Meet Sita &
Lai-Lani
Sita Symonette is a licensed Acupuncturist and started her Black Pearl Acupuncture practice in 2009. Lai-Lani has worked in the nonprofit and philanthropy field for many years to engage and partner with diverse communities for social change through cross-cultural collective action.
As well as being married, both Sita and Lai-Lani share a commitment to racial justice and traditional medicine and thus realized their shared dream of co-founding Black Pearl Wellness in July of 2020.
The clinic's purpose is to be a culturally responsive wellness center that focuses on making Acupuncture/East Asian Medicine, Chiropractic, Massage and Naturopathic Medicine more accessible to Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian and Pacific Islander, LGBTQIA, and historically excluded communities.
It is their goal to make Black Pearl Wellness a healing space for the community through the services they offer and by showcasing other BIPOC and LGBTQIA2+ holistic health businesses within Black Pearl Wellness. They will work to bring people together through community events as well as creating spaces for art and sharing cultural knowledge and practices to support health and healing.
Sita is passionate about helping others live their lives to their fullest potential and serving her community. She is here to work with you to reach your health goals. Her practice focuses on menstrual health, fertility, headaches/migraines, acute and chronic pain, and injury rehabilitation.
Lai-Lani has worked in nonprofits and philanthropy in Seattle and Portland for many years and believes in the power of community advocacy to bring about systemic change. While serving on the Portland Planning Commission she supported the renaming of a street to honor civil rights activist César Chávez. She helped to center parent voice in the passage of Preschool for All in Multnomah Co. She is dedicated to working for a more just and racially equitable community and brings this passion to the clinic.
A Culturally Responsive Holistic Wellness Clinic
We are proud to run a business that is a safe place for Black, Brown, Indigenous, Asian-Pacific Islander, Latinx people and the LGBTQIA2+ community to receive high-quality healthcare that is culturally competent, and anti-racist. It is our mission to be a place of healing where people from all of our communities can come and see themselves reflected back to them. This is accomplished through the identities of the healthcare practitioners treating patients, through the art on the walls, through Black Pearl Wellness clinics’ dedication to healthcare equity and much much more. To heal one must be heard, truly listened too and seen as a whole person. This is what Black Pearl Wellness does.
WE STAND FOR:
BLACK LIVES MATTER
SOLIDARITY WITH ASIAN COMMUNITIES
NATIVE AMERICAN SOVEREIGNTY
LOVE IS LOVE
MIGRANT JUSTICE
DISABILITY RIGHTS