Novena-Chanel Davies

30/05/2026

As a therapist, educator, researcher, and most importantly, a mother, one thing I have noticed repeatedly is that many of the assumptions, stereotypes, stigma, and even hatred we encounter in society often stem from a lack of curiosity and a lack of critical thinking.

How often do we pause to ask:

• What factors might be influencing this situation?
• What information am I missing?
• What makes us different?
• What makes us similar?
• What social, political, relational, cultural, biological, or economic factors might be shaping what I am seeing?

Today, my son came home after going to the shop to buy the food he wanted to make lunch with (yes, it still blows my mind he did these things) with an observation about differences he had noticed in children’s behaviour. Rather than accepting a simple explanation, we explored it together.

We talked about correlation, hypotheses, determining factors, and the importance of looking beyond first impressions.

Could parenting styles be a factor?
Could culture play a role?
What about social and economic circumstances?
Could neurodivergence be relevant?
What information don’t we yet have?

We explored how noticing a pattern does not automatically tell us why that pattern exists.

One of the most important lessons in research is that correlation does not equal causation.

The conversation naturally evolved into a discussion about research itself; how researchers form hypotheses, identify variables, explore alternative explanations, and remain curious rather than jumping to conclusions.

What I loved most was watching my children engage with complexity, ask questions, and remain open-minded.

In a world that often encourages quick judgements, I hope to raise children who are willing to slow down, stay curious, and seek understanding before making assumptions.

This short video captures a small part of that conversation.

How often to do YOU check your assumptions?
How open are you to being challenged about your presumptions?
Are you a researcher or an assumer?

Children often remind us of what life has taken away from us. Here, it’s healthy curiosity and the good intentions of learning to understand.

27/05/2026

CONTENT WARNING ⚠️
This episode contains conversations around childhood sexual abuse, r**e, sexual violence, domestic abuse, trauma, and healing.

Please take care of yourself whilst listening. 💜

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One of the reasons I wanted to create The Equilibrium Coach with Novena-Chanel was because I believe there are conversations we are still too afraid to have openly.

This conversation with the incredible Maya Hope Kitwana () was powerful, honest, emotional, thought-provoking, and at times deeply confronting.

We spoke about healing after abuse, womanhood and survival, the legality of r**e in some countries, the impact of family systems where love is not spoken,
• finding self, body, sexual pleasure, and voice again after trauma, and much more.

Thank you, Maya for such unapologetic honesty, courage, and compassion. There were moments we laughed, moments we reflected deeply, and moments where the weight of what so many women carry felt so tangible in the room. I respect and appreciate you.

These are not easy conversations, but they are necessary ones.

The Equilibrium Coach with Novena-Chanel launches June 2026.

DomesticViolenceAwareness SexualViolenceAwareness Womanhood PodcastLaunch SurvivorVoices MentalHealth IntergenerationalTrauma HealingJourney

20/05/2026

Are you a skeptic too? I hear you, I really do. So I decided to ask some questions to a Seer who comes with receipts! 😄.

Coming soon! Join me for a fascinating, thought-provoking, and at times genuinely hair-raising conversation with ✨

Together we explored divine guidance, working with guides, intuition and spiritual connection, being a reader and intuitive artist, and more.

It’s one of those conversations that leaves you questioning, reflecting, and thinking long after it ends.

Coming soon on The Equilibrium Coach with Novena-Chanel 🎙️💜 Launching June 2026.

19/05/2026

It’s been a busy and beautiful few months revisiting something I first began back in 2015 as a breakfast radio host on Power Xtra, having the privilege of interviewing people, breaking bread, listening deeply, and immersing myself in the worlds, stories, and experiences of others.

Now, I’m returning to that space through The Equilibrium Coach with Novena-Chanel, a new podcast launching in June 2026 🎙️🙌🏾💜

Here’s a little snippet from one of my many favourite sit-downs so far with the incredible and awe-inspiring Diane Goldie ()

Together we spoke about everything from womanhood, online trolls, patriarchy, age of consent, wearable art, neurodivergence, spirituality, life after death, masking, creativity, and so much more.

There were deep moments, reflective moments, hilarious moments, and honestly… lots of giggles 😂💜

Big love to you, Diane. Thank you for such a rich, open, and beautiful conversation, and my gosh, the vibrancy of colours that surrounded us still has me filled with joy 🙌🏾💞.

Feel free to head over to my website, link in bio, and subscribe for updates, and keep tuned here as I begin sharing more conversations throughout the month.

I’m really looking forward to inviting you all into another aspect of me, my work, my curiosity, and the conversations that make us human.

🎙️ The Equilibrium Coach with Novena-Chanel
Launching June 202

08/05/2026

Repost from 💜

I’m really looking forward to facilitating this supportive and reflective session with the wonderful Black SEN Mamas community during Mental Health Awareness month ✨

Creating spaces where Black mothers, fathers, and children feel seen, heard, supported, and able to exhale deeply matters so much.

