Healing Circles: Healing Trauma of Latin Communities

This episode will cover the impact of Healing Circles especially on Latinx communities. Disclaimer: We understand that there are Latino/a/x/e but in this podcast, we will be referring to the collective as Latinx. The Latinx community experiences many barriers to accessing mental health services.  According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), only 36% of Latinx receive mental health services compared to Non-Latinx whites. This is due to a variety of barriers including, language access issues, racism and discrimination, and mental health stigma. This can be a challenging experience for Latinx community members, so healing circles have been shown to have more success in addressing mental health issues. Healing circles are a strength-based approach to building resilience and healing trauma. For some, a healing circle can be a great way to find support through hardships such as addiction, grief or even trauma. The idea of the circle is to allow members to be vulnerable, talk about their lived experiences and begin the path of healing. So, join Stephanie Sandoval, Health Educator and Selina Hernandez, Community Relations Specialist at the UCR School of Medicine Center for Healthy Communities, as they explore the importance of healing circles. We will hear from Fatima Baldelomar, Founding Executive Director of Love and Nature Initiative.

Transcript

Healing Circles - Healing Trauma of Latin Communities

Introduction: 

Stephanie: Hello everyone and welcome to Healthy Disruptions, the podcast that raises awareness on pressing health disparities. This episode will cover the impact of Healing Circles especially on Latino/a/x/e communities. Disclaimer: We understand that there are Latino/a/x/e but in this podcast we will be referring to the collective as Latinx. Get ready to dive deep into this important topic because we're about to learn some great information.

Selina: We had the pleasure of interviewing Fatima Baldelomar, Founding Executive Director  of Love and Nature Initiative. Fatima is a passionate advocate in the Inland Empire Region, focusing on sharing resources for mental health and emotional well-being that will positively impact people’s lives. Today she will be sharing a little bit about her new non-profit organization, Love and Nurture Initiative and how they have used healing circles as a holistic path towards growth and healing.

But before we get into it, let’s talk a little bit about what healing circles are. 

Stephanie: Healing circles are a strength-based approach to building resilience and healing trauma. For some, a healing circle can be a great way to find support through hardships such as addiction, grief or even trauma. The idea of the circle is to allow members to be vulnerable, talk about their lived experiences and begin the path of healing. Many can take a variety of forms, but basically participants will sit in a circle and they will discuss  a certain topic or problem. The rules are simple, identify group agreements that everyone commits too, only share when you have the talking piece, listen with compassion and hold all stories shared in confidence. 

Selina: It kinda sounds like group therapy, right? What makes it different?

Stephanie: Yeah, kinda but these circles are less formal, there is no use of mainstream health professionals like therapists. It’s more of a gathering where healing comes naturally from sharing coping strategies. The last few healing circles I’ve attended, people are really wholesome and provide direct support to their peers by acknowledging the issue and offering their personal coping mechanisms such as knitting, walking or journaling. 

Selina: So do people actually open up during these sessions? I know for the Latino community, mental health is just something we don’t talk about. Like I know it is a thing to say therapy is only for the crazies or “locos” which places a negative outlook on sharing your feelings.

Stephanie: Yeah, totally, I’ve heard that before too! And it’s not true. The great thing about these circles is that they are surrounded by people part of their own community who share similar traumas. There’s also no judgment and the facilitator leading these discussions validates their feelings the whole time providing a safe space to open up. As a first generation Latina, it was heartwarming to hear about other’s experiences because they were so similar to mine. For the first time ever it felt like I wasn’t alone and I could relate to someone else. 

Selina: Wow, that’s awesome. I think our listeners must be excited to hear more about this so without further ado, let’s get started!

Stephanie: Hi Everyone! I’m Stephanie Sandoval, I am the Health Educator at the University of California Riverside- Center for Health Communities. I will be your host for today, and joining me is Fatima

Fatima: Hi Everyone, this is Fatima. 

Selina: Hello everyone my name is Selina Hernandez and I am the community relations specialist at UCR Center for Healthy Communities.

Body:

Stephanie: I'm so glad that you're here with us today. And we're looking forward to you sharing with our listeners all about your wonderful organization and diving deeper into the healing circles. Can you start off by telling us a bit about yourself and the love and nurture initiative? 

Fatima: Yes, thank you for the opportunity. So I'm a mother of three happily married. I am a first generation immigrant from Bolivia. Recently I achieved my master's in social work and I am currently on the path of my LCSW, my licensed clinical social work. In addition to these roles as a wife and a mother, I am the founder and chair of the of love and nurture initiative. Our mission is to foster compassion and healing through or by nurturing individuals and community through meaningful connections, support and empowerment. Love and Nurture initiative operates through three different programs. The first program that we have is youth and young adult and power education. This program is going to be launched in 2024. Then we have a nurture uplift community empowerment program, which is ready to begin on December 17. This program is more focused on community events and supporting the community and we have the healing with love with this like a healing circle, which we start facilitating a few circles this year. But the program will be launched on April 24. With the program as a whole what it is the reasons behind healing circles and what is our like main main approach. Each program is designed to contribute to promoting love and nurturing environments for personnel and community while being focused on mental health and empowerment. As we try to create a positive impact or paradigm change, love and nurture empowers individuals, families and communities, providers, initiatives and projects. Our commitment lies in fostering love, compassion and healing from individuals and communities. 

