welcome to discover a new future show gary that empowering women to be the best versions of themselves i mean are hosts they'd saunders we're going to be talking about a topic today that impacts so many people not only here in the united states but all over the world and that is trauma trauma does not discriminate it impacts people from all over the world and our guest today is going to be sharing a boat how she's helping people to heal in terms of addressing their tr going to use a quote that came directly from my from my guess is in order for us as a people to thrive in our lives not just survive and that's what i love not just to survive we need to be healed from our previous traumas and the healing starts with awareness i think that was so so powerful barros did i get it yes drama through ritual arts and traditional art forms to break down the barriers of trauma and i want you guys to guess but i know you wouldn't guess what a yes does well i know you wouldn't guess she's a missionary or pleasure to be here thank you for having me how do you get to make that decision that this is what you want to do with your life  in a nutshell it was really a god send decision i've always been interested in and going to africa since that is the home of my ancestors and my roots and it was really deep rooted in my heart to be able to go back and to live and to serve and then when i was called to it it wasn't an immediate or somehow i think that the call it was delayed by about seven years and a number of professions and then ultimately i accepted the call and went for short term missions trip to cameroon and chad and that changed the trajectory of my life all while and committed my life to to the work that i actually what happened there that really kind of said you know this is what i'm meant to do with my life yes there were a number of different things but one key example or experience that took place was literally when i touched down and cam'ron i had already had some preconceived notions about what other people were sharing with me about being african american in africa and my desire was to be able to connect with the people there and to feel a sense of belonging and a sister kind of returning home and it was really my prayer that was there and even though other people had shared that they might be in a different experience and literally the first day i'm in the airport and gentlemen out of nowhere and a cameroonian came up to me while i was about to board transportation to get into to the village and he literally just took my arm and said my sister  i was fighting back the tears right wound because i felt that that was god's way and that this is this is the purpose is it and the time where you know that's so powerful because so many individuals especially women we're seeking you used when you own that that's when you you get a piece you know i'm sure there are ways that they're there are ways to kind of our firm that this is what we're supposed to be doing if we pay attention to it right i saw them so what is your role as a mission and what do you do as a missionary so it's mostly faceted but right the past seven years i have been working in developing nine print versions of the scriptures and the mother tongue languages due out kenya and east africa  to become self sustainable and economic development as well as being able to know how to use the equipment so that they can also do the work for a time times to  they're so powerful because so often when we hear missionary work we we just think of somebody out there is spreading the word and you know thing you have to do this you have to do that and not realizing that where you're helping people to to  be as you said sustain have fulfilling lives in it and embracing their culture and not bringing in our way off that this is why we things to be but actually embracing their their culture and doing that that's so that's so awesome and so i can see that must be such a rewarding absolutely i mean i always can i allowed times that i really literally did the first two years as i was a student and a student of that heritage a student of so they've been there so i guess based on the work that you do you talk about not only be being there i'm doing the engineer some engineering work but arcs really working with people to help them to sustain because develop skills that they can sustain themselves can you i guess doing that you have seen a lot of issues are on trauma you want to talk a little bit about that what got you interested in that area sure so a lot of the times when i was out in the villages most of the places that we did the recordings were out in the village  it's a more conservative society where women congregate with women and men socialize with men so i spent a lot of time with the women and children and during that time i really met a lot of women who had experienced different levels of trauma in their life from seeing their children murdered right before their eyes and a number of those who had been experience rape experience genocide and were in war torn situations and it was something that continuously i was being made aware of from one village to the next and i couldn't ignore it right any longer because i figure to myself how do i even begin to talk about empowerment and begin to talk about the hope for the future and  w in my desire for being able to bring even god's promises of hope that if the trauma was so great that was so much louder then being able to acknowledge a hope for the future and so it became a quest of mine to really be able to figure out how do i remove that negative effect of trauma in people's lives so that now it's not as much as such a noisy barrier for someone to actually now hear that there is hope and that there is restoration there is salvation that's that's so powerful because again with the dancing with some of the women were basket weaving there's a lot of traditional art forms that became a tool of expression as well as communication  and when god began to show me those different aspects of community that's when i said ok there's something there in the arts and that really caused me to delve deeper into specific instance actually took place with so a group of university students and they study university and i will be kenya the students had an opportunity to design write act direct a reenactment of the general election of two thousand and seven and historically the general election was a very traumatic one at the end of the day there were there was a backlash when the results and resulted and thousands of people being killed over a half a million people being displaced w young university students had an opportunity to finally be able to reenact it and as a result now began to talk about the internalized and express their feelings and realized that they were not alone because other people felt the same way and that really opened the door for communication for being able to identify with what feelings they were having and now even putting a name to live feelings w there's feelings of anxiety feelings of post traumatic stress disorder there's feelings you know symptoms that can actually be clinically treated and method as a form of healing and never something that can be used in a vacuum and that's one thing out and spent a lot of that right so expressive arts therapy is using all different forms of the arts music dance  en word visual arts drama and traditional art forms to really