Open Arms Health Wellness, and Healing

Open Arms Health Wellness, and HealingOpen Arms Health Wellness, and HealingOpen Arms Health Wellness, and Healing

Open Arms Health Wellness, and Healing

Open Arms Health Wellness, and HealingOpen Arms Health Wellness, and HealingOpen Arms Health Wellness, and Healing

Mothers Need To Be Nurtured too!

Mothers Need To Be Nurtured too!Mothers Need To Be Nurtured too!Mothers Need To Be Nurtured too!

 Join our nurturing community for support and healing, where mothers are reminded they do not have to carry the weight of mot

Mothers Need To Be Nurtured too!

Mothers Need To Be Nurtured too!Mothers Need To Be Nurtured too!Mothers Need To Be Nurtured too!

 Join our nurturing community for support and healing, where mothers are reminded they do not have to carry the weight of mot

About Open Arms Health, Wellness, and Healing

Our Mission

  

Open Arms Health, Wellness & Healing, Inc. is a maternal wellness organization dedicated to uplifting, nurturing, and emotionally supporting mothers through every stage and season of motherhood. Rooted in compassion, lived experience, and community care, the organization provides non clinical, peer centered support for mothers navigating burnout, overwhelm, isolation, anxiety, emotional exhaustion, and the unseen mental load that often accompanies motherhood.

At the heart of the organization’s work is its signature maternal wellness initiative, Looped in Love: A Therapeutic Finger Knitting Experience for Maternal Mental Health & Wellness. This community based experience uses the calming and restorative practice of finger knitting as a therapeutic wellness activity designed to promote stress reduction, mindfulness, emotional release, creativity, and meaningful connection among mothers.

Through guided finger knitting sessions, supportive conversation, and intentional community building, mothers are offered a safe and nurturing space where they can slow down, breathe, connect, and feel supported. All materials and supplies are provided to ensure the experience remains accessible and welcoming to mothers from all walks of life.

Open Arms believes that mothers deserve care too, not only during moments of crisis, but throughout the ongoing emotional demands of motherhood. Through programs like Looped in Love, the organization is helping normalize conversations around maternal mental wellness while creating healing centered spaces where mothers feel seen, heard, valued, and connected one loop at a time.

Support for Moms Who Need a Safe Space to Be Seen and Heard

Our Services

Peer Support

 Peer support services are led by trained community members and guided by CHW-informed principles under the Founder’s leadership. Our non-clinical, peer-led approach centers on connection, encouragement, and shared experience, supporting mothers through pregnancy, postpartum, and life transitions. 

Group Sessions

 Our group sessions offer non-clinical, facilitated spaces for mothers to connect, reflect, and support one another. Grounded in CHW-informed practices, these sessions center on community, encouragement, and shared experience. 

Grief and Loss Support

 We offer gentle, compassionate support for mothers experiencing pregnancy loss, postpartum loss, or unspoken grief. Our trauma-aware, non-clinical approach honors every mother’s story and creates space for healing through presence and connection. .


Journaling & Journal Workshops

 Our guided journaling experiences offer mothers a gentle way to reflect, release, and reconnect. Informed by trauma-aware, community-based practices, journaling serves as a supportive, non-clinical tool for self-expression, grounding, and insight.

Journaling workshops offer structure, thoughtful prompts, and practical tools mothers can return to at their own pace, creating space for reflection and clarity without pressure, diagnosis, or treatment.

Open Pour

 Open Pour: An Open Mic Experience for Mothers of Every Season is a healing-centered maternal wellness experience created to give mothers a safe space to speak openly, release emotional weight, and connect through honest conversation and community support. Through storytelling, spoken word, poetry, and shared experiences, Open Pour encourages emotional expression, peer connection, and restoration in a judgment-free environment where mothers are reminded that they do not have to carry the weight 

*Open Arms Health, Wellness, and Healing provides non-clinical, peer-based support and is not a substitute for medical or mental health care.*

Meet The Founder

Yvrande Harris, Founder & Director

 

I am a maternal wellness advocate and community-based leader with a proven commitment to closing critical gaps in maternal mental health support across underserved communities. As Founder and Executive Director of Open Arms Health, Wellness & Healing, Inc., I lead the development and implementation of healing-centered programs that reach mothers where they are, outside clinical settings, creating accessible, culturally responsive spaces where emotional wellness is prioritized, stigma is dismantled, and community connection is restored.


The maternal mental health crisis disproportionately impacts mothers in under-resourced communities, where burnout, postpartum challenges, emotional exhaustion, and isolation often go unaddressed due to systemic barriers in access to care. My work directly responds to this public health need by delivering peer-led, community-driven programming that meets mothers at every stage of the motherhood journey, not only in moments of crisis, but throughout the ongoing experience of raising children.


My approach is grounded in both lived experience and professional expertise. As a mother of four who has personally navigated postpartum health challenges, I bring an authentic, first-person understanding of the barriers mothers face in accessing support. I am certified in Mental Health First Aid and am currently pursuing my Perinatal Mental Health Certification (PMH-C), equipping me with evidence-informed skills to lead programming that is both compassionate and clinically informed.


Through Open Arms, I am building a scalable model of community care that encompasses maternal emotional wellness programming, peer support networks, advocacy, and community engagement initiatives. A signature example of this work is Looped in Love: A Therapeutic Finger Knitting Experience for Maternal Mental Health & Wellness, an innovative, evidence-inspired program that harnesses the power of creativity, mindfulness, and group connection to reduce stress, restore emotional well-being, and build lasting community among mothers who have historically been overlooked by traditional mental health systems.


Open Arms Health, Wellness & Healing, Inc. represents a replicable, community-centered solution to the maternal mental health crisis, one that prioritizes prevention, early intervention, and long-term wellness over crisis response alone. With the right investment, we are positioned to expand our reach, deepen our community impact, and serve as a model for how grassroots organizations can effectively address maternal wellness at the population level.

We believe every mother deserves to feel seen, supported, and sustained, not as an afterthought, but as a foundation of healthy families and thriving communities.

Meet The Team

Glenn G. Harris

Caitlin Bethany Bertrand

Caitlin Bethany Bertrand

Member

Caitlin Bethany Bertrand

Caitlin Bethany Bertrand

Caitlin Bethany Bertrand

Member

Jazmin Marin

Tameeka Watson

Tameeka Watson

Secretary

Tameeka Watson

Tameeka Watson

Tameeka Watson

Treasurer

Open Arms Program

Looped in Love

Looped in Love: A Therapeutic Finger Knitting Experience for Maternal Mental Health & Wellness is a community-based maternal wellness program that combines therapeutic finger knitting, mindfulness, supportive conversation, and peer connection to create safe, restorative spaces for mothers. Through the calming and repetitive rhythm of finger knitting, mothers are encouraged to slow down, reduce stress, engage in creative expression, and build meaningful community connections in a welcoming, judgment-free environment 







Let's Connect!

Open Arms Health Wellness & Healing, Inc

 

At Open Arms Health, Wellness, and Healing, our non-clinical, peer-led approach is rooted in compassion, faith, and community, honoring each mother’s lived experience, including grief and trauma when present.

Whether you’re navigating pregnancy, postpartum, or life transitions, we’re here to walk alongside you. 

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Copyright © 2021 Open Arms Health Wellness and Healing, INC,- A 501 (c) 3 New Jersey Nonprofit.  All Rights Reserved.

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