The Transforming Trauma podcast welcomes special guest Wangui Wanjiru, a Kenyan clinical psychologist and first NARM Therapist on the African continent, who describes Soul Death, the Reclamation of the Soul, and the challenges of complex trauma care in Africa.
Wangui describes the cultural orientation that’s very present in Kenyan culture, a key ingredient being the strong focus on the group over the individual. Sarah, the Transforming Trauma host, points out that this construct is the opposite of what’s common in American culture– where society is more individually focused. Wangui shares about the complex trauma she’s observed within the Kenyan culture. “We exist, but we’re completely disconnected from our individual self.” Wangui says people don’t personalize themselves or each other outside of sweeping social categories. And when people do acknowledge their individuality, they are labeled as “selfish”.
She shares that when a child is born, they have a sense of self, but that “the culture works hard to remove the individual parts of themself, and to deny their own needs,” resulting in what Wangui refers to as “soul death”. Using the NeuroAffective Relational Model (NARM), Sarah points out that denying one’s individuality to stay connected to one’s culture is a way children learn to adapt themselves in the face of developmental and cultural trauma.
While painting the picture of how more communal based cultures work against the individual’s connection with themself, Wangui describes the bind that comes with the desire to remain in connection with your culture. Sarah and Wangui talk about what they’ve learned in their NARM Training– that when someone is more connected with themselves, they actually have more capacity to be connected with others, their community, and their culture. Paradoxically, reconnecting with the self, which pushes against the Kenyan social construct of “the group over the individual”, will actually allow for more connection with the Kenyan culture as a whole.
Wangui reflects on the power of NARM: “Trauma isn't a localized issue. It's a global issue. This is something that needs to be an international movement, it can’t be localized. Personally I feel that societies that are communal, and mainly authoritarian, need NARM. I don’t think any other treatment model has hit the nail on the head more than in NARM in terms of actually being able to capture that communal setting of living. So for me, it’s been a great journey.”
Sarah prompts Wangui to share what it has been like to bring NARM back to Africa and applying the NARM approach to her work with her clients. Wangui shares that with other modalities, she’s had to adapt the modality to her culture. With NARM, Wangui found that the NARM approach provides patients access to healing regardless of their cultural foundation. “NARM is…not a cultural thing,” Wangui explains. “It's human behavior, basic, general human behavior, and it's relational human behavior.”
Sarah asks if healing trauma is possible as cultures are still currently living through trauma. How can one transform trauma amidst ongoing trauma and oppression? “The beauty of reclaiming your self is that when issues come, or even though you’re still living within the trauma, these issues don’t come to an empty soul, or they don’t come to a dead soul. They’re coming to a soul that can resist and choose what gets in and what does not get in. And that’s the empowering part of it. Yes, people might be continuing to go through trauma, but as long as the software within themselves is different, you’re giving them the virus protection. It’s not about getting people out of trauma, it’s not about let’s do this treatment after the trauma is done, it’s letting empower people as they’re going through trauma so they will carry less of it.”
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