Welcome to she persisted I'm your host Sadie Saxton a 19 year old from the Bay Area studying psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. She persisted is the Teen Mental Health podcast made for teenagers by a team in each episode. I'll bring you authentic accessible and relatable conversations about every aspect of mental Wellness. You can expect evidence-based, Tina, proof resources, coping skills, including lots of DBT,
insights and education. In each piece of content, you consume, she persisted It offers you a safe space to feel validated and understood in your struggle. While encouraging you to take ownership of your journey and build your life worth living. So let's dive in this week on.
She persisted one of the things that a lot of people are coming to me for is they're dealing with a lot of microaggressions, a lot of racial tension, and they're starting to notice that it's all becoming a bit too much. A lot of people they're just coming because they're exhausted. They're just exhausted from having to constantly. For that seat at the table. And as one client of mine, put it.
She said we worked so hard to get that seat of the table that when we get there were so exhausted. We don't even know what to do. Now that we have the microphone. Hello. Hello, and welcome back to. She persisted. Today's episode is an amazing one that I know is going to be. So helpful to so many of you guys, we have Nancy Diaz on the podcast.
She's a trauma-informed, therapist for women of color who are Daughters of immigrants and we talked about so many things, we talk about systemic oppression, we talk about generational healing, Navigating identity issues setting, boundaries in relationships and how to support someone that is navigating. These challenges is was so enlightening for me to have this conversation with Nancy and I'm so grateful for her for sharing so many amazing tips and tricks
and resources. So let's just dive into it. And as always leave review, subscribe follow on social media at she persisted podcast. So yeah, let's dive into it. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. Nancy. I'm so excited to have you and she persisted. Yeah, thank you so much. So good to be here, of course. So I would love to start with your background, how you became a trauma-informed, therapist, and specializing in this area, in this demographic.
And yeah, what led you to working within the mental health field? Yeah, of course. So yeah, my name is Nancy Diaz, and I'm a trauma-informed, therapist and I specialize in working with women of color who are Daughters of immigrants and I work with issues such as identity crisis. He's, and that's such a tricky word to say, isn't it? Yeah, but yeah, things like anger, things like Trauma, all kinds of things. There's so much happening with this particular demographic but
yeah identity issues. That's that's one of the main ones and that's what I wanted to talk about today because this is something that actually starts when you're an adolescent. Yeah. So I would love to first before we dive into identity talk about why these are more prevalent issues and women of color Daughters of immigrants. Why did they are more likely to struggle with identity issues and why they are more? Risk. And what you've seen in your practice.
Yeah, of course. So I think one of the main reasons that this affects this demographic is because we tend to grow up between two different cultures. So our immigrant parents are from one country. We grew up in a totally different country. Usually, there's a clash of values, there's just a clash of everything and you grow up feeling as if you're not enough of one and you're not enough of the other.
And so, So yeah, in this very important stage of development, It's tricky because you really want to fit in. But at the same time you don't want to let go of your parents culture, your parents Roots, You Want To Own that, but you want to fit in and unfortunately some countries are not very welcoming
of you to show up as yourself. And then it just depends on, you know, your peer group as well and how welcoming they are and how much they want you to show of So, and so, yeah, there's all kinds of things that might impact this. How much you've assimilated acculturated? And yeah, I think how much you actually know about your parents culture, and how you've grown up and the messages that you receive from your parents. But also from society, as far as how much you should own that identity.
So yeah, that's pretty much it and nutshell what are some common characteristics of struggling with identity? It's Certain thoughts that come up, emotions. You talked a little bit about family dynamics that arise. How are your clients first acknowledging? And noticing that? I think I'm struggling my identity. I think I'm struggling to have these two pieces of me fit together. What are those first signals that listeners can keep an eye
out for? Yeah, I think one of the main things that I hear is that feeling of not being enough, not being enough of one culture, not being enough of the other, and then that, I was up in adulthood as well. It shows up in different ways and thinking that you're not good enough, that work thinking that you're not good enough. As a parent, I know a lot of people struggle when they become parents as well and they think oh well what if my child doesn't
learn my parents language? Or you know what if they struggle at school if they're bullied because they look a certain way, they're a bit of this weird mix, you know? It's yeah. Yeah. Those are the things to look out for what are your tips for? For teens that are struggling with their relationship with their parents. They are have this kind of unique experience from their parents and that they're growing
up somewhere else. We talked about like how it's cool their their friends are coming from a different background that can sometimes create tension or conflict. What advice and tips do you give your clients for navigating that difficulty and challenge in that relationship with their parents?
