Welcome to the Healing in the Circle of Life Conference brought to you by the Association of Black Psychologists (UK Chapter) and Prestige Getaways. Each day of the conference follows one stage of the Bakongo Cosmogram (Yowa/Dikenga) — the ancient Kongo symbol of the cyclical journey of existence. The four summaries below describe the essence and spirit of each day, designed to help delegates understand the journey ahead and choose the sessions that speak most to their work, research and practice. Full session details will be confirmed closer to the conference.

·       Delegates arrive and check in to InterContinental Dominica Cabrits Resort & Spa (or alternative accommodation)

·       Airport transfers provided from Douglas Charles Airport (DOM) — approximately 50 minutes

·       Optional: Pre-conference tour — Waterfalls + Indian River Tour ($150/pp — book separately)

·       Evening: Welcome reception and informal gathering (time TBD by organizer)

Grounded in the Kongo cosmogram's first stage, Day 1 opens the circle by honouring where we come from. This is a day of foundations — of ancestral wisdom, cultural roots, and the intellectual and spiritual beginnings of African-centred healing. Through keynote address, facilitated dialogue, workshops and communal gathering, participants are invited into a shared exploration of how cosmology, identity, oral tradition and indigenous knowledge form the bedrock of psychological wellbeing. Day 1 asks what it means to know ourselves before we seek to heal others, and sets the tone for the four days ahead with a spirit of reverence, curiosity and collective arrival.

The second day celebrates life in its fullest, most communal sense. Drawing on the living healing traditions of the African diaspora and the Caribbean — and the extraordinary natural landscape of Dominica itself — Day 2 explores what it means not just to survive, but to thrive together. Sessions, workshops and conversations move across themes of community-centred care, cultural practice as medicine, the expressive arts, nature-based healing, and the philosophical frameworks — Ubuntu, Sankofa and others — that place collective wellbeing at the heart of health. This is the day the conference comes most fully alive: rooted in practice, rich in exchange, and open to the many forms that healing takes across our traditions.

In the African-centred tradition, death is not an ending but a necessary passage — and Day 3 holds that understanding at its centre. This day creates space for honest, courageous engagement with grief, trauma, loss and transition: the legacies of historical and intergenerational harm, the psychological weight of displacement and disaster, and the cultural rituals and communal practices through which communities have always found their way through. Dominica's own story of resilience in the face of devastating storms lends a powerful and grounding presence to these conversations. Day 3 does not shy away from the difficult — rather, it asks how we move through darkness together, carried by ancestral resilience and the strength of the circle.

The final day turns its gaze toward the horizon. Having journeyed through birth, life and death, Day 4 is the moment of renewal — the point in the cosmogram where the circle completes and begins again. This is a day for building: for imagining the sustainable networks, communities of practice and legacies that this conference will help create. Presentations, panels and workshops explore the future of African-centred and Caribbean psychology, youth and intergenerational wellbeing, advocacy and policy change, and what it means to leave the next generation better equipped than we found them. Day 4 closes the circle with intention — and opens a new one.

·       Delegates check out of hotel

·       Airport transfers provided back to Douglas Charles Airport (DOM)

·       Optional: Post-conference tour — Hot Springs + Whale Watching Tour ($150/pp — book separately)