"The Body is the Keeper of it all. The Body is the House for us": Somatic Methods of Healing Generational and Racialized Trauma

Abstract

This interdisciplinary thesis explores the role of Dance Therapy and Somatic Therapy in healing racialized and generational trauma. I explore the ways in which racialized and generational trauma are misunderstood, misrepresented, and under-addressed in the communities they impact the most. I discuss the socio-political reception of embodied therapeutic practices, theorizing as to why they are stigmatized in mainstream mental health care and underutilized. Using autoethnography, literature review, and interviews, I lay out the future implications of being able to both adequately address trauma in the African American community particularly, as well as implications of regarding somatic therapies as equal to traditional talk therapy. Dance is its own unique language, that can be and is already an effective form of testimony therapy for trauma victims. In addressing racialized and generational trauma, there is also an opportunity for application of somatic therapies within the realm of Restorative Justice and overall harm reduction in our society.