It really starts with communication and I know that that's Really hard when you're a teen and there's so many different emotions that are coming up and it can be really hard to just slow down and just communicate what it is that you're feeling. But if you have parents who you think might be responsive to you, just communicating what it is that you're feeling, then I would definitely recommend starting their and trying to really focus on I statements.
And this is something that I say, you know, Regardless of your age regardless of who it is that you're talking to. But especially when you're a teenager and you're struggling to kind of put everything into words and there's a lot of anger, right? For teens and that especially is important to use those. I statements because you're just at that stage where you're kind of angry at the world, you just have so much going on, you of the Raging hormones.
You have so much happening that you start to really feel angry for different reasons and sometimes, Is it valid? And sometimes it's the hormones but I recommend is communicating whatever emotion that is. But especially if it's anger by using I statements like I'm just feeling very angry, because you have grounded me and I really wanted to go to this party, you know, that's communicating your emotion versus say, you're the worst. You don't let me do anything
things like that. Instead of placing the blame on that person, try to just communicate how it is that, you're feeling. What it is that you're thinking and maybe even why it is that your behavior. In a certain way that requires some serious skills.
Some serious. So yarnís and it can be challenging but the more that you practice this, the better that you become but I think in our society we're just so focused on. This is how we speak this, how we communicate with people especially when were angry, we use this, you you and obviously it really activates the other person because then they get really defensive, and then the communication is really difficult, so that's why I highly recommend using I statements.
When you say I feel It's really hard for the other person to say like no, you don't feel that way, right? Yeah, I mean, that's your emotions, that's how you feel. That's what you're thinking. It's hard for them to say like no you don't feel that way. Yeah. If listeners you're listening and you're like, okay I know the basic emotions but I do struggle to verbalize exactly what I'm
experiencing that is me 100%. Especially when I'm overwhelmed with emotion figuring out the exact words is really difficult.
So one of my favorite tips, if you could even call it that as This app called mood meter and you open it and it shows you four different quadrants so your high-energy unpleasant high-energy Pleasant low-energy unpleasant and low energy Pleasant. So, right now I'd say probably pretty low energy but feeling Pleasant and then it breaks down all of the different spectrums of emotions based on like, how energized the emotion is, how positive and negative it is.
So it gives you the difference between like mellow, thoughtful peaceful, comfy, Carefree, Serene, cozy, tranquil complacent, sleep. Like all of these different words that I would never be able to verbalize in the moment and you can track them as well so you could record your emotions every day. You can record them throughout conflicts or interactions or just different stressors that come up. And so that's one of my favorite
tips. That's a little bit more fun than like looking at one of those mood wheels or those emotion charts for your like I don't want to see another one of those but that's one of my favorites for labeling. Those what are some common? I statements that you could give examples for When teens are trying to communicate to their parents about struggling with identity. I feel like it's easier when you're like, okay I'm stressed
about school. I'm anxious about a test that's coming up or I'm feeling annoyed at my friends because they're gossiping about me or something like that. But these really abstract issues with identity can be so difficult to verbalize and communicate, effectively, what are some other common ways you've heard teens verbalize, those or tips that you have. From your experience or that you've seen in clients, where you're like, that's a great way to explain that. That's a great eye statement
that can be used. Yeah, I think one of them is just communicating how you're feeling and just again just verbalizing that because I think a lot of times in my grandparents, they they have their own issues. They've just arrived to a new country and even if they've been there for a while, they're still struggling to adjust to adapt, they have their own traumas. You know, there's a theory that immigration itself is traumatic, Because it's such a huge life
transition. So even if things go really smoothly, you know, there's the theory that immigration itself is a trauma. So if we look at it through that lens through that point of view, they have so much going on that often times, they can't be fully present and they can't ever really understand our own experience. So communicating that with an i statement, and just saying that.
