Healing Intergenerational and Ancestral Trauma with Linda Thai (Series SRIW, Ep 5, 206)
Linda Thai, a Vietnamese Australian trauma therapist living on Native lands in Alaska, shares her journey to self-discovery as she navigates her own identity in the aftermath of her early childhood trauma. She shared words of wisdom about grief and developmental trauma as well as intergenerational and ancestral trauma, touching on the immigrant experience and family dynamics. Through various brain and body-based strategies (click here for a link to free videos she offers that are highly recommended), she reclaims the unresolved ancestral grief and trauma in her lineage and inspires others to incorporate historical awareness, including the impact of colonialism.
“My parents are trauma survivors and I had no idea. And I’m living the aftermath of what that means. So with each stage of the journey or each layer of the unfolding – there are parts of myself that begin to open up to this new world” – Linda ThaiTime Stamps for Healing Intergenerational Trauma
1:31 – Linda Thai’s life journey
4:04 – Unpacking racialized traumas
6:17 – Understanding culturally informed psychology vs liberation psychology
19:41 – A new perspective on grief
28:56 – The responsibility of the community healing
34:16 – Building secure relating beyond human connection
44:48 – Interpreting the nervous system’s responses to excitement and aggression
49:25 – Leaning into your own feeling of emergence
55:48 – True allyship is a process
Resources for Transgenerational TraumaTRF Tuesday – Movement, Breath, and Sound for Transforming Grief (Collection) – 6-session program & resource guide (Sue highly recommends!)
LindaThai.com – Website with resources, newsletter & contact information
“The Body Keeps the Score” – Impactful book that helped Linda Thai recognize her trauma
Dr. Kenneth V. Hardy – Author, Professor & Director of the Eikenberg Institute
“The Loneliest Americans” – Book by Jay Caspian Kang
About our Guest – Linda ThaiLinda Thai, LMSW ERYT-200 is a trauma therapist and educator specializing in brain and body-based modalities for addressing complex developmental and intergenerational trauma. Linda has worked with thousands of people worldwide to promote mindfulness, recover from trauma, and tend to grief as a means of self-care. Linda’s work centers on healing with a special focus on the experiences of adult children of refugees and immigrants. Her teaching is infused with empathy, storytelling, humor, research, practical tools, applied knowledge, and experiential wisdom. She assists internationally renowned psychiatrist and trauma expert, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, with his private small-group psychotherapy workshops aimed at healing attachment trauma. She has a Master of Social Work with an emphasis on the neurobiology of attachment and trauma. Linda has studied Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Somatic Experiencing, Brainspotting, Internal Family Systems, Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment, Havening Touch, Flash Technique, and structural dissociation of the personality, and offers the Safe and Sound Protocol, yoga, and meditation within her practice. Linda works on the traditional lands of the Tanana Athabascan people (Fairbanks, Alaska) with those recovering from addiction, trauma, and mental illness. She is passionate about breaking the cycle of historical and intergenerational trauma at the individual and community levels.
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1 00:00:04,090 --> 00:00:08,270 All the ways in which we numb out and protect ourselves from shame, 2 00:00:09,490 --> 00:00:13,590 get in the way of authenticity, and they get in the way of authentic belonging. 3 00:00:15,330 --> 00:00:18,710 And yet, when it comes to that piece about racialized trauma, 4 00:00:19,530 --> 00:00:21,950 racism is not about belonging. 5 00:00:22,450 --> 00:00:26,110 Racism is not about not fitting in or not belonging. 6 00:00:26,690 --> 00:00:28,350 Racism is about dignity. 7 00:00:30,560 --> 00:00:34,860 And so where are the spaces where we can experience safety, 8 00:00:36,060 --> 00:00:39,820 physical safety, as well as psychological safety and agency? 9 00:00:40,410 --> 00:00:45,340 Because when you combine physical and psychological safety with agency, 10 00:00:46,330 --> 00:00:49,860 this in the capacity for authentic self-expression, 11 00:00:50,920 --> 00:00:55,020 for taking up space for the dignity of mattering, 12 00:00:55,840 --> 00:00:59,140 and a byproduct of that dignity is belonging. 13 00:01:01,530 --> 00:01:05,860 Welcome to Therapist Uncensored, building on decades of professional experience. 14 00:01:05,860 --> 00:01:07,860 This podcast tackles neurobiology, 15 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:12,060 modern attachment and more in an honest way that's helpful in healing humans. 16 00:01:12,490 --> 00:01:15,860 Your session begins now with Dr. Ann Kelly and Sue Marriott. 17 00:01:22,640 --> 00:01:23,060 So, you know, 18 00:01:23,060 --> 00:01:26,420 we talk a lot about self-care and we want you to check in with yourself before 19 00:01:26,440 --> 00:01:31,060 you offer help to someone else rest. 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Hey everybody, 40 00:02:34,830 --> 00:02:38,060 thank you for coming back and joining us at Therapist and censored. 41 00:02:38,060 --> 00:02:42,540 We are thrilled to have you and could not be more excited to introduce you to 42 00:02:42,540 --> 00:02:43,373 our guest today. 43 00:02:44,070 --> 00:02:47,900 Linda Tai is a trauma therapist and educator who specializes in brain and 44 00:02:47,900 --> 00:02:51,380 body-based modalities for addressing complex developmental trauma. 45 00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:56,700 Her work centers on healing with a special focus on experiences of 46 00:02:56,710 --> 00:03:01,240 adult children of refugees and immigrants. Welcome, 47 00:03:01,240 --> 00:03:02,200 welcome to the show. 48 00:03:02,510 --> 00:03:04,040 It's a pleasure to be here, Sue. 49 00:03:04,620 --> 00:03:08,480 So I would love to hear, if you don't mind context a little bit, 50 00:03:09,180 --> 00:03:11,400 you were born in South Vietnam? Yeah. 51 00:03:11,820 --> 00:03:16,480 Yes. So I was born in South Vietnam just after the fall of Saigon, 52 00:03:16,660 --> 00:03:18,240 so at the end of the Vietnam War. 53 00:03:19,300 --> 00:03:23,400 And my family are former Vietnamese vote people. 54 00:03:23,980 --> 00:03:28,320 So I'm a former child refugee, and my parents are also refugees. 55 00:03:29,660 --> 00:03:33,960 And you know, it's taken the entirety of my life to actually 56 00:03:35,530 --> 00:03:40,160 grasp the context within which the circumstances 57 00:03:40,340 --> 00:03:42,680 of my becoming into this world arose. 58 00:03:44,440 --> 00:03:46,640 I felt so bereft in the world, you know, 59 00:03:46,760 --> 00:03:50,200 I had parents where we didn't even speak the same language as each other because 60 00:03:50,540 --> 00:03:52,200 I'm living in Australia with them, 61 00:03:53,140 --> 00:03:58,000 and yet they speak Vietnamese and I'm having struggles with mental 62 00:03:58,000 --> 00:03:59,720 health issues with addiction. 63 00:04:00,440 --> 00:04:05,120 I felt this huge gulf between us and yet this immense desire to try and make 64 00:04:05,120 --> 00:04:08,400 sense of myself and of them and of my life. 65 00:04:10,340 --> 00:04:15,120 And it was well into my thirties that I was able to go, oh, 66 00:04:16,260 --> 00:04:21,000 you know, traditional set psychology says, what's wrong with you? Yeah, 67 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:24,920 trauma informed psychology says what happened to you. 68 00:04:26,090 --> 00:04:29,150 And that being its own journey, right? That what happened to you. 69 00:04:30,060 --> 00:04:30,893 Yeah. 70 00:04:31,050 --> 00:04:35,990 And then culturally informed psychology says what happened 71 00:04:36,090 --> 00:04:40,200 to your people? And liberation psychology says, 72 00:04:41,260 --> 00:04:44,360 and what continues to happen to your people? 