City Channel Pittsburgh, PA Our Neighbor's Keeper, 18 Nov 2021

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From YouTube: Our Neighbor's Keeper: Understanding Trauma

Description

On this episode of Our Neighbor's Keeper, Josiah Gilliam talks with Shacoya Bates from Gwen's Girls.

A

Hello there thank you for checking out this video. You know we had a chance to have a really good conversation uh about some important work. That's happening through gwen's girls with some young people that attend various public schools and an adult leader in their life and in order to protect their identity, we have blurred their faces and are concealing their identity. I hope you'll take this chance to learn about the important work they do and check out the organization.

A

If you see fit thanks so much.

B

A

There my name is josiah gilliam, and I am the my brothers keeper coordinator in the mayor's office of equity, and we appreciate you taking the time uh to check out this video uh to engage with the conversation that we're about to have today very excited about this. We've been doing a series around the concept of trauma and we've been talking with various experts in community in academia um in various levels, about what that means and what the concepts of resilience and healing can look like.

A

We've explored the gun, violence, intervention prevention, work and different forms of street outreach and commercial sexual exploitation, and these other things. Today we have a chance to talk about some of the latest understandings in this space and also engage with some young emergent leaders who work with their peers and younger folks around these concepts and have their own powerful personal history and the work they've been doing with organizations to share about.

A

So what I want to do is just do a brief round of introductions uh and then we'll go to ms shakoya to talk about the work that she does and we'll have a nice conversation from there to really try to highlight how this work shows up in community and some of the good things that are happening.

A

uh Some of the misconceptions that we should just abuse ourselves of and just spend some time you know with it uh something I feel impressed to say in the moment as we have before, is that some of these challenge, some of these concepts, can be challenging uh so it'll, be my intention to hold space for what's said and encourage you to do the same uh and to take breaks and to safeguard your own mental and emotional health uh at all times uh some great stuff here to talk about, though so we're gonna we're gonna lean in and enjoy our time together.

A

Thank you all so much for taking the time to be with us today excited to explore what you do and what you think about it. Mr coya, can you just ground us very quickly um around what we're here to talk about? um Can you talk to us a little bit about the kinds of trauma and and just how you kind of explain this concept of folks that might not be familiar with the work that you do or the notion itself.

C

Yeah, of course, so um the work that I do is very varied, but um right now today we're talking about trauma. So when I talk to people about trauma, I try to make sure that they understand that it isn't just one thing. I think some people think traumas are like. Oh, you get shot or you know. Oh, it's like really really bad, but in reality traumas can be like um little t, traumas or big t, traumas, big t, traumas are big events and little uh t traumas or maybe like interpersonal, smaller events such as bullying.

C

You know that's not as uh huge as getting shot essentially um and that we should recognize that trauma can come from all those things. So I just try to have conversations with people to gauge their knowledge share with them. What my knowledge is so that we can come to an understanding of what is trauma and how we can help people deal with trauma when they've experienced it.

A

Thank you so much so when we were talking a little bit about this and we've had some conversations with with other experts in this space, and you kind of mentioned this idea already. There are different kinds of trauma and people experience it in different ways uh and it has different effects on folks and community etc. um More specifically, we talked about the idea of acute trauma, chronic trauma and complex trauma. Could you walk us through what those mean.

C

Of course, so acute trauma usually results from a single event, and that could be something like a bad car accident that you're in that you're traumatized by you know, might be afraid to get in the car or every time you're on the road. Think about being in a car accident and chronic trauma is repeated or prolonged.

C

Trauma such as domestic violence or abuse that someone might be experiencing over a period of time and complex trauma is um actually varied and multifaceted when it comes to multiple traumatic events happening that are typically invasive and interpersonal in nature, and this could be something that we see in children that have been um severely abused or neglected.

A

And is it the case? That's that it can. It could come progress or evolve in kind of stages or kind of severity. For example, is it possible to have an acute trauma, experience that turns into chronic trauma.