Because I think a lot of times for our children of immigrants, we have this guilt of, you know, they sacrificed so much for us and we can't really voice Arnie. Our concerns because they are going through so much still and I just need to be okay and I can't really be a burden to them. And for a lot of the children of immigrants, we've been parental fired as and we have to grow up really quickly because we often have to help her immigrant parents.
So even if that's translating documents interpreting, parent-teacher conferences or even if we're not doing any of those things, but yeah, just helping them like oh this is what, you know, people do. Do in the US. And this is different from in your country. But you know, explaining things like that. And so often times we have to grow up very quickly. And so it becomes hard for us to really stop slow down rest, take care of ourselves and so communicating.
Those needs with their parents and saying, like, I am feeling really exhausted because I have this project happening at school, and you're asking me to help you with this league taxes, but it's feeling really overwhelmed. And so maybe even starting with that and communicating and just saying like, I really want to help you with your taxes but you know, maybe we can find someone this year that can help you or, you know, is there any way that we can get some things off of my
plate? And with the identity crisis, maybe just communicating like, I'm finding it really hard to fit in because I don't want to be embarrassed of you guys but at the same time I'm getting teased at school or you know I'm feeling. Not comfortable.
We call them the lunch box moments when you show up with food from your parents culture and you feel embarrassed by it and so communicating that lunchbox moment and saying I am feeling like not that comfortable isn't showing up with this food and and just letting them know like this is why someone made this comment and really not keeping that all
to yourself. I think that's the most important thing because then you take that with you in To adulthood and you carry that shame and then we struggle with the guilt as we become older. We realize like, oh my God, that must have been awful what I did. Even when I was thinking that I was ashamed of my parents culture, I should have just you know not cared but of course when you're a teenager it just
makes sense. You're in that stage of development where identity is super important and fitting in a super important. So I think the other thing I'm going to say is yes, use those I statements to communicate but also don't be be super hard on yourself. If you are struggling with this, it's completely normal, it's
completely natural. That it's definitely something that all humans experience that wanting to belong wanting to fit in. And so if you're struggling because you feel like you're grown up between two different cultures, two different worlds, it's completely normal to feel as if you are failing, as if you aren't fitting in and is, if you're never going to fit in, it's definitely a tricky thing.
But if you can, I recommend working The therapist to really start to develop that self-esteem and develop that confidence and work toward actually feeling good in your identity and owning it other resources that people can look for when you're working with a therapist, you're a trauma-informed therapist. Do you recommend that children of immigrants all look for trauma-informed?
Therapist is there an effective way to ask therapist if they have experience working with Children of immigrants or people of color? What would you look for on the other side? I'd if you were finding a therapist for when your clients are for yourself? Yeah, it can be a little bit tricky, but luckily, there are quite a few resources and you definitely can. You can find people who specialize in this such as myself. I'm very clear on my website.
This is who I work with my talk about these issues on my podcast on social media. I'm talking about this and I do know you didn't follow quite a few therapists who, you know, are talking about the experience of children of immigrants.
So you definitely can find people who Flies in this, there's not too many of us who really specializes in this and work with this population in particular, but if you find a therapist that you think is a good fit and you're not sure if that's something that they have experience working with, you can definitely ask them that and email in the initial consultation call you could just say to you of experience, working with Children of immigrants or you can say like I
want to communicate my thoughts and feelings and just work on the Immigrant experience. Variants and communicate that way. But yeah, there are fortunately directories and these aren't available in certain countries, but in the u.s. there are quite a few inclusive therapists. There's therapy for black girls, there's a lot next therapist, there's Asian directories as well.
There's all kinds of specific directories for people of color and you can filter those and look for people who work with teens, or look, for people who may be special. And I think identity crisis is One of the things that you can check the box on sites like the inclusive therapist. I know, I think they have that one. So, yes, luckily it's something that's being talked about a bit more. It's something that's being recognized that people are struggling with this.
