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A year and a half ago, I lost my father. As an indigenous person, my spirit knows that relationships are never lost, they only transform. As a newborn, you enter into the world with a total dependency on your mother. With each month, neurological development and newly acquired skill, the relationship transforms over the course of your lifetime. When we finally transcend the physical world to join the ancestors, the relationship transforms once again. In my great love and connection to my...

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...

This is SO crazy to me in 2018! They really have no definitive answers as to why more Black babies die in the United States as compared to White babies. The part that is particularly mind-blowing to me is that the issue is NOT consistent with babies born in the United States from African immigrant mothers. I am quickly reminded of the Black woman's history in this country due to the Slave Trade atrocities. It is well known and documented that it was not uncommon for enslaved Black women to...

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

We are RESILIENT! Once we learn to regulate an overactive stress response, ACES survivors are well experienced to work under stress, make sound decisions and overcome ANY and ALL obstacles. WE LOVE UNCONDITIONALLY!! We must learn to mitigate the harm and leverage our strengths! During the 2018 ACES Conference in San Francisco, I had the incredible opportunity to present my work on Historical Trauma. In our journey to healing Historical Trauma and ACES, we must use a Relational Approach...

We welcome members who may not be part of the Phoenix area, but wish to follow, and hopefully to contribute to this important topic! I LOVE that this online community can become a space to share our stories and research, develop an understanding and ultimately cultivate compassion to share with the world about Historical Trauma and its relationship to ACEs, in the particular context of the work we hope to spark in the Phoenix area.

Alongside two elders and a colleague, we arrived at the Centre for Addiction & Mental Health in Toronto, Canada. Our intention was to facilitate the first Canadian/American collaboration to heal Historical Trauma. I vacillated between feeling immensely excited and powerfully emotional; what an honor to be a black woman surrounded by First Nation relatives on Native land. Our first great work was to enter the sacred ceremonial space for prayer and cleansing. As a tribal African woman, I...

Standing on top of Ogun Mountain, in the Sacred City of 41 Mountains, West Africa, I knew my life would forever change. The women from the royal house danced for me. The men drummed me into a trance. They called me by my African name as they welcomed me home. On the soil of my ancestors, the healing began. I am a black woman born in the 1970’s. Nine generations ago, my ancestors were on the continent of Africa inhabiting the Kingdom of Dahomey. We were thriving. Unbeknownst to most, we were...