C

I think over time yes and fear of being in a car and being on the road, always debilitates you then. Yes, it can turn into something that um is even more traumatic for you. You know every time you look at a car, you might get worried or anxious. You know you might not want to be in a car at all.

A

Yeah so then it makes all that much more sense that people organizations institutions that are serving folks that experience trauma are able to meet folks where they're at, but also able to walk with them through time to as to see how it develops and to continuously uh engage. Do you think that's a fair assessment.

C

Yes, we definitely need to always check in. I think sometimes people think that people are supposed to magically get over something, or you know you have a little therapy. You talked about it, it's not a factor anymore. Now, it's time to move on, but when we think about trauma, we also need to think about the impact that it has not just on our mind, but our body trauma really changes. You know who we are the way.

C

We think the way we exist in the world and I think sometimes that's the piece that gets overlooked and why it's so hard to um you know kind of deal with your trauma and heal from it, because you're physically your mind, is physically changing as.

D

A result of your experiences.

A

We do hear a lot about the the kind of mental effects of trauma, and sometimes when we talk or hear about things like ptsd post-traumatic stress disorder, or is that right, stress disorder um in community about what happens with the mind? Can you talk a little bit more, though about what how it can show up physically, because this is something certainly that I've heard about more? What are some examples or just ways to think about how that can show up.

C

Yeah so physically you can sweat, you know you can feel butterflies. um Sometimes people might even pass out. I think the symptoms can vary depending on the person you know, but they know that something's wrong. They feel that something's wrong. Sometimes they don't even have words to put to it. You know what they're feeling or why they're feeling like it thinking like? Oh hey, that must not be bothering me anymore until they get in a position where they're like oh something's, wrong.

C

I guess I'm kind of wondering what the girls might have to say about what they believe. You know how trauma shows up in people.

A

Absolutely yeah: how does it show up in your experience and what thoughts do you all have.

D

I think it can definitely show up and it might not even be right away because some people, you know when you're not really dealing with those traumas and stresses it's gonna, pile up. It's gonna pile up and pile up and then you're gonna get to a point. You explode and that's when you that's. When you see like with daily people, you interact with with your loved ones. You see behavioral changes because they're dealing with things it affects you affects the the way your brain works is serious.

A

Yeah it can affect your literal neurochemistry anything else from from the other two.

D

I definitely agree with what laura said: it's like it couldn't even affect you.

B

D

First, when it first happened, but over time you could just magically become depressed like just these thoughts like they'll. Take over you just out of nowhere you're just completely just it changes you that fast, you know go off with what malaysia said like what did you say.

A

How it can just kind of show up, it seems like it's almost magical, but then it it's like pervasive thoughts.

D

In fact, sometimes people might find themselves depressed and they don't even know the reason she's like something can't happen and then that right away shows up. But it can be situations, you don't even know what happened or you're down or or you're feeling the way you're stressed. But, like you, what makes you anxious because you're not identifying your triggers, because you don't even know that you might have to be dealing with depression, anxiety, ptsd and things like that.

B

I definitely agree with that trauma.

D

B

Changes how you function, how you interact with others like some people after experiencing a traumatic event, they might not want to hang on certain people or do certain things to avoid that trauma.

A

Yeah affect the way you feel and the way you behave the way you interact with people it can affect all elements and aspects of your life, any other thoughts there.

C

I just kind of wanted to add to what everyone was saying that not just your emotions and feelings are affected. Like your memory, your feelings, your safety, like your whole, being you know, is impacted by having dramatic experiences.

A

Yes, so let's, let's just kind of talk about the general landscape, who are some important organizations and institutions that are active in this space that you find yourself pointing to or that are doing important work from your perspective and then we'll zoom in to what gwen's, girls, magala and yushikoya do.

C

Okay, so um I guess I'm really happy to highlight gwen's girl, specifically in this space. Not too long ago, um I was a part of work that was done with professor brittany, brinkman and dr kathy on a professional learning community that was based on trauma-informed care, so what they did was they brought community organizations into a space and talked about trauma and everything that is trauma so that they can know how to work with youth and families who have experienced trauma at their um separate nonprofit agencies or organizations.

