Story & Lesson Highlights with America Allen of Durham

America Allen shared their story and experiences with us recently and you can find our conversation below.

Hi America, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: What are you being called to do now, that you may have been afraid of before?
Letting go.

Letting go of the version of me that was always performing. The one that needed to be impressive to feel safe. The one that said yes because she didn’t want to risk being seen as difficult, or ungrateful, or too much.

Lately, I’ve been called to release all of that and be seen for real.

Not just as a therapist, but as a leader. A thought partner. A disruptor.
I used to be scared of what visibility might cost me. Would I lose my credibility? Would people stop trusting me if I stopped performing “professionalism” and started just… being myself?

But I’ve been playing small. Not safe, but small. Truthfully, i’ve been hiding.

And now? I’m building something that requires my full presence , not just the polished parts. I’m called to use my voice in rooms I used to think I needed permission to be in. I want other women — especially Black and Brown women, to know that letting go doesn’t mean you’re falling apart. Sometimes it means you’re finally choosing you.

That’s the season I’m in. And that’s the energy I’m bringing into everything I do right now.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m America Allen, a somatic trauma therapist, speaker, and founder of suNu Healing Collectively — a practice centered on helping Black and Brown millennial women recover from burnout, trauma, and the burden of doing it all.

I’m a licensed clinical social worker by training, but I’m not just here to help people “cope,” I’m here to help them reclaim themselves. I use Internal Family Systems, somatics, and nervous system work to help high-achieving women come home to their bodies, stop performing for approval, and finally feel safe being fully seen.

What makes my work different is that I’m not offering quick fixes or surface-level self-care. I’m building a space where women can be soft and powerful. Tender and boundaried. And I’m doing it in a way that’s culturally grounded, emotionally honest, and unapologetically real.

Right now, I’m expanding beyond 1:1 work into intensives, group programs, and corporate trainings — because the systems that burn us out need healing too.

Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
I was talkative. Opinionated. I was soft but also sharp. I asked a lot of questions but i also answered a lot of questions. I laughed from my belly, and I was deeply curious about people, what they felt, what they feared, what made them crack open.

Before the world told me who I had to be, I wasn’t performing. I wasn’t hustling for approval. I wasn’t measuring my worth by how helpful I could be.

But somewhere along the way — like so many Black girls do — I learned to quiet down. To not take up too much space. To smile through disappointment. To be the fixer, the strong one, the one who holds it all together while quietly falling apart.

And for a while, I was damn good at that. I got praised for it. Promoted for it. People called me reliable, responsible all those words that sound like compliments but are just code for “wow, look at you abandoning yourself, again.”

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
I’ll share what I actually say to younger me in my meditations:

You don’t have to earn rest.
You don’t have to shrink to keep love.
And baby, nothing about you is too much it’s just that some people didn’t have the capacity for your fullness.

Keep being loud when it matters.
Keep feeling deeply.
Keep asking questions.
That part of you is not the problem, it’s the gift. And one day, it’s going to be the very thing that heals others too.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What’s a belief or project you’re committed to, no matter how long it takes?
I’m committed to helping Black and Brown women feel safe in their own bodies, not just physically, but emotionally, spiritually, and collectively.

That means creating healing spaces where we’re not expected to perform strength or perfection. Where softness is honored. Where boundaries are respected.

It’s generational work. It’s personal, political, and sacred. And whether it takes five years or fifty, I’m committed to shifting the narrative from survival to sovereignty; one woman, one body, one breath at a time.

Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. What do you think people will most misunderstand about your legacy?
That it was easy. That I was always confident. That I just woke up like this: self-assured, grounded, visible.

What most people won’t see is how much work I had to do behind the scenes to even show up like this. Not just clinical work, not just credentials but personal work. Healing. Letting go of overperforming. Learning to rest without guilt. Choosing not to shrink, even when I was scared.

People might look at the practice I’ve built, the platforms I speak on, or the way I lead and assume I’ve always had it together. But so much of what I teach now came from being the one who was overwhelmed, burnt out, doubting herself, and still showing up anyway.

They might misunderstand my softness as something that came easily but softness was a decision I had to fight for. (I even had to get it tattooed on me as a reminder.) They might think I’m just helping people feel better, but what I’m really doing is helping people feel safe enough to be themselves.

That’s what I want my legacy to reflect: not just the work I did, but how I did it with integrity, with honesty, and without performing strength I didn’t feel, so i rest when i need to.

Image Credits
Rotcelis Photography for the first photo (headshot)

other photos, second page 1,3,4 are from a Mother’s Night Out i hosted for free- for Mothers in Durham County to be poured into with massages, dancing, parenting support and words of affirmation.