In recent years, more and more people from marginalized communities have been creating their own wellness spaces — places where healing feels safe, affirming, and truly inclusive.
For a long time, the wellness industry has mostly catered to a specific kind of person: wealthy, white, thin, and able-bodied. Mainstream ideas of wellness often revolve around expensive self-care routines, fitness trends, and diets that ignore the real-life barriers many people face. What’s often missing is any recognition of how race, gender, class, and trauma affect someone’s ability to feel well in the first place. That’s why this shift toward community-led, culturally grounded spaces is so important.
People who’ve often been excluded from traditional wellness spaces are building their own. These include people of color, queer and trans folks, disabled people, and others who have long been under-served or outright ignored by the industry. Instead of trying to fit into existing models, they’re creating new ones from the ground up that reflect their values, experiences, and needs. These wellness spaces often focus on things like mental health, rest, body positivity, movement, and mutual support. Many are trauma-informed, meaning they recognize how personal and collective trauma can affect the body and mind. Others are rooted in cultural traditions, community care, and healing justice.
Affordability is another big part of the movement. Instead of charging high prices, many of these spaces offer sliding-scale fees, free community programming, or are supported through mutual aid. The goal isn’t to make a profit, it’s to make healing accessible. Technology has helped this movement grow even faster. Social media, online directories, and virtual workshops have made it easier for people to find spaces where they feel seen and supported, no matter where they live. This has been especially important for folks in rural areas or places without many local resources. For many, healing is about surviving in a world that doesn’t always feel safe, and finding community in the process.
We can see these spaces all across the country. In New York City, there is the Harlem Wellness Center, which was founded in 2003. According to their website ( harlemwellness.org ), their mission is to “close the racial health gap by providing access to innovative and holistic wellness programs that empower individuals, strengthen communities, and create spaces where all can connect, heal, and thrive.” They focus on women’s health, elder health, racial healing, health justice, and environmental justice by teaching workshops and leading classes in yoga, meditation, fitness, and nourishment, all while embracing the ancient African concept of Ubuntu. Ubuntu means humanity towards others, and is often translated as “I am because we are”. Across the East River in Brooklyn lives Open Care Community ( opencarecommunity.com ). They are striving to provide affordable alternative healthcare to New Yorkers. They provide services such as acupuncture, herbal medicine, and body work.
In Oakland California, Freedom Community Clinic is envisioning a health revolution for the people. They offer free or sliding scale services, including massage therapy, integrative medicine consultations, energy healing, herbal medicine, and more. They prioritize the healing of Black, Brown, and Indigenous community members. They also offer an apprenticeship program to “cultivate the next generation of Black, Brown, and immigrant community healers i n Oakland, CA” ( freedomcommunityclinic.org ). Also in Oakland, People’s Programs ( peoplesprograms.com ) runs the People’s Programs Health and Wellness Bureau. Inspired by the Black Panther party’s free clinics, they aim to serve the Oakland community with accessible healthcare. They provide primary healthcare as well as acupuncture, massage and chiropractic services, and harm reduction supplies such as free narcan.
There are still challenges, of course. Many projects of this variety rely on community funding and face obstacles in getting institutional support. But the growth is real, and the impact is clear. These spaces offer belonging, safety, and the chance to rest and heal without judgment. In doing so, they’re helping to redefine what wellness really means—and who gets to claim it.