C

I thought that was really informative and really helpful because, from my experience of also being in social services prior to coming back to school, that's what is lacking a lot like people kind of get like this general um training regarding trauma, but the voices of the people who live these traumas are often missing from those spaces, and when I was a part of that learning community, that was not what happened they brought in experts, they brought in families. There were group conversations and not just that.

C

It was spaces for healing too there were meditation spaces and breaks, and it was really just amazing to be a part of something like that within the pittsburgh area. That is helping organizations to continue to grow and learn and develop um when it comes to ways to help. Children and families deal with the trauma that they have experienced and to identify it, even if they um weren't sure what what it was at first.

A

Yes, any any uh organizations that participated in that community of learning besides, besides gwen's girls,.

C

B

Was a ton- and I really.

C

Don't want to lie to you because I don't remember everyone specifically who participated in that.

C

Oh, the center for victims showed up the center for victims came and they presented. We had a visiting professor from texas, a m that came and presented on her um research about trauma.

A

um Yeah the center for vixen is just really tremendous. We had the opportunity, uh through city parks, uh to take part in trending that they offer um and to like tour their facility and learn a lot about their resources, definitely worth folks checking out uh what they do over there. um So that will sound like a really meaningful experience. Sequoyah. Can you share a little bit more about the work that you do now uh really can seem to have informed? What you're up to at this point? Can you speak a little bit about it.

C

uh Yeah, so I'm still in training currently, but um I really want to be involved in the heart of community work. I would love to be able to bridge active community advocacy and mental health, and I feel, like when's girls, gave me the opportunity to do that here at my practicum placement site and continuing into allowing me to be in the space and mentor and be participating in things such as this.

C

You know, which might not have been the case if I wasn't involved with women's girls, but my research is primarily focused on um black feminism liberation, psychology and contemplative practices. I think that mindfulness is something that we often don't turn to within our community, and I think it can be helpful.

C

So a lot of my research is based in that learning how to recognize what you're feeling put words to it, not attached to it and figure out what healing and thriving looks like to you so that you don't have to constantly be um tormented by your trauma, but that you can experience it live through. It recognize what you can that you got from it and.

A

Move on that's terrific. I want to come back to this idea of of mindfulness and ways to think about resilience and healing, but before we do that, let's say: let's do one last little organizational piece here. uh Bagala. Can we talk about what that is what it stands for uh and then I'd love to hear from the girls uh and our emergent leaders here what they think about with that work.

C

All right, I'm just.

A

B

A

Over to the girls.

B

Because they can explain.

A

This way better than I ever could awesome.

D

So what we one of the things we did, because we did a lot of things you know, so we work with the younger.

D

We work with the younger gd's, just like how the mentors work with us and just like mr coyle was talking about earlier, the work they do with us. It's just life-changing, like just learning from firsthand, like what my mentors have done for me and where I came.

D

What where I was at when I began coming here and where I am months later, I'm one of the leaders now just following after they're good examples.

D

So basically, what we try to do is be that for the younger girls, because there's girls who come here and they don't always have those resources and support systems and that stability like outside of here when we come to this building and meet and have community meetings and focus on each other's mental health and what's going on because it matters to us, and it's just good to you, know we all express to each other that we care it's like a family.

A

That's amazing! So what is what is bagala when you're talking with these young people about what you do? How do you describe what it is.

D

We talk about many different things. We talk about education, we talk about handling finances correctly, because it's never too late to learn about that. Learn how to write checks or how to have your bank account ready savings things like that. We we talk a lot about social justice and equity and black girls rights things we have to go through in school or just walking down the street or being looked at different from other races.

D

Are the standards, the things that we so far have to live up to and things like that? We talk about them, we break it down and get to the good stuff and the bad stuff things that might arise, emotions sad ones. We might come into tears when we meet, we might be full of laughs, it's just different different experiences.

D

So, regardless.

