#157 - Becoming an Embodied Anti-Racist for Collective Trauma Healing with Francesca Marguerite Maximé

Body Kindness

Let’s talk trauma and racism. I found today’s guest, Francesca Marguerite Maximé, from her podcast called Re-Rooted on the Ram Das Be Here Now network. She interviewed Dick Schwartz, the creator of Internal Family Systems (IFS) about his “racist parts” and I was all in on their discussion.

Side note to spell out the Body Kindness connections in case it’s helpful before I go on:

Connection is one of the three core pillars for practicing Body Kindness. The book and dominant “anti-diet” / “body positivity” message mostly centers the idea of connection to one’s own body -- noticing and sensing what is happening in the present moment, feeling your “feels” and then thinking about what you need to care for yourself. This theme plays out in mindfulness, meditation, intuitive eating, and pretty much anything you do to care for yourself.

Connection is also about others… being part of something greater than yourself, forging connections in your community, the power of belonging to a group (this is all of part 4 of the Body Kindness book).

Trauma, including historical and racialized trauma, significantly impacts both of the ways in which we engage in “connection” in practicing Body Kindness.

Francesca came on the podcast to talk further about trauma and take me through a guided somatic experiencing exercise, which I fell in LOVE with after reading Resmaa Menekem’s My Grandmother’s Hands, which is truly an excellent book. I recommend audiobook! He reads it and guides you in several meditations.

You could win a FREE 45-min session with Francesca! Don’t miss the details in the show notes. Plus anyone can learn from her for FREE in an upcoming video series.

Here’s a few items we cover:

• Conversations on historical and racialized trauma.
• Being an embodied anti-racist is not something you do, it’s someone you become.
• How to take nervous regulation skills and use it to lean in and become active allies instead of performative allyship.
• Cultural trauma needs to be worked through for collective healing. That’s why we talk about reparations.
• The four core wounds of this country: racism, oppression, white body supremacy, and capitalism.
• Why White people especially struggle to home themselves with warm positive self-regard. (We are products of the same oppressive system.) We are more comfortable naming “diet culture” and “beauty culture.”

Francesca Links and Resources Mentioned:

• Showing Up for Racial Justice (I’m a member of the DC metro area group)
• Whiteness on the couch article by Natasha Stovall and her podcast interview
• Inside Out With Natasha and Francesca - weekly TV show
• 2018 Podcast interview about Adverse Childhood Events (ACE-scores) study on trauma and attachment, mindfulness, and more podcast interview with Dr. Vincent Felitti (CW: discusses “O-word” but acknowledges weight not the problem, but trauma. Some interesting dialogue about the history behind ACE scores development. I can see the White Supremacy in medicine power structure in this conversation.)
• Peggy McIntosh The Invisible Knapsack article, original article and updated article and resources included.

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Learn from Francesca:

• Available now! Cultivating a Courageous Heart. Three FREE 30-min embodied antiracism teaching videos. (90-min total on the themes of shame, empowerment, and mindful approach to anti-racism) and invitation to join Francesca for a FREE LIVE video teaching mid-October (after you get the videos.)
• 5-week embodied anti-racism online course, primarily for White (or light-skin privileged) trauma-informed helping pros in collaboration with The Academy of Therapy Wisdom This new embodied anti-racism course begins 10/14/2020.
• Stay connected with all of Francesa’s work or learn how YOU can work with her.

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Enter to Win

You could win a free 45-minute embodied anti-racism consultation or personal session with Francesca Marguerite Maximé.

All are welcome… including White-bodied individuals and organizational leaders as well as BIPOC individuals seeking support for racialized trauma.

Leave a comment on the blog post show notes or the Instagram contest posts. I’ll choose one winner from all the entries on October 15th and announce on Instagram and on the blog post.

Interested? I would love to read your comment sharing about the connections you’re noticing between your body kindness practice, departure from diet culture, and social justice and why you would love the chance to talk with Francesca.

Contest rules: The winner will coordinate a time with Francesca’s calendar and have the session in 2020.

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About Francesca Francesca Marguerite Maximé is a Haitian-Dominican Italian-American IMTA-accredited certified mindfulness meditation teacher mentored by Jack Kornfield, Somatic Experiencing Trauma Healing Practitioner, Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy practitioner, Relational Life Therapy couples coach, Focusing Oriented Therapy practitioner, and award-winning poet, author, and former television news anchor and reporter.

Francesca is based in Brooklyn, New York where she sees adults, couples and groups in person and online, and teaches therapists and other trauma specialists about mindfulness, the nervous system, attachment, embodiment and racialized trauma. Francesca also hosts the ReRooted Podcast where she explores the intersection of psychology, neuroscience, spirituality, social justice, and the creative arts.

Francesca was also the recipient of the 2019 International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies Student Advocacy and Service award for her contributions in the field of advocacy, clinical work and traumatic stress, as well as the 2019 first prize winner of the Allen Ginsberg Poetry Awards for her poem, “Pleather,” recently featured on PBS television. Last year, she was also featured in the article, Spreading the Word about Racialized Trauma by the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation. More about Francesca can be found on her website www.maximeclarity.com

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