Stephanie: Thank you, Fatima for sharing a little bit about yourself and the goals of your initiative. But our listeners would really like to know what made you decide to approach healing the traumas in our Latinx  communities. And why did you think that it would be an effective approach?

Fatima: Yes, um, many have asked me why I decided this approach and some other beginning when I start sharing. I used to feel sad, but now I feel more light because it looks like I'm healing. So my decision to approach Healing Trauma in the Latinas community stems from my personal journey as a Latina woman, who has faced and overcome trauma, having to navigate my challenges, I was introduced to healing circle five years ago, and it took me five years to process my traumas and embarking on a journey of healing. So healing circles play a key role in my recovery, providing me with the head space to recognize that what happened to me in the past is not my fault. I understood that my responsibility was to break that cycle of trauma for the future generations to come even in my own family. Through my experience, I have come to realize that mental health is a significant issue. And healing is not an individual journey, but most likely we need support, you're not going to be able to heal by yourself, you don't find support, and willingness to heal also has another key role important to understand that we need to heal. And also we had to like, understand that the healing circles are not an easy solution like, “I'm gonna go to the healing circles, I'm gonna heal”. That's not how it works. But it's a process and we're gonna teach, every time that we have the healing circles, we teach families how it looks like the first time that everybody is introduced to the healing circle is most likely to see or acknowledge that you have something going on and you were not able to see before. With  also individuals, families and communities struggling with mental health challenges and illness. I recognize the barriers preventing people from seeking help. These barriers include, such as our taboos, you know, and the Latinas community and minorities, communities talking about mental health, like the “oh, no, we don't talk about that that doesn't exist”, or also lack of family support, feelings of shame and guilt. And sometimes not sometimes most of the time is limited resources or education that we lack of my choices. This approach is grounded in several factors. As a Latina woman who has benefited from healing circles, I am passionate about creating a space for individuals to open and share. And also my Bolivian heritage does emphasize on how the close connection with the Mother Earth is important for healing and advocating for a living style that is more harmonize and community with environment and your surroundings, which is going to be promoting healthy living estates and it's same time to kind of bring peace to your mind. And also, the third approach I choose to heal, and bridge the gap between mental health and restorative practices. I was introduced to restorative practices when I was working as a mentor. And I realized that there was like, Oh, this is not just to restore, but also this can help people to heal. Also the native and indigenous talking circles, I was introduced as well as that and was like, this is really, you know, important and important for the community to come across. And in the circle, you don't have professionals like someone that everybody in the circle is the same. We are all equal. We all have the same opportunities to share and provide  interventions. So for me healing circles is something that I'm bringing it together like restorative practices. The Native American talking circles and also their therapeutic based approach evidence based approach for interventions when to teach the community and to educate what is available for them.

Selina: Wow, thank you so much for sharing all that information and really breaking it down for us. Can you describe some challenges and or barriers to promoting and actually having people participate in these healing circles?

Fatima: The challenges? Yes, promoting and facilitating healing circles come with its share of challenges like, it's a lot, many of which we try to resolve around the misconceptions, financial constraints and the need for community understanding, for example, when we try to look for the space to facilitate the circles is not free. So it's hard for us to find an affordable space where we can afford to pay to gather the circle. Another challenge that we face is the community misunderstanding. The misconception about the natural healing circles can be a barrier. For example, let me say we heard in the past that they associate the healing circle with witchcraft, and now it’s leading to a negative connotation. So we need to provide clarification, the purpose and benefit of healing is essential, because this misunderstanding is providing the community to be part of this healing circle. So they want to participate, but someone in the family can be very religious, or someone in the family can see that this is true. So they prevent even their families to participate in this healing circles. Also the financial constraint because even though we're trying to look for sponsors and grants out, we don't charge for the healing circles, we understand that the community also when they can, they will, they also we want to give something to them like incentive, something that they're going to take with them, and the healing circles and provide some light refreshments, maybe we have no community members that they don't have, like, transportation means that we can provide with some type of like transportation, you know, pay for them to come to those healing circles. And also community engagement is a little challenging, because they are unfamiliar with the concept of healing circles. But we as a team, we're trying to build that trust in the community to see when they can we don't hide anything, everything. Everybody's welcome. We don't put barriers on who can participate, and also the facilitators, are social workers. So we welcome everyone. 

