Welcome

Cultural Wellness Center Fellowship

Cultural Wellness Center fellows are guardians of the knowledge that includes the system of knowledge grounded in African Ethos. 

Spirituality   Symbols   Mythos   Harmonium 

© Seba Ahmed Azzahir - Time Dimensions and Community Development 

The purpose of the fellowship is to develop the skills, knowledge, and practices of invisible workings for systems of thought.  It includes self-reflection, growth, learning, and recognition of the impact one has.

Fellowship Goals

To gain a personal philosophy of knowledge, based on cultural heritage and to be able to function completely from this ground

To reunite people with their life purpose, and their cultural path through cultural study

To provide connections to other; to community

To advance the community through the fellow’s work on behalf of a cultural system; to force change

To learn the knowledge system of the Cultural Wellness Center well enough to practice it and to live it; for some fellows the goal will be to develop a knowledge system they can work alongside: Spirituality, Symbols, Mythos, and Harmonium

 

Meet the Fellows 

Semerit Strachan 

Griot of Medicine

The Body we live in is neither a suitcase to be lugged around, barely tolerated, nor a temple—stationary, sacred, cold and distant. Body is a wise Being—alive, intelligent, wise, and constantly seeking partnership with that aspect of us that we consider us. Body has and is his/her own medicine.

My Fellowship explores ways of BEing in body that result or translate into greater aliveness and vitality. These ways are the Medicine of Reconciliation: reconciling self to Self in all her aspects. 

My fellowship is also about developing the leadership to create a viable and functional interface between the Medicine of Reconciliation and conventional medical practitioners. 

About Semerit

Dr. Semerit has been a physician for over thirty years; and has always fought to create a space for the human spirit in the clinical encounter. She has taught personal empowerment to take charge of your own health throughout the world. She is deeply committed to awakening the awareness that living in a body is a miracle who seeks to engage us in deep relationship. 

She practices at the University of Minnesota as a Developmental – Behavioral Pediatrician. She is the Director of Medicine and a Fellow at the Cultural Wellness Center in Minneapolis; and is a Faculty of the National Pediatric Hypnosis Training Institute. She is certified as an Intentional Creativity Coach.

 

 

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Minkara Tezet

Griot of Psychology and Psychiatry 

Minkara Tezet is currently a Fellow at Cultural Wellness Center in Minneapolis as a Community Fellow. The aim of Minkara's fellowship is understanding cultural calling (work/vocation).  He was named the Griot of Psychology and Psychiatry. The focus of his fellowship has been to understand the intra-cultural relationship and dynamics between Black people of African Heritage. 

The goal of Minkara's Fellowship is to develop strategies related to self-study for intra-cultural understanding specifically aimed at creating cultural knowledge related to the spirit and the impact spiritual development has on the development of home.  Minkara believes African culture is anchored in spirituality. "Spirituality is a personal relationship with the Divine." Seba Ahmed Azzahir 

About Minkara

Minkara is the father of two amazing children; Nala and Nia Ford.  They are the reason for his intense desire to see changes in the world around him.  Tezet holds a Bachelor of Arts in religious studies from Augsburg College and a Master of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy from University-Wisconsin Stout.  Minkara was encouraged by his mother Bernice Christopher throughout his life to believe in the impossible.  It is this belief that has driven Tezet to work to heal African people.  His path is driven by this belief; “if you can heal the African in America you can heal the world.”

Fellowship Writing 

Be the Truth

By: Dr. Semerit Strachan

I sit on the last day staring at the blank page, opening my heart to live, to experience; to receive the imprint-- one could almost say the carving-- of the truth of my silence up until now.

The world calls this procrastination: I open my inner senses to see what is it in truth.

I have resisted this writing because everything I do is untrue. By that I mean everything I do is done in a way where on the inside I am comparing what wants to emerge with what I think will fit, will win me approval, will result in people receiving or reading this granting me approval, or simply liking me.

The other day, Thursday, I was driving to work, "late again" I kept muttering to myself, very aware of the whole physiology of fear in my cheat, belly, respiration a, and mental fog. Until I woke up! What is this? What is it that I am afraid of. And then it came to me. "Whether or not you (referring to my first patient) like me or think I'm a good doctor does NOT define who I am.  Does NOT justify whether I have a right to be alive or not" I assert.  And my whole body relaxes. Like Wow! How long have I held my aliveness hostage to the approval of others?

It leads me to recall another patient encounter a week earlier. I had met with a young man and his father, and now both parents were here to continue our exploration of whether my approach was a good match for their son’s challenges. For the purposes of this writing I'll cut to the bottom-line: the father asks "well what will happen at each session as you work with him" I answer, "we have already seen that my direct approach has sent him in a tail spin. So with future visits, I will rebuild a sense of safety; I will listen to him, draw him out on his interests, and look for an opening where he can face and address this challenge. I cannot tell you precisely what I will do because it will depend on what he presents to me." 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

   

The Temptation of Hate 

By: Minkara Tezet

Great is the temptation to hold onto feeling; while in the midst of hatred.  In the face of living, there is the ever present reality of being (human).  To have life and to hold onto life; this is the call of each person who hears the call to come to this place called Earth.  To live in the midst of the self and to understand what it means to be alive.  Yet, great is the pressure to live with a light and loving heart in the face of being hated.  Being human is to be loved by the Creator.  How then it is that a human can be hated by another human being?  This is a question for the soul. 

As a man, I have come to the place where I realize I am hated because I am a man.  I have been tempted to hate yet, I continue to love.  I have been pushed to a place where I can no longer allow my soul to pay the cost of holding distain for any person in my heart or mind.  As a father I am called to love. Therefore, I will love as a means of teaching love.  In the face of hatred I am tasked with this work of loving.  What does it mean to love in the face of hatred?  What is the sacrifice to self as a means of giving that which is at the core of my humanity?  

Blog with Minkara Tezet