So, yes, I do recommend we even doing a Google search like children of immigrants therapist or immigrant therapist and then looking on these directories, if you are in the u.s. if you're outside of the US it's a little bit trickier but yes, that is something that I'm pretty passionate about helping people. Go find that their purpose. That's a good fit.
So if I have a consultation call with someone and I don't end up being a good fit, I have my own large network of therapists who go to specialize in these issues that I might be able to refer you to. So definitely feel free to reach out and I'm happy to connect you because I know I can be a little bit tricky and up especially in the u.s. when therapist can only see people in their state and if you live in a state where there's not that many therapists who specialize in this or they
might be full, it can be really tricky. So I would just say Don't give up. Hope. Just reach out. I'm happy to help and try to connect you. If I don't have space myself, I'll definitely make sure that you find someone because I know it can be definitely a journey and it can be quite challenging and overwhelming.
So, happy to help. I think that's been one of the greatest things that came out of covid is the norm of Telehealth and having virtual appointments for a therapist that would normally do only in office because like you said, a lot of these certifications or having your license is within a state and And so you could meet someone that's a four hour drive away from you or across the state and still be able to meet with them, rather than having to drive to their office every
single week or wait for their patient load to go down because there's only one therapist in your area. Yeah, it's added a lot of convenience. Yeah, I work with people all over the world. I'm actually located in Australia, but I work with clients and Europe and the US and Australia it in Asia sometimes. So yes it's been. For that unfortunately with the u.s. it. Yeah, Telehealth is amazing. But if your therapist your license in a certain State, you cannot tell you someone who's in
another state. So yeah, even with the power of zoom and all this technology, that is something that is quite frustrating. So yes, because I am outside of the US. It makes it easy for me to be able to see people, no matter what state they're in in the u.s. Yes. Oh yes. That's that's the amazing thing of Telehealth and Remis of living. Abroad is that I'm not limited by the licensing in the u.s. so yes that's been definitely. One of the reasons that I chose
not to get licensed over there. I said it limits you so much and I think because this is so needed and because it's so hard to find someone who specializes in working with Children of immigrants. I said, Okay, I want to be able to have my doors open no matter where you are in the world. If you want to work on these issues, then come as you are. My favorite part of my morning routine is making my Iced vanilla latte. I love it. I go to bed. Looking forward to it.
I love waking up making my coffee, drinking it while I get ready for the day, but I found that on days. When I have a ton of classes or a ton of studying to do, I'm not feeling alert and awake enough from that one cup of coffee and it's difficult because I'm like I don't want to be drinking tons of coffee, but at the same time, I need to be energized and focused and productive. And so, I think I've found the perfect hack and addition to my morning routine.
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So use code. She persisted at checkout for 40% off your subscription. You can also go to magic mind dot Cosell. She persisted one more time. It is Magic mind, dot Coast, as she persisted to perfect your morning routine today, I love that either other books podcast people to follow websites. I don't know if there's even like Crisis Support lines that specifically specialize in crisis situations for children of immigrants, people of color.
But what other resources are there for people that either don't have access for therapy or maybe they're like I'm not sure if I want to take that step yet. What other resources do you recommend? Yeah, one of the resources that I recommend someone who really talks about the issues that children of immigrants experience. You can follow the account on Instagram. It's called brown girl therapy, and she talks quite a bit about this. She's the daughter of immigrants
herself. And so she talks about a lot of the mental health issues. She's a therapist as well. And so she talks about these and so, yeah, she's the one who kind of inspired me to get into this work and to really say, this is what I want to specialize in, there wasn't a lot of people. I mean that's and I didn't know if it was a good idea but I just said okay I'm loving her content.
I'm loving her work. I want to also join forces and do something similar so you can follow brown girl therapy. There are other therapists who are on social media who maybe don't focus in the same way as she does. But yeah, there's round Mama trauma that you can follow as well. There is brown girl, cycle Breakers. There's all kinds of accounts that you can follow on Instagram and And yeah, some of them have
podcasts as well. So I think if you start with those yeah, you'll slowly find the answer. I did a panel a really long time ago. It probably was like at least a year or two years ago when I first read the podcast and it was a mental health self-care kind of panel and brown girl therapy was also on it and really want to have her on the podcast. You got really busy because she's writing a book or she was running both last time I reached out.
