Embedded Files
Nothing ABOUT us WITHOUT us
Disability justice and healing is the heartbeat of my life, and I believe it is imperative to our collective survival as cultural ableism continues to increase. Many of us with disabilities and chronic illnesses hold disproportianate weight and struggle with basic access to care, which can result in deep isolation and lack of resources. My community and individual work is built to combat this isolation, to nourish and resource us as disabled/Sick individuals, and to connect us to each other and our own value at the point in history where our collective healing is most vital. Join me in a care model that meets you where you are, undoes aloneness, and unlocks the internal healing resources you already have inside you.
A BIt oF My BACKGROUND...
A BIt oF My BACKGROUND...
community Organizing
community Organizing
I have a Master's Degree in Social Justice and Community Organizing. For six years, I've served professionally as a disability advocate, during which time I taught student and adult learners about the history of disability rights and culture. I hosted Disability Pride groups and workshops, and worked in direct client services to support people in thriving independently in communities of their choosing. I've campaigned in Immigrant Rights political organizing, and have taught creative writing for revolutionary empowerment to all ages (as a secondary classroom teacher and beyond.) I believe that connecting to ourselves, each other, and our joy within our disabled experiences is what builds systemic power, and what poises us to gain energy to fight for each other. All of this leads me to deep understanding of the intersectional, social, and systemic factors of disability--context I will hold with care in our healing work together.
on disability and trauma
on disability and trauma
As my own disabilities and illnesses progressed, I faced an increasingly difficult time finding ways to care for myself and my accumulating medical trauma using existing therapeutic models. My experience, which has since been mirrored by so many of my disabled comrades and beloveds, was that some mental health therapy models mimicked the same medical model of disability, which center pathologizing us and "fixing" the problem. Traditional therapy methods don't always address ableism, systemically or interpersonally. While clinical mental health support is imperative and there are skilled practitioners out there who can meet us where we are, there is something irreplaceable about receiving care and support from someone with similar life and bodily experiences. Sometimes, only we know how to take care of us when we're in the thick of it.
I've witnessed disabled mentors and community members find ways out of survival mode and into nourishing, thriving lives. I watched them do so by caring for and "walking with" (or rolling with) each other. And so, I always knew there was more for us.
Developing TRAUMA CARE Models by us, for us
Developing TRAUMA CARE Models by us, for us
I began to dive deep into adapting trauma therapy models that can keep up with bodies who are often the "site" of recurrent and ongoing trauma. I trained in Internal Family Systems, a creative and expansive model for unwinding trauma, and refined my class content and practice for disabled/Sick bodies and minds.
So many of us simply need someone to show up bedside and to offer presence. As I became a person who spent many days doing care work with my disabled friends at hospital or dark bedroom bedsides, I become interested in gaining strategies to assist with healing from the accumulating traumas our community uniquely faces. My model of care is a mixture of crip doula work, tangible advocacy and resourcing, and internal resourcing through building trauma resiliency (Internal Family Systems Model.). Check out the services page for more details.
CRIP DOULA & Disability Justice Framework
CRIP DOULA & Disability Justice Framework
"Crip" is a reclaimed word that describes being proud of being disabled. If the words used on this page, "Crip/disabled/Sick/chronically ill" don't fit for you, that's ok! You belong here.
The idea of "crip doula" was coined by Stacey Milbern, a queer disabled person of color and community organizer. To be a crip doula is to mentor another disabled person, to usher them into the landscape of disability, to introduce them to new ways of being in the world and acquiring crip skills. Milbern's work gives my work context, and I honor their life and legacy deeply.
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha is a queer disability justice writer and speaker whom I greatly admire, whose books like Care Work are essential in my understandings of access intimacy and disabled joy.
Anita Cameron is a disability activist I've had the joy of working alongside, and I find her humor and grit to be key ingredients in disability movements and care work. She is a story-teller with deep roots in the disability rights movement, and their way of being in the world has helped me find my place in it, too.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse