About Me
Designing a blend of psychology, mental health, and mindfulness through art.
My Vision : support the mental and emotional well-being of artists, researchers, and mental health professionals.
My Vision : a place where people gain critical tools to freely express their authentic self + care for their mental health.
My Values : patience, love, grit, vulnerability, understanding
Service Provider/Consultant
Mary Mbaba, MPH, MA, Ph.D., 200-hour YTT
CEO/Founder/Artist/Scientist
Dr. Mary Mbaba received her doctorate in Applied Social Psychology at the George Washington University in 2024 and is trained in understanding biases, stereotypes, attitudes, discrimination, social norms, and other social cognitions related to health-focused behaviors. Her professional specialization is on mental health and substance use, criminal justice involvement, sexual health and HIV prevention research. With over a decade of mixed methods research experience (since 2010), Mary’s work has ranged from interviewing and conducting research with opioid-dependent justice-involved individuals for a clinical Buprenorphine randomized control trial (RCT), to projects incorporating community-based participatory research (CBPR) approaches focused on HIV prevention and understanding predecessors of mental health issues in Black adult men.
Mary is a social scientist and behavioral health researcher. She recently defended her doctoral dissertation where she quantitatively explored racial identity, target image similarity and their impact on Black women’s willingness to practice yoga. Mary holds a Masters in Public Health (MPH) in 2012 from Emory Rollins School of Public Health with a focus on behavioral science and health education (BSHE) and a certificate in Socio-Contextual Determinants of Health. Her qualitative masters thesis documented social behavioral predictors of jail suicides. In 2009, Mary finished her Bachelor's degree in Psychology/Pre-Medicine at the University of Georgia. In 2015, she earned a certificate in Culture and Values in Social Policy from George Mason University.
Mary is a teacher and a mentor. Mary has been practicing yoga since 2009 and instructing yoga since 2014. In 2016, she completed her 200-hour yoga teacher training in D.C. and started the well known yoga class/movement Vinyl & Vinyasa. Currently, she teaches Research Methods in Psychology (PSYC 300) as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC). She has experience as an adjunct instructor in the psychiatry department of Howard University Hospital, where she taught medical students on the significance of social health determinants. Mary has also previously worked as a Contemplative/Holistic Integrative Practitioner in a virtual psychotherapy clinic, where she delivered yoga and meditation Telehealth services to young adults.
Mary is a multi-hyphenated artist. She has created, directed, and produced clinical audiovisual continuing education credits for nurses and doctors (CME/CNU) focused on the health of Black gay/bisexual/same-gender loving men. Mary is a recording artist, @Mary2TheGame, and a cultural documentarian/photographer. She enjoys stretching, visiting museums, meditating, reading, traveling, thinking, and making music.
Services Offered: creative consulting, research & design, 1:1 mindfulness coaching, yoga
Therapeutic Style: gentle, understanding, compassionate, honest, and comprehensive.
Social Identifiers: “I am a Black heterosexual cisgender woman of Nigerian immigrant parents who grew up in Atlanta (Stone Mountain), GA, spending my late 20’s/early 30’s in Washington, DC. I believe in the power of expressive identities and I consider people's background and experiences from a unique intersectionality framework.”