I invite you to join me on a journey that calls for courage, honesty, and a willingness to be transformed. This trip to Ghana welcomes all people, yet it is crafted with a special intention for white individuals and for those whose ancestry is tied to colonization and enslavement. Some past participants are descendants of enslavers who were already engaged in racial healing work and found that this trip strengthened and clarified their commitment to repair. Whether you are beginning this journey or deepening long-standing work, this experience offers grounding, insight, and profound meaning.

Our time in Ghana takes us directly into the spaces where colonization and the transatlantic slave trade reshaped the world. We visit the castles built by European powers as centers of commerce and domination. We walk through the dungeons where Africans were imprisoned. We stand before the “door of no return.” We visit Assin Manso, the site of the last bath, where captured Africans were washed, oiled to make them look more presentable for sale before being sold to enslavers, and then branded as property.

Past participants have described these moments as emotionally overwhelming, clarifying, and deeply humanizing. Some have shared that being physically present in these spaces made the history shockingly real and revealed how the violence of colonization created systems that still shape racial inequity in the United States today. These encounters are challenging, but they are meant to awaken, not immobilize.

While these historical sites hold tremendous pain, our journey is also filled with life, beauty, culture, and spirit. Ghanaian hospitality offers warmth and connection. Travelers speak of feeling welcomed, accepted, and spiritually restored. A previous participant went on this journey to reconnect with Spirit and found that the journey opened that connection fully. Another described the trip as “soul healing,” explaining that dismantling racism is “soul work” because racism disconnects us from our truest and most human selves. Others reflected that returning to Africa helped them remember that we all, including white people, ultimately come from this land and are African.

One of the most healing experiences of our SANKOFA journey is the cultural welcome we receive. We will participate in a naming ceremony in which each traveler is invited into Ghanaian community and tradition in a deeply personal way. This experience can help individuals feel connected, grounded, and held. This cultural embrace becomes part of the healing process, reminding us that repair is not only about confronting the past but also about remembering our shared humanity. We will also experience the Ghanaian culture through participatory performances, canopy experiences, museums, and more.

Throughout this journey, you are not alone in processing what you encounter. As a psychologist and an ordained minister with more than three decades of experience teaching, guiding, and leading communities in dismantling racism and healing racial trauma, I curate each excursion with intention. I offer space and structure for reflection, emotional grounding, and spiritual integration. This means:

• You have a trained professional helping you navigate the emotional, ancestral, and spiritual impact of what you witness.
• You are guided in translating these experiences into meaningful understanding and actionable commitments to dismantling racism in your daily life.

Travelers have shared that this support made it possible not only to confront the painful truth of history but also to integrate the experience in a way that strengthened their identity, purpose, and ongoing racial justice work.

Our time together is supported by expert local guides, balanced days, and comfortable accommodations, some surrounded by beautiful natural settings. The journey weaves historical learning, cultural immersion, spiritual reflection, and community connection. It is both challenging and nourishing, both eye opening and deeply grounding.

Participants often leave describing the trip as life changing. They carry home a clearer understanding of colonization’s legacy, a deeper compassion for people across the African diaspora, and a renewed commitment to dismantling racism in the United States through their choices, actions, and relationships.

This journey moves from history to healing, from witnessing to responsibility, from understanding to transformation. It invites you to face the truths that shaped our world and to step more fully into the work of creating a future rooted in justice and love.

If you feel the call to grow, to understand, and to take your place in the work of healing what has been broken, I welcome you. This journey will challenge you, strengthen you, and open something in you that is ready to awaken.

You belong on this journey.

My personal and professional experience make me well suited to lead you on this journey.  I grew up in the deep south in the heart of overt systemic racism.  My home was just 15 minutes from where James Meredith, the first known African American,  integrated the University of Mississippi and 45 minutes from where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.  I attended high school in the city where Ida B. Wells, the noted African American journalist who brought light to the lynching of African Americans, was born.  
 

The horrific history of racism toward a group of people to which I belong, the rich heritage of this group, and the strong religious faith of my family and community fueled my passion about issues of social justice and racial equity.  I’ve always worked to make our world a more just and loving place, and to help those wounded in any way by misguided or oppressive individuals and systems to recover from that pain and those tragedies.

