Pan-Indigenous Neuro Healing & Wellness Program

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In the context of our healing and wellness program, indigenous refers to people all over the world whose way of life, and attachment or claims to land have resulted in their substantial marginalization within modern dominant culture. They are a part of a politically underprivileged group who have been an ethnic entity in the locality before the present ruling nation took over power. Indigenous people have a global presence and most often, indigenous culture is inseparable from spiritual practices. Therefore, the foundation of most indigenous cultures is grounded in healing and wellness.

The Pan-Indigenous Neuro Healing & Wellness program is based on ideology that is common among many indigenous communities. We merge the wisdom of different cultures and therefore use the term, pan-indigenous to underscore the fact that although many marginalized original ethnic groups share commonalities, we each have our own unique culture. The term pan-indigenous is meant to honor our individuality rather than perpetuate the consolidated “other” category.

We are beginning to witness science catching up with indigenous cultural knowledge, especially in the field of neuroscience. Today, globally, dominant cultures look to the indigenous peoples for human and earth healing. We know that the medicine people, shamans and elders carry wisdom. Our program seeks to merge ancient healing and wellness practices with 21st century neuroscience to support psychological, spiritual, physical wellness and facilitate healing the dis-ease caused by toxic stress and trauma.

The Program

In 2023, we will roll-out the first level of the program, which has two parts:

1. 7-hour live virtual training taught via Zoom.
2. Collective Healing Retreat (optional)

Our program is ideal for individuals looking to facilitate healing in their own life, as well as for professionals working with people struggling to overcome trauma and toxic stress.

VIRTUAL TRAINING:

The Level 1 virtual training will lay the foundation for healing. We will focus on indigenous principles from all over the world, merged with current neuroscience. We will begin to understand that wellness is more than just the absence of dis-ease.  The first step toward healing is in establishing balance. As indigenous people, we know that healing is not a destination or a static condition. Healing comes from consistently seeking the dynamic state of equilibrium in all areas of life. Through the discipline of tending relationships, movement, earth, ritual/ceremony, sustenance, sacred space, and sleep we learn to have balance as the foundation for healing and wellness. Level 1 also focuses on self-determination and how to mitigate the neurobiology that causes maladaptive behaviors and dis-ease. Ultimately, we will learn how to facilitate new neural pathways and continue our movement toward wellness.

*Previous students taught by Iya receive a 20% discount. Please contact Iya to register @ healhistoricaltrauma@gmail.com

Virtual Training Date: July 12, 2023 9am-4pm

Register Here

COLLECTIVE HEALING RETREAT:

The retreat is a collective healing space that provides the opportunity to put the pan-indigenous healing principles into practice. It is meant to help shift the individualist perspective, which doesn’t support healing, to the ideology that supports communal healing. During the collective healing experience, participants will spend 3-4 days working in community together with the program founder, Iya Affo. The sacred space will offer the following:

Relationship Building- trauma is healed in relationships.

Yoga Nidra (sleep yoga) Twice a Day- increases serotonin and dopamine

Restorative Nutrition

Meditation

Practicing Silence

Therapeutic Trauma Massage

1:1 Session with Trauma & Resilience Coach

Sacred Circle- for learning and knowledge integration

Express Interest in the Collective Healing Retreat Here

ABOUT US

Iya Affo is the founder of Heal Historical Trauma. As a descendant of spiritual and physical healers, Iya’s life has centered around spirituality, indigenous healing and wellness.

Iya's ancestors hail from the Sacred City of 41 Mountains in West Africa, Barbados, Jamaica and the Bahamas. From the age of 5 years old, she showed compassion and love for people in need, which was fostered by time spent in nursing homes massaging residual limbs for elders affected by limb loss, with her mother. Iya began to develop an interest in neuroscience around that same time which was developed through experiments in the rat lab of Columbia University during her mother’s research as a doctoral student. The first part of Iya's life was focused on physical healing and she pursued education in Nutrition, Massage Therapy and eventually Chiropractic, all the while participating in a variety of indigenous healing practices. Iya has worked with clients in search of healing for 35 years.

Today, she is a Culturalist and Historical Trauma Specialist who earned Western Certification as a Trauma Specialist. Iya is Certified to facilitate Dr. Bruce Perry's Neurosequential Model for Caregiving, and Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI). She is a Certified Trauma & Resilience Life Coach, a Certified Adverse Childhood Experiences Trainer and has completed Certification for the Native American based Fatherhood is Sacred/Motherhood is Sacred program.

With an eye on indigenous healing practices, Iya has visited more than 30 countries around the world and has spent extended time living and studying in Native American, Yoruba, Buddhist, Hindu and Taoist communities in various countries. While on pilgrimage in West Africa, she studied with Medicine Men and Women to learn the ways of the Shaman and understand the truth about the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. In China, she lived in the Shaolin Temple, the cradle of Zen Buddhism, and immersed herself in Chinese culture. While in China, she also lived among the Taoist in Kunyu Shan. After a spiritual calling to India, Iya sojourned in an ashram (Hindu spiritual community) and lived a minimal lifestyle while imbuing Hindu customs and ideology. Serving Navajo Nation, Salt River Indian Community, Gila River Indian Community, Ho Chunk (Winnebago) Nation, and Chemehuevi Indian Community, Iya found a home among the egalitarian, indigenous people of North America. 

In 2018, elders invited her to Toronto, Canada to participate in forming the first Canadian/American collaboration to heal ACEs and Historical Trauma. She debuted her presentation, "The Symphony of Traditional Medicine and Western Medicine to Heal ACEs and Historical Trauma" at the 2018 National ACEs Conference in San Francisco, California. Iya is an international speaker on historical trauma, healing and wellness. Most recently, she traveled to Kenya where she delivered a keynote address and led workshops on neuro healing.

Iya strives to cultivate love and inclusivity. She hopes to facilitate re-culturing and the subsequent healing of indigenous people all over the world. Iya advocates for the harmonization of Traditional Medicine and Western Medicine to facilitate holistic healing.  She recently stepped down from being an executive board member on the Arizona Adverse Childhood Experiences Consortium, but continues to serve as the Chair of the Historical Trauma committee and develop curriculum for the Resilience Empowerment Program. She is an Adjunct Faculty member at the Arizona Trauma Institute\Trauma Institute International, is the founder of Phoenix Rising to Resilience virtual community on the PACEs Connection platform and was recently appointed to the Gilbert Community Engagement Task Force to advocate for people who have been disempowered.

 Image Creator: Julio Pantoja | Credit: Julio Pantoja / Instituto Hemisférico de Perform