner devoted to holistic, ancestral, and embodied healing. I am the founder of Black & Embodied Counseling and Consulting and the author of Reclaiming The Black Body (2024). My primary areas of focus include holistic and ancestral healing, eating disorder recovery, postpartum support, relocation support, and consultation for healers in the embodiment and eating disorder space.​

 

I was born in a small town in North Carolina, and my path has expanded far beyond what I once imagined. As the first in my family to graduate from a four-year university, I earned both my bachelor’s in psychology and master’s in clinical mental health counseling by age 23. While I value my academic training, my work is equally shaped by wisdom beyond academia — I am an embodied healer, writer, and heart-centered entrepreneur guided by my ancestors, spiritual teachers, and lived experience. My journey has been deeply informed by ancestral practices, initiatory experiences, and psychospiritual paths that continue to shape my leadership and healing work.​

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I am trained as a clinical mental health therapist and hold a master’s degree in counseling. My early career began in clinical and college counseling settings, where I facilitated groups and worked 1:1 with individuals navigating eating disorders, body image, and relational healing. From there, I expanded into private practice, global consulting, and education — supporting thousands of people in healing their relationship with food, body, and self, while also partnering with organizations, leading workshops, and speaking internationally to shift conversations around eating disorders in marginalized communities. My work has been featured in Forbes, Bustle, Target, PopSugar, and BlackGirlNerds, among others, and I am the co-founder of the global movement Amplify Melanated Voices.

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Over time, my work evolved beyond the traditional clinical model into a more expansive, integrative approach. Today, I bridge somatic healing, trauma integration, eating disorder recovery, and anti-oppression frameworks —honoring ancestral wisdom, plant medicine, and non-Western healing traditions. I support those navigating psychospiritual and embodied healing journeys, with a focus on cultivating embodiment and self-reclamation.

 

My work centers Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian, and global majority communities, with a deep commitment to body justice, fat liberation, and collective healing, particularly within QTBIPOC communities. In addition to my client work, I offer mentorship and consulting for holistic practitioners building aligned, liberation-centered practices.

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In January 2024, I made the intentional decision to opt out of the exhaustion, harm, and fear I was experiencing in the United States and relocate to Mexico. Now based in Playa del Carmen, I support Black Americans who are exploring or actively navigating relocation — offering guidance on the logistical, emotional, ethical, and safety considerations of moving abroad. Through both lived experience and professional insight, I help people transition in ways that are grounded, informed, and aligned with their wellbeing and values. Living abroad has reshaped my understanding of healing and liberation. I have experienced greater autonomy over my time, deeper alignment with my wellbeing, and a more intentional relationship to peace, joy, and community; perspectives that now live at the core of my work.

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As a writer, poet, and heart-centered entrepreneur, my work is deeply informed by both formal education and lived, ancestral, and intuitive knowledge. I give thanks to the teachers, guides, and ancestors who walk with me and shape my path. My journey includes extensive training in somatic therapy, trauma healing, ancestral lineage work, and Indigenous African spiritual traditions, as well as initiatory and psycho-spiritual experiences that continue to inform my leadership and practice. As a new mother, my work is expanding through the lens of motherhood, deepening my devotion to postpartum care, lineage healing, and generational transformation.

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To support my own self care, I lean into restorative yoga, meditation, intention setting, connection to a  higher power, community, personal somatic and mental health therapy, spiritual healing, energy clearing, sacred earth medicine, and spending time with my child. 

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If you'd like to learn more about my training and expertise, please see my full resumé here.