Final Part in Four Part Series; Why My Grandmother’s Hands Needs to be in Your Clinical Tool Box
The final part of my takeaway from My Grandmothers Hands is that is provides a framework for how to make substantial changes. Like discussed in the first blog post on the book, trauma shows up in the body and shows up strongly in the white body due to an extensive and long history of violence perpetuated by white bodies against other white bodies. While this might not make a popular statement, thinking through trauma does not work. Using TFCBT might work for some people but I would argue that it might not work for everyone and especially those with racial trauma. How does one try to make sense of bigotry, racism, oppression and systemic discrimination? I am not sure there is a way to change your thinking in a way to reframe or even desensitize yourself to these experiences. I am not sure we should be doing this with our clients. Our code of ethics with NASW calls us to fight oppression, racism and systemic discrimination. It does not call us to help people reframe it, create new cognitive narratives or find ways to not let it impact our lives.
As Dr. Bessel van der Kolk’s book called The Body Keeps the Score beautifully discuses, trauma stays in the body and shows up in a variety of responses, actions and other manifestations. We cannot think our way through trauma because the traumatic experience highjacks the nervous system and activates the fight/flight/freeze/fawn system. These are physiological experiences that when triggered, our responses are so quick, confusing, disorientating. It often is unclear why the current stimulus in front of us is connected to past experiences of harm.
What My Grandmother’s Hands does is to reinforce the information given to clinicians and social workers to use in addition to the work of the Body Keep the Score. Not only does Menakem provide us with the information on our body’s responses to trauma, but he provides use with specific activities to help us and our bodies navigate our trauma responses. These exercises are powerful in beginning to notice, observe and become more aware of how trauma shows up in our bodies not only due to racism but also to address the other ways trauma has impacted our lives.
I have started using these exercises with my own clients as well as adding the knowledge from his book in order to start the conversation on the impact of racism on white, black and police bodies. Like the exercises, having conservations with our clients about racism is a slow and steady process. It is about helping people notice, observe and become more aware of how racism and the trauma from racism shows up in our bodies. Only through this can we start the first step of changing the way white supremacy is embedded into our thoughts, actions, relationships and cultures.