73 00:04:45,650 --> 00:04:49,390 And to be able to have discovered Alaska where I live these days 74 00:04:50,530 --> 00:04:54,990 on the traditional lands of the Dene Athabascan Peoples of the Middle 75 00:04:55,170 --> 00:04:56,003 Tanana Valley, 76 00:04:56,810 --> 00:05:01,790 has allowed me enough bandwidth to be able to unpack all 77 00:05:01,790 --> 00:05:05,990 of that because there's so many layers to the context 78 00:05:07,420 --> 00:05:10,310 that no one explained to me. 79 00:05:12,310 --> 00:05:16,750 I experienced an immense series of light bulbs going off 80 00:05:17,300 --> 00:05:19,350 when I discovered Galbo mate's work. 81 00:05:19,530 --> 00:05:23,070 And then when I discovered Bessel VanDerKolk's work specifically, 82 00:05:23,070 --> 00:05:27,070 the body keeps the score. And yet when I read, 83 00:05:27,070 --> 00:05:30,390 the Body Keeps the Score. It was so evident to me that I was a trauma survivor. 84 00:05:30,510 --> 00:05:31,390 I had all the symptoms, 85 00:05:31,410 --> 00:05:34,710 but I didn't have a trauma that I could pin something onto. 86 00:05:35,930 --> 00:05:38,110 And then when asking my parents about it, 87 00:05:38,190 --> 00:05:40,910 I discovered all of the refugee trauma that was there for us. 88 00:05:42,490 --> 00:05:45,990 And yet growing up in our household, there was simply benign neglect. 89 00:05:47,290 --> 00:05:52,070 And so a part of me has been feeling like I'm looking for a 90 00:05:52,070 --> 00:05:55,990 trauma or traumas or abuse that perhaps doesn't exist. 91 00:05:57,460 --> 00:06:02,400 And it's only been in the last couple of years that I've actually 92 00:06:02,440 --> 00:06:07,120 unpacked the impact of racialized trauma and the ways in which the 93 00:06:07,120 --> 00:06:11,480 invisible wounds of racialized trauma has impacted me 94 00:06:11,590 --> 00:06:13,240 psychically, psychologically 95 00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:17,960 impacted how I move through the world as well as my worldview, 96 00:06:18,930 --> 00:06:22,280 which has then given me pause 97 00:06:24,020 --> 00:06:28,480 and has made me very passionate about sharing 98 00:06:29,210 --> 00:06:33,840 about this into the world. And it was emergent today, right? 99 00:06:34,110 --> 00:06:38,520 Just earlier in, in our interview where I started going through, 100 00:06:39,020 --> 00:06:42,040 you know, traditional psychology and then trauma informed psychology, 101 00:06:42,040 --> 00:06:46,600 and there was a pause and you interjected. And I was like, no, no, 102 00:06:46,600 --> 00:06:50,880 there's more around culturally informed psychology and liberation psychology. 103 00:06:51,060 --> 00:06:54,080 And yet I never learned about that in graduate school. 104 00:06:55,380 --> 00:06:59,640 And so many of our listeners who are professionals don't learn about it in 105 00:06:59,920 --> 00:07:03,360 graduate school or after graduate school. 106 00:07:03,540 --> 00:07:08,480 And so I feel in so many ways that we're all at this 107 00:07:08,480 --> 00:07:09,313 cutting edge 108 00:07:10,770 --> 00:07:13,760 where it's messy and we're having these conversations, 109 00:07:13,940 --> 00:07:18,600 and yet there are pioneers in this field who are leading us that little bit 110 00:07:18,600 --> 00:07:19,433 further. 111 00:07:20,700 --> 00:07:24,880 And it comes back to the liberation psychology ethos that 112 00:07:25,390 --> 00:07:29,360 centers the first person narrative, the testimonial 113 00:07:30,900 --> 00:07:33,800 as of utmost importance 114 00:07:35,720 --> 00:07:40,370 when we are exploring the voices of those who 115 00:07:40,440 --> 00:07:43,890 inhabit bodies that are marginalized by society. 116 00:07:44,480 --> 00:07:49,130 Because we don't get researched, not by us, 117 00:07:49,420 --> 00:07:53,770 about us, for us. And yet when we start to speak up, 118 00:07:54,670 --> 00:07:57,770 we then get met with, where's the research behind this? Oh, 119 00:07:57,770 --> 00:08:02,010 this is just your lived experience. Oh, we can dismiss that. 120 00:08:02,560 --> 00:08:06,970 When it doesn't fit our preexisting unconscious 121 00:08:07,010 --> 00:08:10,890 projections about how the world works and what is security and what is not 122 00:08:11,210 --> 00:08:13,410 security. And it's one of the, just, 123 00:08:13,470 --> 00:08:17,610 I'm so delighted to talk with you to help us expand our ideas about that. 124 00:08:18,310 --> 00:08:21,170 But if we could go into it, which is racialized trauma, 125 00:08:22,070 --> 00:08:26,210 can you say more about what you mean about that and kind of your personal 126 00:08:26,210 --> 00:08:28,170 experience of how that's impacted you? 127 00:08:29,030 --> 00:08:33,010 So here's where I just wanna pause and acknowledge the works of Dr. 128 00:08:33,010 --> 00:08:37,410 Kenneth Hardy and Res Manum amongst many others, but they've, 129 00:08:37,440 --> 00:08:39,570 they've been my two main teachers in this field. 130 00:08:41,360 --> 00:08:44,330 When we look at racialized trauma, it happens within a context. 131 00:08:45,480 --> 00:08:49,970 That context also happens over time. And this is where, 132 00:08:50,670 --> 00:08:55,560 if I just name some of the invisibleized wounds of racialized 133 00:08:55,560 --> 00:09:00,560 trauma, and this is Dr. Kenneth Hardy's work, it's an assaulted sense of self. 134 00:09:01,310 --> 00:09:05,520 It's internalized devaluation, learned voicelessness, 135 00:09:06,190 --> 00:09:07,960 psychological homelessness, 136 00:09:08,910 --> 00:09:12,160 complex and ambiguous grief or loss, 137 00:09:13,160 --> 00:09:15,600 survival orientation and rage. 138 00:09:18,020 --> 00:09:22,040 And within that I would also add internalized 139 00:09:23,880 --> 00:09:28,520 idealization of the characteristics of those in power. 140 00:09:29,220 --> 00:09:33,040 And whenever I do my PowerPoint presentations and draw upon Dr. 141 00:09:33,040 --> 00:09:37,040 Kenneth Hardie's work, I actually put up that list and people sit there and go, 142 00:09:37,140 --> 00:09:40,800 wow, I get that. As a complex developmental trauma survivor, 143 00:09:41,040 --> 00:09:45,440 I get all of those things and assaultive sense of self internalized 144 00:09:45,510 --> 00:09:46,343 devaluation, 145 00:09:46,400 --> 00:09:51,200 internalize idealization of the qualities of the person in power 146 00:09:51,750 --> 00:09:55,200 learned voicelessness, you know, psychological homelessness, 147 00:09:55,510 --> 00:09:59,520 complex and ambiguous grief and loss, survival, orientation and rage. 148 00:10:00,100 --> 00:10:04,200 And then I say these according to Dr. 149 00:10:04,200 --> 00:10:06,880 Kenneth Hardy are the invisibleized wounds of racialized from. 150 00:10:08,580 --> 00:10:12,080 And that's where we hear that gasp. And that's where for many of us, 151 00:10:12,140 --> 00:10:17,120 we then become aware of how so many of the conversations that 152 00:10:17,120 --> 00:10:21,640 we have around race, around heterosexism, 153 00:10:21,900 --> 00:10:25,720 around cis genderism, around ableism, 154 00:10:26,100 --> 00:10:27,560 around sexism, 155 00:10:29,380 --> 00:10:33,240 how it's so easy for us to default to our subjugated selves, 156 00:10:34,060 --> 00:10:38,280 how it's so easy for us to default to that part of us that so deeply 157 00:10:39,130 --> 00:10:40,440 knows these words. 158 00:10:42,380 --> 00:10:47,200 And part of the work of allyship is being able to recognize this, 159 00:10:47,460 --> 00:10:52,360 do our own work around those parts of us that are wounded so that we can hold 160 00:10:52,540 --> 00:10:57,040 out or hold forward those parts of ourselves for which this 161 00:10:57,040 --> 00:11:01,400 conversation is about whether the conversation is about whiteness or the 162 00:11:01,400 --> 00:11:05,760 conversation is about ableism, or the conversation is about the patriarchy. 