B

Stands for the black girls, advocacy and leadership alliance. We've been promoted to a very years where we basically mentor other girls on our mentors taught us. So we talk about like laura, said education. They make sure our grades are in check. They make sure we're ready for the future. We make sure we learn how to manage our money. We talk about mental health. We basically it's like, like she said it's like a family here we all care for each other.

B

We all make sure um we're in a good mental state like, for example, we do community meeting every time we come here. You ask three questions. um How are you feeling and you can't use it? What are your goals for today and how can we help you achieve that.

A

Yeah, I love that. uh How are you doing- and you can't just say good you need to like you know, use some other words dig a little bit deeper. Does that work? Is that effective when, when you do that with uh younger folks.

D

Yeah yeah, even with festival, we're having community meetings. Sometimes it's hard to not say good, because you're having a good day like you, have to really sit there and think, like you can't stay good. How to come up here.

C

D

What's also good about it, too,.

C

Is they check in with each other? So not every feeling is a good feeling right and someone might show up in a space not feeling great that day, but what we always make sure to do, whether it's the girls or the staff or who are whoever's participating. We always ask if they need a check-in and.

B

C

Can be after the meeting during the meeting whenever, depending on what the situation is, so we can figure out how to best help them. In that moment,.

A

Yes, one of my favorite concepts is a wellness check and that's what I hear from what you're saying um to check in where with where folks are at. Why do you girls? What ladies uh people think that it's so important to put language to how you're feeling and how you're doing.

D

Because firsthand like it's always going to catch up to you, when we try to push it away, no matter, it can be years. One day it's gonna come back and you're gonna have to sit in the mirror and deal with those things. So it's important that, like we talk about those things we get to the surface, so you don't have to do that alone, because it's not an easy job, so we try to be the backbone for each other, like we all have each other. Equally, it's not like miss corey.

D

My has malaysia more than she has me. It's just a family and we all make sure we have each other's back, because these are serious things that not everybody really has awareness to like what mental health is and another thing we do. We we do podcasts and we work with our public speaking while we do that, but we all our podcasts are focused on mental health supply, drug addiction.

D

Things like that just trying to help parents out with their kids, giving parental tips from teenagers just doing what we can to really get the word out and help. That's our goal to help.

A

It's amazing, so not only are you checking in with people saying how they're doing you're, also building skills and you're collaborating together. I love this idea that it's really a family, so you're building, you know strong relationship, bonds and then working together. That seems to probably make uh you know a huge difference. What are some ways? You mentioned this idea of helping parents.

A

You know out with things you all work with peers and younger people as well, but what are some ways that adults can be supportive of the work that you do and just of people's or young people's mental health.

D

But there's a there's, a balance between force and kids to talk because I can make them shut down, but it's nice to know. Somebody cares so not just asking once when you notice something's wrong just so they have that time to feel comfortable to talk to you things like that, not yelling, because that makes a shutdown you're not going to get the response you want from yelling at us and just like that, because I mean it sounds like common sense, but some parents really don't think about that.

D

They don't realize the effect the yelling has on us like loud like like triggers like me loud noises outside the house can affect you and things like that. It gets serious.

D

I want paris to know like because it's serious so.

C

Josiah, I think what allure is alluding to is the fact that there's a lot of intergenerational trauma within our communities, a lot of things have been normalized right. So parents think it's okay to do this.

A

And even if they feel like it's not.

B

Okay, they're like well.

C

My mom did it to me and not look how I turned out. You know, and those are things and thoughts that we have to second guess: question reflect on and listen to our girls and I'm wondering if you girls, can add a little bit more to this conversation about things in our community um that have been normalized that are traumatic, that you feel should definitely not have been normalized or are problematic.

B

I would say telling people to not be sensitive is a big issue, because I feel, like everybody should be alive to feel how they feel to react, how they want to being told not to cry also, especially for black men. They're, always um expected to be stronger, not to feel their feelings or cry or show any type of emotion, because they're expected to strong people all the time and people can't be strong all the time you have to allow yourself to feel god and cry.

A

It's wonderful anything else, what's been normalized or what you think needs to be addressed better in community.

