Resources for healing trauma

SOFTNESS is a gentle yet powerful invitation to release survival-based living and return home to yourself. It's written for those who have carried strength for far too long. This book offers a trauma-informed, culturally grounded pathway toward rest, emotional safety, embodiment, and self-compassion. 

Drawing from clinical expertise, somatic wisdom, and the lived experiences of Black women and other marginalized communities, SOFTNESS reframes healing as a return to softness rather than another task of endurance.

As a therapeutic resource, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome supports deeper insight into how trauma is transmitted across generations and how healing can occur through awareness, community, cultural affirmation, and intentional care. When integrated through a lens of softness, safety, and emotional attunement, this work invites individuals, particularly African Americans, to release survival-based coping and move toward restoration, connection, and embodied healing.

Dr. Buque's work is centered on helping Black, Indigenous, and all other People of Color (BIPOC) heal from intergenerational trauma. Trauma is no respecter of persons; however, generational trauma for people of color brings forth a unique approach to healing the souls of those identifying as BIPOC.  Dr. Buque defines intergenerational trauma as "emotional distress being handed down from generation to generation." 

Tracia Hersey, Founder of Nap Ministries

Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto is a powerful call to reclaim rest as a radical, healing practice, especially for Black women and marginalized communities whose bodies have been conditioned by generations of survival, productivity, and urgency. Hersey reframes rest not as laziness, but as a form of resistance against systems that profit from exhaustion, disconnection, and self-neglect.

Resmaa Menakem, LICSW, SEP, 

Menakem offers the world a glimpse into his grandmother's story and the physical and psychological pain she and experienced after years of picking cotton. In this book, Menakem shines light on racialized trauma and its mental and physical impacts on people of color. He believes that "racism is not about the head; it's about the body."  With an emphasis on breaking the racial divide, Manakem succeeds at providing his readers with heavily researched and evidence-based data to aid in the healing of historical and present-day racialized traumas. 

This book offers informative insights into how traumatic experiences affect the body. Dr. Bessel Van Der Kolk believes that "for real change to take place, the body needs to know that the danger has passed and to live in the reality of the present."  Trauma can store itself in the body, contributing to mental (depression, anxiety, panic, PTSD, etc.) and physical illnesses (cancer, chronic pain, autoimmune disorders, and more). Read with caution, as this book contains real-life stories that may trigger some readers. I recommend working with a licensed psychotherapist while engaging in this intense trauma work.

National Alliance of Mental Illness

https://namidurham.org/support-and-education/support-groups/stress-anxiety-support-group-for-african-americans/

 Veterans

https://www.ptsd.va.gov/

National Institute of Mental Health

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd

Dr. Gabor Mate

https://thewisdomoftrauma.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwtamlBhD3ARIsAARoaExKyi9ztJxkPVPoczSTaPtJ3ZmaXZe-JwS4IRLDhcCqhxPJ8-YRocEaAsFVEALw_wcB

NC Support Groups 

https://naminc.org/event/support-group-for-stress-and-anxiety/2023-07-10/