About Us
Mission
Zepp Wellness Center is a 501(c)3 non-profit founded in 2019 by Raquel Savage, a Black queer sex worker and therapist. We provide anti-oppressive, anti-carceral and culturally competent care.
We center the mental health and healing needs of Black queer folks, survivors and sex workers. Our ultimate goal is simple: Black, queer, trans, and sex worker joy and dignity.
Who is Zepp
A story from our founder, Raquel Savage on the origins of Zepp Wellness.
I remember standing outside the door to my grandfather’s study when I was little. A chaotic and cozy room in my grandparent’s basement that served as many things to him. Full of lectures, sermons, and books piled everywhere there was a surface that could hold them. It smelled like a library. Whispers and knowledge and old artifacts. It smelled like him, too. Woody and warm, a safe place to land. And often like peanut butter because, at any given time, he might have just finished a bowl of ice cream with that as a topping.
His presences was celestial to me. I believed he knew everything, could do anything, be anything. Divinity. He took up space, it was impossible not to be pulled into his atmosphere. There he was, always prepared to offer insight or, more often, to ask the right kinds of questions to nudge you toward deeper curiosity. He was provoking in the best sense of the word. But he could also sit in a room with you in silence, give you a look, a hug, expand his energy to surround you, hold you. Everything would be fine.
Everything that I am is because of him.
In vocation he was a minister, a teacher, a writer. And still, so much more. He studied theology in his youth and spent a summer studying Christian-Marxist dialogue. He was a professor of religious studies and taboo topics like human sexuality, death & racism, Malcolm X, and the culture & religion of Islam.
He presided at weddings & funerals, and offered invocations, comfort and wisdom during difficult moments in people’s lives. He authored a dozen books; exploring, questioning, professing and approached teaching as an art. As a religious experience; a shared space of fascination and inquiry. And, as often as he could, he spent time in service of others and ceaselessly demanding that people impacted by systems of violence were centered, supported and seen.
I was never religious and often baited him into discussions about the existence of god to which he would affirm that whatever I believed was my choice and that, in the end, what mattered more than devoutness was compassion. To believe in something, anything, as long as it’s rooted in caring for others. As long as it moved me to question and confront and challenge and disrupt. To develop a deep and selfless love for others. For all the disobedience I embodied, he met it with a smile. Booming laughter. He was never discouraged by my defiance, in fact, he was quite thrilled by it and said that I was his teacher. He is what emboldened me to do what’s right, no matter what. And to know that doing so is not only my obligation, but a source of deep fulfillment and connection.
Zepp Wellness continues his legacy. To serve. To care. To love. And I’m proud to carry on his name.
– Raquel Savage, Founder of Zepp Wellness
Meet the Staff
Raquel Savage, Founder & Therapist
Melissa Trujillo, Chief Operations Officer
Kleopatra Black, Run Me My Coin Consultant
Why is this work important?
Mainstream mental health services frequently fail sex workers by operating from a place of stigma, carceral systems and harmful assumptions. At Zepp Wellness, we believe in self-determination, autonomy and the celebration of erotic labor. Our offerings are designed to fill these gaps, providing, non-carceral, trauma-informed and truly accessible support, without strings attached. We serve everyone by rejecting anti-trafficking propaganda and focusing instead on abolitionist, community-based interventions
Past Programs
Run Me My Coin
Black trans femme sex workers experience compounded discrimination, making access to safe, stable housing incredibly difficult. The RMMC fund recognized that autonomy means trusting people to know what they need and providing resources without the typical red tape. Throughout the program we disbursed over $50,000.
Sex Working Therapist Support Group
There is a severe lack of nuanced support for professionals holding dual identities. This group provided a crucial, safe space for therapists who are also sex workers to help navigate their unique experiences within the mental health industry.
1:1 Intensive Mental Health Coaching
Conventional therapy is often carceral, relying on mandated reporting and involuntary hospitalization. These practices increase vulnerability four our community. Our “for us, by us” approach meant offering non-carceral, affirming therapeutic support for sex workers by sex workers.