163 00:11:06,100 --> 00:11:09,200 Or if the conversation is about transphobic, 164 00:11:10,030 --> 00:11:13,360 because it's so easy for us to to go pear shaped, 165 00:11:13,500 --> 00:11:16,680 we veer off the train, tracks it, it goes wly. 166 00:11:17,980 --> 00:11:22,720 And for me to pause and go, wow, where does this work land for me, 167 00:11:23,660 --> 00:11:26,960 for me to recognize that so much of my core wounding around shame? 168 00:11:27,980 --> 00:11:30,800 And while I love the work of Dr. Brene Brown, 169 00:11:30,800 --> 00:11:34,880 like I got so much out of that for myself as well as for my clients. 170 00:11:35,000 --> 00:11:37,640 I worked in a dictionary recovery for over 10 years. 171 00:11:38,740 --> 00:11:42,720 And we learned that all the ways in which we numb out and protect ourselves 172 00:11:43,510 --> 00:11:47,000 from shame, get in the way of authenticity, 173 00:11:47,340 --> 00:11:49,520 and they get in the way of authentic belonging. 174 00:11:51,220 --> 00:11:54,760 And yet when it comes to that piece about racialized trauma, 175 00:11:55,660 --> 00:11:58,080 racism is not about belonging. 176 00:11:58,380 --> 00:12:02,040 Racism is not about not fitting in or not belonging. 177 00:12:02,620 --> 00:12:04,280 Racism is about dignity. 178 00:12:06,450 --> 00:12:10,550 And so where are the spaces where we can experience safety, 179 00:12:11,910 --> 00:12:15,990 physical safety, as well as psychological safety and agency? 180 00:12:16,460 --> 00:12:21,270 Because when you combine physical and psychological safety with agency, 181 00:12:22,140 --> 00:12:25,750 there's then the capacity for authentic self-expression, 182 00:12:26,690 --> 00:12:30,990 for taking up space for the dignity of mattering, 183 00:12:31,810 --> 00:12:35,310 and a byproduct of that dignity is belonging. 184 00:12:37,590 --> 00:12:42,370 And you had mentioned a Kenneth Hardy quote before we got on that was really 185 00:12:42,370 --> 00:12:45,290 meaningful to you. Would this be a good place to. 186 00:12:46,190 --> 00:12:48,770 Yes. Oh, thank you for that reminder. 187 00:12:51,040 --> 00:12:56,010 Yeah. He says so many brilliant things and they rattle around inside of me. 188 00:12:56,990 --> 00:13:01,730 And one of the things that he says is that when we inhabit a body 189 00:13:01,730 --> 00:13:03,370 that's racialized by society, 190 00:13:04,550 --> 00:13:09,370 we are too busy defending ourselves. We're always defending ourselves. 191 00:13:09,920 --> 00:13:14,650 It's that assaulted sense of self. And so we don't get to then define ourselves. 192 00:13:14,670 --> 00:13:16,130 And when we do define ourselves, 193 00:13:16,140 --> 00:13:20,450 we're defining ourselves in terms of who we are, not rather than who we are. 194 00:13:20,510 --> 00:13:23,050 And even when we are defining ourselves in terms of who we are, 195 00:13:23,500 --> 00:13:28,210 other people are then trying to compartmentalize us or figure 196 00:13:28,310 --> 00:13:32,570 us out in relationship to the categories, the stereotypes. 197 00:13:33,190 --> 00:13:38,130 So there then exists the opportunity or the possibility within myself to lean 198 00:13:38,130 --> 00:13:42,490 towards the stereotype because stereotypes arise for reason. 199 00:13:42,990 --> 00:13:46,690 And we each inhabit various aspects of that stereotype. 200 00:13:48,030 --> 00:13:52,130 And part of my task is to lean towards that stereotype 201 00:13:53,080 --> 00:13:57,250 without feeling like I then need to defend myself. 202 00:13:58,850 --> 00:13:59,690 I get what you're saying, 203 00:13:59,690 --> 00:14:03,370 especially in context with a quote that if we're pressing against something, 204 00:14:04,430 --> 00:14:06,450 I'm gay, but I'm not X, y, z. 205 00:14:07,680 --> 00:14:10,490 It's still a disownment of potentially parts of ourselves. 206 00:14:10,940 --> 00:14:13,970 Would you be comfortable saying how that applies in your case? 207 00:14:13,970 --> 00:14:15,650 Like if you were to lean into it, 208 00:14:15,720 --> 00:14:20,690 like what do you get the benefit of moving into in yourself that you might 209 00:14:20,690 --> 00:14:22,850 otherwise miss or not even know? 210 00:14:23,600 --> 00:14:24,433 Sure. 211 00:14:25,070 --> 00:14:29,130 So when I was defining myself in terms of who I am, not, 212 00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:34,810 what that butts up against for me is white proximity as a survival 213 00:14:35,210 --> 00:14:38,250 strategy, male proximity as a survival strategy, 214 00:14:38,870 --> 00:14:42,010 and internalizing qualities of whiteness and maleness 215 00:14:43,950 --> 00:14:48,090 and rejecting aspects of my own cultural identity. 216 00:14:49,430 --> 00:14:50,690 That's the painful part. 217 00:14:51,540 --> 00:14:54,840 The parts of myself that I gave away in order to survive. 218 00:14:56,410 --> 00:15:01,000 Where it's giving away aspects of identity, of culture, of language, 219 00:15:01,180 --> 00:15:02,920 of food, of heritage, 220 00:15:03,710 --> 00:15:07,840 that I actually never got the chance to fully inhabit as a result of the forced 221 00:15:07,840 --> 00:15:10,920 displacement of being a former child refugee. 222 00:15:12,300 --> 00:15:17,040 And the complex and ambiguous grief that arises 223 00:15:17,340 --> 00:15:20,680 as a result of acknowledging and recognizing all of that. 224 00:15:22,260 --> 00:15:25,600 And then leaning towards what could open up for me. 225 00:15:26,060 --> 00:15:29,480 And then there's also the stereotypes of Asians as being smart, 226 00:15:30,980 --> 00:15:35,320 as having the answer of being emotionally 227 00:15:35,920 --> 00:15:39,280 unavailable and not being able to be trustworthy. 228 00:15:39,640 --> 00:15:43,400 'cause I say no when I say mean yes. And say yes when I mean no. 229 00:15:44,460 --> 00:15:48,600 And I ardently stro for such a long time to not be that Asian, 230 00:15:49,700 --> 00:15:54,600 and I strove not to be the Asian who couldn't speak the language and 231 00:15:54,600 --> 00:15:58,360 only had Asian friends and only hung out with other Asians. 232 00:15:59,300 --> 00:16:00,640 And in the process of that, 233 00:16:01,440 --> 00:16:05,360 I lost my asianness that I never got to 234 00:16:06,330 --> 00:16:10,280 experience or inhabit my Vietnamese ness. 235 00:16:11,740 --> 00:16:14,960 You know, Jake Caspian Kang talks about this in his book, 236 00:16:14,960 --> 00:16:16,280 the Loneliest Americans, 237 00:16:17,460 --> 00:16:22,400 how as a result of assimilating ourselves in the 238 00:16:22,490 --> 00:16:25,080 hopes of getting closer and closer to whiteness, 239 00:16:25,860 --> 00:16:30,720 we then not only distance ourselves from ourselves and our own 240 00:16:30,960 --> 00:16:31,720 cultural heritages, 241 00:16:31,720 --> 00:16:36,600 we also distance ourselves from other black and brown bodies while at the 242 00:16:36,600 --> 00:16:39,920 same time not ever being white. 243 00:16:42,220 --> 00:16:45,040 As you were going there. I just felt so emotional actually. 244 00:16:45,040 --> 00:16:49,040 And the words that came to me were like finding home, you know, 245 00:16:49,040 --> 00:16:53,480 like as you began to refind these parts of you that you had disowned, but then, 246 00:16:53,740 --> 00:16:56,840 you know, this is part of the trauma is like, but that wasn't home <laugh>. 247 00:16:57,220 --> 00:17:02,040 And I just think you've spoken so brilliantly about that idea of like the 248 00:17:02,040 --> 00:17:04,880 loss of something that, and it's the absence of, 249 00:17:05,460 --> 00:17:09,840 and like how can you grieve something that you didn't, that didn't happen. 250 00:17:10,620 --> 00:17:13,800 So I can feel it as painful, but yeah, 251 00:17:13,800 --> 00:17:16,680 that is an interesting concept of how do you grieve something that didn't 252 00:17:16,860 --> 00:17:17,693 happen? 253 00:17:18,620 --> 00:17:21,920 We have to name it because we can't grieve something, 254 00:17:21,940 --> 00:17:23,920 we can't mourn something unless we name it. 255 00:17:25,220 --> 00:17:30,160 And we live in a very concrete society where grief is typically framed as I 256 00:17:30,180 --> 00:17:31,600 had something and now it's gone, 257 00:17:32,940 --> 00:17:35,400 and now I can wrap up my head around your grief 258 00:17:36,980 --> 00:17:39,440 and then help you with solutions for that. 259 00:17:40,440 --> 00:17:41,273 <Laugh>. 