Harrell et al - Conceptual Contributions to Developing and Delivering Wellness Interventions for Persons of African Descent

Conceptual Contributions to Developing and Delivering Wellness Interventions for

Persons of African DescentShelly P. Harrell, Ph.D.Ashley Coleman, M.A.Tyonna Adams, M.A.Cheryl Grills, Ph.D.

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Symposium Presented at the Annual Convention of The Association of Black Psychologists

July 25, 2015Las Vegas, NV

➢Dysfunctional and oppressive contexts can block the natural human tendency toward optimal development and impede healthy functioning and well-being by○ compromising and confusing

personal and collective identity,○ suppressing or misdirecting health-

promoting behaviors

Introductory Remarks

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❖Introduction to PEaCE Theory and its implications for intervention

❖Incorporate three African-inspired conceptual ideas to explore PEaCE-Informed Interventions for persons of African descent● Ubuntu Consciousness● Positive Womanist Life Principles● Adinkra Wisdom Symbology

Overview of the Symposium

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Presentation #1:

“PEaCE Theory and Ubuntu Consciousness: Person-Environment-and-Culture-Emergence as a Framework for Culturally-Syntonic Interventions”

Authored and Presented by Shelly P. Harrell, Ph.D.Pepperdine University

Copyright 2015. Shelly P. Harrell, Ph.D.. All Rights Reserved. 4

THE FOUNDATION:A Brief Introduction to

“PEaCE” Theory

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Person-Environment-and-Culture-Emergence Developed to provide a foundation for the

meaningful integration of culture into the practice of psychotherapeutic and preventive interventions

A comprehensive, holistic, culture-infused meta-theoretical model that is inclusive of the multiple dimensions and contexts of human expression and experience

What is PEaCE Theory?

6Copyright 2015. Shelly P. Harrell, Ph.D.. All Rights Reserved.

➢Dissatisfied with lack of substantive attention to culture and context in the dominant theories of psychology and psychotherapy

➢Need for a comprehensive meta-theory that allows for the centering of culture in the analysis of human behavior that can be utilized as a culture-centered conceptual framework for psychological practice

➢Wanted a way to center the interconnected nature of human experience in how we talk about functioning and transformation

Why PEaCE Theory?


Culturally-Sensitive Culturally-AppropriateCulturally-Relevant Culturally-Intentional

Culturally-Adaptive Culturally-AlertCulturally-Responsive Culturally-Informed

Cultural Humility Culturally-CompetentCulturally-Grounded Culturally-CenteredCulturally-Infused Culturally-Congruent

Cultural Attunement Cultural Resonance

Culturally-Syntonic (Harrell, 2008)

Copyright 2015. Shelly P. Harrell, Ph.D.. All Rights Reserved.

Some Terminology for Incorporating Culture in Psychological Research & Practice

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Two approaches that do NOT meaningfully integrate culture

Cultural Categorization – Label or identify diverse participants without any modifications to methods or consideration of cultural variability

Cultural Comparison – Include diverse participants for the purpose of comparing groups on universal constructs

Culture in Psychological Research & Practice


➢CENTERS culture by starting with the premise that culture is infused in all human activity and incorporates culturally-syntonic constructs, strategies and methods with an ongoing awareness of sociopolitical and historical dynamics

➢Two types of Cultural Infusion Approaches● Cultural-Adaptation - Start with presumably

universal constructs, strategies and methods and then make cultural adaptations that are grounded in the target culture

★ Cultural-Specificity – Start with a specific culture-carrying group and design strategies that emerge from constructs authentic to the target group; should occur in all phases of the work

The Cultural Infusion Approach


In the context of psychological and preventive interventions, culturally-syntonic practice involves: processes, activities, relationships, and experiential

presence that reflect attunement, harmony, and resonance with relevant dimensions of collective cultural

elements (reflecting sociocultural processes) and their individual expressions (reflecting psychocultural processes)

such that engagement with, and the effectiveness of, interventions is enhanced and optimized.


What is Culturally-Syntonic Practice?