remove the negative effects of trauma in one's life and promote holistic healing of the mind body the soul and so when using that it's never something that you want to just say ok we're only going to use the arts it's something that's used collectively and comprehensively with other forms of mental health  our life and so we're part of a comprehensive team and that's like the beauty of it is that whenever there is a situation that some people may not necessarily respond soley to talk therapy you have the arts that are so natural to our community that it helps to break that ground right where traditional bearer of talk therapy may not yet be able to so once that ground is broken then you can bring in all the of the ality to bring forth that healing wow that's awesome you know and and it's it's done in such a non threatening way because when people are dancing express whatever their form of expression is  it's it is in a sense it's just performing into them but it's it's healing at the same time so having them to be able to make that connection between why you express yourself this way is because of  african american in america of working in the african american community to to manage and to address the trauma that we have experienced here in this country while also coordinating with those communities and africa as well that i've grown to love england and you know that i've connected with to also promote that healing across tribal lines across national lines and really being so what do you do you have a plan in terms of the integrating it when you go back yes so there are probably about twenty different communities that i'm already working with in kenya so my plan is to begin to continue working with those and now integrate the specific art forms that are to jemaine to that community some may be dance others may be basket weaving depending on that and well that is so exciting that's so exciting so much and not it is exciting but purposeful work you know and you can see the difference in people and sometimes those changes sometimes doesn't happen immediately but it's the gradual you know you see the change over a period of time correct with burning and this just came to my room bringing this different form off aids to help people culture or something is their babies resistant to do things like that is not really because we would work with that artistic expression that is already natural to that car so there are some communities that yes that may not necessarily use a visual art but then there's something else maybe even even their nature what they call nature sculptures and some communities yes and that is basically using trees as a form of expression so they carve out trees and they will use flowers and they decorate them in such a way that it has a meaning and some of them are used like in times of mourning some of them are used in celebrations armani's rite of passage and so once you become a student of the culture and what their art form is then  time the time begins now for you to customize something with that specific art form for healing purposes how can communities here and because i mean we're talking about africa right kenya and specifically but so many people who are right here in our backyard yes how do we start the helping them to  hall or even small community meetings neighborhood meetings and really being able to now share allow people to share their own personal stories  comfortable with their voice and having their voice and their story validated and then now from that point being able to say there is help that that's not normal right and that there are options to be able to not only manage them but now be able to supersede and be able to move past the whatever that area of barrier is from accomplishing the goals and the desires and dreams that you've always wanted to have in our community in our backyard a lot of it even can be manifested in valuing who we are then we'll take it to mommy dearest as well but if we're not even valuing who we are we're working and in a spirit of fear and intimidation that's also going to roll over into taking i really strongly believe based on what you are similar to what you're saying is that how can we help someone to be successful employ and cloyd when they have traumatic issues that are holding them back so instead of right talking about mean by that women are so connected and influential and the domestic home so when women hurt the home right and just one woman each of us can make a difference you know that's awesome that we're the borg that you're actually doing so was surprised in terms of going back when is that going to happen you once i finished my training i'm studying now at lesley university in cambridge massachusetts it's mental health counseling masters specialization and expressive arts therapy and upon receiving my license  d i will be able to engage once again the communities in kenya as well as in east africa and even coming back to the states because this is still my home right a something about moving to different places kernahan while working with her when needed and there's a great need in many different communities so i be working amongst them and then even and also being able to collaborate with mental health professionals who are already on the ground in kenya and within east africa to help learn about integrating the arts into their existing practice right so that's also part of sustainability often ability yes yes i can't just do that all by myself i say so much need so we're going to need a number of workers for that and just train the trainer and because they have the relationship wit being a missionary folks you know people need help so what in terms of helping to sustain you so you can do your work with also to help to sustain their work in the field it individually how can people hear more about you and share with you well we can start with my website i do have a website expressive arts he'll work and i am compiling a number of resources about expressive arts very p as well as the work that i'm doing and the future work that i intend poles for here in the in the s as well as overseas and i'm in africa and so that's the first place there's so many there are tons of resources out there and about trauma systemic trauma historic trauma racial trauma lots of books that i'll also be sharing on that site as well that's awesome so what kind of some parting words that you would have for our viewers you know what would you you have anything you'd like to share yes  that trauma is something that is an experience that affects everybody at some point in life every person in this world has experienced trauma and the management of despite the trauma right and really being able to accomplish every single passion desire purpose in life that they've trained that they have been called for that they can actualize that purpose wow this powerful that's really powerful i am so glad that you were able to be here with us time really goes by when you're hav because we're at the end of the first show but this was very informative you know and you have me thinking i think in the back of my mind here you know it just struck something in the back of my in my in terms of some of the work that i'm doing here you're someone being impacted by you can get help and please contact with discover a new future we'd be happy to connect you with resources that are available here within the united states or within new jersey