Therapy Rooted in Storying and Collective Care
There is a kind of knowing that lives in the body.
A knowing shaped by memory, by music, by migration—by stories passed down in kitchens, in songs, in silences. By what we have lived and what we carry. By moments of joy and rupture that leave their trace not only in what we remember, but in how we move through the world.
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As a Black woman, artist, therapist, and scholar, I carry a heart full of these stories—my own and those of my people. I have sat with the sacred quiet of trauma. I have listened to the grief that hums beneath everyday life. And I have witnessed the radical brilliance of those who continue to show up, create, love, and resist in the face of profound injustice.
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This is where my work begins:
In story as survival.
In story as resistance.
In story as a path to healing that is not only personal, but collective.
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I believe healing must be more than survival.
It must be sovereignty.
It must be creative.
It must be relational.
It must be cultural.
It must be guided by the wisdom of our bodies, our communities, and our shared storying.​
​For more than 15 years, I’ve walked alongside individuals navigating trauma, grief, anxiety, relationship ruptures, self-worth struggles, and the often invisible weight of structural harm. As a licensed associate counselor and a board-certified music therapist that brings a deep commitment to trauma-informed, equity-centered care, I’ve witnessed what becomes possible when space is made for story—when trust is cultivated and people are invited to name their truths, to feel, to reflect, and to transform.
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And what I’ve learned over time is this:
Not all therapy is healing.
And not all healing is called therapy.
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So much of what we call healing lives beyond the walls of traditional models.
Healing lives in the everyday acts of resistance and renewal.
In the practices we inherit, in the songs we sing, in the names we reclaim, in the ancestral wisdom we carry in our blood and breath.
In reclaiming language and ritual.
In restoring relationship—with self, with community, with culture, with Spirit, and with land.
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This is the root of Aesthetic Healing.​
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It’s not just about art or beauty—though beauty can be found in the living.
It’s not just about therapy.
It’s about perception—how we take in the world through our senses, through culture, through memory.
And it’s about meaning-making—how we story ourselves into being.
It is healing as relationship. Healing as restoration. Healing as sacred witness.
I’ve spent years studying the theories meant to explain healing—and just as many years interrogating them. As bell hooks reminds us in Teaching to Transgress:
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“Theory is not inherently healing, liberatory, or revolutionary. It fulfills this function only when we ask that it do so and direct our theorizing towards this end.”
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This is what I ask of theory. And this is what I ask of myself.
To hold space for a different kind of knowledge—what Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldúa once called theory in the flesh.
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Long before I had the word for it, I was theorizing—through care, through pain, through music, through presence.
Through the sacred act of listening.
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Aesthetic Healing is the framework I offer to those seeking something deeper:
A healing that honors where we come from, tends to where we are, and makes room for who we are becoming.
​A praxis for stories to be witnessed, for knowledge to be honored, for healing to unfold in ways that are personal, cultural, and collective.
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I believe every person carries the inner resources needed to move through difficulty.
And I believe therapy—when rooted in story, care, and cultural wisdom—can be a space to reconnect with that strength.
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Whether you come here as a client, a collaborator, or a kindred spirit—
You are welcome.
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With care and solidarity,
Dr. Marisol Norris
Founder, Aesthetic Healing LLC
The Origins of Aesthetic Healing: A Black Feminist Praxis
Aesthetic Healing was born from lived experience, cultural inheritance, and a deep need for healing practices that truly center Black life. It grew out of spaces where traditional therapy just didn’t reach—where grief was heavy and layered, where ancestral memory moved through our bodies without words, and where sacred things like silence, song, and ceremony didn’t have space.
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I’ve walked a lot of paths through clinical rooms, academic halls, spiritual spaces, and community gatherings. What I’ve learned is this: healing isn’t a straight line, and it’s definitely not one-size-fits-all. For many of us, healing is wrapped up in culture, creativity, and resistance. It lives in the stories we tell, the sounds we make, and the ways we reclaim what’s been taken.
Aesthetic Healing came as a way to name and hold onto that truth.
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While this work has been with me for a long time, the idea of Aesthetic Healing really started to take shape through my early work in therapeutic spaces with marginalized communities, and grew deeper during arts-based coursework at Drexel University and Africana studies at University of Pennsylvania. Around 2014, I began deepen my training through mentorship and sharing these ideas more widely—presenting on Black aesthetics in music therapy at conferences and classrooms, even when those spaces weren’t always ready for those conversations.
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With the guidance of Black, Indigenous, and feminist mentors, I started to put theory to practice—blending my training in music therapy and counseling with my own ancestral, artistic, and community-rooted practices. Pieces of this work show up in my dissertation, chapters, and public scholarship.
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Scholarly Foundations
This framework has been shaped by over 15 years of scholarship and practice. Some key works include:
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Between Lines: A Critical Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Black Aesthetics in a Vocal Music Therapy Group for Chronic Pain (2019)
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“Freedom Dreams: What Must Die in Music Therapy to Preserve Human Dignity?” (Voices, 2020)
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“Who You Mean ‘We’?”: Confronting Notions of Belonging in Music Therapy (Journal of Music Therapy, 2021)
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Chapter with Esperanza Spalding in Music and Mind (Penguin Random House, 2024)
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Norris, M. & Spalding, E. (2024). “…& the Fields: Re-membering the Hinterlands Across Music and Health.” In R. Fleming (Ed.), Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness. Penguin Random House.
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Norris, M. (2021). “me: a personal and professional necessity.” In S. Hadley (Ed.), Sociocultural Identities in Music Therapy (pp. 32-56). Barcelona Publishers.
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Norris, M. & Hadley, S. (2019). “Engaging Race in Music Therapy Supervision.” In M. Forinash (Ed.), Music Therapy Supervision (2nd ed.) (pp. 101-126). Barcelona Publishers.