What is your name & location?
My name is Doriana Diaz. I am located in Philadelphia PA.
How do you heal yourself? What is your favorite form of self-therapy?
~ I have developed a daily writing practice in which I intentionally journal every single day. It’s cathartic. I started this about three months ago and I have remained true to it.
~ I collage. this is a healing practice that I do for myself and myself only. a close friend of mine said once that human beings have a lot of loves. these things are often times meant to be displayed for the world to see (acting, dancing, writing, painting, singing) but we must have at least one thing that is for ourselves and ourselves only. collaging is that thing for me. It is my healing practice that I don’t show anyone beyond myself. it’s not for anyone beyond my hands to touch or see. It’s just for me.
~ I use creative writing as a tool too. creative writing, poetry, is something that helps cure me from things. accessing the pain. putting words to the trauma, to the things I have endured freeing.
When/what was the catalyst that made you start?
I lost my grandmother. she was my universe. my sun. my moon. and my stars. her absence in my life forced me into a pain I had never known before. I had the choice to suffer or heal. eventually I chose to heal.
How has this form of healing helped you?
~ it’s helped me to be the woman I knew my grandma would be proud of.
~ it’s helped me to be a better lover. a better sister. a better daughter. a better child of the universe.
~ it’s helped me claim myself without mercy. without shame. without doubt. without fear.
~ it’s helped me embark on my process. a process of honesty. love. abundance. and joy.
~ it has helped me realize my self worth and what I am deserving of.
What is your definition of healing? (What does it look like, feel like, sound like, etc.)
~ healing is waking up everyday and making sure to both admire and forgive myself.
~ healing looks and sounds like black women laughing together. mouths open to the sky and their teeth exposed. the laughter from the gut. the kind that’s starts from your feet and works it’s way into the the bottom of the belly. you know it when you hear it. you know it when you see it.
~ healing feels like your mamas hands - the touch of good love.
What does your process look like? (Please share what you feel comfortable sharing)
~ my process looks like checking in with myself. every single day and showing up for myself in big and small ways.
~ putting myself before anything or anyone. in every single situation.
~ monitoring my energy levels. writing them down. putting my energy in the baskets worthy of me. I tend to be a person who takes on too much. so part of it is teaching myself to rest. replenish. rejuvenate. reatune.
~ honoring my truth. even when it isn’t painful and hard to tell.
~ being of service to others. offering myself up whenever I can.
~ studying the yamas and niyamas and returning to my mat. again and again and again. no matter the wreckage.
~ writing myself back to life on the L train.
How does it make you feel when you are healing yourself?
Infinite.
Why is what you do so important/hy is this form of self-helping important to you?
~ what I do is important because it is my master purpose. this is what I was put here to do. we are all put here to do something magnificent. the universe decides. the universe has chosen the path of healing for me. probably because she knows I have had to endure. (every woman who has poured out of the sacred passage way of their mama has had to endure. every unborn one will have to. that’s powerful.)
~ my brand/my platform is in the beginning stages. I am still generating an audience. but it is something I am committed to cultivating, nurturing and raising - just like I would a child because I believe in it’s power. I believe in the vision and the mission I have for it. I know it can be remarkable.
~ it’s important because it’s how I surivive.
What is your inspiration to continue doing what you are doing? What is the fuel that keeps you going?
sisterhood. womanhood. black women. a love ethic. (the fruit of all of those things).
~ what the women in my village have offered me is indescribable. It is a love bound by nothing. It is a love that exists in the linings. all the way down in the marrow. they essentially are the loves of my life. these women have been there for me during my most ruthless times of defeat and destruction. sisterhood is my church. sisterhood is where I go to worship. It’s where I go to lay my fists down. it’s the only space I can breathe easy.
~ other black female creatives inspire me. I love seeing other artist creations. it motivates me to keep producing projects that cater to my purpose and sharing that work with the world so that maybe, just maybe a woman across the ocean or the woman washing her clothes at the dry cleaners on Oxford st can know that everything I touch is sacred because it is for her. to liberate her. to free her. to empower her.
What are your visions &/or goals?
~ I want to continue to build my platform to serve sisters everywhere - in and through all stages of their evolution.
~ culativate creations and projects with fellow black women who have the same mission and vision as I do.
~ continue to expand my village.
Tell us a fun fact about your form of healing, what it is that you do, or something people may not know.
~I dance by myself in the kitchen. moving your body is so important. when I am in my feelings I no lie turn on twerk music and dance in my kitchen until I smile, laugh even.
~ nude yoga. I got this from Jessamyn Stanley. It’s such a beautiful and empowering activity.
In one sentence, what is your message to the world?
my message to the world is find your tribe of sisters. and when you do, hold onto them for dear life.
you can reach me or follow my platform at