Alex Elles words have a way of hitting you right at the exact time you need to hear them. Whether it be a quick-hitting quote that graces your Instagram feed or an entire text worth of wisdom and journal prompts, the author just has a way of shifting perspective with compassion.

But the Maryland-based teacher isnt a wellness guru or self-help aficionado. She rejects gimmicky titles. She wants her audience to know shes just a woman doing the work to figure it out. And she attempts to lay that out in her forthcoming book, How We Heal.

Healing, according to Elle, is a radical act of self-choosing and self-advocacy. How We Heal explores and unpacks the practice of healing, according to personal anecdotes, journal prompts, affirmations and contributions from other women including actor and internet sensation Tabitha Brown, musician Morgan Harper Nichols and writer Nneka Julia. With this book, Elle holds a community conversation.

Its not just my voice, because its the invitation to the reader to explore their own, she said. I think seeing the book finished and seeing the collective experience in these very unique ways, it just showed me that not only is healing possible, but healing truly is communal.

In the book, which is set to be released on Nov. 8, the author and podcast host makes it a priority to show that, though self-work and healing can be hard, it doesnt have to be just that. She said she wants to show Black women especially that their growth journeys dont require struggle to be worthy.

We see the grind, we see the struggle, we hear the messaging in the world. Everybody wants to hear your struggle story, but how long are we going to struggle through it before we find ease? Elle said. Im not really interested in the struggle story. Im interested in the joy story. Im interested in the transformation story, in the lightheartedness of it. Because we all know healing can be hard, but it can also give us a really soft place to land.

The author discusses healing as a communal practice, redefining our narratives as Black women and the ease that should come with growing.