The Pan-Indigenous Neuro Healing & Wellness Program is the perfect opportunity to take the next step in our personal journey or guide clients/community members through Collective Healing from a multi-ideology indigenous perspective merged with 21st century neuroscience.
In the context of our healing and wellness program, indigenous refers to people all over the world whose way of life, and attachment or claims to land have resulted in their substantial marginalization within modern dominant culture. They are a part of a politically underprivileged group who have been an ethnic entity in the locality before the present ruling nation took over power. Indigenous people have a global presence and most often, indigenous culture is inseparable from spiritual practices. Therefore, the foundation of most indigenous cultures is grounded in healing and wellness.
The Pan-Indigenous Neuro Healing & Wellness program is based on ideology that is common among many indigenous communities. We merge the wisdom of different cultures and therefore use the term, pan-indigenous to underscore the fact that although many marginalized original ethnic groups share commonalities, we each have our own unique culture. The term pan-indigenous is meant to honor our individuality rather than perpetuate the consolidated “other” category.
We are beginning to witness science catching up with indigenous cultural knowledge, especially in the field of neuroscience. Today, globally, dominant cultures look to the indigenous peoples for human and earth healing. We know that the medicine people, shamans and elders carry wisdom. Our program seeks to merge ancient healing and wellness practices with 21st century neuroscience to support psychological, spiritual, physical wellness and facilitate healing the dis-ease caused by toxic stress and trauma.
THE PROGRAM
In 2023, we will roll-out the first level of the program, which has two parts:
- 7-hour live virtual training taught via Zoom.
- Collective Healing Retreat (optional)
Our program is ideal for individuals looking to facilitate healing in their own life, as well as for professionals working with people struggling to overcome trauma and toxic stress.
Virtual Training:
The Level 1 virtual training will lay the foundation for healing. We will focus on indigenous principles from all over the world, merged with current neuroscience. We will begin to understand that wellness is more than just the absence of dis-ease. The first step toward healing is in establishing balance. As indigenous people, we know that healing is not a destination or a static condition. Healing comes from consistently seeking the dynamic state of equilibrium in all areas of life. Through the discipline of tending relationships, movement, earth, ritual/ceremony, sustenance, sacred space, and sleep we learn to have balance as the foundation for healing and wellness. Level 1 also focuses on self-determination and how to mitigate the neurobiology that causes maladaptive behaviors and dis-ease. Ultimately, we will learn how to facilitate new neural pathways and continue our movement toward wellness.
*Previous students taught by Iya receive a 20% discount. Please contact Iya to register @ healhistoricaltrauma@gmail.com
Virtual Training Date: July 12, 2023 9am-4pm $299
Register Here
Collective Healing Retreat:
The retreat is a collective healing space that provides the opportunity to put the pan-indigenous healing principles into practice. It is meant to help shift the individualist perspective, which doesn’t support healing, to the ideology that supports communal healing. During the collective healing experience, participants will spend 3-4 days working in community together with the program founder, Iya Affo. The sacred space will offer the following:
Relationship Building- trauma is healed in relationships
Yoga Nidra (sleep yoga) Twice a Day- increases serotonin and dopamine
Restorative Nutrition
Meditation
Practicing Silence
Therapeutic Trauma Massage
1:1 Session with Trauma & Resilience Coach
Sacred Circle- for learning and knowledge integration
Express Interest in the Collective Healing Retreat Here
About us:
PROGRAM FOUNDER:
Iya Affo is the founder of Heal Historical Trauma. As a descendant of spiritual and physical healers, Iya’s life has centered around spirituality, indigenous healing and wellness.
Iya studied Psychology and Physical Therapy and the University of Maryland. During her time as an undergraduate student, she taught math at Eastern Correctional Institute and unexpectedly made her initial foray into impacting inmates with Adverse Childhood Experiences, through the facilitation of a book club centered around Louise Hays’ book, “You can Heal Your Life.”
Iya went on to pursue a Chiropractic education at Life Chiropractic College in San Lorenzo, CA and focused on neurology. Eventually, her education came full circle and Iya earned certification as a Trauma Specialist from the Arizona Trauma Institute. She is a Certified Adverse Childhood Experiences Trainer and a Certified Trauma & Resilience Life Coach. Iya is Certified to facilitate Dr. Bruce Perry’s Neurosequential Model for Caregivers, she is a Certified Trust-Based Relational Intervention practitioner and completed Certification for the Native American based Fatherhood is Sacred/Motherhood is Sacred program. Mrs. Affo is an adjunct professor at the Arizona Trauma Institute and the founder of the only 48-hour, 6-level Historical Trauma Specialist Certification program worldwide. Additionally, Iya wrote the curriculum for Arizona’s Resilience and Empowerment Program being taught in Maricopa County schools and Indigenous communities across Arizona. She founded the Phoenix Rising to Resilience virtual community on the PACEs Connection platform and was recently appointed to the Gilbert Community Engagement Task Force to advocate for people who have been disempowered.
With an eye on indigenous healing practices, Iya has visited more than 30 countries around the world and has spent extended time living and studying in Native American, Yoruba, Buddhist, Hindu and Taoist communities in various countries. While on pilgrimage in West Africa, she studied with Medicine Men and Women to learn the ways of the Shaman and understand the truth about the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. In China, she lived in the Shaolin Temple, the cradle of Zen Buddhism, and immersed herself in Chinese culture. While in China, she also lived among the Taoist in Kunyu Shan. After a spiritual calling to India, Iya sojourned in an ashram (Hindu spiritual community) and lived a minimal lifestyle while imbuing Hindu customs and ideology. Serving Navajo Nation, Salt River Indian Community, Gila River Indian Community, Ho Chunk Indian Community, Chemehuevi Indian Community, and Cocopah Indian Community, Iya found a home among the egalitarian, indigenous people of North America. In 2018, elders invited her to Toronto, Canada to participate in forming the first Canadian/American collaboration to heal ACEs and Historical Trauma. She debuted her presentation, "The Symphony of Traditional Medicine and Western Medicine to Heal ACEs and Historical Trauma" at the 2018 National ACEs Conference in San Francisco, California. Iya is an international speaker on historical trauma, healing and wellness. In November 2022, Iya traveled to Kenya to give a keynote address and workshop at Urgent Africa Fund’s African women’s rights conference attended by six hundred women from fifty-five different nations. Most recently, Iya was featured in a documentary focused on historical trauma, by the producers of the critically acclaimed, “The Wisdom of Trauma”.
Iya strives to cultivate love and inclusivity. She hopes to facilitate reculturing and the subsequent healing of indigenous people all over the world. Iya advocates for the harmonization of Traditional Medicine and Western Medicine to facilitate holistic healing from ACEs and trauma.
For More Information:
healhistoricaltrauma@gmail.com
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