In this episode, I speak with my colleague Dr. Chelsea Williams, a psychotherapist who specializes in using nature in therapeutic settings to work with her patients.
Chelsea works with clients struggling with anxiety, depression, relationships and workplace issues. Her specialization areas include intergenerational trauma, attachment, social justice, and somatics.
Passionate about providing trauma informed care within our larger social context, Chelsea welcomes clients who are craving a space to address the harmful impact of white supremacy culture as an inextricable element of personal healing.
This includes white identified folks seeking accountability and growth, as well as bodies of culture, mixed-race, multi-heritage and those walking in the borderlands - those who know all too well the perils of denying the impact of white supremacy as we try to heal our wounds.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Disconnection has led us to live in disassociated, disregulated states within our mind and body; it’s why we seek other things to fill out the voids in our souls.
- Systems of oppression thrive on dissociation. As people, if we reconnect to land and ourselves, systems of oppression would have a hard time working.
- We no longer have collective practices that help men and women process loss, grief and pain - this is we need community.
- We can’t metabolize all that happening in the world. In order to function in the world today, we have to shut down parts of soul, humanity, and critical thinking in order to put one foot in front of the other each day.
- Connection to nature and the land helps us reconnect to ourselves and co-regulate with the environment, and learn to not feel so lonely.
- Ecotherapy is an extractive process that helps teaches the soul and body to release, reconnect, and allow for the flow of emotion.
- To build a tolerance for discomfort; learning to sit with it and process the emotions associated with discomfort helps us heal.
- When the world radicalizes women, there’s already a requirement for discomfort. It’s exhausting and we didn’t sign up for it. It’s will take generations to collectively heal from it.
- In this lifetime, our own body healing is giving permissions to those in our lives to heal as well.
- One of the key factors of trauma is lack of choice. We need to present people with choice, and let their choices guide their healing journey.
- We need full consent from all the parts of ourselves to move through trauma.
- As women of color, we need to give ourselves permission to stop bypassing our lived experiences.
- Sometimes we need people to give us permission because we’ve been indoctrinated to do so.
- Listen to your intuitive, warrior self; you are more than qualified to do what you’re doing!
- We need to step outside the way we’ve been conditioned.
- We need to go inward, there’s a reason winter exists. Give yourself permission to rest, and explore your inner world.
- Give yourself permission to stop believing the urgency. Urgency is a characteristic of white supremacy and capitalism.
- Set boundaries, “you are not allowed to exact from me anymore.”
Other Links:
The Alliance for Ecotherapy & Social Justice - https://theaesj.com/
Find out more about my work at https://macalarose.com.