September is Sexual Health Awareness Month, and one Los Angeles clinical psychologist in private practice addresses intergenerational trauma from a holistic, body-centered, and racially informed context.
Los Angeles, CA – September 14, 2023 — Sexual assault is arguably one of the most destructive crimes against a person— against humanity. While there have been decades of movements dedicated to ending cycles of sexual violence against women, the prevalence of sexual assault seems to defy them perpetually. Research shows that Black women are especially vulnerable to sexual violence. According to the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey (2015), one in five women in the United States experienced completed or attempted rape during their lifetime.
The chances of a Black woman being sexually assaulted are significantly higher than their white counterparts. More than 20% of black women are sexually assaulted during their lifetimes- a higher share than women overall, according to the American Psychological Association.
shena young, psy.d., founder of embodied truth healing & psychological services, offers a healing resource in body rites: a holistic healing and embodiment workbook for black survivors of sexual trauma, which Publishers Weekly describes as “an essential resource for sexual abuse survivors.”
body rites, the workbook is the first of its kind: a resource of rituals divided into four healing journeys for Black women, femmes, and nonbinary survivors of sexual assault. The experiential workbook moves beyond prescriptive self-help models by providing a gentle guide and liaison to explore the impact of sexual trauma on the mind, body, heart, and spirit. It is an invitation to heal holistically, drawing upon psychophysiology, lived body wisdom, trauma-informed embodiment practices, kinship and ancestral connections, and African spiritual practices.
“My path as a body-centered psychologist-healer, in many ways, departs from the Westernized concepts that have shaped the field of psychology. It has been an insightful and jarring revelation that many of the sciences as we know them now have African and Indigenous origins. Psychotherapy and psychological theories, archetypal and shadow work ideologies, somatic healing frameworks, and even the chemical formulas used in modern pharmaceuticals have roots in the wisdoms, holistic medicines, and consecrated practices of African ancestors.”
In the therapeutic space, dr. shena young believes the relationship between client and therapist is the anchor of the healing process. Her work is rooted in existential, relational, and cultural theories, which aim to understand how people move meaningfully through the world, make meaning in suffering, and relate to self and others while celebrating culture’s intersections and beautiful influence.
“Our minds, bodies, and healing have been manipulated through enslavement and its contemporary descendants and manifestations. This is an intrusive, abrasive, and abusive process that continues to impact how we move in the world, how we understand it, how we relate to ourselves/others, how we shrink/stand in our power, how we become disjointed from our personal truth, and how we externalize our trust in determining what is best for us on our healing journeys.”
Mainstream approaches to addressing the effects of sexual trauma tend to be rooted in Westernized beliefs and value systems. They often may exclude the body, and minimize/exclude altogether the person’s lived experience, contextual variables, and historical influences. “In neglecting to consider the historical, contextual, and systemic issues for a woman of African ancestry this often also means disregarding salient cultural information integral for healing.”
body rites: a holistic healing and embodiment workbook for black survivors of sexual trauma by shena j. young psy.d. is published by W. W. Norton and will be released on November 14, 2023.
shena j. young, psy.d., is a licensed body-centered psychologist-healer, artist, and Iyalorisa. She owns a private practice, embodied truth healing & psychological services, rooted in Los Angeles, California, where she offers mind-body-heart-spirit care in healing from sexual, racial, intergenerational, and ancestral traumas. www.embodiedtruthhealing.com.