260 00:17:44,390 --> 00:17:45,440 Yeah, we're gonna fix. 261 00:17:45,450 --> 00:17:46,560 We're gonna fix that right up. 262 00:17:46,980 --> 00:17:47,813 Uh. 263 00:17:47,840 --> 00:17:52,720 <Laugh>. Yes. And when it comes to these unnameable losses, 264 00:17:52,950 --> 00:17:54,880 it's a grief over something I never got. 265 00:17:55,660 --> 00:17:59,840 And yet in my work with adult children of 266 00:18:00,250 --> 00:18:01,083 alcoholics, 267 00:18:01,860 --> 00:18:05,440 that's where I actually then started to recognize the grief for the inner child, 268 00:18:06,540 --> 00:18:08,360 the grief for what we didn't get, 269 00:18:10,140 --> 00:18:12,120 and the pervasive weight, 270 00:18:12,660 --> 00:18:17,040 the vastness of that emptiness and the 271 00:18:17,570 --> 00:18:20,000 loneliness. The loneliness, 272 00:18:20,080 --> 00:18:24,520 I mean across all forms of attachment disruption is 273 00:18:24,610 --> 00:18:25,443 loneliness. 274 00:18:27,160 --> 00:18:29,900 My understanding of as a cisgender white woman, I don't know, 275 00:18:29,900 --> 00:18:31,460 but the trans experience, 276 00:18:32,010 --> 00:18:36,020 like not having an i this identity that was recognized in the world, 277 00:18:36,020 --> 00:18:38,580 even recognized by yourself as a child, 278 00:18:39,880 --> 00:18:43,900 the concept of it has to form. And in some ways, 279 00:18:43,900 --> 00:18:47,980 the only way that it ever forms is that by it being 280 00:18:49,210 --> 00:18:52,140 like manifest out there, which is some of your work, is like, 281 00:18:52,150 --> 00:18:55,180 let's form it so that you can get to the grieving. 282 00:18:56,120 --> 00:18:58,300 Yes. And let's form that community. 283 00:18:58,960 --> 00:19:02,620 And even just the idea or even the feeling of it or the, 284 00:19:02,850 --> 00:19:06,420 it's like you, uh, we talked about emergent, 285 00:19:06,450 --> 00:19:09,860 it's like the way that I'm thinking, I'm not sure if this is right, but like, 286 00:19:09,890 --> 00:19:13,100 it's, it's not a thing you can point to. It's like you said, 287 00:19:13,100 --> 00:19:14,580 is this is ambiguous loss. 288 00:19:14,760 --> 00:19:17,820 So it's like it begins to form as like there is something there, but I, 289 00:19:17,880 --> 00:19:19,260 how do you name what that is? 290 00:19:20,320 --> 00:19:23,740 And even without the name as it takes form, 291 00:19:24,370 --> 00:19:27,540 then there's something that you can feel that is missing or there, 292 00:19:27,600 --> 00:19:30,620 or that you can relate to. But there is something about it being, 293 00:19:30,680 --> 00:19:35,660 it needs to be manifest in the world in order to even know that it's not 294 00:19:35,660 --> 00:19:39,740 available. <laugh>, no, I feel like I'm talking in circles, but I think you're, 295 00:19:39,800 --> 00:19:42,980 are you following <laugh>? Am I on the right track? Yeah. 296 00:19:43,090 --> 00:19:43,770 Yeah. 297 00:19:43,770 --> 00:19:45,300 Help me out. Help me out. <laugh>. 298 00:19:47,800 --> 00:19:50,300 No, I, there's so much joy in the struggle, right? 299 00:19:50,300 --> 00:19:52,900 There's so much joy in going yes, you too. 300 00:19:53,040 --> 00:19:55,140 You are trying to touch something and it's not there, 301 00:19:55,140 --> 00:19:57,660 but you know it's there because you keep reaching for it, 302 00:19:58,970 --> 00:20:02,500 knowing that it's supposed to be there. And yet it's so elusive. 303 00:20:03,960 --> 00:20:08,860 You know, that piece, the piece about if I'm always defending myself, 304 00:20:08,940 --> 00:20:11,980 I don't get to define myself as children. 305 00:20:12,720 --> 00:20:16,380 One of the developmental actions of attachment is to be able to push against, 306 00:20:17,370 --> 00:20:19,700 because when I push against you, 307 00:20:20,300 --> 00:20:24,170 I know that I am real because you are pushing back. 308 00:20:25,070 --> 00:20:29,770 And if I can push against and have that be distinct from pushing 309 00:20:30,040 --> 00:20:30,873 away, 310 00:20:30,960 --> 00:20:35,210 then I learn how to set boundaries and have boundaries as well as how to let go. 311 00:20:35,520 --> 00:20:39,370 Because I know the difference between pushing against that. 312 00:20:39,370 --> 00:20:42,490 It gives me a sense of being real and pushing away. 313 00:20:43,750 --> 00:20:48,240 And when it comes to racialized identity, which is, you know, 314 00:20:48,270 --> 00:20:51,200 there's so much in terms of child development that's here in, 315 00:20:51,200 --> 00:20:55,120 in amongst all of this that I'm hoping that I can form solidarity with, 316 00:20:55,470 --> 00:20:59,200 with therapists and with folks who are working their way through their own 317 00:20:59,200 --> 00:21:00,360 childhood stuff, right? 318 00:21:00,940 --> 00:21:04,440 Is that as someone who inhabits a racialized identity, 319 00:21:05,310 --> 00:21:10,160 when I'm busy defending myself, I'm pushing against and the, 320 00:21:10,260 --> 00:21:12,080 and yet that's how I know that I'm real. 321 00:21:14,170 --> 00:21:18,710 And so can I define myself by pushing against and being met with 322 00:21:18,740 --> 00:21:19,573 community 323 00:21:21,080 --> 00:21:25,820 yet met with a container and we talk about containers all the time 324 00:21:25,960 --> 00:21:26,860 in, in therapy. 325 00:21:27,960 --> 00:21:32,380 Can I be met with that rather than be met with 326 00:21:34,330 --> 00:21:35,780 confusion, judgment. 327 00:21:37,940 --> 00:21:42,340 <Laugh>, aggression even right aggression. Yeah, that isn't, that isn't true. 328 00:21:42,340 --> 00:21:44,220 That isn't right. Uhhuh. 329 00:21:45,020 --> 00:21:48,540 Minimization, denial analysis, 330 00:21:50,100 --> 00:21:54,300 <laugh> as well as aspects of other people's 331 00:21:54,590 --> 00:21:58,900 unresolved aspects of self that also emerge in the moment. 332 00:21:59,880 --> 00:22:04,140 And it gets so messy and pushing against one another. You know, 333 00:22:04,140 --> 00:22:07,540 in the mental health field here, as therapists are struggling, you know, 334 00:22:07,540 --> 00:22:11,940 this notion of shame and shame being kind of the quick go-to 335 00:22:12,810 --> 00:22:16,900 that can stop relationship, we had sort of spoken about that. Yes. 336 00:22:16,900 --> 00:22:21,740 Because oftentimes it outbeat to push against so that you push against me 337 00:22:21,840 --> 00:22:25,180 so I feel real, what happens I push against. 338 00:22:26,800 --> 00:22:31,380 And other responses are I get pushed away or 339 00:22:32,540 --> 00:22:35,900 I am still pushing because there isn't a container. 340 00:22:35,960 --> 00:22:37,700 So I'm trying to find that container. 341 00:22:37,700 --> 00:22:42,540 So then I get even more vocal and physical with my pushing 342 00:22:43,720 --> 00:22:46,140 in an attempt to get a need met for feeling real. 343 00:22:46,800 --> 00:22:50,620 And yet when it isn't met with enough pressure, 344 00:22:51,650 --> 00:22:55,380 what emerges in that space of not being met is shame. 345 00:22:56,160 --> 00:23:00,940 And so that then becomes part of that assaulted sense of self and 346 00:23:01,660 --> 00:23:05,620 internalized evaluation as well as internalized 347 00:23:06,090 --> 00:23:10,380 devaluation. I'm then constantly assessing what's wrong with me, 348 00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:15,160 the ways in which I'm not enough or I'm too much, right? 349 00:23:15,160 --> 00:23:17,840 The two core wounds, I'm too much, I'm not enough. 350 00:23:19,260 --> 00:23:24,080 How can I shift reshape who I 351 00:23:24,080 --> 00:23:27,720 am in order to get my attachment needs met? 352 00:23:28,820 --> 00:23:32,920 But beneath attachment is physical and psychological safety 353 00:23:34,940 --> 00:23:38,920 and dignity for self-expression. And so then I'm, 354 00:23:38,980 --> 00:23:42,240 I'm actually always assessing is it okay for me to be me? 355 00:23:43,520 --> 00:23:45,730 I believe there's our own individual work to do, 356 00:23:45,730 --> 00:23:48,640 but then there's also the communal and the community. 