NOT THERAPY. Leverage Brain Science for Resilience & to Heal Trauma

Iya Affo is the founder of Heal Trauma Global & Heal Historical Trauma. As a descendant of spiritual and physical healers, Iya’s life has centered around spirituality, indigenous healing and wellness.

Iya's ancestors hail from the Sacred City of 41 Mountains in West Africa, Barbados, Jamaica and the Bahamas. From the age of 5 years old, she showed compassion and love for people in need, which was fostered by time spent in nursing homes massaging residual limbs for elders affected by limb loss, with her mother. Iya began to develop an interest in neuroscience around that same time which was developed through experiments in the rat lab of Columbia University during her mother’s research as a doctoral student. The first part of Iya's life was focused on physical healing and she pursued education in Nutrition, Massage Therapy and eventually Chiropractic, all the while participating in a variety of indigenous healing practices. Iya has worked with clients in search of healing for 35 years.

Today, she is a Culturalist and Historical Trauma Specialist who earned Western Certification as a Trauma Specialist. Iya is Certified to facilitate Dr. Bruce Perry's Neurosequential Model for Caregiving, and Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI). She is a Certified Trauma & Resilience Life Coach, a Certified Adverse Childhood Experiences Trainer and has completed Certification for the Native American based Fatherhood is Sacred/Motherhood is Sacred program.

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, and Chemehuevi 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. Most recently, she traveled to Kenya where she delivered a keynote address and led workshops on neuro healing.

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.  She recently stepped down from being an executive board member on the Arizona Adverse Childhood Experiences Consortium, but continues to serve as the Chair of the Historical Trauma committee and develop curriculum for the Resilience Empowerment Program. She is an Adjunct Faculty member at the Arizona Trauma Institute\Trauma Institute International, is the founder of 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.