Meghan Markle and Prince Harry group up with Joe Biden’s social employee daughter Ashley to construct ‘trauma-informed’ wellness centre

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have partnered up with US President Joe Biden‘s daughter Ashley to create a wellness hub for women impacted by trauma in Philadelphia which pioneers a radical new type of therapy.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, who insisted that they would remain politically neutral in public ahead of the presidential election in November, are now connected with the First Daughter, 43, albeit through a non-partisan initiative, People reports.

Their Archewell Foundation is a founding partner in Ashley Biden’s wellness hub which, among other things, treats women who have been victims of trauma with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy – something Ashley herself credits with helping her process her brother Beau’s death. 

Beau Biden tragically passed away at the age of 46 in 2015 after being diagnosed with an aggressive brain cancer, glioblastoma. His death is just one in a series of tragedies that have befallen the Biden family; with the president’s first wife Neilia (mother to Beau and Hunter) and one-year-old sister, Naomi, dying in a car accident in 1972.

Harry and Meghan’s support for Ashley’s centre was revealed in the foundation’s Impact Report for the 2023-2024 year, which was published on Monday and illustrates the Duke and Duchess’ philanthropic efforts through the organisation that they founded in 2020.

The foundation reportedly donated $250,000 to the Women’s Wellness (Spa)ce, ‘a mindfully designed drop-in wellness centre for women to congregate, create, educate, and meditate’, according to the Archewell Foundation’s 2023 tax records.  

Based in north Philadelphia and created by Ashley, the space aims to ‘improve all aspects of wellbeing – mental, physical, spiritual, and financial – through healing ourselves, caring for one another, and acting on behalf of our communities’, a post on its Instagram page revealed.

In an interview with Elle in 2023, Ashley explained how she envisioned the space as a ‘drop-in space where women can eat a healthy meal, hit the treadmill or box, listen to guided meditation, and access therapies including EMDR and infrared saunas’.

The principle of EMDR, which Prince Harry has previously praised for helping him process his past, is that the mind can heal from trauma by using external stimuli to help the brain process the traumatic experience and facilitate healing.

Experts have compared EMDR to the physical practice of removing a foreign object from a wound to help it heal. 

In the UK, EMDR is recognised as a treatment for PTSD by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and is offered on the NHS.

During sessions, a client will be asked to hold different aspects of a memory in their mind. They are then encouraged to use their eyes to track the therapist’s hand as it moves back and forth across the client’s field of vision, or to tap their hands.

Studies have connected these processes with the biological mechanisms involved in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which bring out internal associations and help people to process memories and disturbing feelings.

While critics have dismissed it as pseudoscience, EMDR has a body of scientific research behind it that proves it to be effective for the treatment of severe trauma.

Not only is it available on the NHS, but training is compulsory for Ministry of Defence mental health personnel on the front line.

The practice was invented in 1987 by Dr. Francine Shapiro, a Senior Research Fellow Emeritus at the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, California.

Speaking about her experience, Ashley said: ‘I was able to get great treatment, and so I’ve been able to take some of those things that I’ve learned in therapy and use them as well. 

‘EMDR did wonders for me when it came to my brother’s death,’ she added, explaining how she suffered from PTSD following the death of her brother, Beau Biden, who died in 2015, aged 46, after being diagnosed with brain cancer.

‘If you have money and something happens, you can go to the best therapist you can find,’ Ashley continued. ‘That doesn’t happen for people who are living in poverty.’

Ashley has previously paid tribute to her late brother in public on a number of occasions; namely at his funeral when she described herself as ‘the luckiest kid sister’ to have been raised by Beau and her other older sibling, troubled Hunter Biden.

Speaking to the Today programme in 2021, Ashley described Beau as ‘such a fine man’.

She said: ‘He also had a fun, goofy side; a great sense of humour. I miss just being with him. Being in the same room, saying nothing.’ 

Ashley again addressed her late brother at the Democratic National Convention in August.

Speaking to a crowd of thousands, she said: ‘When Hunter and I lost our brother Beau to cancer in 215, the grief and the pain felt like it might never end.’

Praising her father, she added: ‘Dad [President Biden] had the capacity to step out of his own pain and absorb ours and I know that Beau is here with us tonight as he is always with us.’

She added that, after her brother’s death, she had a tattoo inked on her wrist in his memory, which reads: ‘Courage, dear heart’. She said it represented ‘a reminder to myself to keep going, to get back up, like my dad has always done.’

She also alluded to a connection between her late brother and her father’s presidency; with Beau passing away at the age of 46, while Joe Biden became the 46th president of the US. 

Ashley, daughter of President Biden and First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, is a social worker and earned her master’s in social work through the University of Pennsylvania, based in Philadelphia.

In the interview with Elle, the First Daughter opened up about her hopes to create a wellness centre for women impacted by trauma in partnership with Mural Arts Philadelphia.

‘Drawing from her experience with the criminal justice system, Biden’s initiative is inspired by her work with Mural Arts’ Women’s Reentry Program, providing support and opportunities for formerly incarcerated women,’ the Impact Report explained. 

‘The center aims to offer a safe haven and community for women impacted by trauma, providing resources such as nutritious food, exercise, meditation, and therapeutic interventions.’