Shawna Murray-Browne

Shawna Q. Murray-Browne

Owner/Integrative Psychotherapist
Kindred Wellness LLC

Her brother’s murder inside a jail cell motivated Shawna Murray-Browne to commit full time to her own psychotherapy practice helping women and children experiencing trauma in the city.

Murray-Browne said that her greatest accomplishment has been to launch and grow Kindred Wellness, her integrative practice focused on honoring culture and expanding mindfulness. She provides holistic psychotherapy, and holds classes, trainings, retreats and coaching for Baltimore youth and women. Last year, she served more than 150 women in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. region.

The 28-year-old said that her experience with homelessness as a child and dealing with her mother’s addiction issues helped her make her career choice early.

“I made the decision in middle school that other children shouldn’t have to do this,” she said.

She got her master’s in social work from University of Maryland, Baltimore in 2011, after earning a bachelor’s degree in family science and criminology from University of Maryland, College Park. She started her career in the child welfare sector, and said she was determined to “combat taboos surrounding mental and emotional well-being in communities of color.” In 2012, she established the Usisi Circle Initiative to mentor and educate young girls of color.

Murray-Browne learned about meditation and qigong while in college, and said she’s been intrigued by the practice ever since. She’s in the process of working with a group of fourth and fifth graders managing grief, while she continues to grieve the loss of her older brother.

Her goal is to provide children with the emotional tools and support that she and her brother didn’t have growing up, she said.

“It’s become a powerful time to see the kids work through their emotions,” she said. “I see a lot of energy and spirit of my brother in them, and it motivates me to support them and find ways to harness their energy and to limit their engagement with the criminal justice system,” she said.