D

Another thing when parents say, because I said so- that's one like I'm not being smart or anything or anything like that, but when parents take the time to explain things to us yeah, it helps because people might not not know.

D

Why was I not allowed to do this, or why did I get in trouble for this like just having that relationship, because I understand, like parents, are superior to us and we're not on the same page everything but just being able to have a communication to be comfortable to talk about any and everything we can't talk about simple things. Why do you think I'm gonna come to you when something else is going.

A

Yeah I hear this idea of um you know everyone's at a different point in their journey and taking the time to uh to build a good sense of communication relationship so that it's not just uh a top-down approach. It really is engaging in conversation and and explaining your perspective and being open to hear perspectives from others. That seems it's probably very valuable. Do you all do that with younger people that you work with younger girls.

C

I feel like I feel like they do, but kind of like to swing back.

B

Around to what we were talking about just like to add this little.

C

Piece on the back end, sometimes I think parents forget that their children are going to grow up into an adult, and when you have those type of conversations and use those type of words with your child, you forget that you're setting them up for ways that they can exist when they're older and how that might hinder them. Telling yourself, you know your child to not be too sensitive, might show up in a bad way when they're older, you know um also like how are they going to communicate with people just how.

A

You told your child.

C

um I'm the adult you need to listen to me. That's how.

A

They're going to talk to their their children.

C

And how they might also engage with other people not being open willing to listen to them, willing to hear feedback and all those other things. So I do think.

D

That's important for parents to also recognize.

B

That your children are going to one day be.

D

B

Adult and your.

C

Parenting should reflect that. Yes,.

A

Go ahead, did I hear someone speak.

C

It was developmental.

A

But I know you wanted to say something.

C

About that as well, you remember what your thought was to normalize things that we normalize, that shouldn't be normalized.

D

um I know that a lot of parents also say like when we, when we, as like young young people, express our emotions, those when we as young people, express our emotions. um Adults will um a lot of the time say, stop crying I'll. Give you something to cry about. Like really dismissing our feelings, you know, and I feel like that's very damaging. I feel like that's something that definitely needs to be talked about.

A

I love it yeah. I love this idea of. uh Did you want to add something.

D

C

Said you wanted to add to her idea.

D

A

I love this idea on on finding ways for folks to find what cycles they can break in themselves and and how they can disrupt patterns in relationships and for themselves. um So for the rest of our conversation, I'd like to talk a little bit about um about mindfulness and resilience and healing you know in your experience.

A

What are some of the best ways and methods that you work with folks on to help them navigate their day-to-day existence, but also to kind of grow and improve from where they've been.

C

um I think a key point in like black feminism and liberation psychology is to make sure people identify and recognize that it's not their job to bend to the whim of the system into society in every way like if you're being traumatized, you don't bend to the will of the trauma. You know you have to recognize what it is and how it's impacting you and figure out what it is that you want to do about it.

C

So that's often the things that I talk about with people, because I think we have a skewed sense of what resilience can be sometimes as if we have to be strong all the time nothing can get to us. But in doing that, we.

B

C

Identify with resilience and over identifying with it isn't as isn't helpful at all. You know we have to recognize when it's okay to be um human, like exist as a human. We have emotions for a reason we're supposed to feel things for a reason, and there are times.

D

When we have to be strong- and there are times where.

C

It's okay to cry and feel whatever it is, that you're feeling and.

B

Recognize that.

C

This is something that's happening in this moment, and this is something that you can get through, so I really try to help people talk about. You know where they see themselves like how this experience made them feel. Is this something that they want to do about this?

C

You know how does it feel to exist in this system or in this way you know and get to the core of the feelings of those things, so we can figure out what it looks like on the other side, what it looks like to heal what it looks like to thrive in spite of having to have experience these things.

A

Absolutely um I love this idea of making space for what you're experiencing um and giving yourself yourself grace when, when you're, when some of you are working when you, when you all, are working with a young person, that's experienced trauma. uh What are some methods or some principles that you try to introduce to them to help them in their journey.

