"If you want to change your community, you have to invest in your people."
-Adeniké Akosua Kasongo El
Although many of you may know me as Elevated Mental...
my journey didn't begin that way.
I was born Sherrel Greene in Brooklyn, New York but Queens, New York, became the place that shaped me. I moved to Queens at the tender age of three, carrying with me the beginnings of a story rooted in culture, resilience, spirituality, and community.
My parents migrated from Jamaica, West Indies, bringing with them the strength, resourcefulness, tradition, and survival wisdom of Caribbean people. Although Christianity was present in our household, religion was not something I accepted without question. We attended church only a few times a year.. usually Easter and sometimes New Year's Eve, but those limited experiences were enough to spark something inside of me.
I had questions. Alot of them
Even as a young child, I wanted to understand why we believed what we believed. I questioned religious teachings, authority, history, and the ways in which culture and spirituality had been shaped by colonization. I often got in trouble for "talking back" and sent to stand in the hallway for "disrupting class". My questions were seen as sarcastic and disruptive but I genuinely wanted to know what existed before the systems I had been introduced to.
I wanted to understand the wisdom of my ancestors and reconnect with knowledge that had been pushed aside, forgotten, or deliberately disconnected from our people.
I was raised around Caribbean/Arawak people and traditions, and from a young age I was exposed to another way of understanding wellness. I learned about herbs, natural remedies, holistic healing, and the relationship between the human being, the environment, and the spirit.
Long before I had the language to describe it, I was learning that healing is multidimensional. It involves the mind, body, spirit, and community. And it involves remembering who you are.
That understanding became one of the foundations of my life's work.
250,000+
COMMUNITY MEMBERS WORLDWIDE
14+
YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
1,000+
LIVES TRANSFORMED
Leadership Found Me Early
My life has never followed a single straight line.
I became an entrepreneur in different forms throughout my journey. I owned a daycare, built a photography business, I owned a private bartending business, and I provided graphic design freelancing services. I spent a short amount of time in the work force and even then I carried leadership roles where I was responsible for guiding people, solving problems, building relationships, and creating environments where others could grow.
Looking back, I can see the pattern. The industry, titles, & circumstances changed... but my calling stayed the same.
I have always been drawn to helping people see possibilities beyond their current circumstances, and I have always had an instinct for leadership.
Perhaps the clearest evidence of that came when I was only 22 years old.
Operation Change Youth Center
At 22, I opened Operation Change Youth Center.
That moment represented much more than opening an organization. It was an early declaration of who I was becoming.
At an age when many people were still trying to figure out their own direction, I was trusted with something profound: the care, guidance, development, and well-being of children and young people in my community.
That responsibility was not something I took lightly.
Opening Operation Change Youth Center made me a pioneer in my own right. I was not simply creating a business or pursuing a career. I was creating a space where young people could be seen, supported, guided, and given opportunities to believe in themselves.
I understood something early that has continued to guide me:
If you want to change your community, you have to invest in your people.
Operation Change Youth Center was one of my earliest expressions of that philosophy. It was also a reflection of the way I had been raised. My upbringing taught me resourcefulness. My culture taught me resilience. My questions about religion taught me to think critically. My exposure to holistic practices taught me to look beyond the surface. And my experiences with people taught me that leadership is not about having power over others.
Leadership is about having the courage and responsibility to help others rise.
From Operation Change to Elevated Mental
Today, my name and who I am represents evolution. Elevated Mental is the continuation of the little girl in Queens who asked questions, and the young woman who refused to accept that there was only one way to understand spirituality, wellness, identity, or healing.
And it is the continuation of the leader who discovered, again and again, that her greatest work happens when she is helping other people discover themselves.
Elevated Mental is not simply a name. It is a philosophy.
It speaks to the elevation of consciousness, self awareness, community, & ultimately, the elevation of the human experience.
My work today is rooted in knowing that many people are living beneath their potential, not because they lack ability, but because they have been conditioned to disconnect from themselves. We inherited ideas about who we are supposed to be, and sometimes healing begins when we become courageous enough to ask:
Who am I beneath all of that?
That question has been part of my journey since childhood.
I help people question what they have been taught, reconnect with themselves, recognize their inherent power, and create meaningful change in their lives and communities.
I help people awaken, heal, elevate their minds, reclaim their voices, and become active participants in transforming themselves and their communities.
If you're ready to learn why you're here and walk in your purpose on a path to fulfillment & prosperity , I am here to help you with that.
If you're ready to get unstuck and remove blockages that are keeping you in survival mode & stopping you from thriving- even if it's your own mind- I am here to help you with that.
If you're ready to walk the path as a leader, I am here to help you with that.