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● Syn – with or together● In harmony with; emotionally in harmony with one’s

environment -Collins English Dictionary

● Normally responsive and adaptive to the social or interpersonal environment -Merriam Webster’s Medical Dictionary

● Describes somebody who is normally attuned to the environment; used to describe behavior that does not conflict with somebody’s basic attitudes and beliefs –Microsoft Encarta College Dictionary

● Characterized by a high degree of emotional responsiveness to the environment; Of or relating to two oscillating circuits having the same resonant frequency -American Heritage Dictionary

Why Syntonic?

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African-centered/Black Psychology

Multicultural Psychology & Diverse Cultural Psychologies

Community Psychology

Humanistic-Existential Psychology

Interpersonal Neurobiology

Primary Influences on the Development of PEaCE Theory & Practice


IDEAS AND CONSTRUCTS EMBEDDED IN PEaCE THEORY• NTU: Spirit energy and life force that flows through and

enlivens all living things • Ubuntu: Interconnected nature of life and centrality of

relationship and community • 7 Principles of Ma’at: Truth, Balance, Harmony, Justice, Love,

Order, Propriety• The Maafa & Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome: Historical trauma

of enslavement and the ongoing retraumatization of racial and cultural oppression that violate our human beingness (the underlying source of stress for African Americans)

• Optimal Psychology (Linda James Myers)• Community of Self (Na’im Akbar)• Extended Self (Wade Nobles)• Culturecology (Wade Nobles and Lawford Goddard)• Diunital Thinking: “both-and”

Foundations in African-Centered/Black Psychology

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“I am because we are and, therefore because we are I am”.

Ubuntu is a South African Zulu principle which defines the essence of being human as a spiritually-infused interconnectedness and interdependence such that the foundation for living optimally and

manifesting our highest humanity comes from the nature of our relationships with others in the context of being in community (see Washington’s work)

Ubuntu: The relational nature of our humanness


➢ An Ubuntu Consciousness is an internalized and lived appreciation of the spiritually-infused, interdependent nature of our humanity

➢ An Ubuntu Consciousness is about understanding that the essence of being fully human and the optimal expression of the fullness of our collective humanity is fundamentally about interconnectedness○ The most basic and necessary conditions for optimal

health and well-being lie in our connectedness with others, with community, with nature, and with the transcendent.

➢ An Ubuntu Consciousness must inform how wellness is defined, understood, and promoted.

An Ubuntu Consciousness for Wellness

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OTHER INFLUENTIAL IDEAS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PEaCE THEORY

➢ Multicultural and Cultural Psychologies: Worldview, Cultural Values, Cultural Identity, Collectivism, Intersectionality, Cultural Socialization, Acculturation, Historical Trauma, Oppression Theory, Liberation Psychology, Cultural Soul Wounds, Espiritismo, Nonduality, Enlightenment, Heart-centered Transformation, Interdependent Self, Jeong

➢ Socioecological and Systems Theories: Community Psychology: Community, Wellness, Social Justice, Social Ecology; Embeddedness in layers of social contexts, Dynamic Systems Theory; Complexity Science

➢ Humanistic and Existential Theories: Concern with the nature of the human condition and its challenges; Authentic relationship and human connection as the “soil” for the emergence of optimal growth and functioning; Value on the experiential and phenomenological; transpersonal experience

➢ Interpersonal Neurobiology: The mind as relational and understood as patterns of flow of energy and information; exchanged between people; the nature of relationships effect the flow of energy and information; Health is conceptualized as integration and balance.


1. Interconnectedness and Relationalityo Inseparability of Person, Culture, and Context

2. Multiple Levels of Analysis & Complex Systems Thinking

o The Flow, Shifts, and Exchange of Energy within and between Systems

3. Wellness-Focused o Counters the deviance and pathologizing

orientation of Western psychology

Core Tenets of PEaCE Theory & Practice

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The Person-Environment-and-Culture-Emergence

Transactional Wellness Model

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The ongoing interrelationships between Person, Environment and Culture can

be thought of as a “Transactional Field” where interconnected physical, psychological, relational, communal,

and spiritual energies are always flowing within and between person, environment, and cultural systems.