My work as a licensed psychologist working with adjudicated, psychiatrically impaired, and high school youth brought to the forefront the racial injustices and inequities in the criminal, health care, and educational systems.  In each of these areas, I have championed the rights of these individuals while actively holding my colleagues accountable and providing much needed training on cultural competency.

Even while pursuing my Masters of Divinity at Yale University, I traveled the country training educators on issues of individual and systemic racism and implicit bias. Since that time, I have transitioned more fully into ministry, coaching, and teaching at the college level but remain dedicated to issues of racial equity.  Sadly, the church that I pastor was set ablaze in a hate crime, and I have spent the past four (4) years rebuilding its edifice and shepherding a group of people through the trauma of this event. I have also taken on the role of Executive Director of the Healing Racism Institute. 

After taking a trip to Ghana I find myself called to journey with individuals who are white and offer my expertise as a trained facilitator and educator for those who desire to become anti-racist and/or allies. In general, my facilitation techniques are aimed at racial reconciliation and healing and offer individuals an opportunity to engage in structured, thought-provoking and action-oriented dialogue, and to renew their hope and trust that we are moving toward a better day for all of us.  Our time together in Ghana will incorporate such techniques with excursions and culture.  

I led my first SANKOFA trip to Ghana in 2025. The experience was life changing for me and the participants. I am committed to continuing this call to heal and dismantle racism one individual at a time through this journey.

Beloved, the march of history is with us even when it feels like it is not, and I am honored to help support and guide you as we take this journey together toward a world that honors our shared humanity.

• A supportive spiritual thought leader who is an expert in spiritual and psychological processes to guide you on a journey of self-discovery that will inform your lived experience with race.
• Greater resolve to deepen your level of  consciousness of privilege, power, and racism, and level of commitment to eradicate racism.
• Meaningful connections with other individuals who are aspiring to become leaders in the movement to dismantle racism.
• A transformative retreat filled with thought-provoking exercises and powerful tools to help you begin the process of becoming an anti-racist leader.

This retreat is for visionaries and conscious minded leaders, entrepreneurs and individuals who are ready to use their influence, power, and voice to end racism. 

This retreat is not for those who believe that we have transcended racism and want proof that racism exists.

I experienced the Sankofa trip led by Dr. TLC to be truly life changing. I am a descendant of nine generations of Virginians that enslaved Africans and their descendants. I have had a life-long sense of lack and disconnection with what I think of as deep within me; equivalently, I had a consciousness lacking awareness of my connection to the Divine. As a child, I understood this as a baffling loneliness. As an early adult, as a result of family dynamics. As a mid-stage adult, as a product of my times. While all these are true in part, more recently I attribute this disconnection to the legacy from nine generations of Virginians who distorted themselves, their families, and their communities to perpetuate systematic and systemic brutality on others. Generational trauma of disconnection. I have thus long been able to name the sense of un-wholeness, yet I didn’t know how to pursue healing. How does one heal such a legacy, woven as it is into me, my family, my culture, my country?

The Sankofa trip healed me of my sense of disconnection, of lack. I see my transformation in three phases. Dr. TLC took us to sites where the horrors were perpetrated and helped us explore our experiences there. We then participated in two traditional religious or spiritual ceremonies in which I felt fully welcomed; these people minister to all comers and I was blessed to be in their presence. The last full day, we travelled to the Nkyinkyim Museum and the Ancestor Project, where art tells the story of the brutality of the transatlantic slave trade. And for the last experience of that visit, we saw a video that included scenes from an annual ceremony of remembrance the community conducted among the sculptures. And at that moment, I got it. I viscerally felt the connection. They to their ancestors. Me to mine. All of us to each other. All of us to the Divine. I got it.

- Marjorie McRae

"I believe that the moral integrity of our diverse country requires leaders like Dr. Curry Avery to demonstrate how we can co-exist in peace and equity.  Few people can facilitate effective engagement between people of different races for the express purpose of dismantling racism. I have been a student in several of  Dr. Curry Avery's classes. It is hard work, and it is the best work.  I am thankful that I humbly  participated, and have her books to continue my studies."

