Me Deh Yah… Barely
The difference between being present and actually being okay.
Reason with the project →Culture · Conversation · Storytelling · Mental Health
How Yuh
Really Do?
A Jamaican space for honest conversations about mental health, culture, family, grief, relationships, identity and everyday life, in language that feels familiar.
START WHERE YOU ARE
Wah Gwaan Wid
Yuh Today?
You don’t have to know the right mental-health word. Start with how life feels right now.01
Mi Nuh Good Today
When things feel heavy, confusing or too much.
Start here →02Mi Head Full
Anxiety, overthinking, stress and overwhelm.
Start here →03Mi Tired Fi Pretend
Emotional exhaustion and smiling through pain.
Start here →04Mi Miss Somebody
Grief, loss and complicated goodbyes.
Start here →05Mi Feel Alone
Loneliness, isolation and needing connection.
Start here →06Mi Need Fi Talk
Finding support and starting a conversation.
Start here →THE THINGS WI CARRY
Mental Health,
Jamaican Style.
Sometimes the hardest part isn’t what we feel. It’s what we’ve been taught we’re allowed to say about it.ORIGINAL YAADIE PROJECTS
From Wi Yaad
Stories, conversations and learning shaped here at home.
Men Don’t Cry
Challenging the silence around Jamaican men’s emotional lives.
Reason with the project →
Smile Off the Pain
What we hide behind humour, strength and everyday performance.
Reason with the project →Lime & Learn
Where culture, storytelling and education meet.
Reason with the project →
One Drop of Hope Postcards · Yaad Collection
Mi still
deh yah.
A meaningful message. A moment worth sharing.
Caring words for the days when talking is hard. Mental-health support and emotional connection, in the language and relationships we know.
Browse the Postcard Collection →In development · Not yet on saleFree Resources | The Reading Room
Some Tings Worth Talking About
Free publications exploring depression, mental health and everyday life through Jamaican experiences.
Visit The Reading Room →BOOKS & PUBLICATIONS
Work that grew
from the reasoning.
Mental-health resources, culturally specific editions, broader works, cultural learning and storytelling from the wider body of work.
365 Days With Depression
365 Days Wid Depression
So, Depression’s Got You Hating Yourself Too Unh?
Love, Loss & Becoming
Cook & Cope
Mek Di Mic Know Yuh Name Volume 1
THE YAADIE CHRONICLES EDITION
One Drop
of Hope
Created especially for Jamaican audiences, One Drop of Hope shares mental-health education, lived experience, Caribbean stories and culturally grounded conversations in a distinctly local voice.
One publication project, two editorial expressions. The Depression Chronicles carries the broader international-facing edition.Read the Independence Special Edition →FI DI MEN DEM
Strength and silence
are not the same thing.
Grief. Anxiety. Fatherhood. Financial pressure. Anger. Loneliness. Relationships. There must be room for the whole man, not only the part that can endure.
PRIVATE, CONFIDENTIAL ONLINE COUNSELLING
A Space to Talk.
A Place to Be Heard.
Sometimes, having someone to talk to can make a meaningful difference.
Whether you’re navigating depression, anxiety, relationship difficulties, family challenges or simply going through a difficult season, you deserve a space where you can speak openly and feel heard.
Our individual counselling sessions offer compassionate, non-judgmental support through private, face-to-face video calls.
You can connect from a comfortable location, without needing to travel to an office.
You don’t have to have all the answers before starting a conversation.
Counselling is provided through The Depression Chronicles. Enquiries are welcome from Jamaica, the wider Caribbean and internationally, subject to applicable service arrangements.Enquire About CounsellingPICKNEY & TEEN CORNER
Pickney Have
Feelings Too
Resources for parents, caregivers, schools and teens, because young people deserve language for what is happening inside them.
Explore school programmes
BASIC SCHOOL
Big Feelings, Little Voices
An early-years emotional-wellness programme helping little children begin to recognise, name and safely express big feelings.
PRIMARY SCHOOL
Matters Of Mi Mind
A culturally grounded primary-school mental-health and emotional-wellness programme helping Jamaican children understand feelings, coping, self-worth and the things happening inside their minds.
HIGH SCHOOL
Unpack Yuh Headspace
A high-school mental-health programme creating honest, age-appropriate conversations around emotional wellbeing, stress, identity, coping and the pressures young people carry.
YAADIE CHRONICLES | LEARNING
Rooted in culture.
Built for learning.
Explore practical learning, creative expression and knowledge shaped by Jamaican experience, with ideas and skills that travel beyond our shores.
Explore learningFAITH & EMOTIONAL WELLBEING
Faith, Prayer &
How Wi Really Feel
There is room in the pew for questions, grief, medication, therapy and prayer. Faith can hold emotional honesty without turning suffering into spiritual failure.
