to Address Substance Abuse Tribal OpioidSubstance Use Conference Indigenous Approaches to Building Capacity amp Resiliency to Substance Use Disorder Tennille Larzelere Marley White Mountain Apache ID: 933789
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Historical Trauma: Healing from Trauma to Address Substance Abuse
Tribal Opioid/Substance Use Conference
Indigenous Approaches to Building Capacity & Resiliency to Substance Use Disorder
Tennille Larzelere Marley (White Mountain Apache)
Slide2Presentation OverviewWhat is historical trauma?How historical trauma is perpetuated todayHow connection to culture and community can heal the woundsAn
Indigenist
Stress Coping Model
Slide3American Indians have unique experiences directly related to surviving colonization within the boundaries of the United States. The federal government has attempted to acculturate and
deculturate
American Indians on
their own
lands through government sponsored policies
of tribal/racial
genocide and ethnocide (i.e. destroying
their ethnic
, cultural, tribal being). Examples of
institutionalized acculturative
practices include forcing Native
children into
boarding schools and forbidding them to speak
their Native
languages; outlawing Native religious
practices; forcibly
removing and relocating Indians away from
traditional lands
; and disproportionately removing Indian
children and
placing them into non-Indian homes.
From a Native Son: Selected Essays on
Indigenism
, 1985-1995
Slide4What is historical trauma?
Slide5What is historical trauma?Collective, cumulative emotional wounding across generations resulting from cataclysmic eventsEvents target not just individuals, but a whole collective communityTrauma held personally, across generations
Even those who have not directly experienced the trauma can feel the effects generations later
Slide6Intergenerational TraumaExposure of an earlier generation to a traumatic event that continues to affect subsequent generations Layers of grief due to the erosion of the
family
Erosion
of Tribal
structure
Loss
of cultural traditions and
practices
Loss
of spiritual
ties
Slide7Manifestations of Historical TraumaDepressionSelf-destructive behavior (violence and substance use disorders)
P
sychic numbing
Anger
E
levated
mortality rates from
suicide
Slide8Discussion QuestionsWhat does historical trauma mean to you?What examples of historical trauma do you know about? How have they affected you?
In
what ways do you see the effects of historical trauma impacting and playing out in
your community?
Slide9How is historical trauma perpetuated today?
Slide10What are historically traumatic events?Planned phenomena by governmentBoarding schools, massacres…Environmental traumaImpact on environment
Spiritual Trauma
Prohibition of spiritual practices
Slide11Outside PerpetratorsEligible to be declared insaneBecame educableOutlawed ReligionForced removal of children, far away from community, culture, family
More than 25 boarding schools
100,000 children forced to attend
Slide12Historically Traumatic EventsTraumatic events such as the Wounded Knee massacre, the Trail of Tears, the Navajo Long Walk to Bosque RedondoThe unresolved trauma of genocide, loss of culture, forcible removal from family, and traditional lands (Reservations and boarding schools)
Slide13What are microaggressions?Events involving discrimination, racism, and daily hassles that are targeted at individuals from diverse racial and ethnic groups
Contemporary violent experiences
Often covert in nature
Interpersonal and environmental messages
Verbal and non-verbal encounters that place
b
urden of addressing them placed on recipient of encounter, causing stress
Images or lack of images
Mascots & stereotypical images
cartoonizes
us, makes us unidimensional, makes us invisible
Affects
the psyche of individuals and the group s/he
belongs
Slide14Historical Trauma Response & Colonial Trauma Response (CTR)Historical trauma response is “the cumulative effect of historical trauma brought
on by centuries of colonialism, genocide,
and oppression”
CTR incorporates historical trauma response and includes contemporary and individual responses to injustice, trauma, and
microagressions
CTR is connected to colonialism
Colonialism is the
“historical
and
contemporary traumatic events that reflect
colonial practices
to colonize, subjugate, and perpetuate
ethnocide and
genocide against contemporary AIAN peoples”
Slide15Historical Trauma Response & Colonial Trauma Response (CTR)AIANS who experienced historical trauma as part of their community are also subject to
microaggressions
as individuals
These
everyday injustices “
serve to
connect [the individual] with a collective and
often historical
sense of injustice and trauma
”
I
ndividual may
feel more closely connected with ancestors
who have
experienced historical trauma and sometimes
feel a
particularly strong reaction to the
microaggression
Slide16Microaggressions Invisibilty is reinforced through microaggressive acts
People may
be susceptible to both historical
trauma and
microaggressions
M
icroaggresive
acts
can perpetuate trauma
Daily discrimination can result in more distress and strong negative health outcomes
Slide17Symptoms of Historical TraumaObsessive ruminationsIntrusive trauma
imagery
Nightmares
Maladaptive coping
Survivors Guilt
Numbing
Worry
Depression
Withdrawal
Anxiety
Unresolved
grief
Erosion in community and family systems
More violence
More stress
Alcoholism
and Substance
Abuse
Identification with ancestral pain and deceased ancestors
Psychic numbing and poor affect tolerance
Elevated
mortality rates from cardiovascular diseases as well as suicide and other forms of violent death
Slide18“…The residue of unresolved, historic, traumatic experiences and generational or unresolved grief is not only being passed from generation to generation, it is continuously being acted out and recreated…” C. Wesley-Esquimaux & M. Smolewski
(2004)
“The sign of ultimate oppression working is when the oppressor can take away his hands, stand back and say ‘look at what they’re doing to themselves
.’”
