Racialized people who bear the burden of witnessing, experiencing, and speaking about their individual experiences with racism and white supremacy are exhausted. While avenues to address and learn about racism are becoming more abundant, an often overlooked aspect of an equitable and anti-racist future is the ability for racialized people to access spaces of healing.

Reorienting Our Trauma is a group therapy program for Asian youth to collectively explore themes of cultural reclamation, intergenerational and racialized trauma, diasporic angst, and more. Group therapy embraces healing as a collective, by helping individuals make sense of their own trauma by sharing, listening, and learning about things together.

Trauma can control the ways in which we interact with others in relationships, feel about ourselves, and show up to places of employment. It can lead us to harm others in the ways we have been harmed. Reorienting this trauma towards a journey of healing can transform the way we build safer spaces, contribute to strengthening community reciprocity, and enhancing the overall quality of one’s life.

This program is a collaboration between hua foundation and Be You Counselling. It is facilitated by Betty Yeung, Registered Clinical Counsellor and managed by Kimberley Wong (@KimberleyLW), Race & Equity Program Manager at hua foundation with the help of A. Mylvaganam, who lead cohorts through a series of sessions that aim to provide a space of learning, reflection, safety, and impact.

For a document containing compiled resources for those reflecting on these topics, recommending resources on learning about these frameworks, spaces to practice our learnings, and how to build strong supports among those we are already in community with, visit https://bit.ly/comm-res-rot.