Enter the conversation →JAMAICAN STORIES
Wi Story Dem
Matter
Life as we know it, told with dignity, tenderness and truth.LISTEN & WATCH
Listen. Watch.
Reason.
02 · PODCASTPickney Time→FREE YAADIE TOOLS
Two sides of
one conversation.
One tool looks beneath what the struggling person says. The other helps family and friends find a warmer response.01 · WHAT MIGHT BE UNDERNEATH
The Yaadie Depression Translator
Because sometimes “Mi good” doesn’t mean mi good.
Use the translator →02 · WHAT MIGHT HELP INSTEADThings Jamaican People Say When Dem Don’t Know What to Say
Affectionate, honest translations for the responses we reach for when we care but don’t have the words.
Explore the responses →BEFORE YUH GO
Something Fi
Carry Wid Yuh
Even if yuh only came fi one little thing today, tek something useful wid yuh before yuh go.
WHY YAADIE EXISTS
Built from here.
Made for wi.
Jamaican people do not experience mental health outside of culture. Family, faith, money, migration, community, humour and silence all shape how we carry pain and whether we feel free to name it.
The Depression Chronicles developed a wide international community. Yaadie Chronicles was created to give Jamaican audiences a dedicated space speaking directly to local life, culture and emotional experience from the inside.
Read why we’re here →MEET THE FOUNDER
Shelly-Ann
Shaw
Founder & Creative Director
A Jamaican mental-health advocate, educator, writer and speaker whose work brings together mental-health literacy, cultural storytelling, curriculum and resource development, media and community conversation.
Explore Shelly-Ann’s SpeakingSHELLY-ANN SHAW SPEAKS
Things Mi Carry
Into Di Room
Mental health. Jamaican life. Family. Faith. Grief. Humour. Silence. The things wi say, and the things wi don’t.
Shelly-Ann Shaw brings lived experience, mental-health education, cultural storytelling and honest conversation into rooms where people are ready to talk about the things we often carry quietly. Talks can be shaped for schools, churches, workplaces, NGOs, communities, youth programmes, media and cultural organisations.
SELECTED SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS & PROFESSIONAL COLLABORATIONS
Local work. International conversations.
Healthline Media
Invited speaker and content adviser, Advocate Speaker Series on Major Depressive Disorder.East Jamaica Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
Guest presenter, Mental Health Seminar, Jamaica.BetterHelp / InfluenceLogic
Digital mental-health awareness and sponsored-content collaborations, including repeat engagements.Graphy by Unacademy
Educational-platform engagement and collaboration invitations. No unverified project is presented as completed.“Mi Good” Is Doing Plenty Work
What Jamaicans sometimes hide inside the quickest answer we give.
But Yuh Always Laughing!
Why humour, personality and depression can occupy the same person.
Who Tell Yuh Man Nuh Cry?
Masculinity, emotional silence and making more room for Jamaican men to be human.
Pray Bout It… And Then What?
Faith, depression, treatment and why getting help does not mean somebody has stopped trusting God.
When Church Hurt Follow Yuh Home
Spiritual shame, belonging, emotional wounds and what our faith communities can do better.
After Everybody Gone Home
Grief after the funeral, Nine Night, food, visitors and phone calls have quieted down.
Explore Speaking Topics
Pickney Have Feelings Too
What Jamaican children may be communicating through behaviour, silence, anger, fear and withdrawal.
Bad Pickney, Or Pickney Trying Fi Tell Wi Something?
Looking beneath behaviour before punishment becomes our first language.
Strong Black Man. Tired Human Being.
The pressure Jamaican men carry when everybody expects strength and nobody asks what it costs.
“Other People Have It Worse” Never Cure Nobody Yet
Why comparison does not make emotional pain disappear.
Sometimes We Laugh Fi Survive
Jamaican humour as connection, armour, coping and sometimes camouflage.
Healing Inna Wi Language
Why mental-health conversations work differently when people can recognise themselves in the language being used.
Family Love, Family Pressure
How care, expectation, obligation, criticism and silence can exist inside the same Jamaican family.
When “People Ago Talk” Runs the House
Stigma, reputation and the emotional cost of organising our lives around what other people might say.
Mi Deh Yah… Barely
A storytelling conversation about the distance that can exist between being present and being okay.
Invite Shelly-Ann to Speak
Planning something that needs an honest, culturally grounded conversation? Tell us about the room, the people and what you hope the conversation can do.
PARTNER WITH WI
Mek Wi Do Something
That Matter
For schools, churches, workplaces, NGOs, communities, youth programmes, media and cultural organisations ready to hire, commission, license, invite or build meaningful work with Yaadie Chronicles.
Work With Yaadie