In this episode of Transforming Trauma, NARM Senior Trainer Brad Kammer, is joined by Tina Sacks, PhD. an associate professor in the School of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley. Her fields of interest include racial inequities in health, social determinants of health, and poverty and inequality; in other words, how people’s experience of being othered affects their well-being overall. Tina’s professional work emerges from her own experience of being othered as a mixed-raced person and member of the Black and Jewish community. At the core of her work is the idea that love is really what matters and that we must care for one another as humans.
As Tina reflects on her familial history and experience, she remembers having a heightened sense that her family was different. However, it wasn’t until recently that she came to understand the history and the differences as complex trauma. In her studies of ancestral trauma, Tina has found that beyond psychological and relational loss, there is also a material loss that can leave individuals and families vulnerable to further harm. When looking at families in the context of intergenerational trauma, the past often plays out in the present.
Tina shares that her focus on racial and gender inequities in healthcare settings is rooted in her experience growing up as she witnessed the different ways her Black mother and Jewish father were treated, and the ways that both sides of her family experienced being different, marginalized and othered. As Tina became more aware of the American context around race and gender, this led her to focus on how ethno-racial minorities have different, and often unequal, experiences in healthcare settings.
When asked how holding two identities that are consistently targeted lives within her as an individual, Tina proudly shares her sense of survivorship. She acknowledges her powerful ancestors - both physically and spiritually - who survived horrific and persistent trauma in order to allow her to survive. And she hopes she can be a powerful ancestor for the future generations to come.
We are grateful to Tina for the amazing work and awareness she is bringing to the world of healthcare. We invite you to listen to the full episode to learn more about Tina’s lived experience and how she plans to use that experience to promote human connection as a way to create more equality and supportive care for minorities in the American healthcare system.
About:
Tina K. Sacks, PhD, is an associate professor in the School of Social Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley. She studies racial and gender inequities in healthcare settings, social determinants of health, and poverty and inequality. Professor Sacks' work has been published in Race and Social Problems, Health Affairs, and MSNBC News. Professor Sacks also frequently collaborates with the photographer and filmmaker Carlos Javier Ortiz on documentary film projects about issues affecting Black and Latino communities in the US and abroad. Their films have appeared in the Tribeca, AFI, and LA International Film Festivals, among others. Their work has also been published in The New Yorker and The Atlantic. Her recent book Invisible Visits, Black Middle-Class Women in the American Healthcare System, published by Oxford University Press is now available.
Learn More:
Book - Invisible Visits, Black Middle-Class Women in the American Healthcare System
You can listen to this episode on the Transforming Trauma website, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
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