Lessons from decolonial and liberation psychologies for the field of trauma psychology.

Abstract

Trauma, ranging from interpersonal to intergenerational, can create severe dysregulation and psychic suffering. Trauma may disrupt the nervous system, identity, affect regulation, and relationship schemas. Traumatic events can also disconnect survivors from the various aspects of themselves as well as their community. As a trauma survivor and trauma psychologist, I have dedicated my career to exploring ways of restoring and healing those severed connections. Exploring decolonial and liberation psychologies awakened me to conceptualizations and frameworks that center reclamation as a form of holistic healing and empowerment for trauma survivors. While much of the individually centered trauma literature focuses on skills-based psychoeducation and cognitive behavioral coping strategies, there has traditionally been less, although growing, attention paid to the diverse culturally grounded, sociopolitical pathways for survivors to reclaim themselves. In this article, I explore my scholarship and the scholarship of other underrepresented scholars as we discuss decolonial and liberation psychologies, the pathways they illuminate that can benefit the trauma recovery process, especially for marginalized survivors, and their implications for practice, training/teaching, research, and policy. The trauma and healing-informed decolonial and liberation pathways that emerge from the literature are culture as medicine, community support, spirituality and religiosity, expressive arts, and resistance. This article argues that the field would benefit from a more inclusive view of trauma and trauma recovery if it incorporates, builds on, explores, and learns from the scholarship of decolonial and liberation psychologists and traditional cultural healers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).