Latest / The Trauma Therapist / Authenticity, Alignment, Attunement and Abundance with Akilah Riley-Richardson

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Authenticity, Alignment, Attunement and Abundance with Akilah Riley-Richardson · The Trauma Therapist

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Speaker 1: Trauma Theverist podcast. Plus listeners can listen to episodes early
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Speaker 1: going to Apple Podcasts, searching for the Trauma Theverist podcast
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Speaker 1: and signing up today. Welcome to the Trauma Nevers podcast,
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Speaker 1: a show about the incredible people dedicated to helping those
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Speaker 1: who experienced trauma. My name is got macpherson, and my
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Speaker 1: mission is to raise awareness of trauma and to inspire
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Speaker 1: each of us to help those around us. You ready,
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Speaker 1: all right, all right, all right, here we go. So
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Speaker 1: five or three, two and one are folks? Welcome back
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Speaker 1: to the podcast. Very excited to happens. My guest today,
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Speaker 1: Aquila Riley interested in Kila, Welcome.
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Speaker 2: Hi, Thank you for having me.
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Speaker 1: You are welcome. So. Quila is a published researcher, relational healing, facilitator,
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Speaker 1: couple's therapists, and certified clinical trauma professional. She's been in
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Speaker 1: clinical practice for sixteen years and has experienced working with
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Speaker 1: couples and persons practicing consensual non monogamy both in the
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Speaker 1: Caribbean and internationally. She also specializes in work with sexual
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Speaker 1: and racial minorities, and she's the founder of the BIPOP
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Speaker 1: Relational healing institute and creator of the Pride Model. That's
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Speaker 1: Pride Model, and she strives for authenticity, alignment, attument, and abundance.
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Speaker 1: A Quila.
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Speaker 2: Welcome, Hi, thank you, Thank you so good to be here.
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Speaker 1: Appreciate that. So, before we get going, share with the
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Speaker 1: listeners where you're from originally and where you are currently.
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Speaker 2: I am from the Twin Island states of Trinidad and Tobago. Yeah,
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Speaker 2: and I'm still here in Trinidad and Tobago. So even though,
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Speaker 2: but even though I'm here, I'm often traveling or I'm
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Speaker 2: often intoing morg internationally in other ways. So yeah, I'm locate.
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Speaker 2: I'm stationed here, but I'm working in various spots of
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Speaker 2: the glube.
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Speaker 1: Well, I gotta tell you, I was first introduced to
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Speaker 1: you by a workshop that you did through the Academy
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Speaker 1: of Therapy Wisdom, which I in all transparency as a
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Speaker 1: sponsor of this podcast and I facilitate their integration calls.
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Speaker 1: And I watched your workshop you did there and I
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Speaker 1: was blown away. I was blown away by you. You
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Speaker 1: are intense in the best possible way. And I'll tell
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Speaker 1: you I'm not basking you. I'll tell you you.
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Speaker 3: I was really struck by you as part just to
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Speaker 3: give our listeners and viewers some context, as part of
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Speaker 3: this workshop you presented, you showed clips of some work
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Speaker 3: you did and the way you were listening and holding
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Speaker 3: like just present, and then how you then commented and
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Speaker 3: that how that then opened up these discussions and feelings
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Speaker 3: was amazing.
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Speaker 1: So let me just open by saying that. And I'm
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Speaker 1: really excited to meet you and have you on here.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you.
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Speaker 1: You're welcome. So how did this this work start for you?
