Community Highlights: Meet Jazmin Sherise of SheRise Total Wellness

An 80s & 90s baby, born and raised in Southeast San Diego, my household didn’t look much different than my neighbors. Typically, a single-parent home with low supervision and lots of temptation around. However, I was a book and street smart girl living in a volatile environment. That environment applied to my home and right outside the door. With that background being shared, I think it’s important to note that I, like all of us, didn’t get to choose my family or my zip code. So, we all made it happen. We all survived. Through constant loss of close friends and family, and while searching for myself, I ended up in a pretty unhealthy relationship by the age of 15. A relationship oftentimes filled with a combination of laughter, passion and; mistrust, hurt and lies. After 20 years and three children, I decided to take ownership of my life, start from ground zero and immerse myself in a very intentional healing journey. Shortly after the departure from my marriage, I shared my story through the lens of a brave character, Brooklen Sapphire in a novel called “Love Incorruptible: A Woman’s Reflective Journey to Freedom.” Brooklen took a deep dive into her childhood trauma, vulnerable teen years, and into young adulthood which included the many moments of shock and awe in her marriage. Like many mothers, Brooklen kept her children in mind before finally deciding to leave and choosing herself. Brooklen’s story, like mine, is developing, growing, and ever-changing. With that being said, stay tuned!

Today, Jazz Steele invests her time enjoying life with her three daughters and building a healthy relationship with her significant other. Jazz serves in the spaces of domestic violence advocacy, public speaking, and a coach to women on their healing journey. She works in partnership with Solana Beach 4 Equality to provide donation-based, wellness events for women of color in the San Diego area. These events focus on women who have experienced abuse and trauma and are now building a life based on healing and love.

What is Jazz’s #1 motivation? Her relationship with God. “God is the reason that I get to share my story and the story of so many others. What I do isn’t about my glory, but for His.”

The road has not been smooth, and I don’t expect it to ever be. Where did God tell us that life would be 100% easy? I have yet to find that in my Bible! With that being said, the struggle can develop long-lasting character traits like patience and perseverance when you stay the course. And to be quite frank, I’ve had to overcome myself most of the time. Some of my personal struggles have been around self-doubt, self-esteem, and worthiness. The journey of discovering and holding space for my value is lifelong. I think we all experience circumstances in life that chip away at us or, in some cases, cause us to lose ourselves. So, the struggle can be real. That’s why healing is an important step to our self development.

SheRise Total Wellness is living brand. My brand grows and changes right along with me. My goal is to help women of color heal from their trauma and experience life from a foundation of love. I provide one-on-one emotional healing support through coaching, wellness workshops and intimate group experiences for women to heal from their emotional pain. I also bring into my events healing experts that provide an array of practices from dance, meditation, culinary art classes; and, traditional, somatic, sound therapy, and more. My vision is to continue building purposeful partnerships with small businesses and organizations nationwide to further the mission of healing women of color.

One of the biggest shifts that I’ve seen is the growing number of people of color in healing spaces. I think COVID-19 collectively shook up the world, but also the individual. With the world in a state of chaos, many of us focused on what we could control, which was our mental health and personal economics. Many businesses started during the pandemic, and so many more conversations are taking place around healing, self-care, and living a healthy life on our own terms. So, I believe folks are finished with being sold false narratives and are looking to create their own story and seeking the support to do that. We will see more people of color in the areas of mental and emotional health and wellness overall.