So still going to pitch still going to try and get her on but she's amazing and she does So much wisdom and insight and her content is amazing. One thing that I do want to touch on, which I think will be interesting to get your perspective on is systematic oppression and how that relates to mental health. I feel like most people kind of have an idea of a definition or generally how that impacts Society. But how do you see that impacting people's mental health?
But that's emotions their relationships, their thought, patterns, their beliefs. How does that show up in that kind of like identity and personal sense? Yes, those are. Quite often, I mentioned the beginning. That's one of the issues that I see quite often with this population is that racial trauma that comes from the systemic oppression.
And so yeah that's one of the things that a lot of people are coming to me for our especially at this moment is they're dealing with a lot of microaggressions, a lot of racial tension at work. They're starting to notice that it's all becoming a bit too much. So whether it's a lot of people they're just coming because they're exhausted, they're just exhausted from Having to constantly fight for that seat at the table.
And as one client of mine, put it she said it, we work so hard to get that seat of the table that when we get there were so exhausted. We don't even know what to do
now that we have the microphone. And so yeah, that's one of the things that I'm seeing that it's really impacting our mental health and I'm glad that more people are talking about it now because it definitely is something that, you know, we don't think about like oh this is, you know, the reason behind my depression this is the reason that I'm more anxious or you. No, this is the reason that I am struggling with being triggered
at work and things like that. But yeah, this is definitely one of those things that, you know, can be something like complex trauma because it's not necessarily from one event, you don't have to be attacked because of your race. In order to be experiencing racial trauma. I can just be from microaggressions that you've experienced throughout your life and that it's really taken that
toll. And so now that you're reaching out for help another way that Compression shows up is the barriers that you have in accessing those Mental Health Resources. So that's why I'm glad that there are directories that exist. That make it a, hopefully a little bit easier to find a therapist of color that maybe can relate to your experiences that maybe is well-versed and things like racial trauma. Whose may be more culturally sensitive hands that cultural
humility. So yes, there's definitely quite a bit that we could talk about with this but that's I think the main things that I'm seeing is that that racial trauma and people are coming to actually work through some of that. A lot of my clients are coming to try to work through some of these microaggressions, learn tools and techniques.
And so, sometimes we even do role playing, or in teach them about micro interventions or how to actually communicate, how to handle when you are at work, and someone makes a backhanded comment and you feel like you're not good enough. How would you do that? If that's something that listeners experience price? Probably in school or in some Community event. I feel like less teenagers are in a workplace enough that that would happen. Like most people are doing shifts on the weekend or
something once or twice a week. But if that happens at school or with, I don't know a teacher or an adult or someone within your life. How do you recommend people respond to that? The first thing that I tell my clients is that you cannot be hard on yourself. We're in whatever way you respond and a lot of people they come because they say I want to stop.
Freezing. But I just remind them that when you experience something like this you notice it in your body that you tense up and you feel very activated and so you kind of go into survival mode and that is completely normal because you don't know. And we see these things on the news, we might have had friends or family members who have actually experienced like a horrific attack, that's race
Pace or something like that. But either way, we know that these things happen and so it makes sense that When someone it's just a comment but usually that's how these things start. And so we don't know how bad that's going to get. So it's 100% makes sense that you tense up that you go into survival mode. And so, if we think about survival mode and the three responses are the four responses. Now right.
There's fight flight freeze but now there's also pawn and pawn, I love because it definitely applies, especially when these situations come up because van is essentially people-pleasing. And so sometimes, if this Opens your immediate reaction might be to brush it off or pretend that it happened or just to smile at the person or do something that will please them. So that the situation diffuses, but sometimes you freeze, and that's completely normal. And you don't know what to do or
to say this happens. To me quite often as well, and that's something that I'm still working on, but I think it starts with really having that compassion for myself and just saying like I have no idea what's going to happen here and so if I freeze that's okay and I Sigh come back to it, when I come back to it, I don't have a chance to say anything or do anything and the moment passes and that's okay as well.
