Dr. Joy DeGruy has dedicated her life to name a specific healing need. After extensive research, Degruy pinpointed that trauma was passed down to us through our enslaved ancestors.
She calls this Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, or PTSS.
PTSS helps us understand how we subconsciously hold ancestral trauma in our bodies, which refer to behaviors or emotional responses that are rooted in survival practices our ancestors passed down to us.
While we’re so grateful for our ancestors, understanding PTSS gives us the grace to put down their emotional burdens without shame.
For our healing purposes, DeGruy wants us to understand that certain behavioral patterns or emotions that have become normalized within our culture are directly related to PTSS.
These include self-esteem and mental health issues, paranoia, irrational anger or violence, or internalized anti-Blackness. Do you know anyone who struggles with these?
It’s incredibly hard to work through trauma. The vulnerability and self-accountability required takes immense courage.
We all carry ancestral trauma that we are allowed to process and work through at our own pace.
Just like our ancestors passed down their trauma they also passed down their joy. To survive enslavement, finding and preserving joy was how our ancestors resisted.