@TraumaTherapySD

  • Quote from Prentis Hemphill

    This past weekend I attended the Social Justice Summit put on by the Trauma Research Foundation. It was a powerful weekend and I found myself very moved by the practitioners who spoke and the container that was created for this experience.

    This quote comes from one of the presenters, Prentis Hemphill (They/Them), an embodiment facilitator, political organizer, therapist, and the Founder and Director of The Embodiment Institute and The Black Embodiment Initiative.

    This quote really struck me, because it was a simple distillation of the link between trauma and oppression. This quote speaks to the reality that although anyone can experience trauma, those who are oppressed experience a concentrated dose.

    This is not an accident; it is a natural outcome of the way systems of oppression work. And those of us who inhabit more privilege, and smaller concentrations of trauma, need to take responsibility for using our power and privilege to enact change and help dismantle these systems of oppression.

    I own that I share in this responsibility, and I need to look at and understand the trauma to my own soul and psyche from a legacy of oppressing others, inflicting violence on others, and benefiting from the oppression and violence inflicted on others. I must take ownership of my own healing of those wounds.