Shanarae Matthew is a restorer, keeper, and protector of women’s mysteries. Her passion is moving trauma out of women’s bodies, by reconnecting them to their spiritual core and activating their innate healing power. Shanarae specializes in Vaginal Steam Therapy and is certified by the Steamy Chick Institute. She is the creatrix of Embrace the Red, a menstrual health initiative that teaches girls to have a positive view of their bodies and menstrual cycle. As a meditation teacher and through the practice of yoga nidra and chi kung, she helps others to heal their nervous system, limbic system, and vagus nerve.

Since 2005 Shanarae has been involved in facilitating sister circles as a medium for feminine healing, collaboration, and leadership. Her passion for the healing arts lead her to create Wombyn’s Moon Circles, which helps women and girls learn how to align mind/body/spirit with the lunar, earth, and planetary cycles.

 Shanarae uses her love for movement, poetry, and the arts to promote her passion which is the healing, resurgence, and celebration of Mother Consciousness and the Primal Feminine. Since 1996 she has been a student of African, Eastern, and Amerindian spiritual traditions and in her spare time, conducts research on tracing her ancestry and family origins.

Shanarae is a Coming of Age Educator and the creator of Empress Coming of Age Mentorship. A rites of passage platform which provides education and resources for girls and boys journeying through puberty and gives support to parents. As a certified Virtues Project facilitator, she promotes the message of mindful living, and life as an expression of virtues.

For the past 20 years, she has taught youth to use the arts as a means of soul expression and activism. She is 1 of 5 founding members of the Dembaya Arts Conservatory, a local non-profit with the mission of preserving, promoting, and teaching families to connect with the spirit of Traditional African and Diasporic music and dance. Shanarae holds more than twenty years of experience in the performing and cultural arts as a student, dance artist, dance teacher, and choreographer, and has performed in Italy, France, Germany, Denmark, the Caribbean and US mainland.

Her love for ancient cultures, world dance, and poetry led her to study with notable teachers in their respective fields. She has studied Afro-Caribbean, North African, Middle Eastern, Afro-Cuban Orisha dance, West African, Brazilian Samba, and Indian Classical dance.

Shanarae is a published writer with contributions to the Caribbean Writer and is currently working on her first book of poetry. She lives on the enchanted island of St. Croix with her two children.