Jessica
Gourneau, Ph.D.
Slide19Discussion QuestionsHow do people and communities experience historical trauma?In what ways have you observed or experienced microaggressions?
Have you ever dismissed them because you second-guessed or doubted that they happened or were of significance? If so, why do you think you had that response?
What federal or state policies, societal/community pressures, or initiatives may contribute to
microaggressions
?
How might reflecting on the long-term effects of historical trauma influence how you think about current pressing social/political issues?
Slide20How connection to culture and community can heal wounds
Slide21What is cultural healing?Connecting people to their cultural identity through understanding traditions, customs, and practicesWhat does it mean to be a good human being?What does it mean to eat well?
How do we conduct ourselves
?
Reconnecting and reestablishing relationships with self, body, mind, spirit, culture, community, and history
Creating new historical narratives
Slide22What is cultural healing?Examining the effects of historical trauma not only within a single individual or family, but across entire communitiesWhat were the original instructions for the people?What were the historically traumatic events that happened to the community?
How did the community respond?
What were the survival strategies?
What were the family’s responses?
Slide23What is cultural healing?ConversationContactConnectingListening
Going deeper
Going behind the pain
Listening, caring and giving voice to what is carried forward across generations
helping people process grief of past and current trauma
What is it that you cannot say?
Slide24Cultural Health Discussion QuestionsWhat cultural practices do you use to support your own health and wellness? Do you consider the practices to be healing?
How
can you support the preservation of cultural traditions, languages, and practices of others?
How
can knowledge about historical trauma inform the ways
individuals/workplaces/communities/societies/cultures
promote cultural healing?
In
what ways can you support healing from historical trauma
and
microaggressions
through connecting
people, families, and/or communities?
Slide25Indigenist Stress-Coping ModelWalters, K.L., & Simoni, J.M. (2002). Reconceptualizing Women’s Health: An “
Ingienist
” Stress-Coping Model.
American Journal of Public Health 92
(4): 520-524.
Slide26Indigenist Stress-Coping ModelIdentifies how “cultural buffers” moderate the effects of historical trauma and
microaggressions
on
the health of AIAN
women
I
dentity
attitudes, enculturation, spiritual methods of coping, and traditional healing
practices
Buffers/coping strategies describe pathway between historical
trauma (and other traumatic
experiences) and
health
outcomes
P
hysical
health,
mental health
, and alcohol and drug
use
Slide27Indigenist Stress-Coping ModelModel highlights protective factors rather than pathologyEmphasizes resilience within AIAN
communities
C
ultural
buffers identify why some AIANs have better health outcomes than others in the midst of stress and historical or contemporary
trauma
Slide28Slide29Identity AttitudesRefers to the extent to which one internalizes or externalizes attitudes toward oneself and
one’s
group
Positive
identity attitudes
is associated with
enhanced self esteem, ability to
cope with
psychological distress, and
depression avoidance
I
dentity development
I
nternalizing and/or overvaluing
the majority
culture
B
ecoming
aware
of differences
between the majority culture and one’s
own culture
S
hedding stereotypes about
one’s own
culture
I
ntegrating
identity
attitudes and
cultural
buffers
Slide30EnculturationProcess by which individuals learn about and identify with their minority
culture
Different than acculturation: process by
which people from
a minority
culture adopt
and assimilate
into the
majority culture
I
mportant for
AIANs
to distinguish
between
W
hat is part
of their original
culture, and
W
hat
has been
forced upon
them due to
historically traumatic
events
and/or
discrimination
Slide31Spiritual Methods of Coping Associated with Adjustment
to
stressful life
events
Physical and
mental
health
Spirituality
permeates
all
aspects of Native life and
lifeways
P
rotective
factor against historical and
contemporary trauma
Slide32Traditional Healing Practices Shown to relate to positive health outcomes A study showed that seventy percent
of AIAN
patients in an urban primary care setting
often used
traditional health
practices
Health
practices
such as
the use of herbal medicines or sweat lodge
ceremonies were
often chosen to heal the underlying causes
of physical
and
mental
illness or trauma, rather than
acute symptoms
Slide33Decolonizing StrategiesLearning about precolonial history Example: identify traditional ways of identifying and healing
from
trauma
Documenting
historically traumatic events
and colonial
trauma that give meaning to
current experiences
Highlight
resilience within
cultures and individuals
Create
new narratives that recognize
negative influences
on Native culture and identify how
and why
behaviors were
learned
C
ommunity
grief ceremonies that
include cultural
rituals and support healing
Slide34Questions?Contact Information:Tennille L. Marley
Tennille.marley@asu.edu
(480) 965-3634