Peaces 'n PuzSouls: Journies thru Healing LLC

848A Selby Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55104
United States

Contact Name
Dr. Sheila Sweeney

I am Dr. Sheila Sweeney of Peaces 'n PuzSouls in St. Paul, Minnesota. I intentionally promote reflective practice across all mental health reflective services. I provide individualized and quality psychotherapy services to individuals and agency systems that serve communities with diverse challenges. Peace 'n PuzSouls mission is to provide individualized and quality psychotherapy techniques through relational and reflective dialogue. I am interested, I listen, and I partner with health. I am intentional about using a relational lens in practice, as reflective work is something we learn over time. We learn along the way while "doing it" within our workplaces and within the community relationships we hold. One becomes more reflective with pause, space, silence, and intentionality. Building a guided capacity to think within oneself and collectively, without losing oneself, becomes a unified experience. I do this reflective work with partnering agencies - from the micro to the macro and vice versa. My conceptual, reflective work is twofold. It is designed to provide experiential insight for (1) you and (2) the partnering professional | agency. Borrowed from the conceptual framework of the caregiver wanting to transmit good things to their children to the professionals (policies) wishing to assist in this process, this reflective process will help each professional and community | system focus on the well-being of self and others. Parents want to work with professionals committed to doing the work with them, not for them. I am here to help facilitate this process through a reflective- cultural-multigenerational-communal relational lens. I use psychodynamic psychoeducation, developmental principles, and a culturally reflective approach to underpin all consultative work. I use your feedback to offer tailored experiences. It is my greatest joy to create safe and brave spaces for everyone to feel included and represented. This reflective work aims to assist you, the agency system, hold all relationships as they are holding others. The voice of you, the professional, and the work will move this work. Culture and race will always influence this work. You will focus on strengthening what you already know while learning new ways of listening to what you don't know. My research on Reflective Functioning with Young Adult African American Mothers will inform our work together, alongside your real lived experiences. My work: (1) I have experience working with young mothers at the AGAPE program in Saint Paul – simultaneously creating a master's research project on Teen Pregnancy and Self Esteem. I had full support and assistance from the school, and its leaders, including school-wide student participation. (2) I worked within the Saint Paul Public School Birth to Three units, particularly the early childhood special education unit, encountering various families and systems and introducing developmental theory, concepts, and evidence-based practices. (3) This work connected me to Minnesota State and the University of Minnesota to further my work with families and young children, including reflective work with systems and professionals/educators. (4) I have been a student and instructor in the University of Minnesota Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health Certificate Program - teaching Reflective Practice; (5) I went through the Child-Parent Psychotherapy Training (CPP) Model and later became endorsed by the Minnesota Association of Children's Mental Health; (6) I teach Zero to Three curricula DC:05 - diagnostic and assessment practices + ZTT the Growing Brain curricula; introducing new clinicians to Maternal-Early Childhood work. (7) I researched Reflective Functioning in African American Mothers (18-25) with their children (0-5). This research addresses the intergenerational transmission of trauma. (8) I have written, learned, taught, and reflected upon these multilayered reflective principles, all named above. (9) I have lived through these same experiences. My research addresses my parenting experiences as a young adult African American mother. As a Ph.D. researcher, consultant, educator, and psychotherapist, I return this knowledge to the community and the systems I partner with. More precise information about my work in general: I identify as an African American Clinically trained Social Worker, trained in psychodynamic psychotherapy, focusing on multigenerational trauma-to-healing experiences'; intergenerationally and inter-systemically. I believe all persons and agencies have a need and a right to be healthy. Healing experiences should be a birthright. It should be an expectation (Dr. Sweeney, 2019). Dr. Sheila Sweeney, LICSW, April 19, 2021

Examples: (1). During 2020, there was lots of turmoil around race and uncertainty. Within the Mental Health Consultation groups I supervise, I provide a reflective platform of transparency, modeling, and engagement that invites each consultant's social constructs and truths. We discuss and welcome ideas on a continuum and without said judgment. As a Black helping professional, I do not have a choice not to talk about or show up in racial conversations – therefore, I use that as a way to invite others to an intentional DEI conversation. I am transparent about my implicit biases and invite others to share theirs so that this parallel process can also occur within the provider relationships within the community – all communities – including communities that deny racial tensions exist in this work. Groups identify within multi-social constructs, including race, gender, pronouns, and belief systems. (2). I added cultural components to the existing curriculum to deepen our awareness of culture, race, diversity, and where to place it within assessment, treatment, and reflection. In every group, we create a definition that fits our work with families. This also included individuals from every side of the learning continuum. (3). I use the Diversity Informed Tenets in all relational work with individuals, groups, and systems.

Sheila Sweeney, Ph.D., LICSW   [email protected]

OBJECTIVE: To provide clinical & reflective mental health services to diverse biopsychosocial challenges to achieve the highest quality of life.

SUMMARY: Experienced Psychotherapist, Consultant, & Faculty Member with a demonstrated history of working in the mental health & higher education industry. I am skilled in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy, Parent-Child Development, Consultation, Reflective Practice, Crisis Intervention, and Family-Community Connections. A strong, educated professional, holding a Ph.D. in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and; a Master of Social Work Degree with a clinical emphasis; certified in Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health.

Campus Served
Owner TGB Classification
Black - Minority Owned Business
Woman Owned Business
Business Category
Goods and Services
Products or Services Provided
Professional Services
Certification Agency
Central Certification (CERT) Program
Agency Certificate
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