Stephanie: Thank you, Fatima. And it's so great to hear that your organization is super intentional in creating these healing circles. It's not just something that you thought of overnight. I know you mentioned, it's taking you five years to be able to heal your own trauma and put these circles together. And really bringing the community and uniting everyone. We briefly touched on this. Selina and I were chatting a little bit before talking about the difference between therapy group therapy and these healing circles. So do you think that healing circles can fill the gaps and meet the needs for mental health services, especially among the Latinx community? Would you say it's difficult to find a therapist, or a counselor that speaks Spanish or that truly connects with them?

Fatima: Yes, here in our circles have proven that we are very instrumental in addressing the mental health needs of the Latino community and other minorities. But the way it is working is by providing that safe space that nobody's willing to provide in the community where participants can begin, as I mentioned before, to acknowledge that they are holding something they have trauma, and they need to heal, but they don't even know how to start to accept that trauma. So healing circles provide an opportunity for individuals. We have received feedback in the past from participants who expressed a sense of comfort and connection within their circles with others, often referring to these, like communal settings over traditional professional engagements. Some of the challenge persists in California though, although the therapist Spanish speaking population has increased and we've seen a lot of professionals, there is still a huge gap in Spanish speaking, because even as a Latina, the Latinas community, they don't believe in mental health. So it's gonna be more challenging for someone to say, you know why I wanna, this is my field, I want to support, I want to get my license, I want to provide therapy, it's gonna be challenging. For many, there is so much need in the Latinx community about mental health. But one of the challenges that I'm sure of is that we don't have a lot of Spanish speaking therapists. Second is many Latinx communities, we lack health insurance, we don't have access to help, you know. And the third is lack of communication resources. Even though they have their insurance, they are able to utilize it but they don't know where to look for referrals, where to look, and especially in identifying Spanish speaking therapies that's gonna help them to start the process. And this has been even the language barrier, you know, it's one of the main barriers to find and seek help for mental health. And if you say like, how healing circles is closing that gap. Healing circles are free. And we try to make it more accessible so we can go where they need us. And addressing this challenge is like providing that alternative space for them to come and participate. And even though their families, they come to the healing circles, but they are, the first goal of the healing circle is to find that you are not the only person that has been with trauma, there are other individuals that they share the same experience with. So talking to each other, even though we can find solutions. And when we have someone that really needs more professionals, what we're gonna do is refer them to one.

Selina: Thank you. Now with your experience working in the field and hosting some healing circles yourself. What are some topics that have been requested the most by your participants?

Fatima: Some topics that are requested by our participants have reflected a broad spectrum of needs and concerns and interests. However, the past sessions with such half this year has been embracing healing through the journey of grief and loss during COVID. We also did another work for empowering women self care and multifaceted roles. Like as a woman, you know, it's your mom, your sister, your daughter, you are like so many roles and hats. And we forget about self care, we forget about how we need that time for ourselves? How can we support each other, and some other topics that they are looking into? And we have like requests, we receive an via Instagram message say like, when would you guys gonna happen? Next one I would like to participate in is fostering connection and overcoming loneliness, especially after COVID You know, families have been separated, we like working from home, we are afraid of getting into coffee. So we lost communication, we lost friendships. So reconnecting that, especially for the elders, is a little challenging. So we want to focus, they're asking for that. Another one is more focused on trauma, where cultivating self forgiveness. Sometimes we can forgive something that happened, or we did. And we want to teach how to forgive ourselves in order to restore that relationship with somebody. And the next one, which is gonna be we're gonna be doing this on January 7, is the developing resilience in the face of challenges that is more focused for the immigrant families. It's gonna be in Spanish. So we want to eventually find, what the challenges are, the families that they are going through right now, how they overcome that and what resources they need. So we can come as a community to identify those aspects and then find solutions as a community. And then the other one that they also asked, is a dedicated session for service providers, meaning we weren't at that position specifically for social workers, community health workers, teachers and community activists. We want to cover topics like secondhand trauma, and addressing emotional fatigue. Many of us suffer from it, but since we think because we are professional we can handle that's not that's not okay. So we need to address it. We want to provide good services and quality services to our families.

Stephanie: Thank you so much Fatima for sharing all this wonderful information. I for one, after attending a couple of your healing circles, I can say that they have been amazing. Just feeling how safe everybody felt being able to share all of their traumas and identifying with others and being able to share protective factors. It was honestly a great experience and I look forward to attending the next one that you have on January 7. We will be sharing your social media information after this. So our listeners who are hearing please share this out with all your community and let them know to attend this wonderful event.

Selina: Thank you for joining me today on this episode as we discuss the importance of Healing Circles as they heal long standing trauma the Latinx Community faces. We explored the importance of coming together as a community and navigating challenging situations. And to Fatima, thank you for sharing all the wonderful work that the Love and Nurture Initiative does. Don’t forget to check out their website at https://loveandnurtureinitiative.org/ and follow them on Instagram @ln_initiative where you can find out more about their initiative and ways to become involved. 

Thank you for joining us for your healthy dose of disruptions.