Book: My Grandmother’s hands

“Trauma is a wordless story our body tells itself about what is safe and what is a threat”

There are many approaches to treating trauma. Through my healing career, I’ve been drawn to a cognitive approach to therapy through cognitive behavioral therapy and specifically, Cognitive Processing Therapy for Trauma. Even though I’ve had the privilege to see the incredible work my clients have done to conquer their PTSD-related symptoms, I am also very aware that a holistic approach to trauma is also involving our bodies as much as our minds.

I’ve been incredibly inspired by Resmaa Menakem’s work and the philosophy that healing can also begin with the body.

In my Grandmother’s Hands, Resmaa helps us explore the great impact of Trauma in our bodies through the context of race and gives us the tools to disempower the effects of generational trauma as a way to heal the world. Resmaa shows us how trauma is the great unifier of generations of pain, no matter what our background. He teaches us that addressing our own traumas is the key to collective healing. Resmaa spans the effects of trauma in humanity starting with the middle/dark ages. He confronts the notion that generational trauma is responsible for the majority of racism and white supremacy in this country. And in today's world, we perpetuate these traumas through our own learned behaviors and trauma responses that have been passed down through the guise of "culture" from generation to generation.

This book challenges our own internalized racism and how we continue to project our traumas on other races through the use of law enforcement, social norms, and white fragility.

As a healer, Resmaa guides us through the journey of getting in touch with our ancestor’s pain through somatic practices; providing meditative exercises to help people align with their bodies and find the ways their own traumas are manifested through the body and into behaviors.

I’m incredibly inspired by what Resmaa has shared with the world about settling our bodies and plan to incorporate these practices in my professional work as well as my private life. I think we all need to ask ourselves “If we don’t address our ancient historical trauma, what will we pass down to our children, and to their children, and grandchildren?”