We work through these skills and yeah but I think not being hard on yourself is the first thing and if we do respond in some way then realizing that that's a fight response and realizing that that in itself can be risky. Because again we don't know what this person is going to say. Do how they're going to react if it's going to escalate. But yeah I do teach some clients skills such as calling inverses. Calling out really learning how to assess the situation and
deciding. Does this person have the intelligence that capacity to understand if I gently explain like? Okay this is a microaggression this is why this is saying something that you should be going around saying this is why this is hurtful to me or offensive or whatever it is you might be able to do that or you might just be able to tell from that situation that they're not going to smell or equal to that. Yeah and so you have to really decide time. All of that.
There's so many things that you have to assess and that's why a lot of us freeze because there's so much that you have to think about in that Split Second that you have to really be kind to yourself if you just freeze and acknowledge that whatever your response is. So it's a trauma response and it's valid whether you freeze, whether you decide to fight back or whether you just run away, you know, I might not look like physically running away but you might just make an excuse to get
out of whatever situation isolate that's completely valid as well. So whatever. Response is just know that, that's, that's okay. And, you know, you can practice a little bit, learn about these micro interventions, learn about how to assess these situations if you really want to fight back in this way and learn how to respond. But again, even if you don't, that's okay. The main thing is really to take care of yourself after something, like that happens.
And that's something that I started doing this year after I had some experiences like that, where I was just like, you know, what, this is actually valid that. I'm Feeling this way, taken a day off, before for my own mental health and just really sat with it and processed, what happened? Why I was feeling that way, I had a chat with my own therapist, whatever it is that you need to do but especially when something like that happens. Definitely don't gasps let
yourself. Don't tell yourself, I'm too dramatic or. I can't believe that. I had to take the day off because of this simple comment that someone made be really gentle with yourself and take care of yourself because what you're experiencing is, 100% valid. And so just remember to take
care of yourself. It's something that is so, so hard for children of immigrants who didn't have that rest and self-care models growing up, but it is something that's super important and if we think of self-care, it's become such a buzzword. It's become so commercialized. It's completely lost all of its meaning, but it's so important. And at the root of it, it's just coping skills.
You know, when something like this happens, any life, stressor, you need to take care of yourself and so we call it self care, but Really, you're looking at what coping skills you have, how are you coping with the situation? What are you doing to actually take care of yourself. So this is one thing that I teach my clients quite a bit about it self-care because a lot of us didn't have it modeled growing up. We have an unhealthy
relationship with self-care. And so we really struggle and we think that we have to earn rest and we think that we have to earn self-care and we think that we just don't deserve it unless we accomplished x y and z. Z and then we think okay maybe now I can rest a bit but if we think about it we never end up accomplishing everything on her to-do list. You know, there's always that next degree to chase after that
next promotion. There's always something and we are, I think by Nature, a lot of children of immigrants were people Pleasers. We have trouble setting boundaries, we have trouble really putting our needs first and communicating those needs. And so this is why I actually have been hosting these workshops that I call Soul Care versus self. Are so that I can teach people like, okay, this is why it's important and this is why it's huge for you to actually put your own Mental Health.
First put your own needs first and learn how to have a healthy relationship with self care and learn to practice what I call. Soul Care, which is just how to nourish replenish and feel rejuvenated after you find your own type of Soul care. I love that. Yeah, yeah, that's that's the one thing that I'm super passionate about is just helping people find those basic techniques. Kills, find that type of Soul Care. That works for them because I think a lot of us were self-help
junkies. We listen to podcast, we read books, we try to do all of the things that you know, are recommended to us. We try to journal, we try to meditate, we try all of these things and sometimes it just isn't working. And so, yeah, I think it's Unique to each person. I think finding that type of Soaker. So that's what I hope people do. I really like what you mentioned about, how it still It'd be drilling and very impactful and bring up a lot of emotions.
Even when you observe something or you see something in the news, even if it doesn't happen directly to you and it reminds me of something we learned in my abnormal, psychology class about PTSD diagnosis. And prior to 9/11, the diagnosis criteria was that you had to be there, you had to be the one directly involved in the traumatic event. It had to happen to you or close loved one and they found that
during 9/11 people. People that were sought through window or they saw it on TV or they had a family or member, a friend who was it on a plane or in the building or a first responder. They also started developing these symptoms of PTSD and this really intense response to this traumatic event without being involved with it or directly observing it. And so these symptoms these emotions, they still arise through observation, and it's more likely that you get that diagnosis.
