Where Culture and Therapy Meet

Mission & Vision

Social Work is political.

At Kujichagulia Wellness Center we take a stance of anti oppression. We create a culturally affirming environment and practice therapy from a decolonized point of view. Our clients come first and we work with them to delve into psycho-social-spiritual healing practices. Code switching and dimming your own light are not encouraged.

Meet Our Team

Tiffany Cooper, LICSW –  Co-Founder 

Tiffany is a  mother, spouse, daughter, and friend who is dedicated to the healing of the Black community. Born and raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts, Tiffany has a thorough understanding of  how unhealed trauma can negatively impact a person’s life.

Having been a victim of racial discrimination in the work place, and dealing with the daily experience of racism, Tiffany understands how truly overwhelming racial trauma can be. Tiffany has practiced in various settings, ranging from outpatient treatment, inpatient hospital units and forensic settings with both children and adults.

Tiffany received a Certificate in Drug and Alcohol Counseling in 2014 from Cambridge College and a Masters in Social Work with a Certificate in Urban Leadership in 2016 from Simmons College (now Simmons University). Tiffany currently attends Suffolk University where she is  working towards a joint Juris Doctorate and Masters in Business Administration degree. When Tiffany has some leisure time she enjoys traveling, reading and catching a good nap.

Krystal Elizabeth Garcia Deras, M.A., R-DMT

Krystal is a bilingual/bicultural queer first-generation daughter of immigrants native to Honduras and Nicaragua, and a student of opening her heart wider to herself, life, and all their relations in spirit and in flesh.

They are the first college graduate of their Garcia family, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Anthropology from Bryn Mawr College in 2013 and Master of Arts in Mental Health Counseling Specializing in Dance/Movement Therapy from Lesley University in 2020. While studying at Lesley University, she was the recipient of the 2019 Selase Williams Unity Gala Foundations Award, presented to a student who through various efforts has demonstrated the importance of relationship building and self-work as foundational to having an inclusive community, and has been able to foster relationships across groups of privilege, marginalized identities, and aspiring allies. She is committed to dismantling dynamics of oppression in the inner and outer landscapes, and devoted to labors of love that co-creates spaces for healing arts, personal and collective well-being, and the evolution of consciousness.

They are a student of expanding decolonizing embodied critical pedagogy and liberation and sovereignty practices within the fields of Dance/Movement Therapy and Expressive Arts Therapy. She is part of a research collective archiving the historical and present-day contributions of BIPOC dance/movement therapists in the U.S., China, and India. She finds fulfilment in ritual/ceremonial arts, quality time spent with loved ones, remembering ancestral technologies, dreaming, journaling, and multimodal storytelling.

Daphne Cruz-Baez, MSW

Daphne (ella/she) is passionate about community and is committed to decolonization. She speaks both English and Spanish. She comes from Borinken (Puerto Rico) born and raised. Her decolonization work is deeply tied to her identity as a Boricua. Her awareness of the island’s continued colonization at the hands of the US informs how she relates to her work as a therapist, as her goal is to help support, uplift, and work alongside Black and Brown women in the mental health field. 

She’s worked in the mental health field for almost a decade and recently obtained her Masters in Social Work from Boston College. While at BC she was a part of the Latinx Leadership Initiative, where she obtained the clinical skills to better serve her community. Daphne learned throughout her studies that no amount of education can replace lived experiences, especially when it pertains to serving communities that are marginalized. Daphne is eager to work with adult individuals and couples at this time. 

Daphne has worked on specializing in treating eating disorders amongst the BIPOC population. She attended the very first conference for treating eating disorders in BIPOC peoples earlier this year. She doesn’t believe the BMI is an accurate predictor of health and believes subscribing to diets for eating disorders is backwards. During her down time, Daphne enjoys going on walks with her family and taking long naps.