When Doctors Say You'll Die: Pleasant Harrison, Medical Racism & The Power of Ancestral Healing

Описание: Return to Presence with Dr. Shawna
Black women have always known how to transform what's in front of them—even when no one was watching, even when it wasn't called leadership.
Hosted by Dr. Shawna Murray-Browne, Return to Presence draws on nearly 100 years of Black women's oral histories to offer mental health tools grounded in cultural wisdom, spiritual practices backed by research, and strategies for leading that honor your full humanity.

This is Black women's wisdom. It's for anyone ready to lead differently.
Return to presence—to the quiet place where you can feel your essence, hear yourself clearly, and access the highest version of who you are.



Episode Summary
Season 1: Episode 2 "She Survived What Medicine Abandoned"
Pleasant Harrison was told by her doctor that she wouldn't survive her cancer diagnosis. With no meaningful care offered, she turned to what her grandfather had taught her—herbal medicine, ancestral healing practices, prayer, and the land itself. She survived by trusting what her ancestors had already placed in her hands.

In this episode, we explore what Pleasant's story reveals about medical racism, medical neglect of Black women, and the ongoing Black maternal health crisis. I share my own maternal health story—navigating NICU trauma, being dismissed by physicians, and learning to trust my body's intuition when institutions failed me.

Pleasant's life illuminates the power of ancestral medicine, herbalism, spirit-led care, and the sacred relationship with land that Black women have always relied upon for survival. Together, we move beyond "grounding" into communion with land, herbs, spirit, and self—healing as a reciprocal, intuitive, and sacred act.

This is what it looks like to save your own life when the medical system says you won't.


Featured Oral History Clip: Ms. Pleasant Harrison
A Black herbalist and community caregiver who survived a terminal cancer diagnosis by relying on ancestral herbal medicine, prayer, intuition, and family-taught healing practices when doctors left her with no care and no hope.


Presence Practice
What part of my healing have I been afraid to claim?
Reflection Question: Where is your intuition—or the land—already whispering guidance that Western systems have ignored?


Want to go deeper? Join me on Patreon to continue the conversation, unpack these themes in community, and practice the tools shared in this episode.   / shawnamurraybrowne  

If you’re ready for deeper integration, explore Cadence—my signature Liberatory Leadership Incubator for women leading in high-stakes environments: https://www.kindredwellness.net/cadence

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Archival credit: Oral history excerpts courtesy of the Schlesinger Library at Harvard University, Black Women’s Oral History Project.