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Speaker 2: How did this work start for me? I would say
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Speaker 2: that for many years, even when I was in grad school,
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Speaker 2: I was just always concerned about the ways in which
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Speaker 2: these systems around people, yeah, shape their realities and wanting
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Speaker 2: to be fully present with that, yeah, in the therapeutic
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Speaker 2: space and in other spaces as well. And so the
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Speaker 2: work for me started with a real interest in how
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Speaker 2: do I I support people in recognizing the wider system
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Speaker 2: or shape the reality. How do I validate in a
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Speaker 2: real way, not in a performative way, but how do
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Speaker 2: I show up fully invalidate people's adaptations and the skills
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Speaker 2: people use to survive systemic trauma. Yeah, And I think
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Speaker 2: me occupying a black global self identity, you know, positions
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Speaker 2: me in a way to understand certain things through lived
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Speaker 2: experiences as well, but understand what it means to be
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Speaker 2: global self, to not be seen, to not be valuating
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Speaker 2: the wider global space, and wanting to kind of create
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Speaker 2: that for clients all over the world. Yeah, so they
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Speaker 2: work for me, I would say, started with this passion
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Speaker 2: for understanding and being with clients in a particular way,
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Speaker 2: and also just kind of my own bodily experience or
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Speaker 2: what it means to occupy this particular body. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: Where when you decided you wanted to become a therapist,
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Speaker 1: did you go to school in your country?
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Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, yeah, so yeah, yeah yeah. I did my
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Speaker 2: VSA psychology then and then my master's in clinical social work,
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Speaker 2: and subsequent to that, I just did a lot of
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Speaker 2: training and various modalities from various parts, like all these
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Speaker 2: courses and stuff. I was doing a lot of courses,
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Speaker 2: courses and courses, which is which have been insanely helpful
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Speaker 2: to me. I would say A big piece for me
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Speaker 2: has been understanding just the neurobiology of trauma and understanding
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Speaker 2: what people were walking in with. So I was able
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Speaker 2: to blend that understanding of the neurobiology of trauma with
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Speaker 2: some of my own training and social work and clinical
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Speaker 2: social work and being able to be with those two
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Speaker 2: pieces while in the therapy room. But yes, my training
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Speaker 2: is primarily intro THATD and Tobago. Even though I would
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Speaker 2: say you're trained in Antibiago, but you're kind of trained
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Speaker 2: in the US, because I mean, being a global soulth
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Speaker 2: education system, there's a heavy reliance on US based and
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Speaker 2: European epistemology, which has so challenges. Yeah, so a lot
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Speaker 2: of it came in that way for me.
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Speaker 1: Did that the fact that you studied within that space,
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Speaker 1: within that culture, How did that impact the work you
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Speaker 1: do and your perspective?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll see. So that's an interesting question because, like
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Speaker 2: I said, though I'm trained here, there's a heavy reliance
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Speaker 2: on the US curriculum, and I would say that that
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Speaker 2: for me was always the rub a little bit because
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Speaker 2: here I am in this Caribbean and this global sealth space,
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Speaker 2: but having to study a very colonial curriculum. Yeah, and
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Speaker 2: a curriculum which suggested so much imperialism, intellectual imperialism. So
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Speaker 2: that was always a rub for me. And I want
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Speaker 2: to say that that largely informed that rub that discontent,
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Speaker 2: that frustration largely informed and informs how I work even now. Yeah,
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Speaker 2: because I'm recognizing that so many of the modalities that
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Speaker 2: we work with don't necessarily sit in the realities of
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Speaker 2: our clients because even within the US, even within the US,
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Speaker 2: so many of the modalities are white, heterosexual kind of
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Speaker 2: that that's the kind of essence of the ethos of
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Speaker 2: the modality. So being in this space and having to
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Speaker 2: deal with that rub always pushed me to want to
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Speaker 2: work in a way that we're so grounded. Yeah, with
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Speaker 2: who's sitting in the room in front of me. So
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Speaker 2: if you're a BIPOC or if you're LGBTQ, I'm always
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Speaker 2: thinking of the fact that often models that we have
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Speaker 2: been trained in as therapists don't necessarily sit in your reality.
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Speaker 2: And so then how do I walk in with you
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Speaker 2: in a more grounded space and how do we co
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Speaker 2: create the reality, co create the work. Yeah. So a
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Speaker 2: huge part of my work, as you may have seen
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Speaker 2: from the ACA Academy of Therapy Wisdom, is how do
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Speaker 2: I co create therapy with my clients? Yeah, not just
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Speaker 2: co creating goals, co create therapy itself. Moving very slowly,
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Speaker 2: asking the client, What do you think the next move
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Speaker 2: should be? What do you need from me? Here? And
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Speaker 2: us rumbling with the ways in which white base global
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Speaker 2: no psychotherapy is not always in the best interests of
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Speaker 2: marginalized people from all over the world, including the US. Yeah,
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Speaker 2: so I'm saying that being hair and having to deal
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Speaker 2: with that, with being perpetually this locates and even in
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Speaker 2: my own system, meaning that my reality was not showing
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Speaker 2: up in the curriculum that I think was a rough
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Speaker 2: that kind of pushed me to want to work the
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Speaker 2: way that I work.