 - Attorney Sarette Williams

"Rev. Dr. TLC brings fierce love to her work that compassionately cuts through the veils of denial around racism. Her generous sharing of personal experiences brings a welcome shared humanity to my understanding of the issues.

Her perspective - rooted in the wisdom of spirituality and psychology - is free of dogma or blame while not compromising on the truth of racism in our society. I find her approach inspires in me deep reflection and the courage to take aligned action in both personal and business relationships. Gratitude!"

 - Susan Shloss, Certified Money Coach (CMC)®

"Rev. Dr. Terrlyn Curry Avery has been one of my greatest teachers in business and life. As a multi-passionate thought leader, she continuously shares her many and varied gifts with others. Although our original connection began as me being her coach, I soon became a student of her work and a witness to her brilliance. Always learning from her wisdom and constantly awed by her desire to teach, lead, transform and guide others to be their greatest selves, I could not recommend her and her work enough. If you're wanting to step into your greatest self so you may impact the lives of others, choose Rev. Dr. Terrlyn Curry Avery to be your guide."
 

Jeannie Spiro, Business Strategist for Women Coaches and Thought Leaders

If you cancel for any reason within 60 days before the trip, the penalty is the non-refundable deposit plus 75% of the total trip cost.

If you cancel for any reason between 61 and 90 days before the trip, the penalty is the non-refundable deposit plus 50% of the total trip cost.

If you cancel for any reason between 91 and 120 days before the trip, the penalty is the non-refundable deposit plus 25% of the total trip cost.

If you cancel for any reason 121 days before the trip, then the penalty is the non-refundable deposit only.

Refunds do not include discounts.

Rev. Dr. TLC, a trailblazing force in the intersection of pastoring and psychology, is a powerhouse speaker, coach, and transformational leader. Armed with a B.S. from Howard University, a Ph.D. from Hofstra University, and a Master of Divinity from Yale University, she proudly identifies as a pastologist—a licensed psychologist and ordained minister.

As a dynamic public speaker, author, and retreat leader, Rev. Dr. TLC brings a unique approach to healing, transformation, and manifestation. Her focus is on guiding individuals towards sacred intelligence—the internal wellspring that propels them towards intelligent choices, honoring the Sacred while embracing the shared humanity.

Specializing in coaching highly influential leaders committed to world transformation, Rev. Dr. TLC is the go-to expert for spiritual, life, and career coaching. Her coaching extends beyond personal renewal, providing support to leaders aiming to dismantle systemic racial disparities and effect positive change in their spheres of influence.

Rev. Dr. TLC empowers leaders to foster crucial conversations on race and leadership development, understand the impact of racism and unconscious bias on hiring practices and financial goals, and grasp how racism affects employees and workplace dynamics. With a rich history of bridging racial divides in institutions and communities, she is a catalyst for promoting racial equity.

The former host of "Dismantle Racism with the Rev. Dr. TLC" on talkradio.nyc, she is also the acclaimed author of Dismantling Racism: Healing Separation From the Inside Out, In Quietness, Confidence, & Strength: Prayers To Deepen, Elevate, and Expand Your Relationships, and Sacred Intelligence: The Essence of Sacred, Selfish & Shared Relationships. Additionally, Rev. Dr. TLC serves as the pastor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Presbyterian Church and spent the last five years rebuilding the church after it was the target of a racist arsonist. She is extremely honored to have served as the Interim Executive Director of the Healing Racism Institute in Springfield. She embodies strength and wisdom in every speaking engagement, workshop facilitation, and opportunity she undertakes. 

The following is a tentative list of historical and cultural immersion experiences. Please note that this list is not final and will be refined as we approach the trip date.

National Museum

James Town

Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park

Assin Manso Slave River

Cape Coast Castle

Elmina Castle

Kakum National Park for a canopy walk

Arts & Craft Center

Independence Square

WEB DuBois Center for Pan African Culture

Volta Region of Ghana

Ancestral Project

Wli Water Fall

Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary

Manhyia Palace Museum

Adinkra Printing Village and Nhwaa Wood Carving

Boti Waterfall

Mampong Plant Medicine Research Center and Aburi Botanical Garden

The Potters Village