Kai Wellness Collective Creates Space for Healing Through Culturally Responsive Care

When Jeanily Cruz launched Kai Wellness Collective in late 2023, she wasn’t simply starting a therapy practice. She was responding to an experience she knew firsthand: the challenge of finding a therapist who understood the cultural context of her life.

As an Afro Boricua social worker and trauma therapist who has her Puerto Rican roots in Boston, Cruz founded the virtual practice to provide culturally responsive mental health care for Black, Caribbean and Afro-diaspora communities. Drawing on both personal experience and professional training, she created a practice where clients can work with therapists who reflect and understand the communities they serve.

“Trying to find a therapist of color during a really difficult season was hard,” Cruz said. “I understood personally, and professionally, how important culture and safety are when we’re thinking about healing.”

Cruz based Kai Wellness Collective in Silver Spring and serves clients virtually throughout Maryland, the District of Columbia, Virginia and Massachusetts. They specialize in trauma therapy for adults navigating anxiety, depression, family challenges and the aftereffects of traumatic experiences. 

While the firm is young, Cruz brings more than a decade of experience across child welfare, hospitals, higher education, community mental health, and private practice. Today, she applies that experience not only in therapy, but also through organizational wellness partnerships, workshops, speaking engagements, and educational programs for businesses, nonprofits, universities, and community organizations.

Clients most often discover Kai Wellness Collective through referrals, social media, and prominent online professional therapist directories like Psychology Today and Therapy for Black Girls.

KAI: Knowledge, Alignment, and Interbeing

The name reflects both Cruz’s personal journey and her philosophy of care. “Kai,” a Hawaiian word meaning “ocean,” became meaningful during Cruz’s first solo trip to Hawaii, a period she describes as an important part of her own healing journey. The name also serves as an acronym representing the values that guide the practice: Knowledge, Alignment, and Interbeing – to emphasize that, as a mental health practice, it centers the interconnectedness of individuals and communities.

Many of their clients are high-achieving professionals, entrepreneurs, caregivers, helping professionals, and first-generation adults struggling to manage chronic stress, life transitions, relationship challenges, and the emotional demands of balancing work, family, and community responsibilities.  

The practice embraced telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic and found that virtual appointments provide a flexibility that busy professionals have come to embrace. Virtual care helps reduce barriers by allowing busy professionals, caregivers, entrepreneurs, and helping professionals to access culturally affirming mental health support in a way that saves precious time, and makes therapy accessible from the privacy of their homes and offices. 

“Many people appreciate not having to drive to an office after an already packed day,” she said. “It gives them the flexibility to access care in a way that fits into their lives.”

A Future for Kai Wellness Collective in Montgomery County

Cruz has already become active within Montgomery County’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. She is a graduate of the Montgomery County Black Collective’s AMBER fellowship program, has participated in programs through the Maryland Women’s Business Center, and engages with local business education and networking opportunities whenever possible.

She relocated to Silver Spring from Boston in 2021 after accepting a position at Children’s National Hospital. She chose Montgomery County largely for its proximity to work but quickly found a community she is now proud to call home.

“It was one of the best decisions I could have made,” she said. “The county is incredibly well-resourced, and I’ve really appreciated becoming part of the business community here.”

Looking ahead, Cruz plans to continue growing Kai Wellness Collective by adding therapists and expanding the community-centered programming: adding more workshops, continuing public speaking, and fostering new partnerships across the region.

In her view, healing has always centered on creating spaces where people feel seen, understood, and supported by a community that recognizes the importance of culture, connection and belonging.

“Healing doesn’t happen in isolation,” she said. “It happens in the ways we care for ourselves, one another, and the communities we belong to.”