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Speaker 1: Does that makes sact it does and I think it's
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Speaker 1: amazing and it is one of the things This idea
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Speaker 1: of co creating the therapy really kind of struck me
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Speaker 1: and inspired me. And I think it's something that sounds
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Speaker 1: great and but it's it ain't easy, right, And and
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Speaker 1: even this challenging of uh, this colonial type of therapy
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Speaker 1: that is present here within within the West, just questioning
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Speaker 1: that to me demands a certain owning of who you are.
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Speaker 1: Where did that come from for you? Because the work
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Speaker 1: you do and the way you do and correct me
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Speaker 1: if I'm wrong, it involved of being an honoring of
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Speaker 1: who you are, and which involves being willing to look
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Speaker 1: at and explore who you were. Where did all that
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Speaker 1: come from?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, I want to say, and if I'm not, and
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Speaker 2: if I'm not, if I haven't answered your question, please
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Speaker 2: feel feel fore to bring it back. I want to
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Speaker 2: say that that piece around owning who you are, I
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Speaker 2: think it's really difficult for bipark in particular because so
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Speaker 2: much of the essence of who we are has been
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Speaker 2: displaced through colonialism and racism. Yeah. So even when I,
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Speaker 2: as a therapist, am trying to walk more in alignment
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Speaker 2: with who I am and I'm inviting a client to
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Speaker 2: do same, I recognizing that we need to agree with
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Speaker 2: that so much has been lost, Yeah, because of colonialism,
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Speaker 2: because of racism, and the fact that truth be told
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Speaker 2: just like surviving, and these spaces require you to not
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Speaker 2: live in your own truth. So I want to just say,
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Speaker 2: being in community or being in therapy and trying to
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Speaker 2: own who you are and locating that can feel so
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Speaker 2: so hard and so difficult and so painful. For me.
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Speaker 2: What I've tried to do in my work is recognize
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Speaker 2: the grief of that, and I'm doing a lot of
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Speaker 2: I'm a lot more reading now. Yeah, in terms of
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Speaker 2: indigenous ways of working, yeah, or how indigenous people understand healing.
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Speaker 2: And I'm thinking about African cultures, Aboriginal cultures, et cetera.
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Speaker 2: I'm trying to understand more of how people understand self, yeah,
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Speaker 2: how people understand healing. And if I can, if I
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Speaker 2: can walk in with what is self constitute or what
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Speaker 2: is healing constitute? What does it mean to be alive?
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Speaker 2: Like when like when you walk into those various epistemologies
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Speaker 2: or ways of knowing the world, you'd be surprised at
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Speaker 2: the ways in which they can share us differently in
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Speaker 2: sim of the therapeutic moves that we make. But that said,
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Speaker 2: I'm also mindful of the fact that the reading I'm
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Speaker 2: doing and that kind of experience may not be one
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Speaker 2: that every that my clients are coming in with. So
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Speaker 2: the owing in that regard for them come starts with
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Speaker 2: a place of understanding that there are things that you're
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Speaker 2: experiencing in your body that you think that are you,
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Speaker 2: that are really just the impact of colonization and the
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Speaker 2: impact of racism, and the pact of homophobia and the
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Speaker 2: pact of transphobia. And can I be with you where
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Speaker 2: you can connect to who you are through a somatic experience.
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Speaker 2: So a lot of what I do is trying to
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Speaker 2: work through the body. I'll say a few things about that.
