Dr. Shumaila Hemani

Dr. Shumaila Hemani is a certified Positive Neuroplasticity Teacher and the author of Writing in the Wound: Acculturation, Trauma, and Music. She is a singer-storyteller, ethnomusicologist, and interdisciplinary artist whose work explores migration, trauma, listening, and healing through embodied and creative practices. An honouree on Women in Music Canada’s Honor Roll (2023) and a runner-up in Alberta Blue Cross’s Faces of Wellness, Dr. Hemani’s writing on immigrant mental health, suicide prevention, burnout, trauma, and eco-anxiety has appeared in OC87 Recovery Diaries, To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA) (2026), Dr. David Susman’s Hope & Resiliency Blog (2020), Mental Health Today, Wellbeing Magazine (2025), and other publications. Her song Anticipating was featured in a cross-Canada tour for suicide prevention awareness and hope (2020). She is also an IHRAM (International Human Rights Arts Movement) honouree (2026), recognized for her contributions at the intersection of arts, human rights, and social justice. Dr. Hemani is the founder of The Deep Listening Path, where she has facilitated workshops on burnout and wellbeing for changemakers with organizations including Alberta Ecotrust and the Canadian Poverty Institute. She lives in Calgary, where she continues to write, make music, and facilitate monthly rest community circles.

Read more