Pulling The Thread with Elise Loehnen

Finding Fear in the Body (Resmaa Menakem): TRAUMA

May 27, 2024

Therapist and social worker Resmaa Menakem discusses ancient fears, racialized trauma, and the importance of communal responses to trauma. The conversation delves into personal experiences with fear, intergenerational trauma, and the impact of unaddressed trauma on relationships and communities.

47:22

Episode guests

Resmaa Menakem

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Episode notes

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Quick takeaways

Invest in peace to cultivate peace instead of war for future generations.

Distinguish between clean pain (facing discomfort) and dirty pain (avoiding truths) for authentic healing.

Deep dives

The Importance of Investigating Somatic Experience

Examining somatic experiences to understand historical and intergenerational traumas is crucial for personal growth and communal healing. Resma Menachem's work emphasizes the need to address the embodied effects of racialized trauma and institutional oppression, highlighting the importance of acknowledging and working through physical sensations and emotional responses.

Introduction

2min

Facing Fear and Healing Collective Trauma

12min

Comfort and Quality Bedding Experience Shared

2min

Communal Trauma and the Call for Acknowledgment

10min

Exploring Fear and Somatic Experiences

5min

Exploring Intergenerational Trauma and Laughter

9min

Exploring Learning Programs and Emotional Responsibility in Relationships

2min

Exploration of Clean and Dirty Pain, and the Concept of Liberation

4min

Reflections on Uncomfortable Conversations and Future Topics

3min

“Here's what I would say: peace will happen when people invest in cultivating peace as opposed to war. Peace will happen. And one thing I know, for me, I know peace, I know I will never see it, but maybe I can put something in place to where I leave something here and my children's, children's, children's grandchildren can nibble off of and feed on what I've left here the same way I feed off of Frederick Douglass's stuff.”

So says therapist and social worker Resmaa Menakem, author of the New York Times bestseller My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending our Hearts and Bodies and originator of the Somatic Abolitionist movement. I met Resmaa many years ago, when he was one of the few voices in this space—Resmaa calls himself a communal provocateur and this is true, as his work challenges all of us to recognize and acknowledge that we’re scared. And that much of this fear is ancient. We were supposed to talk today about trauma in relationships, but our time together took a different turn—Resmaa jumped at the opportunity to put me in my familial and familiar fear. It’s hard, or at least it was for me, but hopefully you’ll stick with us to see how this works. This is the third part of a series on trauma, and it won’t surprise you to hear that Resmaa also trained with Peter Levine.

MORE FROM RESMAA MENAKEM:

My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending our Hearts and Bodies

Monsters in Love: Why Your Partner Sometimes Drives You Crazy—And What You Can Do About It

The Quaking of America: An Embodied Guide to Navigating Our Nation’s Upheaval and Racial Reckoning

Resmaa’s Website

Follow Resmaa on Instagram

RELATED EPISODES:

PART 1: James Gordon, M.D., “A Toolkit for Working with Trauma”

PART 2: Peter Levine, Ph.D, “Where Trauma Lives in the Body”

Thomas Hubl: “Feeling into the Collective Presence”

Gabor Maté, M.D.: “When Stress Becomes Illness”

Galit Atlas, PhD: “Understanding Emotional Inheritance”