The HoneyBeNatural Institute of Liberation & Wellness is rooted in Rooted Function Theory™ (RFT), which teaches that emotional and behavioral patterns are adaptive survival responses shaped by ancestry, environment, and attachment. Our mission is to equip practitioners with tools to facilitate healing that is culturally aware, trauma-informed, liberation-centered, spiritually respectful, and rooted in compassion.
Rooted Function Diploma
Diploma of Rooted Function Holistic Healing
The Diploma of Rooted Function Holistic Healing is the primary practitioner credential offered by the HoneyBeNatural Institute of Liberation and Wellness. This diploma prepares practitioners to apply Rooted Function Theory™ through functional assessment, ethical healing plan design, and supervised applied practice across diverse populations and healing contexts.
Completion of the diploma leads to the professional designation:
Certified Rooted Function Holistic Practitioner™
This diploma is designed for practitioners seeking depth, integrity, and mastery in Rooted Function Theory™ as a non diagnostic, liberation centered framework.
Core Training and Practitioner Formation
Through structured instruction, supervised application, and scholarly contribution, practitioners:
• Complete Rooted Function Theory™ based assessments
• Design individualized healing plans
• Demonstrate integration across the Physical Body, Emotional Body, Cognitive Body, Ancestral Body, and Spiritual Body
• Practice within clear ethical scope
• Apply Rooted Function Theory™ in real world healing contexts
Advanced Studies (Optional Add Ons)
After completing the Diploma of Rooted Function Holistic Healing, practitioners may choose to deepen their work through Advanced Studies in complementary modalities completed through approved external programs.
Advanced Studies do not constitute a second diploma and do not replace the core Rooted Function credential. They function as endorsed areas of integration.
Practitioners who complete approved Advanced Studies may use the following designations:
• Certified Rooted Function Holistic Practitioner™ with Advanced Studies in Kemetic Yoga
• Certified Rooted Function Holistic Practitioner™ with Advanced Studies in Clinical Hypnotherapy
• Certified Rooted Function Holistic Practitioner™ with Advanced Studies in Herbalism
• Certified Rooted Function Holistic Practitioner™ with Advanced Studies in Functional Nutrition
• Certified Rooted Function Holistic Practitioner™ with Advanced Studies in Body Alchemi
• Certified Rooted Function Holistic Practitioner™ with Advanced Studies in Nervous System Regulation
These designations reflect integration and applied use, not certification in the modality itself.
Clarification on Body Alchemi
Body Alchemi refers to movement and embodiment based practices integrated through Rooted Function Theory™. This may include stretching, Pilates informed movement, somatic practices, breathwork, nervous system regulation exercises, posture work, and other embodied modalities that support regulation and healing.
Body Alchemi is an umbrella category and is not limited to any single branded movement system.
Graduation Requirements for the Diploma
Graduation from the Diploma of Rooted Function Holistic Healing requires demonstrated mastery of Rooted Function Theory™ through applied practice, ethical integration, and scholarly contribution.
Practitioners must:
• Apply Rooted Function Theory™ assessments and healing plan design through supervised practice
• Complete required applied work and case integration
• Attend three public speaking sessions featuring BIPOC theorists, psychologists, mental health experts, or healing practitioners (virtual or in person)
Required Learning Topics
Public sessions and independent study must address the following areas as they relate to Rooted Function Theory™, Function versus Pathology, and healing within Black and Brown communities.
Mental Health and Psychology
• Psychological conditions and their impact on Black and Brown communities
• Mental health conditions and community based impacts
• Nervous system dysregulation and chronic stress in racialized bodies
• Function versus pathology in Black and Brown communities
• Intergenerational and ancestral trauma transmission
• Grief, loss, and unacknowledged mourning in marginalized communities
• Attachment, relationships, and community disruption including incarceration, migration, and family separation
Health and Wellness
• Food disparities, diabetes, and high blood pressure in Black and Brown populations
• Sedentary lifestyle related conditions and disorders
• Reproductive health, fertility, and womb centered wellness
• Maternal mortality rates affecting Black women
Indigenous Medicine and Embodiment
• Indigenous medicine and herbalism for contemporary Black bodies
• Somatic memory and the body as archive
• Breath, posture, movement, and embodied survival responses
Ancestral and Spiritual Healing
• Spiritual and ancestral healing practices
• Divination and integrative healing practices within Western health systems
• Spiritual bypass and harm within healing and wellness spaces
• Cultural appropriation versus cultural integrity in ancestral and Indigenous practices
Community Healing and Liberation
• Liberation oriented healing and sustainable wellness
• Community based healing models and collective regulation
• Practitioner power, ethics, scope of practice, and responsibility in marginalized communities
Research and Scholarly Contribution
Practitioners are required to write two research articles grounded in Rooted Function Theory™ and informed by frameworks, ideologies, and scholarship from BIPOC theorists and psychologists. At least one article must integrate insights from a public session attended during the program.