357 00:23:49,820 --> 00:23:54,680 And my own journey has been one where by the 358 00:23:54,680 --> 00:23:55,920 time I was a young adult, 359 00:23:55,920 --> 00:23:59,600 if Fox actually had asked me about my Vietnamese heritage or ancestry, 360 00:23:59,720 --> 00:24:02,000 I would've looked at them really blankly and said, I don't know 361 00:24:03,540 --> 00:24:08,160 in that a whole bunch of shame would've come up because there's also within 362 00:24:08,160 --> 00:24:13,120 culture shame about how I've get judged and assessed by other 363 00:24:13,120 --> 00:24:17,680 Vietnamese people about the ways in which I've lost my roots. 364 00:24:18,660 --> 00:24:21,960 And then I'm a big walking ball of shame and I'm not able to step into that 365 00:24:22,120 --> 00:24:26,560 space. And yet at the same time being able to slowly unpack that 366 00:24:27,980 --> 00:24:30,440 has been where, you know, 367 00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:34,840 I have such gratitude for the 12 step groups I've been a part of 368 00:24:35,890 --> 00:24:39,770 'cause that is shame, resiliency. In the words of Brene Brown, 369 00:24:39,870 --> 00:24:44,050 I'm sharing my story to those who've earned the right to share my story about 370 00:24:44,400 --> 00:24:45,233 addiction. 371 00:24:46,350 --> 00:24:50,410 And then in adult children of alcoholics and others raised in dysfunctional 372 00:24:50,690 --> 00:24:54,490 families, even though my family was not alcoholic and there wasn't abuse, 373 00:24:55,330 --> 00:24:56,650 I still had all those symptoms. 374 00:24:57,590 --> 00:25:01,610 And so I got to share my story with always who earned the right to hear my 375 00:25:01,610 --> 00:25:04,290 story. And yet the longer I stayed in those groups, 376 00:25:04,310 --> 00:25:07,170 the more that I saw that there were aspects that weren't being talked about 377 00:25:07,230 --> 00:25:11,610 around race and also around war. We don't talk about war and the impact of war. 378 00:25:12,670 --> 00:25:15,050 And yet it got me further along in the journey. 379 00:25:16,110 --> 00:25:20,450 And then I discovered the work of adult children of Holocaust survivors. 380 00:25:20,450 --> 00:25:23,890 Not that I would ever wish to conflate what happened to my people with, 381 00:25:24,270 --> 00:25:26,850 you know, what happened to Holocaust survivors. 382 00:25:26,910 --> 00:25:31,810 And yet there are threads of that that landed for me in my experience that 383 00:25:31,810 --> 00:25:35,860 caused me to go, oh, my parents are trauma survivors. 384 00:25:36,060 --> 00:25:39,980 I had no idea. And I'm living the aftermath of what that means. 385 00:25:41,040 --> 00:25:45,540 And so with each stage of the journey or each layer of the unfolding, 386 00:25:46,390 --> 00:25:51,100 there are parts of myself that begin to open up so that when I 387 00:25:51,130 --> 00:25:53,700 work with other folks who come to me and they say, 388 00:25:54,480 --> 00:25:58,540 I'm adamant I'm a white person and that has been my narrative my entire life, 389 00:25:59,820 --> 00:26:04,060 I can actually say, yeah, I get that. And where shall we begin? 390 00:26:04,890 --> 00:26:09,700 Because the temptation within a society that has an 391 00:26:10,060 --> 00:26:14,180 insecure attachment relationship to time and to productivity 392 00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:19,940 is to want to fix and provide the solutions right now. 393 00:26:29,680 --> 00:26:32,340 All right, let's talk about our sponsors Z Duck. 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I also got my fish oil there, 433 00:28:54,940 --> 00:28:58,120 my super B 12 complex and my protein powder. 434 00:28:59,220 --> 00:29:01,160 So I encourage you to check it out. 435 00:29:01,270 --> 00:29:03,520 It's time to get your health in check with I Herb. 436 00:29:03,740 --> 00:29:07,360 Our listeners get 22% off your first order when you use the code 437 00:29:07,720 --> 00:29:09,400 tu@iherb.com. 438 00:29:10,100 --> 00:29:15,000 That's 22% off your first order@iherb.com as long as you use 439 00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:16,800 our promo code t u. 440 00:29:17,380 --> 00:29:21,840 So choose iHerb because your wellness matters and as a way to support the show, 441 00:29:24,170 --> 00:29:27,370 I just am hungry for these concepts. 442 00:29:28,430 --> 00:29:29,410 Say more <laugh>. 443 00:29:30,810 --> 00:29:32,010 I got so much, 444 00:29:33,070 --> 00:29:36,530 so much juiciness from white bodied people, 445 00:29:36,820 --> 00:29:40,530 which is a phrase I I take from res manum, you know, white bodied folks. 446 00:29:41,340 --> 00:29:45,840 And I learned so much from white bodied 447 00:29:46,060 --> 00:29:50,000 psychotherapists and psychotherapy modalities and 448 00:29:50,650 --> 00:29:55,040 attachment theory helped to make my world make a lot more sense 449 00:29:56,700 --> 00:30:01,680 and yet it did nothing to repair the relationship between myself and my parents. 450 00:30:03,780 --> 00:30:05,880 And I actually, uh, 451 00:30:06,060 --> 00:30:10,880 Kai Ching Tom was actually the person who raised to my awareness like 452 00:30:10,950 --> 00:30:15,840 very searingly that psychotherapy is 453 00:30:16,400 --> 00:30:20,560 derived from white colonizers, settler paradigms and lenses and approaches. 454 00:30:21,700 --> 00:30:26,240 And when I heard her say that I was actually deeply 455 00:30:26,800 --> 00:30:30,840 immersed in Brene Brown and Dr. 456 00:30:30,970 --> 00:30:35,960 VanDerKolk Bessel VanDerKolk and Stephen Porges and Peter Levine 457 00:30:36,900 --> 00:30:41,400 and Bonnie Badnock and the attachment researchers of the 458 00:30:41,400 --> 00:30:42,440 generation before them. 459 00:30:43,060 --> 00:30:48,040 And yet to pause and to tap into a universality of 460 00:30:48,040 --> 00:30:52,520 what secure attachment could possibly mean caused me to 461 00:30:53,080 --> 00:30:56,280 recognize and this is Este Perez's work, right? 462 00:30:56,350 --> 00:30:59,120 That relationships is a relationality with all, 463 00:30:59,120 --> 00:31:02,160 with all things with life itself. Yeah. 464 00:31:02,780 --> 00:31:05,400 Not just our relationship with our parents, it's also our, 465 00:31:06,000 --> 00:31:08,040 I think she keeps it mostly to people. 466 00:31:08,340 --> 00:31:12,200 And living here on indigenous land, 467 00:31:12,810 --> 00:31:16,080 there was something that healed for me that I didn't realize was missing 468 00:31:17,740 --> 00:31:20,800 secure attachment to the earth, to nature, 469 00:31:21,660 --> 00:31:25,520 to the seasons and the rhythms of nature and the seasons, 470 00:31:26,780 --> 00:31:31,400 how to grow food and where it comes from and how to tend to the earth and how to 471 00:31:31,400 --> 00:31:32,400 hunt and fish 472 00:31:34,100 --> 00:31:38,880 and grow and preserve and take what I need and 473 00:31:38,880 --> 00:31:39,800 only what I need. 474 00:31:40,820 --> 00:31:45,320 And right in there that small bit there is to recognize that I 475 00:31:45,620 --> 00:31:49,000 had learned a survival oriented relationship to my needs. 476 00:31:49,790 --> 00:31:53,440 That when I experience a need, I go, no, I don't, I don't have needs. 477 00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:56,360 What are you talking about? And when that need becomes overwhelming, 478 00:31:56,560 --> 00:31:58,440 I then go into fight or flight about that need. 479 00:31:58,700 --> 00:32:00,840 You're either on my side or you're in my way. 480 00:32:01,900 --> 00:32:06,720 And then I project that onto other people and I dismiss other 481 00:32:06,720 --> 00:32:11,320 people and their needs as being needy and or I 482 00:32:11,350 --> 00:32:16,240 mistake love as you being able to attune to and connect to and fulfill 483 00:32:16,260 --> 00:32:19,640 my needs without me needing to ask for it. Because if you loved me, 484 00:32:20,040 --> 00:32:20,960 I wouldn't have to ask. 485 00:32:22,940 --> 00:32:27,400 So relating with my own needs and the needs of others, 486 00:32:28,420 --> 00:32:32,760 the needs of the planet secure relating with ancestors 487 00:32:33,260 --> 00:32:36,080 and not just ancestors who are bloodline ancestors, 488 00:32:36,820 --> 00:32:38,600 but there's also professional ancestors. 