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Speaker 2: Working through the body. Is it's not an Akila creation. Yeah,
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Speaker 2: it isn't even the creation of so many people now
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Speaker 2: who presented as their thing. I mean, we've been working
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Speaker 2: with the body for centuries now, Indigenous people have been
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Speaker 2: working with the body. Yeah, So I want to say
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Speaker 2: we are tapping into some old wisdom here that we
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Speaker 2: are bringing forward into this new space. Right, So we're
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Speaker 2: working through the body and doing that work there and
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Speaker 2: helping people to connect with that. It can feel scary
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Speaker 2: at times for people to work through the body, yeah,
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Speaker 2: or we're facilitating that. And as we facilitate that, there's
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Speaker 2: a thing I often ask clients, and you may not
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Speaker 2: have seen this in the work ida with therapy wisdom,
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Speaker 2: but I've started asking clients and clinicians because I also
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Speaker 2: train clinicians and how to do how to do their
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Speaker 2: own interrogation. But as you track your body, ask yourselves,
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Speaker 2: is there a part of me that wants to do
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Speaker 2: something very differently from what I know from what I've
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Speaker 2: been taught. So I call that the fugitive knowing. Yeah,
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Speaker 2: there's a fugitive knowing in your body, a part of
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Speaker 2: you that is saying I don't want to do this. Yeah,
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Speaker 2: And I like to I like to walk into that
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Speaker 2: fututive knowing. I like to discover because sometimes that is
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Speaker 2: a space of true liberation, you know, in pretty soon
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Speaker 2: and the risk of something like I'm advertising pretty soon
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Speaker 2: therapy with them, will be doing a course with I'm
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Speaker 2: Bio Komolafi, and he talks a lot about onto fututivity,
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Speaker 2: and so I'm leading a little bit here on bio
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Speaker 2: stuff about onto fugutivity, and I'm building that in into
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Speaker 2: the therapy process with helping clients and clinicians to engage
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Speaker 2: with their bodies in a way where they're locating what
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Speaker 2: they move to do, but also the parts of their
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Speaker 2: bodies that are saying, I'm going to try something different.
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Speaker 2: I feel there's another energy here, and let's discover in
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Speaker 2: that fugative part if there is some wisdom, some untapped
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Speaker 2: wisdom that you have been suppressing because you've been abiding
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Speaker 2: by just traditional understandings of psychotherapy.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that just feels to me so.
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Speaker 1: Profound and so kind of elemental to be even working
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Speaker 1: in that way. It feels to me like I wonder
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Speaker 1: if you can give us an example. Do people come
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Speaker 1: into you with you know, I have anxiety or I
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Speaker 1: have depression, not even realizing the systemic forces that they've been.
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Speaker 3: Boiled roiling in.
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Speaker 2: Oh god. Yeah. I was working with a client just
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Speaker 2: this week. The client said that they saw a therapist
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Speaker 2: years ago when they were in their teenage years and
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Speaker 2: they were told that they have emotional repression. And I
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Speaker 2: remember seeing, of course you're repressed. This makes complete sense.
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Speaker 2: I want to say that I do a lot of validation,
15:46
Speaker 2: yeah that and connect what I did in the moment.
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Speaker 2: I call it's responsible externalizing, where we connect this symptom
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Speaker 2: to the structures around people. Yeah, and I say, yeah,
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Speaker 2: this this thing that you're feeling, it makes complete sense.
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Speaker 2: And given the systems that you occupy, and you know,
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Speaker 2: I'm thinking of another case that I was working with
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Speaker 2: where we were where we located to the symptom in
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Speaker 2: the body and we were asking the symptom, you know,
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Speaker 2: what should the therapist do next? What should they move next?
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Speaker 2: Like I wanted this symptom to tell me there's a
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Speaker 2: way in which I want to I don't want to
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Speaker 2: I don't want to call a symptom worship maybe this,
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Speaker 2: but I want to I want to value the symptom.
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Speaker 2: I want to have this symptom tell us what's the
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Speaker 2: next move A part of this, I want to say
16:35
Speaker 2: so though I am I am Caribbean, I've been raised
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Speaker 2: in a primarily post colonial space that does not really
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Speaker 2: cherish or value African knowledge because of the impact of colonialism.
