Summary - Community-Centered Recovery Care: Integration in Practice

This interactive training will offer mental health professionals, recovery coaches, and graduate students an opportunity to examine a broader, more community-centered understanding of integrated care in substance use recovery. Moving beyond a focus on coordinated services alone, the training will explore how recovery support is deepened when practitioners attend to the whole person and consider the ways lived experience, identity, culture, spirituality, family, and community inform practice. Through reflection, dialogue, breakout discussions, and practical application, participants will explore integrated care as a compassionate, relational, and academically grounded approach that honors both individual healing and collective wellbeing. Guest presenter Octavia J. Hendricks will offer insights into integrated care within a South African context. This training event is hosted by the William James College ADEPT Center in collaboration with the Sankofa Institute for Collective Wellbeing.

Dr. Thulani DeMarsay is the founder and executive director of Sankofa Institute. A person in long-term recovery from substance use, she is deeply committed to supporting others on their recovery journeys and to building learning spaces that are culturally responsive and rooted in community. For nearly a decade, Thulani served as a senior facilitator and consultant with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Bureau of Substance Addiction Services. In that role, she developed curricula, trained and mentored the state’s facilitation team, helped build a statewide recovery learning community, and contributed to the training of close to 6,000 recovery coaches across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Through both her personal journey and her consulting work, Thulani recognized a gap in services and education that reflected the realities of people of color and other marginalized communities. That insight led her to found Sankofa Institute, which provides high-quality learning experiences that strengthen the recovery workforce and support community-based organizations, with a strong focus on communities of color. In 2024, she organized and co-facilitated the first recovery coach training program for participants in South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Thulani is also the principal of Thulani Consulting Group, LLC, where she offers consulting, facilitation, and leadership development across sectors, including government, education, and corporate organizations. She holds a B.S. in Psychology and a Master of Management in Leadership and Organizational Dynamics from Cambridge College, as well as a master’s degree and Ph.D. in Human Development from Fielding Graduate University. Her additional training includes a Diversity and Inclusion Certificate from Cornell University and a Certificate in Alcohol and Drug Counseling from the University of Massachusetts Boston.

Octavia Hendricks is a Senior Facilitator at Sankofa with over 15 years of experience in facilitation, training, and transformational learning. A person in long-term mental health recovery, she integrates lived experience with professional practice, focusing on healing-centered engagement, self-development, and community well-being. Based in Cape Town, South Africa, she facilitates workshops, retreats, and trainings throughout Africa and the United States. At Sankofa, Octavia delivers courses, co-facilitates the community of practice, and provides mentorship and coaching to members. She also co-facilitated the first recovery coach training for participants in South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Octavia is also the Founder and CEO of Osun Rise Group, an organization that designs regenerative travel and leadership experiences rooted in land, culture, and community. Drawing on more than 20 years of international experience in coaching, facilitation, and cultural tourism, she collaborates with leaders, organizations, and rural communities across Africa to advance regenerative agriculture, agritourism, and human development. Her work is grounded in a commitment to shaping leadership and development practices that uphold dignity and long-term well-being. Octavia is a graduate of Healing Hands Wellness Institute in South Africa where she earned a Diploma in counseling and psychotherapy. She holds a coaching certificate from Transformation Academy based in Florida.

John Meigs is a licensed clinical psychologist and alcohol and drug counselor. He is an assistant professor at William James College and a teaching associate (part-time) at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Meigs obtained a Master of Arts degree in Counseling Psychology and Global Mental Health and a PsyD in Clinical Psychology from William James College. He completed an APA-accredited internship at the White River Junction VA Medical Center in Vermont and a postdoctoral fellowship at Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School. Dr. Meigs is the director of the substance use and addictions counseling emphasis in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program as well as the Alcohol and Drug Education in Psychology Training Center (ADEPT Center). His clinical experiences include New Hope TSS, Lynn Community Health Center Refugee Clinic, Lesley University Counseling Center, the Metro Boston Mental Health Units at the Lemuel Shattuck Hospital, MIT Mental Health and Counseling Service, the White River Junction VA Medical Center and Cambridge Hospital. Dr. Meigs is a psychoanalytic candidate at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (BPSI). Areas of interest include individual and group psychotherapy, substance use treatment, trauma-focused care, cross-cultural and postmodern theories of psychotherapy, and global mental health. Dr. Meigs sees patients at his private practice in Brookline.