5th Annual Arizona ACEs Summit: Becoming a Trauma Informed State - Overcoming Adverse Childhood Experiences to Create a Healthier Arizona "Adverse childhood experiences can negatively impact a child's life well into adulthood - through identification and assessment, we can develop intervention strategies - creating happier communities for current and future generations of Arizonans. These efforts will move us closer to becoming a trauma-informed state, and help solidify Arizona as the number...

Happy Holidays! For years, there was no other way to describe this time of year, other than heart-breaking. I desperately didn't want to succumb to the Western way of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years celebrations. I felt Thanksgiving was a celebration of genocide. Moving to Arizona rendered me furiously making complaints with all the major stores that displayed "Merry Christmas" signs in their windows. Didn't they realize that there are millions and millions of non-Christians all over...

When I visit my people in West Africa, I often tease them by saying, "If the Europeans ships came again tomorrow, we would be stolen again!" This is a joke to me because I am always amazed by the warm reception I receive when I visit new villages. Despite my light-brown skin, and clearly Western mannerisms, I am always welcomed and cared for. When I present with physical, spiritual or emotional issues, my people immerse me in medicine: Women might dance and cook for 3 consecutive days,...

I am saddened to hear about the death of another Arab young man in Marseilles, France. The reason I started this virtual community was to share stories and shed light. Let's travel to France.... After our time at the Ashram in India, my then 8-year-old son was insistent that we move to China. I had absolutely no intention of going to China. In his few short years he had become an avid martial artist and was determined to study Kung Fu in the Shaolin Temple. My limited adult mind thought it...

Our June meeting focused on best practices in broadening the trauma lens to include structural oppression. Key resources attached.

I walked away from my Western life to sleep on the floor of an ashram. Dissatisfaction had become a normal state of being. I was deeply embarrassed by this. As I canvassed my home I perused every object, and breathed its beauty. My thoughts were about how grateful I was to have a living museum in my house, what a treasure it was to live in a spiritual temple that I created. I was ashamed by my soul’s ambivalence, when it responded so what . Consciously, I counted each and every blessing. I...

As we endure the pain of lost loved ones, manage the anxiety of financial insecurity and potentially fret over becoming ill, it is a brilliant time for change in our country and around the world. There is a special kind of racist exclusion in America. When I took my young son to live in India, initially, he struggled everyday on the bus to school. There was a lot of hazing and bullying from older students. I remember him begging me to please take him to school in a rickshaw so that he didn’t...

Over the next few days, I am going to provide a little food for thought about the loss of cultural identity that has profoundly impacted Africans across the Diaspora. Remember that the descendants of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade that live off of the Continent, are perhaps the only collective in the world that does not know their origin. We are African, but Africa is a continent of fifty-four countries with thousands of different cultures and dialects. Today’s micro-discussion is on...

LEVEL 2 HISTORICAL TRAUMA SPECIALIST CERTIFICATION MARCH 2022!!! The wait is finally over! Iya Affo and Heal Historical Trauma will present: Historical Trauma Specialist Certification- LEVEL 2: A Neurological, Environmental & Cultural Perspective on March 1st & 2nd 2022. LEVEL 2 will cover the following: Neurological implications of Historical Trauma and how to align neurobiology with desired behavioral outcomes. Indigenous Attachment Theory Understanding the injurious relationship...

HEAL HISTORICAL TRAUMA & Iya Affo PRESENT: The Historical Trauma Specialist Certification- Level 1 is a comprehensive understanding of Historical Trauma from a multicultural lens. The training is designed for participants serving, leading, advocating and working with people of color. It is the perfect training for people in a variety of disciplines as well as multicultural families and for anyone with the desire to understand the impact of slavery, genocide and colonization. The course...

Being Trauma-Informed means that we are Culturally Attuned. Heal Trauma Global is a sister company to Heal Historical Trauma and was cultivated to fill a wide gap in stress science & trauma training. The trauma-informed movement is beautiful! It's wonderful that as a society we are moving in a direction that honors an individual's past as part of the driving force behind current behaviors. Yet, time and time again, I have attended trainings that are labeled as Trauma-Informed only to...

In Honor of Black History Month 2k22 Please Enjoy the Following NEW Trainings: Facilitating a Full Expression of Resilience: BIPOC are resilient. In learning how trauma is formed and passed from one generation to the next in our communities, we will understand how to facilitate a full expression of resilience in vulnerable communities. This course takes a deep dive into the reality of flight or fight mode and how many people enduring oppression, discrimination and hate live with a constant...

Louisiana is one of the states with the highest incarceration rates, with a total of 28,387 incarcerations (Department of Public Safety and Corrections, 2020). African Americans make up the highest percentage rates of individuals being incarcerated, followed by Caucasian Americans (Department of Public Safety and Corrections, 2020). With such a massive amount of incarcerations, physical and mental health disparities are at an all time high. There have been several barriers that have led to...

The Ketogenic Diet is a popular diet utilized by many for weight loss and disease management. This is a popular diet that has been known to treat several co-occurring disorders such as epilepsy, diabetes, liver disease, autoimmune disorders, migraines, cardiovascular disease, seizures, degenerative disease, and cancer (Crosby, Davis, Joshi, Jardine, Paul, Neola, & Barnard, 2021). Although the keto diet is approved by many health professionals, it has the potential to cause severe health...