books on ancestral healing and intergenerational trauma

She explains that we can use that anger to question parts of life and systems around us that no longer serve us. Jennifer believes that our ancestral anger can be channelled and transformed into revolutionary practices that can lead us down a path for liberation. For example, the trope of the “Angry Black Woman” or “Savage Indian” are just a few ways in which white supremacy has created shame for Black and Indigenous people to express their rage against colonisation. Jennifer tells me: “since rage is born in the face of trauma, marginalised Black, brown and Indigenous bodies are frequently on the front line of this burden.” Colonists have always benefitted from demonising the anger expressed by BIPOC through violent tropes in media, and racist, violent structures. Through Decolonizing Therapy, Jennifer discusses how doing so can be a means to connect with our ancestors. One of the key components of Jennifer’s practice is embracing and working through intergenerational anger. Jennifer goes on to describe decolonising therapy, or even further the decolonisation of our entire health system, as “soul shadow work,” which to her involves “looking at the things we wanted to avoid for a long time to get to the root of the pain.” This root being the displacement of Black and Indigenous people globally, not only from our land, but from our traditional forms of healing and living, outside of violent structures such as capitalism and patriarchy. However, therapy is still largely a practice that is dominated by Westernised structures, and doesn’t often centre the experiences of those living with colonial intergenerational trauma. Therapy is now becoming common enough that we now have apps on our phones that allow you to search for a therapist in your area as well as facilitating virtual therapy sessions. It therefore requires the process of decolonisation to be an act of psychological and physical resistance.Īlthough turning to psychiatry, therapy and counselling as a solution to mental health issues is still rejected by many groups of people, such as those that feel it contradicts with their religious or moral beliefs, slowly some of the taboo is beginning to lift around seeking help from medical professionals. Such a definition sees colonisation as an action, perpetrating both psychological and physical forms of violence. These are acts of violence on our spirits: they take away our agency, and change our way of thinking to be more aligned with Western forms.

Jennifer believes that colonisation was, and continues to be, the act of kidnapping, removing, extracting, and taking without permission of land and peoples. Decolonisation as an act of psychological and physical resistance Decolonizing Therapy is a platform and collective that is focused on supporting BIPOC and LGBTQI+ people of the global majority to address mental health issues and shift the world’s understanding of therapy and counselling in a way that centres healing, liberation and decolonisation.Īfter speaking with Jennifer, I found myself reframing the ‘work’ of healing as an Indigenous woman and viewing it instead as a gift from my ancestors. This was especially true when it came to witnessing the different forms that anger took amongst the people in her family and community.Īs Jennifer embarked on her own healing journey through education, counselling, and teaching, Decolonizing Therapy came together. Growing up, Jennifer increasingly noticed how the colonisation of her ancestors impacted her daily life.

For Jennifer, a Black mixed-race Panamanian and Indigenous woman, the process of reconnecting with ancestral knowledge and healing intergenerational trauma is one of decolonisation.

This is a question that has been swirling in my head and heart for some time now, and it’s no surprise to me that my ancestors keep providing answers by aligning my pathways with healers and dreamers like Dr.

The comfort that this provided led me to question how long my ancestors had been waiting for someone like me to break through and reconnect with our knowledge about aligning our minds, body and spirit when we speak of wellness? It has pushed me to find Indigenous mentors and community, realising that it’s in these spaces that I am reconnecting with ancestral ways of coping with grief and anger. As someone who has experienced deep grief in the last couple of years over the loss of my father, his departure has unravelled many ancestral emotions within me. Untangling the complexity of intergenerational trauma that we carry as people of the global majority is anything but a light hearted task.

Books on ancestral healing and intergenerational trauma