Valorie Diane Thomas PhD

 Being a late-identified neurodivergent, first generation college, decolonial Professor (emeritus) of English and Africana Studies for 20+ years, speaker, writer, curator, artist, meditator, survivor, and social justice advocate, I've developed a culturally inclusive modality grounded in narrative studies, myth and archetype studies, polyvagal theory, ecocritical research, and intuitive exploration that centers clients' safety while learning what wellbeing and authentic expression means to you.  As a Black woman who had to develop survival strategies while confronting ableism, racism, misogyny/misogynoir, classism, workplace violence, and workplace bullying, I bring empathy, experiential knowledge and an array of resources to the table.  I have been a meditation and yoga practitioner (bhakti, hatha) for 30 years.  As a scholar, my subject areas include African American and African Diaspora literature, film, Native American literature, Gender and Women's studies, American Studies, and creative writing at the intersection of arts, healing centered engagement, and social justice.  The first time someone held me on a horse I was under two years old; horses have been in my life from the beginning.

While eclectic, my methods are not new age; my work is grounded in my embodied experience as a Black woman of Afro-Indigenous lineage in diaspora, my scholarly training, my commitment to decolonial education, and my family's and community's teachings and ancestral, vernacular knowledge.  All my work is rooted in my understanding of how to close read narrative, and my Black feminist decolonial praxis.  

In consulting and personal coaching I support organizations and professionals, artists, executives, students, teachers, academics, activists, and individuals at all life stages searching for insight and liberatory purpose.  I mentor people of all backgrounds, including rising- emerging professionals, and returning students.  I remain committed to working with first generation students, working class, and the marginalized. My practice utilizes decolonial theory, polyvagal theory, intuitive inquiry, somatics, yogic mindfulness, African Diaspora and indigenous ancestral knowledge, and over 25 years of scholarship and award winning university teaching.  

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Maybe you're transitioning from student to professional.  Maybe your organization needs inspiration and agility in relation to Diversity-Equity-Inclusion to unfold its potential.  Maybe you need a reset on innovation, commitment, finding inspiring goals.  Maybe it's time to dive into your cultural strengths, intuition, and personal insight alongside formal training.  Maybe you just need to replenish and put some time into who you actually are and want to become. 

My  approach draws from critically informed, neuroscience based mindfulness, making archetypal ancestral connections, art/writing, and in the equine setting my certification in equine assisted services and learning.  

In a social system that alienates us from our bodies and relies on dehumanization, being with horses supports body attunement and refamiliarizes us with the senses and relationality.  We become more animated, aware of our aliveness, each other, and conscious of our surroundings, in their presence.  We become more open to the possibility of being anchored in nature. 

Interacting with horses has been proven by researchers to build human social-emotional skills, build the sense of embodied awareness, and stimulate neuroplasticity.  In respectful contact with horses we build skills of connection, relational skills, finding community, and self-reflection.  This is an effective way of becoming aware of your own story as you embody it, supports  liberatory creative work, and sharpens critical thinking  by vitalizing and regulating the nervous (*horses are highly sensitive, socially complex, sentient beings; we are not riding, forcing, or "using" horses as tools, and while you may find this experience therapeutic, I am an educator not a psychologist and this modality is not "therapy"). 

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My guidance is oriented toward transformative change, with the assumption that we all have the right to ethical community, self-determination, kindness, and possibility. Those interested may apply for customized individual sessions or group workshops with horses -- these guided experiences offer opportunities for building empathy, nonverbal communication, visual learning, neurological regulation, expanding environmental and ecocritical knowledge, enhancing self-awareness, sensory knowledge, and imagination.