Historical Trauma: Healing from Trauma - PowerPoint Presentation

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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)

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Presentation OverviewWhat is historical trauma?How historical trauma is perpetuated todayHow connection to culture and community can heal the woundsAn

Indigenist

Stress Coping Model

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American 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

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What is historical trauma?

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What 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

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Intergenerational 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

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Manifestations of Historical TraumaDepressionSelf-destructive behavior (violence and substance use disorders)

P

sychic numbing

Anger

E

levated

mortality rates from

suicide

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Discussion 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?

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How is historical trauma perpetuated today?

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What are historically traumatic events?Planned phenomena by governmentBoarding schools, massacres…Environmental traumaImpact on environment

Spiritual Trauma

Prohibition of spiritual practices

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Outside 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

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Historically 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)

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What 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

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Historical 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”

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Historical 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

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Microaggressions 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

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Symptoms 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

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“…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.

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Discussion 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?

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How connection to culture and community can heal wounds

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What 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

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What 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?

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What 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?

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Cultural 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?

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Indigenist 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.

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Indigenist 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

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Indigenist 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

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Identity 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

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EnculturationProcess 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

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Spiritual 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

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Traditional 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

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Decolonizing 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

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Questions?Contact Information:Tennille L. Marley

Tennille.marley@asu.edu

(480) 965-3634