Meet Nia Lancelin

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nia Lancelin. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Nia, sincerely appreciate your selflessness in agreeing to discuss your mental health journey and how you overcame and persisted despite the challenges. Please share with our readers how you overcame. For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.

Between 2015 and 2019 I was diagnosed with 5 different mental health disorders. As I started to experience my symptoms more and more my life started to crumble. I felt as if I had received some sort of death sentence and my life as I knew it was over. My mental health issues impacted my day to day so much that I felt compelled to share with others what as I was experiencing and the most miraculous thing happened. As I shared with people certain experiences around my anxiety and depression I constantly heard, “Me too.” This let me know two things, I am not alone and I must do something to help others. I believe those were some things that helped me to overcome my mental health issues; no longer isolating myself and putting what I had learned through my own therapeutic experience into practice by helping my community. Definitely therapy has also been a major component to my being able to overcome and persist; I couldn’t have made it this far without it. The support from my family (mom, dad, and sister) was also a major thing that got me through, though. My mom and dad have worked in mental health my whole life so I had that understanding and empathy from them that helped me through my toughest times and still today. My creativity and work as an artist also gave me multiple mediums to express my struggles. So much so that I created an arts and mental health organization, THRIVE Artists’ Group, to help others struggling with mental health. I’m very open and transparent about the fact that I have severe anxiety, panic disorder, depression, bipolar disorder, and PTSD. I feel that not hiding my experiences has helped me to keep my confidence, resilience, and self-esteem. Every time I share a part of my journey someone shares with me that it touched and helped them. I created two phrases in my therapy journey that I now use all the time, “you find your greatest strengths through your greatest weaknesses” and instead of mind over matter “mind over mind”. I have learned how strong I am by making it through so many weak moments. When I didn’t think I would make it through the dark times but did, that is when I discovered what my strengths are. Also, when you have a mental illness your mind has to be stronger than your mind…you can’t feed into the thoughts, feelings, and emotions that try to get you off track you have to muster up the power to shift those thoughts. I could probably think of many more things that have helped me to overcome and persist because it’s a second to second journey, but these are my main things for sure.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

Wow! This is such a big question. I remember having a very hard time answering this question, but an old friend of mine once told me, “Nia, you do so much, just call yourself Nia the Artist” and it stuck!

I’m a dancer first and foremost. I studied theatre and dance at Spelman College in Atlanta, GA and started my professional career directly after graduating. I’ve spent 38 years of my life dancing and 25 of those years teaching! After experiencing those mental health issues I’ve already spoken about, I stepped away from performing and focused more on developing my career as an instructor and choreographer. Let me not move too fast though, my dance career was fabulous! I worked with brands like Coca-Cola and Nike, I was a dancer and singer in an international tour, a pointe soloist in a circus, I did the opera, awards shows, theatre, tv, & film. Grand ole time!

When moving to New York I focused more on teaching and choreography. Working with well-known ballet schools and musical
theatre companies, I grew tremendously in my craft. After moving to LA I got my biggest opportunity yet by working as the resident choreographer on a #1 hit tv show, This Is Us on NBC. I will be forever grateful for that opportunity to work with the actors privately, audition, cast, and choreograph on so many talented artists!

As the world shifted in 2020 and I was in the thick of my mental health struggles I decided to pivot by becoming a Certified Peer Support Specialist. Through that experience I worked with a peer run organization on their warm line and then became a training specialist. There I trained others to be peer supporters as well as doing trainings and webinars for Mental Health America (MHA), National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), and other notable organizations. I then went on to get my Master of Social Work from Howard University and just completed my degree in December 2024.

Today I am focused on developing my career as a therapist, choreographer, and instructor/speaker with my arts and mental health organization THRIVE Artists’ Group. So far I have done classes and presentations for Spelman College, Black Girls in Social Work (BGSW), and Arkansas National Association of Social Workers (NASW) to name a few.

I invite everyone to check out thriveartsistsgroup.com to learn more about what we are developing at THRIVE!!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

You have to know people! My best friend told me just yesterday that almost 70% of people getting hired in the workforce today are from referrals!! I haven’t done my research on that just yet, but you all look it up sometime! But I believe her! Knowing how I got pretty much all of my work as an artist it was through a “direct book” or referral, if you will. It seems even moreso in this client today that knowing people is what’s most important. This gets tricky in a world where people are on their screens all day and have seemed to forget how to engage in person. Putting actual in person engagement and interaction is so important in this day and age. It gives you a “one up” to the competition and it reminds people that we’re still all just human. Get to know people! Build that network! Trust me it will take you far.

Balance…you must have balance. It’s easy today to work until the time you wake up until the time you lay your head to sleep. I used to pride myself on grabbing my computer right as I cracked my eyes open in the morning, but I realized quickly that burnout is a real thing. So balance is truly important on your journey. Taking time for family and friends, to eat some good food, to take a mental health day, say no sometimes, to laugh until your stomach hurts. Those are the things that get you through each day. You gotta have balance.

Allow yourself to get help!! I know so many women who feel like they have to do it on their own. I’m one of them, so I understand. But it really is okay to ask for help and then the cool thing about it, it feels even better to actually get the help. So, again I say, allow yourself to get help!!

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

Speaking of getting help, I’ve learned that collaboration is so big! I’m definitely looking for the people out there that are artists who have a passion for mental health. Sometimes I feel like I’m on a bit of an island when trying to find partners or collaborators, but I know I couldn’t be alone out here so friends where are you?? ☺️

If you’re an artist, mental health professional, manager/agent, studio owner, producer, teacher, art supporter, anyone connected to or with a love for the arts I’m looking to collaborate with you. I know the goal is broad, but I would love to see arts and mental health weaved into the fabric of our learning and living as artists. As any new organization needs, I’m also looking for sponsors and funders.

My website is a great place to connect with me thriveartistsgroup.com or you can email directly at [email protected].

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Lindsay Rosenberg, Malik’s Deshon/Electrikbaby Photography courtesy of Moving Our Stories, Allen Cooley, Maria Hackett

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