Approved articles will be published in the HoneyBeNatural Institute of Liberation and Wellness knowledge archive, with selected works featured on the public HoneyBeNatural Institute Substack.
Practicum Integration Project
The Practicum Integration Project is the culminating applied requirement of the Diploma. Through this project, practitioners demonstrate their ability to integrate Rooted Function Theory™ into real world healing work through assessment, planning, and ethical application.
Root Healing Book
As part of the Practicum Integration Project, practitioners create an original Root Healing Book developed from Rooted Function Theory™ based assessments and 30 day client or class case studies.
The Root Healing Book documents how the practitioner:
• Assesses function across the Physical Body, Emotional Body, Cognitive Body, Ancestral Body, and Spiritual Body
• Designs structured healing plans grounded in regulation and integration
• Applies Rooted Function Theory™ ethically and within scope of practice
• Integrates Rooted Function Foundations with lived application and advanced study
This work reflects practitioner readiness and contributes to the growing body of Rooted Function scholarship and healing resources.
Advanced Studies Policy
HoneyBeNatural Institute of Liberation and Wellness
The HoneyBeNatural Institute of Liberation and Wellness offers the Diploma of Rooted Function Holistic Healing, which leads to the professional designation Certified Rooted Function Holistic Practitioner™.
The Institute recognizes that practitioners often wish to deepen their work through complementary modalities. To support ethical integration without duplicating or replacing other certification programs, the Institute offers Advanced Studies designations through approved external training.
Purpose of Advanced Studies
Advanced Studies allow practitioners to integrate complementary modalities into their Rooted Function practice while maintaining clear scope, ethical responsibility, and professional integrity.
The Institute does not certify modalities such as yoga, nutrition, hypnosis, herbalism, or movement systems. It certifies the application of Rooted Function Theory™ within those modalities.
Eligibility for Advanced Studies
To qualify for an Advanced Studies designation, practitioners must:
• Successfully complete the Diploma of Rooted Function Holistic Healing
• Complete an approved external training program in the chosen modality
• Submit proof of completion
• Demonstrate ethical scope alignment and professional conduct
Integration and Review Process
Advanced Studies designations are granted after review of integration work, which must include:
• Documentation showing how the modality is applied through Rooted Function Theory™
• An addendum to the practitioner’s Root Healing Book demonstrating:
Functional assessment
Healing plan design
Ethical application within scope
• A brief written reflection or applied case example
The Institute evaluates integration quality, not modality instruction.
Credential Updates and Oversight
The diploma is issued upon completion of the core program.
Advanced Studies designations are added afterward as credential updates or endorsements.
The Institute reserves the right to approve, deny, or revoke Advanced Studies designations if ethical, scope, or integrity concerns arise.
Scope, Ethics, and Intellectual Property
Advanced Studies designations do not expand legal scope of practice. Practitioners are responsible for compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.
Rooted Function Theory™, its language, assessments, and frameworks remain the intellectual property of the HoneyBeNatural Institute of Liberation and Wellness. Advanced Studies designations do not grant ownership, teaching rights, or licensing authority beyond what is explicitly authorized.
Our Foundation
Rooted Function Theory™
The Framework
Rooted Function Theory™ is the foundational framework of the HoneyBeNatural Institute of Liberation and Wellness. It is an integrative healing model that reorients psychology and wellness away from pathology and toward function, regulation, and adaptation.
Rather than asking what is wrong, Rooted Function Theory™ asks how we learned to function the way we do.
This framework recognizes that behavior, emotion, and coping strategies are not random or broken, but shaped by lived experience, nervous system adaptation, cultural context, and ancestral survival.
Function Versus Pathology
Traditional models often pathologize coping strategies without examining the conditions that required those strategies to exist.
Rooted Function Theory™ understands many emotional, behavioral, and relational patterns as:
• Nervous system strategies
• Protective adaptations
• Learned survival responses
• Cultural and ancestral inheritances
Healing begins by identifying the root to how we function, not by labeling the outcome as dysfunction.
The Five Bodies of Regulation
Rooted Function Theory™ recognizes five interrelated bodies through which regulation and healing occur.
Physical Body
The nervous system, breath, sleep, digestion, and movement patterns where survival responses are stored.
Emotional Body
Emotional regulation, expression, suppression, attachment patterns, and affect tolerance.
Cognitive Body
Belief systems, meaning making, internal narratives, and learned interpretations of safety and threat.
Ancestral Body
Intergenerational memory, inherited coping strategies, cultural expectations, and historical survival patterns.
Spiritual Body
Purpose, intuition, meaning, faith, ritual, and connection beyond the self.
Dysregulation in one body impacts all others. Healing requires integration across all five.