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Speaker 2: But I want to say that there's a lot of
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Speaker 2: wisdom here that I lean on from African traditions, especially
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Speaker 2: if if a tradition which has come from Yuga people,
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Speaker 2: so a lot of us who live in tron to
17:01
Speaker 2: be a go as some of our sisters and brothers
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Speaker 2: in the US would have come from the Eruba tribe. Yeah,
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Speaker 2: and in Ifa, it's an understanding and something that the
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Speaker 2: body has a connection with the world and that we're
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Speaker 2: sensing the will through our bodies. That's why I said
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Speaker 2: that the somatic work is not new. Yeah, we've we've
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Speaker 2: been doing this for a long time. So when I
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Speaker 2: when I when I'm working through the body, I'm thinking
17:26
Speaker 2: about the fact that what this person's experiencing is giving
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Speaker 2: me information about how they're contacting the earth and and
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Speaker 2: and and and the stories there, and I want to
17:36
Speaker 2: sit at the feet of the symptom. Yeah, and I
17:39
Speaker 2: want the symptom to tell me what is necessary. I
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Speaker 2: want to say this as well, that in Ifa tradition
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Speaker 2: there's also the understanding that each person has their own
17:49
Speaker 2: ori or ri I. Yeah, and your ori is like
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Speaker 2: your your head, your purpose, you know, your through essence,
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Speaker 2: what you've come here for. So when I'm thinking came
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Speaker 2: home working with people, I'm thinking about the fact that
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Speaker 2: this person has a path that you know, predates even
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Speaker 2: this moment here with me, and I have to honor that.
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Speaker 2: And if I want to mak that onto contemporary understandings
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Speaker 2: of neurobiology, I'm thinking about this person's prefrontal cortex, you know,
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Speaker 2: and the fact that I see it to us being aligned.
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Speaker 2: And therefore I'm bringing their essence into relationship with these
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Speaker 2: symptoms and their body, allowing their essence to witness those
18:28
Speaker 2: symptoms and asking their symptoms, you know, what is needed
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Speaker 2: here in therapy. So going back to just the example,
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Speaker 2: working with this woman who just was experiencing so much
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Speaker 2: double consciousness and feeling just really a key in her
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Speaker 2: body for being black in the us and us connecting
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Speaker 2: to this symptom, where does it live in the body,
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Speaker 2: tracking it and asking the symptom what should we do next?
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Speaker 2: And we moved very very slowly. One of the things
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Speaker 2: I've had to value is moving slow, which is interesting
19:01
Speaker 2: because I myself have battles with anxiety and of the
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Speaker 2: feeling needs to want to go fast. So I in
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Speaker 2: those moments, I go very very slow. I honor this
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Speaker 2: symptom and it emerges. You know, it might sound really
19:13
Speaker 2: airy theory, but we often get an answer. And sometimes
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Speaker 2: the answer isn't something that somebody can vocalize. Sometimes it's
19:21
Speaker 2: an image or another twitch in the body, something some sensation,
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Speaker 2: and I'm trusting the body. And I want to say,
19:29
Speaker 2: I want to say this guy, for me, doing this
19:32
Speaker 2: work is extremely political because and I want to say,
19:35
Speaker 2: the clinic Colors boy is political. When we're in therapy,
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Speaker 2: we are always privileging one way of knowing the world
19:41
Speaker 2: or displacing another. There is no therapeutic work that is apolitical.
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Speaker 2: And I think as a as a black woman, especially
19:50
Speaker 2: from this part of the world, when I'm working with
19:53
Speaker 2: persons who are marginalized, it is my business to ensure
19:57
Speaker 2: that they connect to their bodies in this way because
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Speaker 2: so often bipop bodies uh these subjects of violence, they're brutalized,
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Speaker 2: they're policed. And if we think about our LGBTQI brothers
20:10
Speaker 2: and sisters and not a daughter play into binary, our
20:14
Speaker 2: LGBTQUI community members like I'm thinking just two ways in
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Speaker 2: which their bodies and their essences are policed. And so
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Speaker 2: when I'm working with persons in their room, I am
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Speaker 2: creating a space for the body or to be experienced differently,
20:29
Speaker 2: for people to be with their bodies in a way
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Speaker 2: that is non policing, that's liberating, that's the mancipiatory.
