Created by a School Counselor, Mom, and Ed.D. Student
The Feelings Room was created by The Melanated Social Justice School Counselor—an educator, mother, and doctoral student dedicated to supporting children beyond academics.
With more than a decade of experience working with students navigating emotional, behavioral, and life challenges, this work is grounded in both professional expertise and lived experience.
Because every child deserves to feel seen, supported, and safe.
MY STORY
I grew up in Jordan Downs, the projects in Watts, California. My parents were teenagers. They were also arrested when I was very young, and I was raised by my grandmother and aunt. I moved thirteen times before I graduated high school. I lived in California and Pennsylvania. I lost my grandmother at 13. I fought everybody because nobody had given me the language for what I was carrying.
I was also brilliant. Determined. Resilient in ways I did not even have words for yet.
At 21, I bought my first home on my own. At 25, I started my first master’s degree. I became a school counselor. I went back to school again and earned a second master’s in educational leadership and my administrative credential. Right now, I am pursuing my doctorate in Social Justice Education.
The little girl from the projects is earning her Ed.D.
Why The Feelings Room Exists
I built The Feelings Room because I was that child, the one who needed a book that saw her. The one whose feelings were labeled as "behavior problems" instead of what they really were: a child carrying something too heavy, with no language for any of it.
After eleven years as a school counselor, I have sat across from that child hundreds of times. Different faces. Different cities. Different languages. The same need: to be seen, named, and told, you are not broken. What you feel belongs here.
My Work
The Feelings Room creates identity-affirming social-emotional learning tools that help children understand their emotions, build confidence, and feel a sense of belonging.
This work lives at the intersection of counseling, education, and lived experience.
The Feelings Room is my life’s work.
It was always meant to exist.
I just had to live enough of the story first.
My Credentials
•MOM
•Master of Science in Educational Counseling with PPSC - School Counseling with CWA authorization
•Master of Arts in Educational Leadership with Preliminary Administrative Services Credential
• Ed.D. Student in Educational Leadership for Social Justice Education (in progress)
My Mission
I created The Feelings Room after sitting across from too many children who had never seen themselves reflected in a book. Children who didn’t have the language to name what they felt. Children who were quietly told, through silence, through curriculum, and through the faces on the page, that their inner world didn’t quite belong.
The Feelings Room exists to change that.
I created space for children to see themselves, to name their emotions, and to know that what they feel is valid.
Every feeling belongs here. Every child belongs here. Especially yours.
The Melanated Social Justice School Counselor