Set Apart Conversations

Welcome back to Set Apart Conversations. I am your host, Shenera Boodie-Wienken mental health clinician, trauma specialist, survivor advocate, and watchwoman. I am so glad you are here. If you have been following along, our last episodes took us deep into the Smiles and Shackles series with They Don’t Wear Hoods Anymore, Parts One and Two , where we talked about covert racism, institutional harm,...

“They don’t wear hoods anymore. They wear smiles, neighborly greetings, professional titles, and church clothes. The harm did not disappear. It learned to dress for the room.” SECTION 1: SPIRITUAL OPPRESSION AND SPIRITUAL REPRESSION Understanding the Distinction Before we can talk about what spirit is operating in people who perpetuate covert racial harm, we need to establish a clear working vocab...

Before we name what is hidden, we first ground ourselves in what is true—not perception, not preference, but what is real—because harm often arrives through softness, politeness, and deniability. SECTION 1: NAMING WHAT WE ARE DEALING WITH Covert Racism and the Architecture of Plausible Deniability To understand covert racism, we must first understand what it is not. Covert racism is not a slur. It...

Photo by Marek Piwnicki There is a question I learned to ask the hard way, not from a textbook, not from a training, not from a supervisor sitting across from me in a clinical consultation room. I learned it from living inside the consequences of not asking it soon enough from watching credentials hang on walls, licenses get renewed, professional websites get updated, and business cards get handed...

Photo by Ahmad Odeh There are moments when my soul simply cries. The tears do not come from anger alone. They do not arise from bitterness. They come from grief for what I see when I look around at our world and at our country. Living in Central Pennsylvania became a rupture point in my life. For forty-three years, I carried the belief that certain chapters of our history had largely been left beh...

I want to speak honestly about something that has long sat uncomfortably within me. The language used to describe human division has never fully resonated with my spirit. Words such as race and minority carry a weight that feels misaligned with something deeper and more unified within us. The experiences these words attempt to describe are real and often deeply painful. At the same time, the terms...

There are moments when God reveals something to your spiritual eyes; a person’s heaviness, an unseen presence, or a truth hidden beneath the surface. It isn’t to alarm you or burden you; it’s to teach you how to see without judging. Discernment without love becomes suspicion. But discernment with love becomes intercession. When the Spirit reveals something, it’s not so we can analyze or accuse; it...

Photo by Emmanuel Phaeton This week I recorded a voiceover of Psalm 10, a prayer that has spoken to hearts for centuries. Psalm 10 is raw, honest, and deeply human and it cries out to God in times of injustice, pain, and oppression , yet also clings to His sovereignty and deliverance. I believe these ancient words still resonate today. They remind us that even when it feels like God is far away, H...

There was a season in my life when everything was stripped away. Not just money, not just a home or car but dignity, stability, and what felt like the very breath in my chest. I woke up angry at the sun because it dared to shine through curtains I couldn't afford. I went to bed wondering what it meant to be held, to be seen, to be safe. But then Yeshua came. The Ruach moved. And I got up. I didn't...

Welcome to Set Apart Conversations: Spirit-led healing, truth-telling, and conversations that set you apart. My name is Shenera Wienken, and I’m honored to share this space with you. I am a Clinical Mental Health Counselor, a Christian Life Coach, a trauma survivor, and a woman fully submitted to the Ruach HaKodesh -led by truth, called to serve, and committed to healing. This podcast was born fro...