MEET OUR FOUNDER
Dr. Marsha Smith
Psychologist. Community Advocate. Caribbean Wellness Leader.
A lifetime of service, resilience, and community care that inspired the creation of Bahali.
Dr. Marsha Smith, PsyD, LCSW
Founder & Executive Director
For more than two decades, Dr. Smith has supported individuals, families, Veterans, and communities through trauma, grief, caregiving challenges, recovery, and life transitions.
Her work spans clinical psychology, community wellness, disaster recovery, and culturally grounded emotional health initiatives throughout the Caribbean and diaspora.
FROM COMMUNITY CARE TO COMMUNITY HEALING
The experiences, values, and vision
that inspired Bahali.
Long before she became a psychologist, Dr. Marsha Smith learned the importance of community care while accompanying her mother on visits to older adults and homebound neighbors in Jamaica. As a child, she helped deliver meals, check on elders, listen to their stories, and offer support wherever it was needed. As she grew older, those responsibilities became her own. Through these experiences, she learned an enduring lesson that would later shape her life’s work: healing and well-being are strengthened through connection, compassion, and community.
After losing her father at the age of nine, Dr. Smith developed a deep appreciation for resilience, family, and the role caring relationships play during life’s most difficult moments. Guided by a strong and determined mother, she learned independence, perseverance, and the importance of showing up for others in times of need.
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Healing and well-being are strengthened through connection, compassion, and community.
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Bahali was not the beginning of a mission. It was the continuation of a lifetime of community care.
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Her journey later took her throughout the Caribbean as a yachtmaster, where she gained firsthand insight into the cultures, strengths, and challenges that shape island communities. She also operated an organic farm, an experience that reinforced a lesson she continues to carry today: growth cannot be forced. Whether cultivating a garden or supporting a person through life’s challenges, growth requires patience, care, and the right environment.
A turning point came while living and working in the British Virgin Islands. After learning of three suicides in the community within a short period of time, Dr. Smith became increasingly aware of the stigma surrounding mental health and the barriers that often prevented people from seeking support. Troubled by the losses and determined to better understand emotional suffering, resilience, and healing, she embarked on a path that ultimately led her to clinical psychology.
For more than two decades, Dr. Smith has supported individuals, families, Veterans, and communities through trauma, grief, caregiving challenges, recovery, and life transitions. Through her work, she noticed a recurring pattern: many Caribbean individuals and families were carrying significant emotional burdens, yet culturally relevant emotional wellness resources remained limited.
Then came another defining chapter.
What was intended to be a one-week visit to Jamaica during the COVID-19 pandemic unexpectedly became a fourteen-month stay. Living within the community during that time allowed her to witness firsthand the emotional impact of uncertainty, social disruption, and economic stress. It also reinforced her belief that emotional wellness challenges must be understood within their cultural, social, and family context.
Her observations led to research exploring mental health, family dynamics, and alcohol use among young adults in Jamaica and further strengthened her commitment to creating resources that reflected the realities of Caribbean communities.
That commitment extended beyond research and clinical work. Following Hurricane Irma, Dr. Smith helped coordinate the evacuation and support of more than 300 residents affected by the storm. Through disaster response efforts and community outreach, she witnessed both the profound impact of hardship and the extraordinary resilience that emerges when people come together to support one another.
Over time, Dr. Smith came to recognize that many of the challenges she encountered, whether in therapy rooms, disaster recovery efforts, community conversations, or research, shared a common thread.
Caribbean communities needed emotional wellness resources that were accessible, culturally relevant, and rooted in their lived experiences.
For Dr. Smith, Bahali was not the beginning of a mission. It was the continuation of a lifetime of community care.
Founded on the belief that healing happens in community, Bahali works to expand access to culturally grounded emotional wellness resources across Caribbean communities and throughout the diaspora through education, storytelling, research, partnerships, disaster recovery initiatives, and prevention-focused programs.
Today, Dr. Smith remains committed to a future where people no longer have to struggle in silence, where emotional wellness resources reflect the cultures and communities they are meant to serve, and where every person has access to the support, knowledge, and tools needed to thrive.
Because healing happens in community. And every mind deserves peace.
THE JOURNEY THAT SHAPED BAHALI
Helping her mother care for elders and neighbors in Jamaica and learning the power of compassion and community.
Losing her father at nine and guided by a strong mother, she learned resilience, independence, and the importance of showing up for others.
Traveling the Caribbean as a yachtmaster and experiencing the unique cultures, strengths, and challenges of island communities.
A turning point that led to clinical psychology and a career dedicated to understanding healing, resilience, and emotional wellness.
A turning point that led to clinical psychology and a career dedicated to understanding healing, resilience, and emotional wellness.
WHY BAHALI EXISTS
Healing Happens in Community
Caribbean communities deserve emotional wellness resources that are accessible, culturally relevant, and rooted in lived experience. Bahall was created to help make that vision a reality.
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Bahali was created from a simple belief: emotional wellness should be accessible, culturally relevant, and rooted in community.
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A VISION FOR THE FUTURE
Today, Dr. Smith remains committed to a future where people no longer have to struggle in silence, where emotional wellness resources reflect the cultures and communities they serve, and where every person has access to the support, knowledge, and tools needed to thrive.
Because healing happens when we come together.
Providing community-centered emotional wellness education that empowers individuals, families, and communities.
supporting communities before, during, and after crises with culturally responsive resources and compassionate care.
Conducting research and amplifying Caribbean voices to create resources rooted in real experiences and community needs.
