In this episode, I speak with my colleague Dr. Chelsea Williams, a psychotherapist who specializes in using nature in therapeutic settings to work with her patients. 

Chelsea works with clients struggling with anxiety, depression, relationships and workplace issues.  Her specialization areas include intergenerational trauma, attachment, social justice, and somatics.  

Passionate about providing trauma informed care within our larger social context, Chelsea welcomes clients who are craving a space to address the harmful impact of white supremacy culture as an inextricable element of personal healing. 

This includes white identified folks seeking accountability and growth, as well as bodies of culture, mixed-race, multi-heritage and those walking in the borderlands - those who know all too well the perils of denying the impact of white supremacy as we try to heal our wounds. 

In this episode, we discuss:

• Disconnection has led us to live in disassociated, disregulated states within our mind and body; it’s why we seek other things to fill out the voids in our souls. 
• Systems of oppression thrive on dissociation. As people, if we reconnect to land and ourselves, systems of oppression would have a hard time working. 
• We no longer have collective practices that help men and women process loss, grief and pain - this is we need community. 
• We can’t metabolize all that happening in the world.  In order to function in the world today, we have to shut down parts of soul,  humanity, and critical thinking in order to put one foot in front of the other each day. 
• Connection to nature and the land helps us reconnect to ourselves and co-regulate with the environment, and learn to not feel so lonely. 
• Ecotherapy is an extractive process that helps teaches the soul and body to release, reconnect, and allow for the flow of emotion. 
• To build a tolerance for discomfort; learning to sit with it and process the emotions associated with discomfort helps us heal.  
• When the world radicalizes women, there’s already a requirement for discomfort. It’s exhausting and we didn’t sign up for it. It’s will take generations to collectively heal from it. 
• In this lifetime, our own body healing is giving permissions to those in our lives to heal as well. 
• One  of the key factors of trauma is lack of choice. We need to present people with choice, and let their choices guide their healing journey. 
• We need full consent from all the parts of ourselves to move through trauma. 
• As women of color, we need to give ourselves permission to stop bypassing our lived experiences. 
• Sometimes we need people to give us permission because we’ve been indoctrinated to do so. 
• Listen to your intuitive, warrior self; you are more than qualified to do what you’re doing!
• We need to step outside the way we’ve been conditioned. 
• We need to go inward, there’s a reason winter exists. Give yourself permission to rest, and explore your inner world. 
• Give yourself permission to stop believing the urgency. Urgency is a characteristic of white supremacy and capitalism. 
• Set boundaries, “you are not allowed to exact from me anymore.”

Other Links: 

The Alliance for Ecotherapy & Social Justice - https://theaesj.com/

Find out more about my work at https://macalarose.com.

In this episode of Practice Dirty, I talk with Abriana Johnson, the Chief Growth Officer at Teaching Horse, and the founder of Cowgirl Camryn and Black Unicorn Creative. We discuss:

• Building a business at the intersection of your interests;
• Building a network to do the work you dream of;
• How leadership development serves as a bridge to having hard conversations;
• Becoming a conduit to translate animal behavior into human language;
• How horses expose a company’s biggest challenges and bring dysfunction into the light; 
• How company leaders want to be influential, and how the perception of power is most leaders’ deep desire;
• The roles of formal and informal power;
• How unconscious bias, microaggressions, and bypassing kill an individual’s ability to function in their role;
• If you can’t find what you’re looking for, become it; 
• Mentorship of younger generations of black girls and teens;
• How our brain crave patterns, it creates feelings of safety;
• Having the audacity of a mediocre white man, or a mediocre stallion - be loud, present and command attention;
• Don’t be afraid to be audacious; it is one of the only road blocks for women of color that prevents them from build legacies and empires;
• Small moments of beliefs bring big mindset shifts.

Follow Abriana Online: 

Instagram: Https://instagram.com/theabrianJ

Website: https://abrianajohnson.com/

Find out more about my work at https://macalarose.com.

In the great awakening of my soul, I committed myself to learning a lot about psychospirituality (which to me,  the intersection of the mind and the soul come together). When I first started exploring this concept, I discovered narrative therapy, which is how to use stories to help heal your mind. 

At the time, I was looking to understand my own stories, I discovered Dr. Mehl-Madrona. Dr. Mehl-Madrona has an extensive body of work, but it’s not widely popularized (nor all of it widely available) like the work of other psychologists or indigenous healers may be. One book of Dr. Mehl-Madrona has stuck with me for the past several years. 

The Spirit of Healing, which is an exploration of narrative therapy, is a beautiful book to listen to. One of the exercises is called,  “Dialogue with the Spirit of an Illness” (found in Chapter 10) became a part of my personal toolkit, as well as part of several workshops I ran over the years. 

In it, you visualize a conversation with the spirit of an illness you have. “Illness” is metaphorical. It can represent an actual illness, a negative belief, or thought pattern.  I guide you through a conversation with the spirit behind the illness, belief, or situation. In that conversation, we ask, how it came to you, what it needs you to know, and how it can move on from you. Listen in, and let me know what you think. 

To learn more about our 2024 workshops or 1/2 ranch experiences, visit my website.

Find out more about my work at https://macalarose.com.