WHO IS WELLNESS FOR?

An exploration of the ways in which the wellness industry simultaneously commoditizes non-White cultures and renders services inaccessible to marginalized peoples.

Róisín, a freelance writer who was raised Muslim by Bengali parents in Australia, frames the book with the question: “If [wellness] was for someone like me, pilfered from my very own culture, then why couldn’t I afford it?” Seeking to answer this question and others, the author divides the narrative into four sections—mind, body, self-care, and justice—each of which weaves a specific aspect of health care in with Róisín’s personal experiences. In the section on the mind, for example, the author interrogates how her abusive mother’s lack of access to therapy passed on intergenerational mental trauma. During her healing process, Róisín began practicing meditation, which she later found out had been divorced from its ancient Indian roots to make it more palatable to Western nations and easier to commodify in a capitalist society. In the section on the body, the author explores how her history as a survivor of sexual abuse instilled in her the harmful belief that her body was not actually her own. She then documents how a massage therapist who had previously helped her gain relief from the physical manifestations of abuse on her muscles violated her trust by callously discussing a highly publicized incest case in a moment when the author sought refuge from the triggering news cycles. Ultimately, Róisín calls for a more sustainable, equitable approach to healing. Only occasionally dense, the author’s prose is engaging, and she delves into her past with vulnerability and self-compassion. The book is deeply researched and laudably includes the work of a variety of Black and Indigenous scholars to make a unique and relevant case for the need for greater accessibility to healing.

A vulnerable, intensely trenchant analysis of the ways capitalism denies wellness for so many around the world.