Sharing how the context of trauma, health equity,

and systems of oppression inform my work:

Disclaimer: I am not a trauma-specialist, nor a trauma-focused coach. I strive to be trauma-aware in my work, as well as culturally aware, and I have taken trainings and am educated on trauma, our nervous systems, and the body. Understanding health and well-being in the context of oppression and trauma is core to my understanding of our interwoven culturally diverse lives and communities. 

What is the inspiration behind my work?

I am a daughter, dreamer, and a queer biracial woman who strives to be a reliable and loving family and community member. I have been on a journey to create belonging and understand the subtleties of life and I am inspired by all that people carry as we are navigating loss and ongoing systemic oppression and trauma. As someone whose early life was influenced by a family system shaped by alcoholism, I have long been drawn to health equity. My understanding of health equity has grown since I was 18 and studying community health at a university. It is rooted in more expansive understandings of the contexts we live within and are influenced by which shape ways we can and do (and imagine to) meet our individual and collective needs.

One context to consider: The systems and structures of power, privilege, and oppression, which shape our lives in a variety of ways based on the cultural and social identities we hold and life experiences we’ve had. The lens of race, racism, and the ideology of white body supremacy, which has shaped so much of our lives. 

  • What is White Body Supremacy? The white body is the supreme standard by which all bodies’ humanity shall be measured –Resmaa Menakem

We have a lot of wisdom within and plenty of resources in our communities which are not distributed and accessible in a way to meet our individual and collective needs. The above dynamic of white body supremacy/dominance and inferiority also exists across other dimensions of difference, including, gender, ability, age, class, language, nationality, and more. 

So, as we pursue our own and collective healing and repairing within our communities… 

As we pursue culture change – disrupting, shifting, and building culture…

Let’s remember to situate ourselves and our opinions within the larger context, paradigms, and social agreements that exist around/within us, including the ones shared above. These contexts shape our experiences, needs, beliefs, assumptions, self-identity, ways of knowing ourselves/others, and our access to resources we need to take care of  ourselves and others. Who has access and who does not? What are the historical moments and patterns across communities that have shaped today? Who is assumed competent and who is continually marginalized? What is your practice for being aware of how you’ve been shaped by the contexts above so you can actively be part of a shift? How willing are you to be uncomfortable and “not know” as part of your own opening? The more we bring our awareness to these patterns – the more, I believe, we can shift, interrupt, and create something else, something new, and relearn/restore something old.

Kindly, 

Sarah

Definitions/ideas

  • Nobody is illegal on ancestral, traditional, and stolen lands of indigenous nations.

  • Trauma and oppression disrupt our relationship to ourselves; to connect with our bodies and other bodies. 

  • Trauma is in the nervous system, not the event. –Peter Levine

  • Trauma is anything too soon, too much, too fast, too long, and not enough of something reparative. White-body supremacy and racialization are forms of toxic stress and trauma. –Resmaa Menakem

  • Our nervous systems and energy bodies are brilliant and know how to evolve on their own when given the right tools and conditions. Unfortunately, trauma creates an energetic vortex and re-routes that brilliance and keeps people stuck in painfully maladaptive patterns. –Bridging Soma & Soul

  • I touch my own skin, and it tells me that before there was any harm, there was miracle. –Adrienne Maree Brown 

  • I think it is healing behavior, to look at something so broken and see the possibility and wholeness in it. –Adrienne Maree Brown

  •  E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G—is connected. The soil needs rain, organic matter, air, worms and life in order to do what it needs to do to give and receive life. Each element is an essential component. “Organizing takes humility and selflessness and patience and rhythm while our ultimate goal of liberation will take many expert components. Some of us build and fight for land, healthy bodies, healthy relationships, clean air, water, homes, safety, dignity, and humanizing education. Others of us fight for food and political prisoners and abolition and environmental justice. Our work is intersectional and multifaceted. Nature teaches us that our work has to be nuanced and steadfast. And more than anything, that we need each other —at our highest natural glory—in order to get free. –Adrienne Maree Brown

These ideas and framings are shaped by so many people and groups. Thank you to all those who I’ve studied and learned from.