I agree with Mary! I love this line: " The joy on their faces was medicine to my soul." I had a similar observation when visiting Egypt, where I had been warned was so poor and terrible. Within the first hour of my visit I saw more authentic joy in people than I had ever seen in the US, and it made me sad for us. We don't really know what joy is. Part of healing society-wide will be discovering these lost connections.

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...

The elementary school principal routinely broke into tears. At Wednesday afternoon meetings of the Creating Trauma Sensitive Arizona Schools work group, a committee of the Arizona ACE Consortium , the leader of a high-need, inner-city K-5 school frequently wept as she talked about the trauma her students carried into the classroom and the ways it percolated throughout her campus: in lagging test scores, behavior problems, even teacher retention. The other committee members became her...

During the last 10 minutes of the Historical Trauma break-out session of the 5th Annual Arizona ACEs Summit, Elder Prosper Waukon reiterated a magnificent story from the elders. It was the 2nd time I heard it and I was equally impacted by it on Tuesday. Today, I called him to hear it one last time so that I could accurately share it with all of you: Our essence is tied to our land of origin. In the Americas, after 500 years of blood from foreign lands mixing in the soil, all ethnic...

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...

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...

The topic of discussion in my son's Social Studies class had to do with creating the Constitution. In moving from the Articles of Confederation to the United States Constitution, the Northerners and Southerners had to come to an agreement on many topics. The 3/5 Compromise satisfied both parties: It stated that 5 enslaved people would be counted as the equivalent to 3 white people. This is a part of American history. I just wonder how it feels to be the only African-American in the class...

RYSE Center in Richmond, CA was born of out of young people of color (YPOC) organizing to shift the conditions of violence, distress, and dehumanization in which they suffer, survive, succeed, dream, and die. We center the lived experiences of YPOC, we lead with love and sacred rage to cultivate healing and build movement, and we take risks as an essential part of transformation and justice, of liberation. We do this in a physical space that feels safe, welcoming, and affirming; that is...

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...

I LOVE the Salutogenic approach to healing. It puts the appropriate Western words on how many indigenous groups view the healing process. This model allows us to focus on resilience. Being fully engaged with my African community in the Motherland, I will always bare witness to trauma. The beauty is in how I am transformed by these experiences. " Healing centered engagement is akin to the South African term “Ubuntu” meaning that humanness is found through our interdependence, collective...

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.

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-two countries with thousands of different cultures and dialects. Today’s micro-discussion is on names.

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...

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...

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...