So you develop the symptoms, the closer you are to the Events. So people that had a partner or a family member that was in the event experience, the most likely development of PTSD symptoms, then people that were maybe going to go to work in the same neighborhood that day versus people that saw it on the news and kind of going like outward in that Circle. And I think what makes these stories that we see on the news. So impactful is that it does hit so close to home.
You think it could have been me. It could have been a family member and it's so wide. I'd spread that these emotions do arise because they're happening everywhere, it country and the world. And so it's no wonder that these emotions come up. And that's why it's so important to do the self care to take the time to recharge and take care of yourselves and know the resources that you have access to and that you can utilize when you need them because it again,
it's not about. Did this happen directly to you did it get this bad in this work interaction the same emotions and reactions can still come up, and that's completely It it okay and normal to experience completely valid. Yeah, and it doesn't have to be, you know, an act of terrorism for you to experience this type of a PTSD, whether you're there or whether you're watching it on the news.
But as you're talking, I'm just thinking about, you know, how many of us were deeply impacted by watching the black lives matter movement and the protests and the riots on the television. And it's definitely something that has affected us all.
And so if you're still feeling the effects of that and you're feeling like you're struggling right now, then you definitely have every reason to, you know, still be angry and still be sad and still be highly activated and triggered by these microaggressions that are happening at work and to still feel like you're struggling with that that PTSD and whether you
want to label it that or not. But yeah, I definitely have heard this research before of what amazing things kind of sounds horrible to say but what amazing research has come out of you know 9/11 that we start to think of trauma in a different way. And I am so happy that were thinking about it in a different way, because I think a lot of people experience this complex trauma that I'm so glad that
were talking about a bit more. And from there actually came more intervention strategies as well. And ways to actually help people heal through that trauma. And one of the things that I learned was that there was a therapist who was actually doing EMDR with clients for trauma for that PTSD. He was working with 9/11. One, victim, survivors, family members, all of that. And he noticed that he was getting a bit stuck with some
clients. He found him Dr. To be really amazing but he noticed that there was one client that he was working with this wasn't related to 911, but he noticed that they with those eye movements, they got really stuck in one particular location and the client said, oh I want to stay there. I want to stay focused on that spot there and so they stayed there.
That's what became known as now brain spotting and finding that particular brain spot where you can access that trauma where you can actually see that on a deeper level and you have really rapid healing from that trauma. So, that's one thing that I've been trained in now. And one thing that I love, especially for working with, you know, people who are experiencing, whether it's racial trauma. I also see a lot of generational trauma or childhood.
Trauma, I see, you know, those are kind of the main three children of immigrants, usually, Um with and so, when we use things, like MD our brain spotting or these somatic approaches, its really huge because we're looking at it as the trauma is stored in the body and there's often times something that's stuck, something that we might not even know. Is there something that we have dissociated from as a way of protecting ourselves?
We have blocked off everything and we've just made a very conscious decision of. I'm not going to think about it. I'm not going to talk about it and yeah, there's definitely Hands behind that. It makes sense that we are protecting ourselves from that something that happened that was horrific or a series of events that over time have become too much for us to handle, we've just completely detached from that and that's okay, that's valid and that's why sometimes
self-care is enough. You know, we talk about self-care and we talk about things that we can do, but yes, specially when it comes to racial trauma and systemic oppression, and you know, dealing with these really heavy things that are very complex, sometimes it is, you know, Going finding a trauma-informed, therapist doing something like brain spotting or EMDR or somatic experiencing especially I think, is really helpful for people of color because there's
so much that has been stored in our bodies and it's been passed down from Generations. It's not just something that we are experiencing now, but the reality is that even if we're talking about the black lives matter movement, we've all watched that horrific scene on the news and so that definitely
we store that in our bodies. But apart from that, you know, Talking about what our parents have experience with their parents have experienced what our ancestors have been through talking about historical trauma, so it can be all pretty heavy. That's the one thing that I want to trap up on which I think you're referencing, is generational healing, and for listeners, that aren't familiar with that term before and haven't heard of that. What is generational healing?
