Afya- Centro holístico da mulher (Afya- Women’s Holistic Center) is holistic healing center and non-governmental organization located in the neighborhood of Alto do Mateus, João Pessoa, state of Paraíba, Brazil. The organization is comprised of local volunteers from the João Pessoa area and Maryknoll Catholic nuns who moved to Brazil to pursue their religious vows (most of whom are women). Afya receives its name from the Swahili language—Afya means “health” in Swahili to represent the work done at Afya and the cultural background of Afya’s founder, Maryknoll Sister Efu Nyaki. Although the word “women” is also in the name of the organization (a reflection of the initial goal of Afya which was to serve only women), the services at Afya currently are provided to people of all genders. Afya volunteers perform a plethora of different therapies such as massaging, reiki, and somatic experiencing, focusing especially on providing these services (at little to no cost) to the local Alto do Mateus community, which is a predominantly economically impoverished and marginalized community. However, more than just providing these services, Afya volunteers also engage in the process of teaching their local community how to heal themselves and others. This honors thesis project is an analysis of pedagogical traditions at Afya through the lens of womanist critical pedagogy. Womanist critical pedagogy is a conceptualization of pedagogy that combines the work of authors and educators in the United States and in Brazil. It focuses on developing critical thinking among oppressed groups and seeks to propel social transformation that eradicates social/environmental inequalities through building harmony in relationships among communities, spiritual forces, and one’s inner psyche. In doing so, this project has two main goals: 1. illuminate the voices and healing accomplishments of everyday people who are traditionally excluded from scholarly academic spaces; and 2. demonstrate parallels in the ways of thinking between communities in Brazil and communities in the United States. In order to meet both of my objectives and engage in a conversation about womanist critical pedagogy, I ask the following research questions: to what extent can the practices at the center be understood as traditions of womanist critical pedagogy? In which ways does the pedagogical process of obtaining and developing medicinal folk knowledge impact the individual and collective lives of volunteers at Afya? Using interviews, pamphlets, and previous academic research from the years 2000-2000, I build the following argument: womanism is “done” at Afya through four identifiable womanist critical pedagogical traditions: kitchen table talks; mothering; promoting self-exploration; and ancestral connection. Through these traditions both external (collective/societal) and internal (individual) changes occur: individually, through the work at Afya, women learn to break vicious cycles of using synthetic medication excessively and challenge power structures in their family dynamics; collectively, Afya volunteers challenge traditional ruptures between holistic medicine and conventional medicine.