Empowering Women Through Boxing & Wellness
Find out more about our "Release Therapy" Program
Who We Are at Black Girls Box
Who We Are
Dr. Cynthia Williams
Coach Maria Merritt
Black Girls Box was founded on the principles of teaching women of color, boxing as a form of therapy, to create a space where women can release trauma.
A cross-sectional analysis published in The Lancet Psychiatry examined exercise habits and mental health data from 1.2 million Americans collected across three separate years. Among all th
Black Girls Box was founded on the principles of teaching women of color, boxing as a form of therapy, to create a space where women can release trauma.
A cross-sectional analysis published in The Lancet Psychiatry examined exercise habits and mental health data from 1.2 million Americans collected across three separate years. Among all the exercise types studied, boxing stood out. People who trained in boxing reported a mental health burden that was 20.1% lower than people who didn’t exercise at all.
That number deserves a second look. Not jogging. Not cycling. Not yoga. Boxing delivered one of the strongest associations with improved mental well-being of any exercise type in the study.
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Coach Maria Merritt
Dr. Cynthia Williams
Coach Maria Merritt
Maria Merritt is a professional and amateur boxing coach, adjunct professor, and community leader dedicated to using boxing as a platform for health, empowerment, and inclusion. She serves as a founding trainer at AFighter4Life Boxing & Fitness in Atlanta.
As the founder of Healthy Hitters Inclusive Boxing, Maria has developed an innovativ
Maria Merritt is a professional and amateur boxing coach, adjunct professor, and community leader dedicated to using boxing as a platform for health, empowerment, and inclusion. She serves as a founding trainer at AFighter4Life Boxing & Fitness in Atlanta.
As the founder of Healthy Hitters Inclusive Boxing, Maria has developed an innovative boxing program designed specifically for children on the autism spectrum and individuals with diverse abilities. Her mission is to make the transformative benefits of boxing accessible to everyone by creating inclusive, evidence-based programs.
Maria also serves as an adjunct professor at Spelman College, where she teaches boxing fitness and wellness. Through every role she holds, Maria Merritt remains committed to empowering individuals to discover their strength and purpose both inside and outside the ring.
Dr. Cynthia Williams
Dr. Cynthia Williams
Dr. Cynthia Williams
Dr. Cynthia Williams is the heart and soul behind Love From Afar Grief Recovery Agency, as well as the Christopher Allen Williams Foundation and Parents Against Distracted Driving (P.A.D.D.). With a profound personal history of loss following the tragic death of her eldest son, Christopher, in 2006,
Dr. Cynthia has transformed her grief
Dr. Cynthia Williams is the heart and soul behind Love From Afar Grief Recovery Agency, as well as the Christopher Allen Williams Foundation and Parents Against Distracted Driving (P.A.D.D.). With a profound personal history of loss following the tragic death of her eldest son, Christopher, in 2006,
Dr. Cynthia has transformed her grief into a powerful force for good. She is a two-time author, with titles including "Concrete Soil" and "After My Daddy Left," which delve into overcoming grief and childhood trauma, respectively. Her work is driven by a passion to provide others with the tools needed for healing and resilience.
what is release therapy?
“Release therapy” feels powerful because it gives language to something many people experience but can’t explain: the difference between understanding emotion and actually releasing it from the body.
So many people live from the neck up analyzing, suppressing, enduring, staying composed, while the body quietly carries fear, grief, rage, shame, heartbreak, and survival.
For many women, especially Black women, there’s deep conditioning to contain everything:
be strong,
be quiet,
be agreeable,
don’t unravel,
don’t take up space.
Boxing disrupted that containment.
Not through destruction — through expression.
The punches.
The breath.
The sound.
The movement.
The exhaustion afterward.
Instead of silently absorbing stress, your body finally had somewhere for it to go.
That’s why the vocalization mattered so deeply. Making sound while exerting force requires permission:
permission to be heard,
permission to take up space,
permission to stop compressing yourself.
Because anxiety is not always just thought.
Sometimes it’s trapped activation in the nervous system with nowhere to go.
Boxing gave it somewhere to go.
And beyond fitness, it became nervous system training:
how to breathe under pressure,
move instead of freeze,
stay grounded while overwhelmed,
recover after impact,
trust your body again.