489 00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:43,480 A religious ancestors are spiritual ancestors and the teachers of my teachers 490 00:32:43,540 --> 00:32:46,840 and my ancestors with a capital A, right? 491 00:32:46,840 --> 00:32:51,720 The elemental ancestors of earth and wind and fire and and warmth 492 00:32:51,900 --> 00:32:52,660 and water. 493 00:32:52,660 --> 00:32:57,560 And when I'm up in the mountains of Alaska on all fours and drinking from 494 00:32:57,600 --> 00:33:02,440 a mountain stream with just my mouth making contact with the 495 00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:05,480 water and my hands and legs on the earth, 496 00:33:05,940 --> 00:33:10,880 I'm connecting with the ancestors who are caribou 497 00:33:11,420 --> 00:33:15,760 and grass and the rain from the rainbow 498 00:33:16,380 --> 00:33:20,520 or through the rainbow that becomes the stream that then moves on into the river 499 00:33:20,520 --> 00:33:23,800 valley. That becomes a glacier, right? 500 00:33:23,800 --> 00:33:25,640 These capital A ancestors. 501 00:33:28,100 --> 00:33:32,560 And then there's secure relating to culture and there's an ancient 502 00:33:32,560 --> 00:33:37,080 technology that wes it way through all cultures. Its soul movement, 503 00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:41,120 storytelling or stories and silence. 504 00:33:42,420 --> 00:33:47,400 So to relate securely with these aspects of culture and cultural 505 00:33:47,720 --> 00:33:50,520 heritage as well as the rituals, 506 00:33:50,520 --> 00:33:55,200 which are the containers for song and movement and story 507 00:33:55,340 --> 00:34:00,320 and silence that mark the passage across the course of 508 00:34:00,360 --> 00:34:01,280 a human lifetime 509 00:34:02,820 --> 00:34:07,800 as well as the containers of language and customs and food and 510 00:34:07,800 --> 00:34:10,640 ways of being and moving in this world. 511 00:34:11,390 --> 00:34:14,920 They give us a sense of kinship as well as 512 00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:19,280 ancestry and ancestral lineage. 513 00:34:20,660 --> 00:34:24,840 And then there's secure attachment relating to my body and to bodies 514 00:34:25,820 --> 00:34:30,680 to touch to a for kind and sensuous relationship 515 00:34:31,350 --> 00:34:34,400 with life around me. In the words of Francis Weller, 516 00:34:35,330 --> 00:34:37,480 where I can feel 517 00:34:39,260 --> 00:34:42,960 the Jew on a fiddlehead fur and smell it 518 00:34:45,940 --> 00:34:50,840 and smell the air that that Jew has passed through and 519 00:34:50,840 --> 00:34:55,800 the earth that that Jew has emerged from this sensuality 520 00:34:56,980 --> 00:35:01,280 and living life through our senses as another way of knowing 521 00:35:01,860 --> 00:35:05,800 and relating. And then there's with the body, 522 00:35:06,270 --> 00:35:10,720 it's also secure relating to pleasure, to rest, to sleep, 523 00:35:11,620 --> 00:35:16,160 to joy, to work and to time. 524 00:35:16,710 --> 00:35:21,560 Because all of like this decolonized perspective on secure attachment 525 00:35:22,620 --> 00:35:26,120 is a cosmology. It's a worldview, it's a way of being. 526 00:35:26,980 --> 00:35:28,000 And within that, 527 00:35:28,280 --> 00:35:32,800 particularly that secure attachment relating to time which becomes disrupted 528 00:35:32,800 --> 00:35:35,880 within our capitalistic societies, 529 00:35:37,240 --> 00:35:40,760 I then know my place in the bigger scheme of things. 530 00:35:41,540 --> 00:35:46,400 And when we don't experience place where 531 00:35:46,400 --> 00:35:48,520 we belong in the greater scheme of things, 532 00:35:49,030 --> 00:35:53,840 then we become really busy trying to find our place and secure 533 00:35:53,900 --> 00:35:58,280 our place. And we live in a world that says, Hey, 534 00:35:59,020 --> 00:36:03,400 let me give you legitimacy with these letters after your name, 535 00:36:03,630 --> 00:36:05,120 with this next certificate, 536 00:36:05,550 --> 00:36:10,440 with this pay rise and a job title change with a 537 00:36:10,440 --> 00:36:13,360 change in role for some of us, you know, 538 00:36:13,640 --> 00:36:18,640 becoming a parent is actually a way of becoming more legitimate in the world and 539 00:36:18,860 --> 00:36:22,680 in the eyes of our parents. We might get given more legitimacy in the world. 540 00:36:23,620 --> 00:36:28,400 And yet that striving for legitimacy can be born from 541 00:36:28,520 --> 00:36:33,000 a sense of not having experienced place. 542 00:36:33,980 --> 00:36:38,320 And so I feel ever so grateful for my journey of having been displaced and 543 00:36:38,440 --> 00:36:42,880 uprooted in such a way that's proximate and yet distant 544 00:36:43,030 --> 00:36:47,200 meaning that I was two years old that has allowed me to 545 00:36:47,930 --> 00:36:52,320 experience the reverberations and aftermath and work through them 546 00:36:54,540 --> 00:36:59,400 in such a way that maybe perhaps it might be an offering to 547 00:36:59,400 --> 00:37:01,120 someone out there in the world. 548 00:37:02,080 --> 00:37:05,500 One of the things I love about how you speak about these things as a disruptor 549 00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:10,940 is that you are able to do it in a way that other people 550 00:37:11,040 --> 00:37:15,100 aren't resourced enough. Or another way of saying that is, 551 00:37:15,400 --> 00:37:18,380 as you were describing, kind of the achievement and you know, 552 00:37:18,380 --> 00:37:22,620 all of us on the rabbit wheel and that that's all that we know, 553 00:37:22,720 --> 00:37:23,820 that's where we've been pointed. 554 00:37:24,600 --> 00:37:28,940 So there's a way that you really hold that and acknowledge that as you're also 555 00:37:29,980 --> 00:37:32,540 striving to disrupt that, that there you're kind of saying, 556 00:37:33,080 --> 00:37:37,740 and I hope I can be part two of saying like, there's more, there's other paths, 557 00:37:37,740 --> 00:37:40,980 there's other ways and those ideas and those, 558 00:37:41,240 --> 00:37:44,420 the pointers and the it has to form and that, 559 00:37:44,420 --> 00:37:48,860 that's I think some of seems like your journey is like to help 560 00:37:49,450 --> 00:37:54,180 this alternative mode of relating and being and finding oneself 561 00:37:54,320 --> 00:37:57,580 and coming together to create that as a possibility. 562 00:37:57,580 --> 00:38:00,980 Because I don't know that it's a possibility when you look up and the carrot's 563 00:38:00,980 --> 00:38:02,980 right in front of you and you just keep going 'cause that's where you're 564 00:38:03,060 --> 00:38:07,260 supposed to go. But I love the gentleness that you talk about it so that, 565 00:38:07,800 --> 00:38:09,860 you know, wherever we find ourselves on this path, 566 00:38:10,290 --> 00:38:14,860 even under-resourced parents who are also traumatized, 567 00:38:15,090 --> 00:38:16,060 that you know, 568 00:38:16,060 --> 00:38:19,100 there's a way of like seeing them and telling the truth about what happened, 569 00:38:19,720 --> 00:38:23,820 but also really kind of holding them in the, in the same, at the same time. 570 00:38:24,440 --> 00:38:29,180 It feels like what we need as a culture to be able to name it 571 00:38:29,450 --> 00:38:33,700 without blowing it up. Is that right? Or is that me being too, um, 572 00:38:33,850 --> 00:38:36,680 soft about it? You know what I mean? Like, am I saying, 573 00:38:36,780 --> 00:38:39,320 oh we should all be nice as we try to do these things, 574 00:38:39,730 --> 00:38:44,240 which I don't want to be saying <laugh>, that's not what I mean, 575 00:38:44,580 --> 00:38:46,640 I'm good with, uh, blowing things up if needed. 