Babaamaajimowinan (Telling of news in different places)
Donna LaChapelle, elder in residence for the Nokomis Endaad program at the Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Center, (MIWRC), found the answers to her prayers during a casual event. A Native healer, LaChapelle investigated multiple therapeutic paths for years, but something was missing, “in our Native ways, we use smudging, ceremonies, sweat lodges. … But we needed something to understand the psychology of trauma, and get in the mind of the patients: why drug, alcohol…? Watching the women in recovery with no success, I prayed for help.”
That night, her question, “What does it take to get well,” was answered when she met a mind-body practitioner sitting next to her. “Listening to Kathy, It made sense right away that we needed this type of work: in trauma, the mind and the body dissociate. And when the mind is exiled from the body, depression begins,” LaChapelle said.
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