And how does that present, where, or show up in the work that you do with your clients? Is that like the second step after they first kind of get a hold on, the emotions that are coming up in the present. Point, do you start with generational healing and then work towards what's coming up
for you? Now, how does that fit into everything else we've touched on the way that I explain it to my clients is that at least with my Approach it's completely client LED and I'm not going to, you know, tell any client that if they're experiencing anxiety and panic attacks and things that are really just the symptoms of trauma. I'm not going to tell them. We're not going to work on that. We're going to be deep into the drama.
No, no. With the symptoms of trauma and then we get to actually addressing and trying to heal that trauma. And the way that I see with generational healing, there's not too much that you have to do. It's not like an extra thing that you have to do. But you showing up to therapy or you doing your own healing work is huge because that's going to be passed down to the Next Generation.
So it's not necessarily that you and your whole family have to show up to therapy that you all have to do this healing work. Often times. It's really hard, especially for Parents who didn't grow up with the access with the resources and when there's stigma in our communities and there's all these things. There's a distrust of medical professionals, because we've been experimented on all these things, so it can be hard for them to say.
Yes, I'm going to go to therapy, it's not as easy as for us, you know, we've grown up in the us or we grown up in these Western countries, where it's just a little bit more accepted, it's a little bit easier for us to say. Yeah, I'm going to go because I've heard that this is good. I know this can help.
It might be a little bit harder, but that doesn't mean that there's not going to be generational healing because just, you going to therapy and I see this in this is, I think my favorite part of being a therapist and especially working with this population when a client comes in and they tell me, oh, you know what? We learn in session last week, I was told my mom about it or, you know, I was telling my little niece about it or we did this exercise on affirmations it
together with my little sister. Yeah, yeah. I just see that ripple effect and you know, the way I think of it, even if you don't have kids Yes. But you might have, yeah, nieces nephews. You might be around other children. You might in some little way shape or form be impacting the
lives of other people. And even if you go backwards, if you teach your parents or grandparents, even if you don't think that you are teaching or talking about what you're learning in therapy, you have you never tell your family that you're in therapy? That's your own personal
decision, right? Whether to disclose that information or not, but you are still learning and healing on your own and just By doing that you're modeling different behaviors or your family members, you know, if you do have kids or modeling that for your kids, you're showing up, you don't have that heavy burden of trauma to pass down to your kids. You don't have that heavy burden of trauma to show up when you're interacting with your younger
siblings or things like that. So, yeah, it's huge and that's why I, you know, I think all of my clients are cycle Breakers in that way because they're showing up and they're doing that generation on healing. I love that. To wrap things up, where can people follow you on social media? Where can they find your website? If they want to work with you and continue to consume your content? Yeah, so it's pretty easy to find me my practice called
Global citizen therapy. So you can find me on social media on Tick-Tock on Instagram Facebook and our Global citizen therapy and my website is global citizen therapy.com. My podcast is also called the global citizen therapy podcast. I made it easy for people to kind of remember, as long as you find one of those you'll be able to access some my other content and you can make an appointment to work with me on my website or reach out through one of the Social media platforms as well.
Whatever is easiest for you. And you can also sign up to take the soul cameras and self-care workshop. And that's going to be up on my website, pretty soon as well. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining me. I'm so glad we got to do this and I learned so much from this conversation and I know listeners well as well. So, thank you so much for sharing all of your wisdom and insight from your journey and your work with clients and all of that.
Yeah, thank you so much. Thank you for giving me this. This opportunity giving me this platform. It's been amazing and I hope hope that it will help some people. Thank you, thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of she persisted. If you enjoyed, make sure to share with a friend or family
member. It really helps out the podcast and if you haven't already leave a review on Apple podcasts or Spotify, you can also make sure to follow along at at she persisted podcast on both Instagram and Tick-Tock and check out all the bonus resources content and information on my website. She persisted podcast.com, thanks for supporting, keep persisting and I'll see you next week.