576 00:38:47,340 --> 00:38:51,520 But there's something I guess about aggression and assertiveness pushing 577 00:38:52,540 --> 00:38:53,800 versus pushing away. 578 00:38:54,390 --> 00:38:58,720 Look, something I say all the time is right message, wrong. 579 00:38:58,960 --> 00:39:03,360 Delivery is wrong message, right message, wrong timing is wrong message. 580 00:39:04,460 --> 00:39:08,800 And in amongst the world of social justice voices, 581 00:39:10,450 --> 00:39:14,560 there are times when my nervous system is up here and I'm full of passion 582 00:39:15,500 --> 00:39:20,360 and yet it's very easy for other nervous systems to misinterpret my passion as 583 00:39:20,410 --> 00:39:22,560 aggression or aggressiveness. 584 00:39:23,790 --> 00:39:28,560 It's very easy to misinterpret excitement as I'm gonna be overwhelmed by that. 585 00:39:29,500 --> 00:39:33,800 And there have been times when my nervous system is down here and 586 00:39:34,540 --> 00:39:38,640 I'm pacing things more slowly and there are other nervous systems in the space 587 00:39:38,640 --> 00:39:43,440 that are like, come on, I want you to ramp it up, like give it to me with a, 588 00:39:43,440 --> 00:39:47,720 with a passionate delivery. And so I get, 589 00:39:47,900 --> 00:39:52,680 and I hold with so much love that we each 590 00:39:52,680 --> 00:39:54,000 have different nervous systems. 591 00:39:55,540 --> 00:40:00,400 And to be able to just hold that and to find the 592 00:40:00,640 --> 00:40:04,800 resource that you need for you, the resource that I need for me, 593 00:40:05,500 --> 00:40:10,400 so that I can continue to be myself and know 594 00:40:10,400 --> 00:40:12,960 that I am enough in this world as I am. 595 00:40:13,910 --> 00:40:18,010 And I hope that it can be okay that today I have a gentle delivery <laugh> 596 00:40:20,470 --> 00:40:23,250 and that it doesn't get misinterpreted as, you know, 597 00:40:24,370 --> 00:40:28,890 a weaponizing of calmness and a lack of passion for the topic. 598 00:40:29,890 --> 00:40:34,090 I also get that for many folks out there being able to hear some of the things 599 00:40:34,090 --> 00:40:38,890 that I've said today in like with the nervous system I'm currently inhabiting is 600 00:40:39,170 --> 00:40:42,930 actually the delivery that is meeting 601 00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:45,050 your nervous system. 602 00:40:47,230 --> 00:40:49,290 And if that is what you learned from today, 603 00:40:49,530 --> 00:40:52,770 I mean this is something I I've I've been cognizant of for a while, 604 00:40:53,910 --> 00:40:58,470 is that when I learn how I learn, I can learn anything. 605 00:40:59,650 --> 00:41:03,670 And as someone who started out teaching meditation and teaching yoga, 606 00:41:04,150 --> 00:41:07,070 I was taught that teaching is the art of observation. 607 00:41:07,850 --> 00:41:11,270 So when I learn how you learn, I can teach you anything. 608 00:41:12,810 --> 00:41:16,310 And more importantly, when I learn how you learn, 609 00:41:16,910 --> 00:41:21,830 I can teach you how you learn and then you can go 610 00:41:22,290 --> 00:41:24,470 and learn anything you wanna learn. 611 00:41:26,770 --> 00:41:29,070 So let me just ask a point of clarification. 612 00:41:29,210 --> 00:41:33,760 So when I said a moment ago about the balance between disruptive and 613 00:41:34,660 --> 00:41:35,100 did, 614 00:41:35,100 --> 00:41:38,880 did I come across as saying that there was anything wrong with your delivery? 615 00:41:39,580 --> 00:41:41,480 Mm-hmm. Okay. No, because. 616 00:41:41,480 --> 00:41:43,920 When you went there I was like, oh no, that's not what I meant. <laugh>, 617 00:41:44,060 --> 00:41:46,200 but <laugh>. See how it happens? <laugh>. 618 00:41:50,140 --> 00:41:52,040 So I just wanted to check it out. <laugh>, 619 00:41:56,430 --> 00:41:58,880 it's like that would be terrible <laugh>. 620 00:42:00,790 --> 00:42:01,800 It's like you're <laugh>. 621 00:42:04,140 --> 00:42:06,600 No, not at all, Sue. Not at all. Okay. 622 00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:07,200 Okay. Yeah. 623 00:42:07,200 --> 00:42:10,480 Good, good, good. Yeah, that's, that's wonderful. Well, 624 00:42:10,600 --> 00:42:15,320 I love this dance and I know that many people that are 625 00:42:15,320 --> 00:42:19,760 listening are just as moved as I am and you know, 626 00:42:19,760 --> 00:42:21,920 what are next steps? Where would you direct people? 627 00:42:22,540 --> 00:42:25,400 You know the folks that are just excited and like, yes, that. 628 00:42:26,740 --> 00:42:31,120 If I land into emergence and I speak into that, which is emergent for me, 629 00:42:32,790 --> 00:42:37,560 what my invitation would be would be to invite you to step into that 630 00:42:37,630 --> 00:42:41,360 emergence for yourself, right? Whatever emerges for you. 631 00:42:42,150 --> 00:42:44,400 Because when we can name that which emerges, 632 00:42:44,430 --> 00:42:49,400 what happens is then the world will present us 633 00:42:49,470 --> 00:42:51,160 with the next piece. 634 00:42:51,900 --> 00:42:54,880 And the world is actually always presenting us with the next piece. 635 00:42:54,900 --> 00:42:59,280 We just don't see it because we're not in alignment with emergence. 636 00:43:00,400 --> 00:43:01,880 I love your answer by the way, 637 00:43:02,270 --> 00:43:07,200 otherwise there's just a new carrot and you took the carrot away and it 638 00:43:07,200 --> 00:43:10,480 is like, no, the carrot isn't here, it's more of tuning in. 639 00:43:10,780 --> 00:43:13,640 And I really get that it's our responsibility. 640 00:43:14,150 --> 00:43:18,960 There's not just something to sign up for or something to go do that really 641 00:43:19,060 --> 00:43:22,840 is this practice of, you know, we talk about it on the show, 642 00:43:22,840 --> 00:43:27,760 it's like secure relating related to like come back to yourself like being 643 00:43:27,760 --> 00:43:29,960 your right size. You don't have to be bigger, 644 00:43:30,020 --> 00:43:33,120 you don't have to stand on your tippy toes, <laugh>, you don't have to run, 645 00:43:33,300 --> 00:43:36,640 you don't have, you know what I mean? You don't have to shrink and huddle. 646 00:43:37,430 --> 00:43:39,400 It's like, what is your right size right now? 647 00:43:40,180 --> 00:43:42,120 So I think a little bit of different language, but the same thing, 648 00:43:42,400 --> 00:43:46,680 it's like what's emergent for you, the listener as you're hearing now. 649 00:43:47,030 --> 00:43:51,280 Like it's right there. There's, you know, there's no way someone that we have, 650 00:43:51,340 --> 00:43:54,280 you know, out here of a disembodied voice can tell you. 651 00:43:55,180 --> 00:43:59,640 And that's what I so admire is you didn't take the bait of that question and you 652 00:43:59,640 --> 00:44:03,400 were able to pull it back in. It's like it's inward, it's, there's not gonna, 653 00:44:03,540 --> 00:44:07,280 I'm not gonna give you a link or a book or a program. 654 00:44:08,780 --> 00:44:09,800 So thank you for that. 655 00:44:09,800 --> 00:44:13,960 And I think that that's very consistent with the conversation and the message. 656 00:44:14,390 --> 00:44:17,080 Like it's, it's more of a discovery, like discovery. What's next? 657 00:44:17,240 --> 00:44:18,400 I don't know what's next for you. 658 00:44:19,860 --> 00:44:24,800 Yes. And I love that word discovery and the process and the journey of 659 00:44:24,800 --> 00:44:29,760 self-discovery. So many people come to therapy and I see this with my clients. 660 00:44:29,760 --> 00:44:34,360 They want me to get to know them and I name that and I 661 00:44:34,630 --> 00:44:38,400 then name, you know, therapy is the process of you getting to know you. 662 00:44:39,950 --> 00:44:42,200 It's a huge difference. And within all of this, 663 00:44:42,750 --> 00:44:47,720 whether the conversation is about racism or sexism or ableism or transphobia 664 00:44:49,460 --> 00:44:54,400 is the opportunity and the possibility of the invitation that 665 00:44:54,400 --> 00:44:59,280 white bodied folks, that cisgender folks, that heterosexual folks, 666 00:44:59,940 --> 00:45:04,400 the able-bodied folks that you'll actually get to know more about yourself 667 00:45:06,340 --> 00:45:08,520 in this process. