Pamuela Halliwell Assistant Director of Behavioral Health Services

By JP Emerson

Please introduce yourselve?
Hello. My name is Pamuela Halliwell. My pronouns are she/her/hers and I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Clinical Supervisor, and Assistant Director of Behavioral Health Services. 

Give our readers a bit of history (tell us about you, how long in San Diego, how long have you been working in the SD LGBTQ+ community), how long have you been at the center?
I am a native to San Diego, California and have lived here all my life. For a short time, I served in the United States Navy, during the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Due to the DADT policy, I was discharged when the military learned that I was a transgender woman. Years later, after my work at the San Diego Center for Children, I found myself called to the San Diego LGBT Community Center where I have worked for 7 years, serving hundreds of LGBTQ+ community members including youth victims of crime, folx impacted by HIV, individuals seeking asylum, and trans/nonbinary TAY and adults wanting support with their gender exploration, identity and finding their own journey. Through my years at the Center, I have had the pleasure of participating in several programs and events. I was a member of The Black LGBTQ+ Center Advisory Council (BLCAC), which led to the Center’s First Black Town Hall in 2019 as well as the 2nd Black Virtual Town Hall in 2020 along with the launch of Black Services in 2021. Additionally, I have had the pleasure of volunteering at our monthly Food Bank, upcoming Red Hot Dance for queer women on February 15th from 6pm-9pm, Come Home for the Holidays, and TDOR.  

Would you tell our readers about the Behavioral Health Services at the Center?
Behavioral Health Services (BHS) has been around since the middle 1980s. BHS offers individual therapy, couples/family therapy and group counseling to LGBTQ+ community members. Most community members seek out BHS for the following reasons: experiencing depression, anxiety, symptoms of trauma, grief and loss, or wanting to explore their gender identity or sexual orientation; folx living with HIV; trans/nonbinary community members seeking gender affirming letters of medical necessity for their transition; youth and adults who are victims of a hate crime or hate incident, and community members interested in our RVTIP (Relationship Violence Treatment and Intervention Program) for folx who are survivors as well as those who cause harm.  BHS provides short term treatment, aimed at providing care from start to finish in 12-24 sessions, utilizing more if needed and appropriate. We are contract based and are fortunate to provide care to many community members for free, or using a sliding scale pegged to income, with $20 often being the lowest fee. 

Would you talk about your own experience?
Through my work outside the Center, I served as President of the San Diego Black LGBT Coalition, now known as San Diego Black Pride, from 2021-2023, where I created San Diego’s First Emergency Black Transgender Fund for trans/nonbinary folx seeking emergency support with HRT, housing, food, and transportation. I helped create the Damon J. Shearer Academic Scholarship Fund, Black LGBTQ+ Emergency Fund, and helped start San Diego Black Pride in 2021. Additionally through my role, I directed and produced a documentary film called “Intersectional Lens: The Black Queer and Trans Experience” that was accepted into the 2023 FilmOut San Diego Film Festival. I pioneered the first ever research of its kind, “Characterizing the Prevalence and Perpetrators of Documented Fatal Violence against Black Transgender Women in the U.S. (2013-2021)” which was published in the Violence against Women Journal, and let to a new pilot project through a San Diego CFAR (Center for Aids Research) Kickstarter Grant, Identifying Strategies to Engage Cisgender Male Sexual Partners of Transgender Women into Future Integrated HIV and Violence Prevention Efforts.  

To help our readers get to know you a bit better, do you have any hobbies or interests?
I am a fantasy fiction author. I wrote my debut novel, Grieving Still: Finding the Other Side in 2022. Grieving Still is a young adult urban fantasy fiction novel about three strangers who, while each respectfully mourning someone in their lives, meet by chance. They learn they have magical powers and are the power of three. Though they could not be any more different, they must work together and go on a quest to turn back time in hopes of saving their loved ones from an early demise.  

The next book in the series, Crossing Over: The Garden of Hope will be released in the next few months and follows the same three characters a year later into their grief as they seek to now find the Garden of Hope. 

I also co-facilitate a virtual writing group for Black writers called Black Writers Coffeehouse Group which meets every other Thursday at 6 PM.  When I am not writing, I am cooking and baking in my kitchen.  

How is the Center celebrating Black History Month? 
Black Services was proud to march in the Martin Luther King Jr. Parade on January 19. The Center has an amazing new Black Services Peer Advocate and Case Manager, DeeDee Luckett (she/her). Under her leadership, the Center is hosting “Leave No Crumbs” a meet, greet, and eat with Black Services and local community partners on February 21 from 5 PM – 7 PM in the Center’s Library. The Center is also uplifting several community events such as Black Com!x Day on February 15-16 from 10 AM – 6 PM, a day filled with art, panels, and talented Black creators in the industry; Black History Month at the Teen IDEA Lab every Monday to Tuesday at 6 PM and Wednesday to Thursday at 4 PM to watch films that center Black voices and experiences for community members age 12-18; and Pathways to Success: a Black History Month Panel Celebrating Black Excellence in Business and Education on February 25 at 5:30 PM.

The Center will continue with our Black Services groups including Shades of Color, a peer led empowerment group for Black Men (MSM) on Wednesdays at 12 PM – 1:30 PM, Black Trans and Nonbinary Community Group every 1st and 3rd Thursday from 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM, and Kinspiration, a Black creativity and wellness group meeting on 2nd and fourth Wednesday at 6 PM – 7:30 PM at Sunset Kava. 

How can folx connect with the centers Behavioral Health Services?
Please reach out to BHS by emailing us at counseling@thecentersd.org or by calling us at (619) 692-2077.