B

I would say: let them know that it's okay to not always be listening here to them, be sensitive to whatever they say. Don't say nothing too judgmental try to be comforting and soothing to them, especially if they're younger than you. You want to set a good example of how you should conduct yourself when you come to that age and not to always dismiss people's feelings and tell them that basically treat them like their voices are not.

D

That, I would think to add women, sequoia and naima said about being sad. Being it's an emotion. Just like being happy is an emotion, it's a part of life and just like she said like you, don't always have to be strong and things like that, like it's a part of life to be sad, sometimes now, maybe not all the time, but you know like sometimes it's, okay, my mentor, I call her. She said you have to be okay with being uncomfortable.

D

That is something she taught me and that's the truth, and that sticks with me because it's really like you have to build yourself to be okay with that and then work your way to get out of it.

C

To understand where those villains are coming from right, so.

D

C

Then get to it because a lot of the times, those are the surface films, oh I'm uncomfortable, but why are we uncomfortable yeah? You.

A

C

Underneath that, what's triggering us to be uncomfortable, you know, and I think that's what a lot of the mentors here at wins. Girls do, and I think, that's um kind of like the I think, like a beautiful thing about women's girls, is that they always want to get to the the meat and potatoes or the grit of it. It's not like we're. Gonna remain on the surface, as you can see, with community meeting, you can't even say good, you know, give us a feeling, and you know if it's not if.

B

You ain't feeling good. Let's talk.

C

About it, you know, there's always space here created to talk, which I think is an amazing thing. Amazing, space, safe space to create other girls.

A

Okay, um this has been terrific I'd like to um transition towards our clothes. Here I want to make space for anything else, you'd like to share about the work that you do or how these concepts show up in your own lives and then I'll ask each of you to share something that you personally like to do when you're feeling a type of way that helps you feel better. So anyways, one last chance anything else, you'd like to share about pagala gwen's girls trauma the work you do.

B

um I would like to say we're not as experts on trauma we're just giving you guys team perspective on how we.

A

B

That trump, what drama is how it makes us feel how it affects.

D

Us, and what makes our like informational kind of accuracy is sometimes like it's personal experience like we're, helping people from what we've been through, helping a little baby from something that we've gone through at their age or around their age.

D

We call it keeping it real while we heal.

A

While we heal, I love that I love that anything else.

D

I guess the only.

C

Thing I would add to that, is that in my work, specifically what I, what I'm trying to do is introduce the idea to the black community. That therapy can be healing and even if it's not therapy figure out what it is that helps. You do right, because therapy isn't for everybody, and I absolutely understand that, but you have to figure out what's going to help, you survive thrive and get past the traumas and things that you went through, but only you can figure out what that is, and sometimes it's trial and error.

C

You know you might get a bad therapist, but that doesn't mean all therapists are that way. So I talked to the staff and some of the girls here and their parents about how do you better therapists? How do you know if therapist is good for you, you know, and if not that, then what like? What are we going to do if we uh can't find that therapist and we still need some help, some healing, so um I think you know just for me.

C

My biggest goal is to always, you know, have conversations with people about what they think therapy is maybe dismiss some misinformation or at least engage with them about the misinformation and then figure out how to move forward and give therapy a try. If it's spread out.

A

Love that so much okay well final round of questions here, um how what kind of things do each of you use for yourself? This could be mindfulness breathing exercise going on a walk whatever. It is not when you're dealing with someone else or helping serve them when you're going through life. What's what's one thing that you try to keep in mind or try to do for yourself.

B

um I would say I always remind myself that I can lean on my mentors here, my peers here and that they're always going to be there for us whenever I'm going through something I also like to um bite up candles. I'm sorry, a lot of candles sounds because I like I just need peace. Sometimes.

A

Yes, I love that uh reminding yourself that there is you can lean on folks in relationship people that can help and then finding a place of peace for yourself. That's that's beautiful! All right who's! Next.

D

um I find that going on walks can be very peaceful for.

B

D

Thinking about my feelings, a lot of them, letting them come out how they will. If I cry.