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. 668 00:45:09,020 --> 00:45:11,400 You know, the person on the treadmill that's successful. 669 00:45:12,100 --> 00:45:15,880 You don't even know what you're missing. When we work with, you know, 670 00:45:15,880 --> 00:45:17,080 white men who have, 671 00:45:17,140 --> 00:45:20,080 are just part of the patriarchy in the sense that they've absorbed it and 672 00:45:20,080 --> 00:45:24,760 they're injured too because they haven't had the benefit of the feedback right 673 00:45:24,760 --> 00:45:29,200 away or the immediate pressing back in the way that many of us have. 674 00:45:30,040 --> 00:45:33,520 I mean, it's pain no matter what direction it is that you're coming from, 675 00:45:33,910 --> 00:45:37,160 it's not the same. It's not like, you know, it's not equating anything. 676 00:45:37,820 --> 00:45:41,840 But I like that position because there's compassion all the way around 677 00:45:42,790 --> 00:45:46,920 with the limit of, you know, stop the intrusion. 678 00:45:47,880 --> 00:45:51,080 I I didn't wanna get on a roll <laugh>. No, no. So I stopped myself <laugh>. 679 00:45:52,970 --> 00:45:53,320 Those. 680 00:45:53,320 --> 00:45:54,800 Masters out there, <laugh>. 681 00:45:56,240 --> 00:45:57,073 <Laugh>. 682 00:45:59,630 --> 00:46:02,680 That defeat, that defeats what I was trying to say. But it is, but it's, 683 00:46:03,040 --> 00:46:06,960 I really do mean that um, you know, that we're all injured by it. 684 00:46:07,300 --> 00:46:10,520 So I'm glad for the inclusive language at the end round. It doesn't, 685 00:46:10,590 --> 00:46:15,480 even if you heteronormative able bodied the script, if you fit the script, 686 00:46:15,630 --> 00:46:20,440 it's still uniquely a loss of so many parts of you. 687 00:46:21,180 --> 00:46:21,820 Yes. 688 00:46:21,820 --> 00:46:26,760 And the willingness to become transformed by 689 00:46:26,780 --> 00:46:31,760 the process of what you'll discover about yourself or what one discovers 690 00:46:31,760 --> 00:46:36,440 about oneself. That's the joy in allyship. Yeah. 691 00:46:36,440 --> 00:46:40,560 And that's the difference between performative allyship and true 692 00:46:41,200 --> 00:46:44,880 allyship. And it's a process. It's a process. 693 00:46:45,790 --> 00:46:48,640 It's my parents turning around and saying to me, 694 00:46:49,560 --> 00:46:53,760 I wanted to grow as a result of bringing you into this world. 695 00:46:54,700 --> 00:46:59,640 And that willingness to grow means growing pains and discomfort and 696 00:46:59,640 --> 00:47:01,800 the willingness to reckon with that. 697 00:47:02,460 --> 00:47:06,320 Mm-hmm <affirmative> and to not know and to let go of all of these things that 698 00:47:06,320 --> 00:47:10,320 have shielded us and buffered us and privileged us and protected us. 699 00:47:11,180 --> 00:47:15,800 It is. And I'm so grateful that you invited me onto your show, 700 00:47:16,060 --> 00:47:16,893 Sue <laugh>. 701 00:47:19,310 --> 00:47:20,480 Well I cannot tell you, 702 00:47:20,670 --> 00:47:23,440 I've been really excited about this and I just wanna sort of sit at your knee 703 00:47:23,440 --> 00:47:25,480 and just keep listening. But there are ways, 704 00:47:25,900 --> 00:47:29,360 you have many things that you do to spread this incredible wisdom. Uh, 705 00:47:29,380 --> 00:47:33,440 we speak just briefly to that and let us know how to tap in those of the 706 00:47:33,440 --> 00:47:34,400 listeners that would like more. 707 00:47:34,940 --> 00:47:39,040 Yes, I have a website, uh, www.lindatie.com. 708 00:47:39,740 --> 00:47:41,320 Please sign up for the newsletter. 709 00:47:41,840 --> 00:47:43,960 I don't do one of those sales pitching newsletters. 710 00:47:44,120 --> 00:47:48,960 I do one of those newsletters of what I'm up to and what I'm unlearning and what 711 00:47:48,960 --> 00:47:53,080 is nourishing me and you know, the things that I offer into the world, 712 00:47:53,110 --> 00:47:57,160 some of which is paid for and some of which is free to the public, uh, 713 00:47:57,160 --> 00:48:00,800 some of which is sponsored by other agencies or organizations. 714 00:48:01,860 --> 00:48:05,640 And so there's ways in which to connect and keep in touch with me. 715 00:48:06,540 --> 00:48:10,400 And in the newsletters I also celebrate the work of other people out there. 716 00:48:10,460 --> 00:48:11,680 So it's not one of those, 717 00:48:12,350 --> 00:48:15,200 here let me sell you something and tell you all about <laugh>, 718 00:48:15,340 --> 00:48:18,640 how awesome I am in terms of my expert knowledge. 719 00:48:19,080 --> 00:48:22,040 <Laugh>, it is not a sales funnel <laugh>, right? 720 00:48:23,020 --> 00:48:24,240 Is that the fancy word? 721 00:48:24,860 --> 00:48:27,480 That's the fancy word. That's the fancy word. You know, 722 00:48:27,490 --> 00:48:31,000 click here to get this free something or another and then you put in your email, 723 00:48:31,060 --> 00:48:33,840 you know, it's, yeah, it's terrible. Yeah. 724 00:48:34,540 --> 00:48:35,373 It is terrible. 725 00:48:36,400 --> 00:48:41,080 <Laugh>. Well it is, it's the, it's it's the carrot again. The carrot, 726 00:48:41,140 --> 00:48:44,440 the carrot, the carrot, you know, so that's wonderful. 727 00:48:44,460 --> 00:48:48,680 So we'll we will put all of that in the show notes and any other resources that 728 00:48:48,680 --> 00:48:49,513 you share with me, 729 00:48:49,980 --> 00:48:53,840 go to therapist and sensor.com and then there's a search function and you can 730 00:48:53,840 --> 00:48:56,760 put anything that you wanna know about. But Linda Tai, 731 00:48:56,960 --> 00:49:01,840 t h a i is who has blessed us with her experience and 732 00:49:01,840 --> 00:49:06,680 wisdom and we also wanna acknowledge that it is a real gift for you to 733 00:49:06,680 --> 00:49:07,513 share your story. 734 00:49:07,950 --> 00:49:11,680 That it's not something that you have to do and really appreciate that. 735 00:49:12,390 --> 00:49:13,280 Alright everybody, 736 00:49:13,280 --> 00:49:17,200 thank you very much for joining us and for sticking through this beautiful 737 00:49:17,200 --> 00:49:21,640 conversation and we really encourage you to share it with someone that you feel 738 00:49:21,640 --> 00:49:25,480 could benefit. That's all I'm gonna ask is just, just share the word. 739 00:49:26,190 --> 00:49:28,400 Alright, thanks for listening. We'll see you around the bed. 740 00:49:29,310 --> 00:49:32,200 We'd like to thank a long-term sponsor of our show, AG one. 741 00:49:32,590 --> 00:49:35,160 I've been taking it daily for quite some time now, 742 00:49:35,450 --> 00:49:37,920 which for me is amazing 'cause I forget things a lot. 743 00:49:38,260 --> 00:49:43,080 But I make a real effort to take AG one regularly because it basically gives me 744 00:49:43,080 --> 00:49:46,840 all the good things. It has high quality vitamins, whole foods sourced, 745 00:49:46,890 --> 00:49:49,080 superfoods, probiotic, and adaptogens, 746 00:49:49,570 --> 00:49:53,320 which serve to calm down your overeager stress response system. You know, 747 00:49:53,320 --> 00:49:54,153 we would like that. 748 00:49:54,320 --> 00:49:57,560 I feel good about recommending that you try it and encouraging you to keep 749 00:49:57,560 --> 00:49:59,200 taking it. If you are already on board, 750 00:49:59,300 --> 00:50:03,920 go to athletic greens.com/therapist uncensored and use that link 751 00:50:04,240 --> 00:50:08,480 'cause our listeners will get a free year supply of vitamin B and free travel 752 00:50:08,530 --> 00:50:10,640 packs for you to be able to take the superpower on the road. 753 00:50:10,940 --> 00:50:15,560 That's athletic greens.com/therapist uncensored. 754 00:50:22,150 --> 00:50:22,760 Therapist. 755 00:50:22,760 --> 00:50:25,160 Uncensored is Ann Kelly and Sue Marriott. 756 00:50:25,230 --> 00:50:27,680 This podcast is edited by Jack Anderson.