WISE ROADS TO HEALING
Meet our Founder, CEO & Director:
Wyneshia R. Hicks, a licensed clinical social worker with over 15 years of experience is the owner and director of Wise Roads to Healing, LLC (WRH). She earned a degree in Psychology and Dance at the SUNY College at Brockport and continued on to earn a Masters of Fine Arts in Choreography and Performance. Wyneshia's strong belief in the therapeutic benefit inherent in dance led her to seek ways to join both her clinical experience and artistic expression. With this goal in mind, she has worked at Dance Place in Washington DC and other social service and mental health settings while teaching dance.
For over 10 years, Wyneshia's work has always centered around youth and their families, especially underserved and diverse populations. In an effort to reach underserved youth, Wyneshia co-founded a non-profit organization (Fihankra Akoma Noaso) to serve DC youth in foster care in 2005. As the co-founder, Wyneshia provided support in the areas of program development, staff training and served on the Board of Directors for several years.
After earning her second Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Maryland at Baltimore (UMB). She held positions as a Family Preservation Specialist at the Columbia Heights/Shaw Family Support Collaborative, a residential Therapist at Adventist Behavioral Health, a Clinical Case Manager at Hearts & Homes for Youth (Mother/Baby Program) and Therapist at The Ridge School of Montgomery County (RSMC). Most recently she was part of the DBT team at The Bethesda Group Psychological Services (TBG), an adjunct Professor in the University of Maryland-Baltimore’s (UMB) School of Social Work & sits on the Board of a local dance company (Kista Tucker Insights).
Before launching Wise Roads to Healing, LLC Wyneshia helped start the adolescent DBT program at The Bethesda Group where she provided Parent Coaching and Clinical Supervision. As the long time lead of adolescent programming at TBG, Wyneshia co-led multiple Adolescent-only DBT Skills Groups, DBT Parent skills groups, Multifamily DBT Skills Groups as well as having developed and co-lead DBT Summer Boot Camp.
Wyneshia’s approach to treatment, while based in the use of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Solution-Focused Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) interventions, is centered on mutual respect, compassion, transparency and a good touch of humor. Wyneshia has been serving adults, young children, adolescents and their families with dedication and compassion for several years. Specializing in working with adults & adolescents with problems of emotional regulation and oppositional behaviors, Wyneshia plans to do so long into the future
When Wyneshia is not working, she is spending time planning trips to the beach, laughing with family, hanging out with her dog Bo-Arlo and catching up on crime & sci-fi shows.
My Story - the short version
I am originally from Brooklyn, NY and was raised by a single mother. I grew up with two sisters and while we did not have everything that others had, we had a mother who was determined to provide all that we needed to grow, thrive and find our purpose in life. All through my youth, I enjoyed making friends and learning about different cultures. In school, I was the kid getting in trouble or being moved around for talking too much to my neighbor. I guess you can say, I was "chatty." That has served me well as I have made many friends in strangers all around the world! I am a "family-first" kind of person and yet my family was complicated and I developed a determination to figure out how thoughts and feelings impact behaviors. Dance is my first passion and my second has always been something I learned from my mother, helping people in any way I could. As a young girl, my older cousin Darlene used to refer to me as a kid who could "make the sad people happy." I never fully understood that as a kid but now, I think back on that with a smile. Today, I prefer to think about it as helping people find their own happiness, their way, on their terms!
