Since graduating from the CLIE program in 2022-23, I’ve devoted most of my energy toward bringing a long-held vision into form–Decolonizing the Psyche (DTP). Through DTP, as a soul-centered vocational hub, I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with institutions and community organizations interested in weaving decolonial sensibilities into their work. DTP is an experiential process that centers the cultivation of critical consciousness–C3–coupled with embodiment practices to foster transformation. These practices are intended to disrupt patterns of coloniality embedded in our psyche, our bodies, and our institutions.
I recently completed a year-long series with the San Francisco Public Health Department Sugary Drinks Distribution Tax division exploring sugar and decoloniality. This 4-part series–intended for grantees, health equity practitioners and policy advocates–dove deeper into WHY decolonizing sugar matters and HOW we may undo the impacts of coloniality on our communities experiencing the greatest health disparities. I am currently developing a sugar and decoloniality curriculum for future grantees and SDDT coalition members.
The other arch of DTP focuses on ancestral lineage healing as a pathway to tending cultural and intergenerational trauma. As a practitioner in the Ancestral Medicine network, I’ve had the honor of supporting individuals in cultivating deeper relationships with their well ancestors. Ancestral Lineage Healing (ALH) is an approach to cultural repair articulated by Dr. Daniel Foor, founder of the Ancestral Medicine Global Network. As a decolonial gesture, reclaiming ancestral reverence practices supports an expansion of our relational field to include those who have come before us, along with the more-than-human world. Throughout modernity, these practices have been pathologized, misunderstood, and driven underground; but they are quite normal cultural practices engaged by communities across the globe. At a time such as this, as we navigate and suture cultural woundings, it is an honor to contribute to tending the soul of the world in this way.
Lastly, DTP is also home to the continuum of my dissertation focus–exploring the decolonial turn in maternal healthcare for Black women. I’ve had the pleasure of guest lecturing in birthing justice courses at the University of San Francisco and contributing to peer-reviewed articles addressing racialized policing in NICU units at UCSF (publication forthcoming).
“Ride your horse along the edge of the sword
Hide yourself in the middle of the flames
Blossoms of the fruit tree will bloom in the fire
The sun rises in the evening.”
– Zen Koan
