Combatting the Trauma of Police Violence

Healing practices, crisis support for those experiencing racialized trauma, how to stay safe and connected during direct action, and more

IDHA STATEMENT ON POLICE VIOLENCE

The past few months have again brought to the fore the cruelty and trauma of racism and white supremacy in the United States. While recent senseless murders have again thrown these issues into the national spotlight, racism and the policing of Black bodies are the foundations upon which this country was built. In addition to responding to the most visible forms of violence, we must look inward and center the dismantling of systemic racism in ourselves, as well as the systems in which we live and work.

IDHA stands in solidarity with Black communities across the United States who have been historically marginalized, criminalized, and murdered at the hands of the police. We grieve the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and countless others whose lives have been unjustly and violently stolen. We stand with the Black Lives Matter movement and echo the calls for justice reverberating across the country.

As a transformative mental health training institute, IDHA knows that mental health and systemic oppression, especially racism, are deeply intertwined. These insidious dynamics show up the mental health system in a number of ways. From the trauma of racism being erased or made invisible due to the subjective nature of psychiatric diagnosis. To Black Americans being overwhelmingly given the most severe diagnoses, which leads to more time spent in institutions. To the subjective definition of psychological trauma, which still fails to include individual, collective, and generational trauma stemming from racism, institutionalized oppression, and police violence. 

We need an intersectional analysis and holistic approach to healing that considers our racist systems of mass incarceration, lack of affordable housing, and unequal access to health services. As Black people are murdered by police and criminalized for merely existing, let alone exercising their basic rights, the subsequent racialized trauma in these communities is deep and significant.

Resource List

Black-led conversations and practices for healing from racialized trauma

Staying safe and connected in the midst of direct action

POC-led spaces offering virtual healing work (much of this list c/o Harriet’s Apothecary)

Mutual aid resources

Social Justice org responses to police violence and the carceral state

Reading list for white people

Anti-racism in clinical practice

This list is being updated on an ongoing basis. Please email us at contact@idha-nyc.org if you have recommended resources for us to add.

Places to Donate

For the month of June, IDHA is donating 50% of the proceeds from our trainings to the Loveland Foundation (raising money to offer access to therapy to women of color) and Black Visions Collective (a Black, trans, and queer-led organization committed to dismantling systems of oppression and violence).

Other funds to donate to: