A Letter to Our Community

Written By: Jessica Eiseman, MS, LPC-S, NCC

Owner & Clinical Director, Ajana Therapy & Clinical Services

I have been struggling with the words since the horrific and inexcusable attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. That will be a day that will forever be sealed into the memories of so many of us, will be etched into World History, and has evoked continued collective grief, anger, sadness, and trauma. Coincidentally, myself and several of the clinicians on my team were previously signed up to attend the first Trauma Research Foundation’s Social Justice Summit. It was an opportunity for us to hear from organizations and individuals from around the world. We were presented with programs from Kenya, Zimbabwe, Jordan/Syria, Rwanda, China, and the United States. The presenters were individuals who worked with veterans, who were retired military, who had faced major life traumas themselves; including debilitating car accidents leaving them paralyzed to physical and sexual trauma to racial trauma. They utilized narrative and embodied expressive approaches, yoga, and psychodrama, and were Internal Family Systems-based, among others.

It was beautiful to be taught by peer-led groups from marginalized communities, from “poor third-world countries” tools that we as American, can now step back and learn from other country’s history of oppression and war and conflict and suffering; in order to heal the collective trauma we have been experiencing as a country, and that our BIPOC community has been experiencing since the beginning of time.

It was a timely summit that was both healing and triggering due to the most recent events. It reminded me, as a white cis-woman, in a place of power, as a private practice owner, my continued privilege and my responsibility and role I have in helping to heal our community. As well, as to continue to check and explore my own bias and call out others on theirs. Above all else, to not remain silent.

Something that I found extremely useful was how, from the presentation by Eugenia Mpande, MSSc and Susan Wyatt from The Tree of Life organization, they broke down these various mental health and trauma terms that they use in Zimbabwe:

General Mental Health- Mental health illnesses that have not come about through trauma (i.e. depression, anxiety, schizophrenia). Sometimes we cannot separate General Mental Health and trauma, so you can have both.

Trauma- an individual’s response to a traumatic situation. It is what overwhelms us and our ability to cope and puts us into a fight, flight, or freeze response.

Collective Trauma- occurs when a group of collectives there is an extreme situation or horrendous event that marks the identity upon the group consciousness, forever changing the identity of the group. It has specific social and psychological impacts and trajectories. It immobilizes their support systems and access to resources.

Organized Violence and Torture (OVT)- International protocol around it and how to handle it. Direct survivors or direct victims of the violence are identified.

Political Terror- There are indirect survivors or indirect victims. They don’t experience torture themselves but through fear, intimidation, or stigmas they are connected to or bear witness to OVT. It takes a massive healing for recovery and reconciliation.

They also made a point that there doesn’t need to be active war to put psychological stress on people.

When I look at the above descriptions, I see the entire country, I see me, I see my clients. You wonder why you are tired all the time? Why you can’t get out of bed? Why you are feeling angry and irritable? Maybe you are snapping at your kids or your spouse more? How’s your concentration? I know mine is shit. Feeling down? Depressed? Hopeless at all?

Y’all we have spent the last four years in political unrest. This past year we have been in a global pandemic akin to the 1918 Spanish flu. Our children, our grandchildren, our grandchildren’s children will be talking about how we hoarded toilet paper, paper towels, and hand sanitizer like how we remember our grandparents or great grandparents from the Great Depression. These things have been Traumatic, we have been witness to Organized Violence, Political Terror and we definitely are experiencing Collective Trauma. I would argue both from COVID and from the Domestic Terror attacks at the Capital.

And here is the thing about trauma. Trauma begets trauma. If you have a history of trauma, and another traumatic event occurs, guess what? That previous trauma will come sneaking back up. Sometimes not in memory, sometimes it may be just in your body, as trauma often lives in the body. If you have not read The Body Keeps the Score, I highly recommend.

If you are in the BIPOC community, then your trauma runs deep, intergenerational, down to the epigenetics. Racism is Trauma. I was grateful to hear that the founder of Internal Family Systems Theory (IFS) has been working with Deran Young, LCSW who is the President & CEO of Black Therapists Rock. They have been working together to heal racism and oppression using IFS. Deran speaks specifically of Legacy Burdens. Legacy Burdens is an IFS concept defined by Ann Sinko, LMFT as “belief systems, emotions, coping mechanisms, memories and energies that get passed down through the generational line.” These can be covertly and overtly passed down through the generations.

To see a Session with Deran and Dr. Schwartz on Racism click here. This is so helpful to see and it is so powerful.

I don’t have all of the answers, but I do feel hopeful that there are groups of people, groups of healers around the country working together to invoke systemic collective changes. We have to work together to create a sense of relative safety within our communities. Human beings are collective by nature and there is great importance for relationships in order to heal. We need each other to heal. If the village is sick, so are the village members.

I leave you with this quote from James Baldwin, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until faced.”

Please visit our Resources page for additional resources on domestic terrorism education materials, crisis materials, COVID materials, and LGBTQ+ and BIPOC community materials.

In Exhausted Solidarity,