EXCERPT: The United States finds itself at a critical juncture in our history.
The multiple complex and compounding crises that continue to ripple through our society have left many feeling uncertain, unmoored, and traumatized.
COVID-19, longstanding injustices and inequities laid bare, conflict and human rights violations both at home and abroad, economic hardship growing and gaps widening, environmental degradation, political violence, and other significant issues happening individually, interpersonally, and collectively continue to perpetuate stress, fear, challenge, and trauma.
As we find ourselves in survival mode, the impacts of emerging and evolving events and realities that we must adapt and be responsive in order to survive can exhaust and deplete us. It is not unusual or nonsensical to feel a sense of futility, grief, and disempowerment about all we have endured and continue to experience as a collective.
It makes sense that we might feel called to withdraw from action to protect ourselves from the re-traumatization we are bracing for as we navigate an election cycle that looks strikingly similar to the one that came before, evoking a time of deep pain, discord, division, and disconnect.
As we see tangible, palpable harm happening in legislative action fueled by flames ignited through incendiary politicized rhetoric that keeps us complicit in preserving patterns of power that privilege the holistic well-being of some over others, however, we must not bury our heads in the sand.
There is no ambiguity about the agenda that will be pursued if more people who ascend to power operates based on values systems that directly contravene the future we have been working so hard together to build; the once-quiet parts are being said out loud, and follow-through of these words is already happening where key decisionmakers embodying harmful viewpoints stand uncontested.
This moment in history is not like watching a car crash in slow motion where there is not time for anyone to act to intervene and help. We know what needs to be done to prevent what is happening from getting worse, and we also know what it takes to secure a more compassionate, resilient, and healthy future for all.
We must not turn away, hope for the best, and passively await the consequences; it is up to each of us to rise to stand in our collective power and join in action to shift the course of history toward a future where our systems and institutions seek to secure well-being, as well as the dignity and full humanity of all people.
This article presents considerations for realizing and recognizing how we have arrived at this juncture, and also calls on advocates, activists, and partners in change to support transforming the vicious cycles that will endure without trauma-informed intervention into virtuous cycles.
We provide ideas and action steps to respond to the present and predictable patterns that will endure without collective action to disrupt them, supporting a future where the likelihood of re-traumatization is drastically reduced so that all may flourish and thrive.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE: Restoring Wholeness: Cultural Traumatic Reenactment and a Call for Collective Healing (ctipp.org)
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