Please see the original post below for full details and registration information 💚. If you haven’t already, please follow their page, share, and get involved 💜

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Black SEN Mamas: Virtual Support Group Session ✨

We’re excited to be hosting a powerful and supportive session focused on Maternal Mental Health & Caregiver Burnout, for SEN Mamas, in alignment with Mental Health Awareness Week this month 💚

What You’ll Explore:

🔷 The emotional labour of being both a mother and primary caregiver
🔷 Navigating mental health stigma within Black communities
🔷 The importance of rest, boundaries and self-preservation
🔷 Practical tools to support your wellbeing and avoid burnout
🔷 Creating space for yourself without guilt

Led by a qualified psychotherapist (also a neurodivergent, Black SEN Mama herself) specialising in wellbeing, particularly as far as race and neurodivergence. This session is a safe, understanding space for Black SEN mamas to reflect and share, with culturally appropriate support.

Being a caregiver doesn’t mean neglecting yourself. You deserve care too 💞

We’re expecting high interest, so if you’d like to attend, make sure you register using the link in the bio.

Feel free to share with another Black SEN mama, who needs this reminder 💛

06/05/2026

With growing research studies suggesting that racial trauma and its effects begin prenatally, one form of resistance is equipping yourself with understanding of exactly what it is, how it impacts health and wellbeing, and how best to name it within systems that normalise it.

Racial trauma refers to the psychological, emotional, physiological, and relational harm caused by experiencing, witnessing, or living within racism and racialised threat.

Racial trauma is not only direct violence. It can also include:
• Microaggressions
• Discrimination
• Systemic exclusion
• Racial profiling
• Media exposure to racial violence
• Hypervigilance within predominantly white spaces
• Fear around safety, belonging, and perception

Racial trauma can show up in the body through:
• Chronic stress activation
• Anxiety and hypervigilance
• Emotional dysregulation
• Dissociation
• Fatigue and burnout
• Cardiovascular strain
• Sleep disturbance
• Difficulty feeling safe, settled, or fully at ease

It can also shape relationships, parenting, intimacy, identity, attachment, and the way individuals learn to survive socially.

In the video, I mentioned the neuroception of racism and masked fear, from Chapter 12 of the book, A Framework for Understanding Intergenerational trauma in the Black and Brown diaspora.

I also mention some of the themes explored in Chapter 23 - Black Identity and Intimacy Under Historical Rupture, which includes discussion on the impact of colonialism and enslavement, the removal of African names and identity, tribalism and survival, the reclamation of racial slurs and racial descriptions, and the legacy of division and displacement.

The chapter supports deeper insight into the impact on love, parenting, intimacy, and identity, and the ramifications of the one-drop rule and racial classifications on mixed heritage identity, and the subsequent pathologising of survival-based identity shifts.

Check the link in my bio for the Amazon link to pick up your copy 🙏🏾💜❤️.

With much love, healing, understanding and respect,
Novena-Chanel

04/05/2026

Recently, I had the privilege of delivering CPD workshops at Metanoia Institute, Epigenetic Relational Therapy Academy, and for the Fredrick Edwards Trust, exploring epigenetics, intergenerational trauma, and the implications for contemporary psychotherapy.

March and April have been powerful months for bringing deeper understanding to the transgenerational and intergenerational impacts of trauma within families, communities, social systems, and wider society.

In March, I published my book, A Framework for Understanding Intergenerational Trauma in Black and Brown Diaspora, shortly followed by CPD workshops for practitioners and a community lecture for families.

This work continues to sit at the heart of my research, writing, teaching, and ther**eutic practice.

The workshops brought together key themes from the book and my ongoing doctoral research, including attachment, trauma, relational patterns, identity, culture, policing, discrimination, and the ways inherited experiences can shape emotional, psychological, relational, and embodied responses across generations.

What felt especially powerful was creating space for practitioners and families to reflect not only on theory, but on how these ideas show up in therapy rooms, family living rooms, relationships, communities, and the wider systems we all live within.

I am deeply grateful to have been able to share this work in both professional and personal learning spaces, and even more encouraged by the growing conversations around intergenerational trauma, epigenetics, and relational healing.

This is exactly why I wrote the book, and why I continue developing ERA Therapy as a model that bridges research, clinical practice, anti-oppressive thinking, and lived experience.

More conversations, workshops, and training spaces are coming.

02/05/2026

During Mental Health Awareness Month, I want to turn the lens towards men’s emotional worlds, especially Black men’s mental health, an area that is all too often overlooked or viewed through stigmas that overlook systemic issues & trauma that influence behaviour, silence, anger, avoidance or strength, by asking:

What happened to the boy before the man?

In my work on parental wounding, I explore how sons can be shaped by both the mother-son wound & the father-son wound.

