Blog

Our Skin: A First Conversation About Race is the book we’ve been waiting for! The team (Megan Madison, Jessica Ralli, and Isabel Roxas) did an incredible thing: they explained race and racism to young children. Not only did they do it in a few pages of a board book, but they also provided guidance to the adults who will read it to children. As soon as you open the book, the reader is greeted with colorful representations of the authors and illustrator, as well as a note on the purpose and...

Intergenerational trauma Trauma occurs when a person suffers intense emotional pain or a threat to their life or sense of safety to such an extent that it overwhelms their ability to cope . We often think of trauma as occurring from catastrophic or violent events. But researchers have found that daily accumulations of stress , like repeated experiences of racism , can result in traumatic symptoms that are detrimental to one’s physical, mental, and emotional health. In the past 10 years, a...

In Ecuador, ancestral or traditional medicine is the medicine of the different Indigenous peoples and nationalities who live there. While th e Ecuadorian Constitution guarantees its recognition, respect, and promotion, Afro-Ecuadorian ancestral healer María Eugenia Quiñónez Castillo explains that there is still a long way to go to reach a real convergence of wisdom and practices in the country. In this interview, she took time off working at the La Fe (Faith) Ancestral Medical Center and...

Virtual Conference | April 5-6, 2022 Our world gets more complex every day. So it's more important than ever to address the traumas that affect our communities. That’s why we’re coming together at the Hanna Institute Summit: to heal our communities. But why should you join us? Here are the top three reasons people attend the Summit: 1) Learn from Experts From best-selling authors Ibram X. Kendi and Resmaa Menakem to Nancy Dome and Dr. Gary Slutkin, national and Bay Area experts will bring...

In Honor of Black History Month 2k22 Please Enjoy the Following NEW Trainings: Facilitating a Full Expression of Resilience: BIPOC are resilient. In learning how trauma is formed and passed from one generation to the next in our communities, we will understand how to facilitate a full expression of resilience in vulnerable communities. This course takes a deep dive into the reality of flight or fight mode and how many people enduring oppression, discrimination and hate live with a constant...

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., beginning on January 18th we will be hosting a number of events aimed at building The Beloved community. The National Day of Racial Healing offers us an opportunity to reflect upon the principles set forth by Dr. King . We welcome all to join us as we learn from our shared humanity to address the historic and contemporary effects of racism. Use the attached flyer to register for these events!

Dear Young Black Autistics, Hey, friends. I’m a mixed-race Black and Indigenous young adult. I write to you today as someone who was recently your age, and perhaps dealing with struggles not unlike your own. You may notice that you are different from others in how you think, how you see things, and perhaps how you move, too. Racism and Ableism Colors All Our Relationships Our parents have more stress about autism because they already worry about us being killed by police or accused of a...

Hinton, Henderson, and Reed start at the beginning, showing how the abolition of slavery led to a certain insidious ingenuity for Southern lawmakers, who devised “unique forms of policing, sentencing and confinement” in order to “capitalize on a loophole in the 13 th Amendment that states citizens cannot be enslaved unless convicted of a crime.” The resulting Black Codes, Vagrancy Laws, and Convict Leasing ensured that law enforcement would aggressively target newly freed Black people. The...

A sweet, beautiful little girl sees her reflection as she gets her hair done by her loving mom. And then she utters three little words that would break any mother’s heart: “I’m so ugly!” Her mom gasps, instincts kicking in. “Don’t say that!” But by then the daughter has already broken into tears. It’s hard to watch this innocent child’s self-esteem so devastated. Luckily, mom knew exactly what to say to help her daughter remember her worth. It's easy to see why this touching video has now...

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...

LEVEL 2 HISTORICAL TRAUMA SPECIALIST CERTIFICATION MARCH 2022!!! The wait is finally over! Iya Affo and Heal Historical Trauma will present: Historical Trauma Specialist Certification- LEVEL 2: A Neurological, Environmental & Cultural Perspective on March 1st & 2nd 2022. LEVEL 2 will cover the following: Neurological implications of Historical Trauma and how to align neurobiology with desired behavioral outcomes. Indigenous Attachment Theory Understanding the injurious relationship...

One study of high school students, published in September , found that the Black teenagers surveyed were more likely than the white teenagers to have attempted suicide without first having suicidal thoughts or plans. Because suicide screening questionnaires typically ask whether people are having suicidal thoughts or have made plans to hurt themselves, the authors speculated that the questionnaires might fail to identify some Black youths who are at risk of suicide, or that there could be...