Bodily Contraction Arises with Dukkha: Embodied Learning to Foster Racial Healing

Black somatic therapist Resmaa Menakem has persuasively argued that racism exist in our bodies more than our heads and that racial healing requires learning to become mindful of our embodied states. The reason that racism remains prevalent despite decades of anti-racist education and the work of diversity and inclusion programs, according to Menakem, is that racist reactions that shun, harm, and kill black bodies are programmed into white, black, and police bodies. The first step in racial healing, from this point of view, is to shift the focus from cognitive solutions to an embodied solution, namely, embodied composure in the face of stressful situations that enables everyone to act more skillfully. Similar to how racial healing has been hampered by a misguided overemphasis on cognitive interventions, might our teaching be analogously encumbered by lack of attention to the bodies of teacher and students? In this article, I emphasize the value of cultivating body awareness in the classroom. I introduce an embodied exercise that teaches students to recognize embodied clues of the experience of dukkha, the first āryasatya. Through such exercises, students take a step towards acting more skillfully and intentionally in stressful situations.

We Matter Too: Employing Counterstorytelling to Expose the Equity Paradoxes Arresting Mattering and Racial Healing Among Faculty of Color

The present article problematizes faculty relationships within academic departments by applying critical race theory (counterstorytelling) to generate equity cases promoting racial healing. These equity cases illustrate the utility of an emergent typology, the equity paradox. More specifically, the equity paradox describes the web of reprisals endured by faculty of color who advocate for the authentic actualization of university-sponsored diversity goals. Each case is a fictional collage of counterstories created by the co-authors and informed by actual events personally experienced or directly witnessed. This approach allowed for ample complexity, authenticity, and utility because many faculty of color will relate to aspects of these case studies. Simultaneously, administrators and colleagues will gain insights into how racism impacts their colleagues of color. We integrate the racial healing and mattering construct throughout the equity cases to illustrate how racism impacts the individual, communal, and systemic functioning of academic departments. We conclude with implications for departmental transformation to redress the social, emotional, and professional harm of racism and reconstruct professional environments that foster healing and mattering among faculty of color.

Equipping School Counselors for Antiracist Healing Centered Groups: A Critical Examination of Preparation, Connected Curricula, Professional Practice and Oversight

This paper highlights the potential for school counselors to promote antiracist practices and racial healing engagement utilizing small group counseling to ultimately eliminate inequities in schools. However, counselor educator programs, founded on middle to upper class white ideals, worldviews, and narrowly focused theoretical frameworks, currently function in ways that fail to equip future school counselors with the group facilitation knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for equitable practice in schools across the nation using case illustrations and a broad current literature review, the authors conceptualize the rationale for more competencies beyond group course assignment, clinical requirements (e.g., CACREP standards, 2016), practice, and supervision. Critical questions for counselor educators to reflect upon for group and connected curricula transformation are provided.

The Multigenerational Transmission Process of Healing Social Cultural Wounds within the Black community: A Comprehensive Analysis

This article examines the multigenerational transmission process of healing social cultural wounds within the black community. A comprehensive research analysis of slavery, racial trauma and racism along with the events surrounding their existence in our contemporary society are explored. Revealed throughout this framework are the theories literature has posited as solutions to racial wounds such as the ‘black self-concept’, ‘Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome,’ ‘Bowen’s Multigenerational Transmission Process,’ ‘racialized disease narrative’ and the introduction of the “social cultural wounds’ concept. 15 recommendations are suggested for addressing the racial healing work within individual, institutional, and systemic healing. Current theory, models, scales assessment and guides that address the treatment of racial trauma are given as guides for clinicians to engage in deep cultural competence work.