It has been said that a mother is her son’s first love. Her words have the ability to reach into his heart, rip it apart & break him, or to anchor him to safety, confidence & belonging.

Through her voice, he learns how love sounds & what safety feels like. If a son must adapt who he is to maintain her love, his true self is never fully known, because all of who he is, is never truly met, held & embraced.

A father also carries profound significance. A father does not only teach a son self-regulation, assertion & care. He also offers a template for how masculinity can be held with steadiness, emotional range & responsibility.

A father can model how power & boundaries can exist without anger, dominance or cruelty, and how vulnerability & self-discipline can coexist with strength.

To a son, his father may become his first model of protection, safety & possibility, or a cautionary tale of pain, absence, fear & failure.

Then, layered on top of these early relational wounds, many Black boys grow within racialised expectations of strength, containment & restricted vulnerability.

This is where the Strong Black Man archetype can begin to form. He may learn to become warrior, protector, provider & emotionally restrained self.
He may learn that sadness, fear, tenderness & dependency are unsafe, while endurance, provision & self-control are praised.

For some Black men, even anger is not safe, because a raised voice may be misread as aggression, & their distress is all too often misread as instability.

These misconceptions & racialised trauma, in addition to relational wounding, epigenetic adaptations & intergenerational trauma, births the stigmatisation of seeking support.

We see you

Black Men’s Mental Health

30/04/2026

Creating Generational Healing: The Shared Diary Method for Parents

Have you heard of Shared Private Diaries with children? It’s something we adopted within our family several years ago and the benefits have been life changing!

As children, it can be really hard to speak up to our parents about what’s going on. Goodness, even as adults it can be hard to talk to our parents!

Sometimes there are things we feel, questions we have, or experiences we don’t quite know how to put into words out loud, especially if we’re worried about getting into trouble, being misunderstood, or not being taken seriously.

One of the things I do with my children is keep a shared, protected diary. It’s a protected space between us where anything written in that diary stays in that diary unless they choose otherwise.

They can write their thoughts, draw pictures, tell me secrets, ask questions, share worries, say something funny, or even bring up something they haven’t felt able to say out loud, including how I or others may have disappointed them or missed an opportunity to understand them better.

The main rule is that they are not punished or penalised for anything they write, no matter what it is!

It creates a sense of safety, trust, and openness, and it gives them a way to communicate at their own pace, in their own words.

For me, it’s also about gently breaking patterns of silence that can exist across generations, where children feel they cannot ask certain questions or speak about certain things.

I know what it feels like to be a child who had things they needed to say, but didn’t feel able to, and I work with so many children and adults who share that sentiment. So in our family, we’re doing things differently.

Hearing my son say, “you make me feel so safe” meant more than I can put into words.

Sometimes the smallest practices create the deepest sense of safety.

This approach is something I also explore more deeply in my book, A Framework for Understanding Intergenerational Trauma in the Black and Brown Diaspora, available on Amazon.

What generational cycles are you currently breaking, and what ones are you ready to break today?

It might not have started with us, but it can start to end with us.

Video on YouTube at:

Creating Generational Healing: The Shared Diary Method for Parents

25/12/2025

During the holidays, it really is okay to do nothing at all or everything that feels right for you.

Whatever today looks like for you, it counts.
This is your day.

Maybe today is about re-parenting yourself; moving slowly, watching festive films, making something comforting to eat, whether that’s toast and beans or a full spread that takes all afternoon. Maybe it’s group chats with friends, or a quiet walk to clear your head and fill your lungs. Maybe it’s music turned up too loud, dancing until you’re breathless and laughing, or comedy films on repeat because joy sometimes comes wrapped in silliness.

Maybe today is a recipe you’ve never tried, a face mask, a long shower, or doing absolutely nothing at all. All of it counts.

If you’re visiting family when it feels complicated, you’re allowed boundaries. You’re allowed to pre-face visits with, “I’ll need to leave after dinner,” or, “I may need to head off early, but I’ll make sure I say goodbye.”

You’re allowed to gently close conversations that feel heavy or intrusive, with closing statements such as, “Today is about joy for me, I don’t want to go there,”
or, “I’m keeping things light today.”

You don’t owe anyone explanations about your relationship status, your body, your children, your job, or where you think you should be in life.

If you’re sending messages today, a soft reminder; today isn’t joyful for everyone. Some are grieving, some are lonely, some feel disconnected, some feel full of warmth and love. Every emotion is welcome here.

As a therapist I can assure you that all the beautiful posts you’ll see today may also place a plaster over difficult family dynamics, past betrays, those who are absent, broken hearts and unspoken words. Some are just ok with silencing for a day, some can’t. Both can be held as what each chooses to do.

However today meets you, let it meet you with kindness.

You’re allowed to choose ease and yourself.

Sending you much love, big hugs, kind words, acknowledgement and permission to do what feels right for you ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Novena-Chanel