The Seven Rooted Psychologies of Liberation
Rooted Function Theory™ is applied through seven rooted psychologies that describe how humans organize survival, meaning, and healing.
• The Rooted Psychology of the Nervous System
• The Rooted Psychology of Patterns
• The Rooted Psychology of Relationships
• The Rooted Psychology of Ancestral Wisdom and Spirituality
• The Rooted Psychology of Liberation and Wellness
• The Rooted Psychology of Introspection and Emotional Integrity
• The Rooted Psychology of Creation and Community
These psychologies provide a structured way to understand how individuals and communities move through regulation, disruption, repair, and liberation.
Self Love Frequencies
Self Love Frequencies™ describe internal regulatory states that reflect how individuals relate to themselves across different stages of healing. These frequencies represent nervous system capacity, emotional safety, and internal permission, not mindset or positivity.
Practitioners use this framework to meet people where they are, without bypassing readiness or forcing change.
Healing Progression
Rooted Function Theory™ understands healing as a progression, not a fixed outcome.
• Surviving
• High Functioning
• Integrating
• Liberated Living
Each stage reflects a different relationship to safety, capacity, and choice.
Our Institute
The HoneyBeNatural Institute of Liberation and Wellness is blossoming as one of the first trauma informed, culturally rooted, emotion centered institutes of its kind, founded by a Black therapist.
Developed beginning in 2018, Rooted Function Theory™ and Self Love Frequencies™ are grounded in nervous system science and align ancestral and spiritual wisdom with evidence informed clinical practices. Together, they support the Physical Body, Emotional Body, and Cognitive Body, filling a gap that many methodologies overlook.
This work exists to support sustainable healing that honors where we come from, how we adapted, and how we choose to live next.
Our Practitioners & Clinicians
Code of Ethics
Function Over Pathology
Practitioners are trained to recognize emotional, behavioral, and relational patterns as adaptive functions rather than signs of defect or disorder. Client work emphasizes awareness, regulation, and integration without judgment, labeling, or pathologizing survival responses.
Trauma Informed and Culturally Rooted Practice
Practitioners prioritize safety, consent, and empowerment in all client interactions. Healing plans honor ancestral wisdom, cultural context, and lived experience, recognizing the historical and social realities that shape regulation and survival in Black and Brown communities..
Scope, Integrity, and Accountability
Practitioners must work strictly within their authorized scope.
Clinicians may explore trauma history, root narratives, and diagnosis within their professional licensure. Practitioners focus on present function, adaptive patterns, regulation, and forward movement. Practitioners do not diagnose or provide trauma processing outside of their scope
Credentials must be represented accurately at all times. Practitioners are required to refer clients when needs exceed their scope of practice.
Assessment and Healing Plan Responsibility
All practitioner work must be grounded in Rooted Function Theory™ based assessment and structured healing plan design. Practitioners are responsible for applying the Five Bodies of regulation, honoring readiness, and avoiding one size fits all approaches or technique driven care.
Trauma Informed and Culturally Rooted Practice
Practitioners prioritize safety, consent, and empowerment in all client interactions. Healing plans honor ancestral wisdom, cultural context, and lived experience, recognizing the historical and social realities that shape regulation and survival in Black and Brown communities.
Confidentiality and Privacy
Practitioners must protect client identity, records, stories, and lived experiences. Informed consent is required for any educational, written, or public use of client material. De identification and ethical documentation are mandatory at all times.
Community Reciprocity and Contribution
Authorization as a Rooted Function practitioner carries an obligation to community care. Diploma graduates are required to contribute through advocacy, volunteerism, education, or community based wellness service as part of their applied training and ongoing practice. Healing is understood as both personal and communal.
Ongoing Learning and Integration
Diploma authorization requires continued learning, reflective practice, and integration. Practitioners agree to participate in continuing education, applied case work, and self reflection to ensure accountability, embodiment, and alignment with Rooted Function Theory™.
Client Self Advocacy and Emotional Integrity
Practitioners support client autonomy and self directed healing. Coercion, dependency, saviorism, or practitioner centered authority are not aligned with Rooted Function Theory™. Clients are supported in making informed choices about their healing journey.
Liberation and Social Responsibility
Practitioners commit to liberation oriented healing that acknowledges systemic oppression and inequity. Rooted Function Theory™ centers wellness equity and the lived realities of BIPOC communities, recognizing healing as relational, collective, and context aware.
Respect for Religious, Spiritual, and Personal Identity
Practitioners affirm all clients regardless of religion, spirituality, sexual orientation, gender identity, or personal belief. Spiritual and faith based practices may be integrated into healing plans only when aligned with the client’s values and consent.
If a practitioner cannot ethically serve a client due to personal conflict or belief, they are required to provide an appropriate referral to another authorized Rooted Function practitioner.