A

I do that if I don't then.

D

I don't you know, because I can't avoid my emotions like the lower side. Obviously so.

B

D

That and it really does help me yes, I agree. I was going to say that walks because I mean sometimes when I'm really anxious.

D

I need to clear my head before I try and make decisions, because when I'm thinking in my head, I have to I wouldn't say unthink, but I have to calm myself down, but I can't calm myself down if I'm not thinking straight, like just trying to validate how I feel kind of, but that's why it's good, but we have them because they always show up for us and sometimes just someone telling you from an outside perspective like that you're, not crazy, for how you feel or like that you're overthinking. It.

B

D

Like that can really help and that's what we have them for.

C

So they're really awesome group of young. Ladies, like they're, really amazing.

A

I've been wanting to say that the whole time.

C

So I just want to make sure I get that in how amazing they are, um but I think for me I think I love driving around and blasting my music, that's my getaway space. I know some people might not agree with that, but I'm in my car and my space and listening to music definitely helps calm me down. It's almost like an escape. Sometimes you know it can help clear, whatever's there and then give you a time to come back.

C

I also practice grounding techniques when I'm really anxious or really sad or anything, to bring myself back into the present moment and then to check in with myself and definitely meditation and mindfulness um big big big for me to help me just connect with myself. I think.

A

Sometimes that's what we're missing.

C

We're disconnected from ourselves so we're unsure where we are, you know, but once we connect with ourselves start to question and reflect on what we're feeling and why we're feeling that way, I think we can get that connection back. It's.

A

Beautiful anywhere that you encourage people to learn about grounding techniques or mindfulness meditation techniques.

C

So there are a couple of temples here. I know some people aren't um maybe not like be comfortable going.

A

To a temple, but there are a few temples in pittsburgh. I know there's one at highland.

C

Park for me, it's just um practicing like youtube, has a lot of videos. Youtube, has a lot of information and so does google. So I would encourage anybody to go out and see if it's for them. First, like read,.

D

C

See what the research says: um listen to people's experiences, who have tried it already and then, if you feel like it's for you give it a try and then, if it's not, you know you can check something else out. But for me it's the calming space kind of like to what um naimo was talking about just a safe silent space for you just to be with yourself and your thoughts is really helpful. Absolutely.

A

And two resources that I found two where folks can learn as well: uh two apps one's called headspace and the other is called kong and they both do a really good job of of either giving like a guided experience where you can kind of ease your way into it or talking about the science of why this works and how it works um and and ways that you can kind of you know, adapt it to what you need. I also want to say that I love going on on walks too.

A

That's a big one for me, uh something about no matter what I'm going through, getting myself moving, getting my my brain and my heart moving, and sometimes it's not a instant relief uh and like I obviously all of a sudden feel better. But it's kind of like a muscle of like of priming myself to to move myself through space that helps, um and just let my mind and heart do what it needs to do. Give space for that, and I know that it's helping my body and my heart and my mind all at once.

A

uh It's a really powerful thing. I think sometimes- and I think you probably can resonate with this um and a professor used to say we complexify things, and it doesn't need to be all that complicated. um It can be finding what works for you and honoring that it's a good place to to begin.

A

I also want to emphasize this idea that you all are amazing. I really want to spend some time expressing gratitude for the work that you do and for spending time with us today. I also want to encourage folks that are watching to check out gwen's girls, learn more about the gala, learn more about the techniques and the research that was mentioned today to take your own emotional mental health seriously, but also to to reach out to expertise and to reach out through relationships.

A

You know to learn more we're all on different parts of our journey, but we don't need to be on any part of this journey alone, and there are folks that that can speak words of encouragement and life to you and people that can help you process what it is that you're going you know through. um So I want to say thank you to each of you for spending the time today and to those that are watching for spending time with us online. Here I will stay tuned for more broadcasts and more conversations.

A

We're going to continue to try to highlight uh interesting work, that's happening in community uh critical and important work. That's impacting people's lives in a positive sense, and we hope that you'll stay very safe and very well. See you next time.

A