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Speaker 1: Did this way of working just come naturally for you
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Speaker 1: or did it come as a result of some trauma
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Speaker 1: or some realization of the systemic oppression that you experienced.
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Speaker 2: I think it came from maybe transparent from since I
20:54
Speaker 2: was in doing undergrad students. I always had a preoccupation
20:59
Speaker 2: with justice. You know, in fact, I really think, what
21:03
Speaker 2: is that I don't know, this is like a light off.
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Speaker 2: So maybe maybe this is something of information I'm learning.
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Speaker 2: But I've always and I noticed this in undergrad I
21:16
Speaker 2: had a preoccupation with justice, and so I'm inclined to believe,
21:20
Speaker 2: if I'm leaning or if a tradition, that maybe this
21:24
Speaker 2: is part of why I'm here, that there is this
21:27
Speaker 2: understanding of who I am to be in the world. Yeah,
21:30
Speaker 2: And this was as this thing was chosen for me.
21:34
Speaker 2: I've always been this. And then I think over time,
21:38
Speaker 2: you know, studying social work, being exposed to other colleagues
21:43
Speaker 2: and pairs who are the same kind of essence. Yeah,
21:46
Speaker 2: living in a black body in the global South, where yes,
21:49
Speaker 2: it's a predominantly black space, but you're living in whiteness
21:53
Speaker 2: because the v the right way of being in the
21:57
Speaker 2: world occupies so much of our university systems. And yes,
22:02
Speaker 2: we're living in white ways of knowing the real though
22:05
Speaker 2: it's a lot of black people here. Yeah, So that
22:08
Speaker 2: was that informative as well. And I also think I
22:11
Speaker 2: want to I want to give my nods where nods
22:13
Speaker 2: are you. I have done some training in se somatic experiencing.
22:17
Speaker 2: I've done some training in the work of Juliane Taylor Show.
22:20
Speaker 2: I've done training in different spaces. So when I map
22:24
Speaker 2: what I would I have wanted on some of these
22:29
Speaker 2: things here, it was unfolding for me. I think the
22:33
Speaker 2: piece that the piece about co creating therapy is a
22:37
Speaker 2: piece that I have stuck in which is largely tied
22:42
Speaker 2: to my feeling that this stuff that I was learning
22:46
Speaker 2: in grad school and undergrad really was not it's somebody
22:51
Speaker 2: else's agenda, it's somebody else's voice. I mean, psychotherapy has
22:56
Speaker 2: so many beautiful elements, and I don't ever want to
22:59
Speaker 2: discredit psychotherapy largely, but there's a way in which there's
23:02
Speaker 2: so much politics in psychotherapy in terms of what gets
23:05
Speaker 2: platformed and what doesn't get plat what doesn't get platformed.
23:09
Speaker 2: You know, what clients believe about themselves, what clients don't
23:11
Speaker 2: believe about themselves. Interestingly, today I was working with another
23:16
Speaker 2: interviewer talking about anxiety, and I was talking about the
23:19
Speaker 2: political the political nature of the diagnosis. Yeah, but that's
23:24
Speaker 2: the symptoms of anxiety are very real. But pulling all
23:28
Speaker 2: those things together and calling it anxiety or anxiety disorder,
23:32
Speaker 2: that naming is political. Yeah, Automatically, it disempowers some and privileges,
23:38
Speaker 2: So disempowers the person who's experiencing it, but empowers the
23:42
Speaker 2: person who's stepping in to treat it. Yeah, and so
23:45
Speaker 2: this is why I want to sit at the City
23:47
Speaker 2: defeat of the symptom. Yeah, and worship it in some extent,
23:50
Speaker 2: but not worship it to the extent where we don't
23:54
Speaker 2: try to support people. So I'm not I'm not black
23:57
Speaker 2: and white. I'm not saying that I want to discard everything.
24:00
Speaker 2: I'm saying that there is room for another way of
24:03
Speaker 2: being with what we're seeing in people's lives. Yeah, there's
24:08
Speaker 2: a room. There's there's room to name it differently. So yeah,
24:13
Speaker 2: that's kind of where I don't answer your question, but
24:16
Speaker 2: that's kind of Yeah.
