About
Shalanda Shaw
“Even when words fall short, pain itself can still find a voice.”
The writer
Shalanda Shaw is a writer whose work skillfully explores mental health, faith, and resilience through poetry. Her debut book, The Pain Sings a Song, is a narrative poetry memoir that reflects on lived experience and the sustaining power of spirituality. Through her writing, Shaw creates space for honest conversations about healing, recovery, and hope.
During her adolescence, Shaw confronted bipolar disorder and discovered writing as a vital tool for survival rather than mere expression. Poetry became a way to translate pain into meaning and silence into language. Through this work, she channels personal challenges into a voice that resonates with and supports others navigating similar journeys. Born and raised in Jamaica, Shaw later moved to the United States as a teenager, an experience that deeply shaped her perspective and creative voice.
Her cross-cultural background informs her work with nuance and emotional depth, grounding her belief that even when words fall short, pain itself can still find a voice. Drawing from her lived experience, Shaw pursued education as a path toward understanding and growth. She currently works in Human Resources, where she supports individuals in finding meaningful careers while continuing her commitment to advocacy and storytelling.
Her story
Illness and recovery
Shalanda Shaw was born and grew up in Jamaica. She was a very smart little girl and started to attend school at the age of two years and three months. Shalanda had a fair number of friends, but at the age of twelve, she began to withdraw. She became dismal toward her siblings, though she was still very protective of them. Later, it was revealed that these were symptoms of bipolar disorder.
When Shalanda was sixteen, her mother mentioned that she might have bipolar disorder. Shalanda looked it up, and she could check off almost everything on the list. So, Shalanda agreed to treatment. This presented relief for her, knowing finally a label for her pain. Through the years, Shalanda’s diagnoses changed, but two things remained constant: She stayed in school, and her bipolar disorder symptoms persisted.
Education
What she studied
Associate
Psychosocial rehabilitation — joint program at Middlesex County College and Rutgers University. Outstanding Clinical Performance award from the dean.
Bachelor
Psychology, summa cum laude — Kean University.
Master
Organizational leadership, with honors — Rider University.
The psychology degree matters to how the book reads. Shaw knows the clinical vocabulary for what happened to her and chooses, in the poems, not to hide behind it.
Dedication
To my mother
“To my mother, for she has been through the ups, downs, breakthroughs, walls, and successes. She is my biggest support. I love you, Mommy. You are the best.”
It was her mother who first said the words “bipolar disorder” out loud, when Shalanda was sixteen. Families are often the first to notice a change and the last to be given any guidance about what to do with it.
Context
Bipolar disorder, in plain language
Bipolar disorder is a mental illness marked by clear shifts in mood, energy, activity and concentration — periods of unusually elevated or irritable mood, and periods of depression. It is treatable, and it is lifelong. This section is general information, not a diagnosis and not advice about anyone’s treatment.
The National Institute of Mental Health describes bipolar disorder as involving distinct episodes rather than ordinary mood variation, and it is common enough that most people know someone affected: an estimated 2.8% of US adults in a given year, and 4.4% across a lifetime. Past-year prevalence is close to identical in men and women. What sets it apart in NIMH’s own data is severity — an estimated 82.9% of affected adults had serious impairment, the highest share of any mood disorder the institute tracks.
Two details in Shalanda’s account are more typical than they look. The first is the age. She withdrew at twelve and was not named until sixteen, and that gap — behaviour first, explanation much later — is a recognised pattern rather than a personal failure. The second is that her diagnoses changed over the years. Mood disorders are diagnosed from a pattern observed over time, and the picture is often revised as more of that pattern becomes visible. A changed diagnosis usually means the clinicians are watching properly.
Treatment is usually a combination: medication managed by a prescriber, and structured talking therapy. NIMH groups the latter under psychotherapies, which include approaches that teach people to notice and regulate emotional states rather than simply endure them. Part Six of the book is where this material shows up in verse — coping skills, support, and the ordinary habits that hold a week together.
Why she writes
On stigma, and why silence is the expensive part
The book’s preface puts it directly: “Recovery is a struggle; however, instead of this being understood and supported by society and our close loved ones, it is stigmatized. People need to listen and lend a helping hand.”
Stigma is not only an attitude; it has a practical cost. It shows up as delay in seeking help, as concealment from employers and congregations, and as isolation at the exact point when contact with other people is protective. Organisations like NAMI and Mental Health America build much of their public education around this, because the illness and the secrecy around it are two separate problems and the second one is the one a community can actually fix.
This is the argument behind Shaw’s advocacy work and behind her speaking: a room that decides to listen changes what is possible for the person in it who has not spoken yet. It is also why the poems were published rather than kept. “People, do not be afraid to advocate! Sing your pain.”
Questions
About Shalanda
Where is Shalanda Shaw from?
She was born and raised in Jamaica and moved to the United States as a teenager. She has said that the cross-cultural experience shaped both her perspective and her writing voice.
What is her background besides writing?
An associate degree in psychosocial rehabilitation from a joint Middlesex County College and Rutgers University program, with an Outstanding Clinical Performance award from the dean; a psychology degree from Kean University, summa cum laude; and a master’s in organizational leadership from Rider University, with honors. She works in Human Resources.
Is The Pain Sings a Song autobiographical?
Yes. It is a memoir in poems, drawn from her own experience of bipolar disorder, faith and recovery. The book page sets out how the seven parts are arranged.
Does she offer counselling or clinical advice?
No. She is a writer and an advocate with lived experience, not a clinician, and nothing on this site is medical advice. For treatment, speak to a licensed provider — the SAMHSA National Helpline on 1-800-662-4357 can refer you to services near you.
How do I contact her?
Through the contact form. Speaking invitations are answered first; she also reads notes from readers and enquiries about book clubs and bulk orders.
If you need help now
Where to find real support
This website is a book, not a crisis service, and nothing on it is medical advice. The organisations below are staffed by people who are trained for this, and all of them are free.
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
Call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org. Free, confidential, 24 hours a day, every day, across the United States. It is for suicidal crisis, mental-health crisis and substance-use crisis alike — you do not have to be at the worst point to call.
NAMI HelpLine
1-800-950-6264, or text “NAMI” to 62640, Monday to Friday, 10am–10pm ET. The National Alliance on Mental Illness answers questions about diagnosis, treatment and local services. It is explicitly not a crisis line — for a crisis, use 988. More at nami.org.
SAMHSA National Helpline
1-800-662-4357 (1-800-662-HELP), free and confidential, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, in English and Spanish. It is a treatment referral service: it will point you to local providers and support groups. See samhsa.gov.
Peer support
The Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance runs peer-led groups, online and in person, for people living with mood disorders and for the people who love them. Mental Health America publishes free screening tools and plain-language guides.
Outside the United States, contact your local emergency number or health service.
Read the book
Seven parts, three hundred and thirty-three pages, and a new writing section for readers.
Sources
Where these figures come from
Every statistic on this page is attributed. Where research is early or mixed, this page says so rather than rounding it up into a promise.
- National Institute of Mental Health, Bipolar Disorder. Definition, episode types and treatment overview.
- National Institute of Mental Health, Bipolar Disorder — Statistics. Prevalence among US adults and degree of impairment.
- National Institute of Mental Health, Psychotherapies.
- National Alliance on Mental Illness, NAMI HelpLine.
- Mental Health America, mhanational.org. Public education and free screening tools.