LA-based life coach Arecia Hester says the fix for Black women and women of color is rest, not resilience. She’s hosting a September workshop to help them start
LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, August 12, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — August is National Wellness Month, and the timing lands hard. New data shows women are burning out faster than men, and the women expected to carry the most are often offered the least support to recover.
In Gallup’s late-2025 workforce data, 31 percent of women said they feel burned out very often or always, compared with 23 percent of men. The gap widens at the top. Among women in leadership, about 29 percent report frequent burnout, against 19 percent of men. A separate 2025 report from Mind Share Partners and Qualtrics found that half of U.S. workers are living with moderate to severe burnout, depression, or anxiety, and that nearly half would worry about losing their job if they spoke openly about it at work.
For Black women and women of color, the load is heavier still. Researchers describe a “Strong Black Woman” schema, the long-standing belief that these women are simply built to handle more. It can sound like praise. In practice it teaches women to minimize their own exhaustion and to keep going well past the point where rest was needed.
“The women I work with aren’t fragile. They’re depleted,” said Arecia Hester, a certified life coach based in Los Angeles who works with women navigating burnout, self-doubt, and major life transitions. “They have been rewarded their whole lives for pushing through. Wellness Month is a good moment to ask a different question. What would it look like to stop pushing and start healing?”
Hester’s coaching begins there. “Rest is not the prize you get after the work is done. For a lot of these women, rest is the work,” she said. “Once they stop performing strength, they finally have room to figure out what they actually want.”
She is turning that idea into a room women can walk into. On Saturday, September 26, Hester is hosting A Woman’s Worth, a three-hour in-person workshop at Crenshaw Yoga and Dance in Los Angeles, from 2 to 5 p.m. Billed as an experience rather than an event, the afternoon guides women through group exercises, a creative project, and shared conversation built to quiet negative self-talk, set concrete short-term goals with plans to act on them, and form a sisterhood of support. The workshop is open to women 21 and older, with doors at 1:50 p.m. Tickets are available on Eventbrite.
“A Woman’s Worth is not just an event. It is a journey toward knowing your worth so you can name what you actually want and go after it,” Hester said.
As economic pressure builds and workplace support, Hester is part of a growing group of coaches and practitioners keeping rest and healing at the center of the conversation, especially for the women most often told to handle it on their own.
About Taking First Personal Development Coaching
Taking First is an LA-based coaching practice founded by Arecia Hester, supporting women through burnout, self-doubt, boundaries, and life transitions. To learn more or book a free consultation, visit takingfirst.com.
Taking First
Arecia Hester
+1 562-743-4842
arihess@takingfirst.com
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