24:17
Speaker 1: It's bringing up a lot, certainly. I Mean, one of
24:20
Speaker 1: the things that's coming to my mind is as I'm
24:23
Speaker 1: putting myself in the position of the listeners here. You know,
24:26
Speaker 1: there's so many workshops out there, so many modalities and
24:33
Speaker 1: trauma treatments, et cetera, et cetera, How does one with
24:38
Speaker 1: what you're saying, how does one go about absorbing these
24:44
Speaker 1: learning from these? It feels to me like it's almost
24:48
Speaker 1: a trap.
24:53
Speaker 2: You know, want to ask myself often not what is here,
24:56
Speaker 2: but what is not here? You know, what's on the periphery.
25:01
Speaker 2: And I remember beginning to think more about that when
25:04
Speaker 2: doing some work with fam Bio, a coma afe when
25:07
Speaker 2: I when I sit in these faces and I see
25:09
Speaker 2: what's constantly so to ask, m hmm, I know what's here?
25:14
Speaker 2: About what is not here? What ways of healing and
25:18
Speaker 2: treating trauma are not not being showed or not being shared?
25:24
Speaker 2: And I don't know if I'd say it's a trap,
25:27
Speaker 2: but I would say or maybe well that's a very
25:30
Speaker 2: good not that I've said it. I I the the
25:33
Speaker 2: the what concerns me is that as we push only
25:39
Speaker 2: certain ways of working with trauma, we then push only
25:44
Speaker 2: certain ways of understanding trauma, and we have not tapped
25:47
Speaker 2: into so much that exists. And when we and there's
25:50
Speaker 2: a way in which guy, when we when we tap
25:52
Speaker 2: into stuff that's outside of the dominant treatments, we romanticize it.
25:58
Speaker 2: It's orientalism that feels veryichy. Like I talk about the
26:03
Speaker 2: fact that one of the things that bugs me in
26:06
Speaker 2: so many conferences is that we have like a three
26:09
Speaker 2: day conference and they'll be two and a half days
26:11
Speaker 2: of all of these you know, treatments, top treatments, and
26:15
Speaker 2: then an afternoon to handle the EI is used, you know,
26:19
Speaker 2: as opposed to having something that's interwoven throughout you know,
26:24
Speaker 2: everything is political and I think we have to accept
26:27
Speaker 2: that all teaching or moments, like even this moment we're
26:30
Speaker 2: having right here, you are doing something that's beautifully political.
26:34
Speaker 2: You are giving voice to a Black Caribbean global seuth
26:38
Speaker 2: woman to speak about therapy. You are making a revolutionary
26:41
Speaker 2: movie here guy. Yeah, And I'm celebrating that as and
26:45
Speaker 2: while you are doing that, we also have spaces that
26:48
Speaker 2: are only platforming white cis had Americans and one way
26:55
Speaker 2: of knowing the world. And I think it's time for
26:57
Speaker 2: us to kind of move out of that a little
27:01
Speaker 2: bit and ask ourselves often in these spaces, what is
27:05
Speaker 2: not here?
27:08
Speaker 1: Just mind everyone, I'm speaking with Aequila Riley Richardson as
27:11
Speaker 1: we kind of wind down this idea of co creating therapy.
27:19
Speaker 1: It to me feels very empowering, It feels very creative.
27:26
Speaker 1: It demands a self trust on the part of the therapist,
27:31
Speaker 1: on the part of the process, on the part of
27:35
Speaker 1: the client trusting themselves. What I came here to, I'm
27:40
Speaker 1: paying you. Why are you asking me to talk a
27:44
Speaker 1: little bit more about that process and how you introduce
27:47
Speaker 1: it with the clients you work with.
27:48
Speaker 2: So I'm so glad you raised that because it is
27:51
Speaker 2: not a process that I can do with everybody. So
27:55
Speaker 2: I work with people, and the first thing I do
27:58
Speaker 2: I ask that people, you know, how would you like
28:00
Speaker 2: me to work with you? What would you like? Yeah,
28:04
Speaker 2: and which for me feels like the first indication of
28:09
Speaker 2: me trusting them. Some people do want a more directive
28:13
Speaker 2: approach yeah, and those instances I also kind of support that.
