Transforming Trauma: Episode 052

In this episode of Transforming Trauma, we hear from trauma therapist, somatic practitioner, and speaker, Becky Carter. Becky specializes in complex trauma (C-PTSD), and has a special focus on supporting transracial adoptees and their families. Throughout the episode, Becky shares about her work with somatic healing of racial trauma, her own connection to her ancestral trauma, and how embodiment can serve as a vehicle for healing.

She shares with listeners her personal experience of being biracial and adopted at ten months old into a white family. She reflects on the varying experiences she had growing up that were informed by her biracial identity and the family that she grew up in. “I walked parallel to a lot of worlds, experiencing different types of racism, oppression, and also realizing how much I was afforded based on the privilege I grew up with,” Becky shares.

Learning about complex trauma and the impact of neglect was really important to Becky’s work with her clients. Becky shares that through her exploration of somatic models she began to understand trauma from a “bottom-up” approach. “And that’s when things really started to make sense to me, that our body can give us so much information about what we experience as safe and what is threatening”.

Somatic healing work has been helpful for Becky not only with her clients, but also in her own healing. “To be able to listen to my body as a woman of color and to connect with it and know that it has something to tell me, and has its own wisdom — that has been transformative,” Becky says.

Becky also reflects on racial trauma on an individual and societal level. She shares the importance of being present with and holding curiously for others, specifically people of color. The episode concludes with Becky reflecting on hope and the role embodied healing approaches can play in manifesting new possibilities.