28:18
Speaker 2: So I use this particular modality in spaces where people
28:22
Speaker 2: feel ready. People want to do this kind of work,
28:25
Speaker 2: and I honor persons who may not want that kind
28:27
Speaker 2: of work as well, because I said, I'm trained in
28:29
Speaker 2: so many different things and I'm able to be able
28:32
Speaker 2: to kind of move through different ways of being. But
28:36
Speaker 2: I think when I do this this particular way of
28:41
Speaker 2: trying to encourage self trust, I have to start by
28:44
Speaker 2: kind of helping people to understand how we've been taught
28:49
Speaker 2: not to trust ourselves, and that this particular way of
28:52
Speaker 2: working is about decolonial work. Political work, political therapy or
28:59
Speaker 2: therapy is political anyway, but it's about really bringing that
29:02
Speaker 2: before and highlighting that. So it's slow, it's not for everybody.
29:08
Speaker 2: Those who are willing to do it, I open the floor,
29:10
Speaker 2: but I am not one of the things I'm always
29:11
Speaker 2: cautious about is that I don't want to oppress people
29:15
Speaker 2: in any kind of way. I also don't want to
29:17
Speaker 2: tell people that you must work this way. People have
29:21
Speaker 2: the right to choose what they're ready for. So if
29:23
Speaker 2: you don't want to work this, when you want to
29:24
Speaker 2: do yes your thing else, that's fine, that's okay. I
29:28
Speaker 2: think the most important thing is giving people the opportunity
29:31
Speaker 2: and when I have, I have loved co creating therapy.
29:34
Speaker 2: It's been beautiful just seeing the decisions that will make.
29:37
Speaker 2: And I have to know who would want to do
29:39
Speaker 2: that and who wouldn't.
29:40
Speaker 1: Right, right, So what is on the horizon for you
29:44
Speaker 1: in terms of the work you do? You said you
29:47
Speaker 1: also work with therapists in all capacity. Are you doing that?
29:51
Speaker 2: Yeah? I do supervision and there's this thing I do
29:55
Speaker 2: called ground Learnings where I work with therapists and being
29:58
Speaker 2: able to decolonize their practice, find the fugitive parts of
30:01
Speaker 2: their work and like kind of create get creative in
30:04
Speaker 2: their work and on learning and creating new ways of work.
30:07
Speaker 2: That's a big thing for me. I'm not interested in
30:11
Speaker 2: therapists buying into any kind of aequila worship and trying
30:16
Speaker 2: to get into my model. I know that's a big thing.
30:17
Speaker 2: Everybody wants to get into a model. I kind of
30:20
Speaker 2: want therapist to find their wisdom, you know, and find
30:22
Speaker 2: their internal wisdom. So my work with therapists and the
30:27
Speaker 2: other thing. I can't say much about it yet because
30:30
Speaker 2: I haven't signed the thing, but a book is on
30:33
Speaker 2: the way, so I'm very excited about that. Yeah, I'm
30:37
Speaker 2: just waiting to sign the thing.
30:40
Speaker 1: Awesome. Awesome, Well, please come back when whenever you want.
30:47
Speaker 1: I'd love to have you back here. It was awesome
30:49
Speaker 1: talking to you. I appreciate it. What's the best way
30:51
Speaker 1: for people to get in contact with you, Quiler.
30:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. I thought my website Aequila Riley Rechister dot com.
30:59
Speaker 2: Feel free to subscribe or so you can shoot me
31:01
Speaker 2: an email at info at Tequila Riley Rochester dot com.
31:05
Speaker 2: Google me. I'm pretty easy to find, Yeah, and shoot
31:08
Speaker 2: me correspondence. All right.
31:11
Speaker 1: We'll have that link up here at the show notes
31:12
Speaker 1: page at the Trauma Theapors Podcast dot com. Blo awesome,
31:16
Speaker 1: thank you so much for being here. Appreciate you.
31:19
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for me