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The PEaCE Transactional Field as Energy“Energy is everything and that’s all there is to it.” -Albert Einstein

Many cultural and spiritual traditions have some type of concept of an interconnecting essence of life, a dynamic energy that flows through and connects everything.

-Ntu (African) -Chi (Taoist/Chinese) -Pi (Japanese) -Wakan (Lakota) -Prana (Indian) -Holy Spirit (Christian)

Energy can be understood as a potentiality for action that is in constant circulation. Particular energies can be felt in the atmosphere of our individual, relational, and collective lived experience. Energy flows and is exchanged in the ongoing “Being-in-Culture-in-the-World” transactions between and within persons, environments, and cultures.

Energy is always flowing within and across the five Modalities of Daily Experience (MODEs): Sensing, Thinking, Doing, Relating, and Transcending.

An important property of energy is that it shifts. The movement of energy in one place affects energy patterns somewhere else. It is within the shifting of energies that the potential for human agency and transformational change is created.


➢The energy field of living human experience where person, environment and culture are inseparable

➢Where “lived experience” is created through transactions (flow of energies) between and within Persons, Environments, and Cultures

➢Where the capacity for human agency (purposeful, self-determined action) is created

“Being-in-Culture-in-the-World”

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➢ Pathogenic Transactions○ Decrease the likelihood that the positive wellness

outcomes of resilience, wellbeing, thriving, and optimal functioning will emerge

○ Increase the likelihood that the negative wellness outcomes of distress, dysfunction, disorder, and disease will emerge

➢ Wellness-Promoting Transactions○ Increase the likelihood that the positive wellness

outcomes of resilience, wellbeing, thriving, and optimal functioning will emerge

○ Decrease the likelihood that the negative wellness outcomes of distress, dysfunction, disorder, and disease will emerge

Two Primary Types of PEaCE Transactions

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➢Stress is major contributing factor to the negative Wellness Outcomes of Distress, Dysfunction, Disorder, and Disease

➢Stressors are conceptualized as types of “Being-in-Culture-in-the-World” transactions that emerge at the intersection of biopsychorelational dimensions of the person, socioecological levels of the environment, and cultural dynamics

➢The experience of stress, “The Stress Response” can be manifested at multiple dimensions of the biopsychorelational person system (e.g., somatic, emotional, cognitive, spiritual, etc.)“Being-in-Culture-in-the-World” transactions

Pathogenic Transactions and Stress

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● The Stress Response is an evolutionary response to threat or danger and signifies compromised wellness; “Fight” or “Flight” (Walter Cannon)

○ Recent research has expanded this to include “Freeze” (hypervigilance), “Fright” (immobility), and “Faint” (collapse) as additional evolutionary responses to stress (Freeze-Flight-Fight-Fright-Faint)

○ I add “Freak-out” (disorganized and dysregulated behavior)● The Stress Response is triggered when one’s resources for “survival” (i.e., coping)

have been taxed or exceeded● Reactivity to the subjective experience of stress can lead to additional pathogenic

transactions resulting in a vicious spiral of accumulating stressors and chronic stress responses

● Sustained or chronic stress can do significant damage to health and well-beingthrough its impact on systems in the body (brain (through neurochemical activity), autonomic nervous system (ANS; sympathetic and parasympathetic systems), hormonal activity through the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, immune system functioning; organ damage (heart, etc.)

● Oppressive transactions create a context where persons of African descent frequently experience The Stress Response due to the ongoing threats and assaults on our personhood and lives

The Stress Response

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We can lessen the occurrence and severity of The Stress Response and impact Wellness Outcomes by modifying PEaCE Transactions

Wellness-promoting PEaCE Transactions create energies that can generate an enlivening vitality that facilitates human agency and contain potentialities for action.

Since the shifting of energy in one place affects energy patterns somewhere else, when wellness-promoting energies are activated, the energy created can be felt by persons and in the atmosphere of a setting.

Promoting Health and Wellness“From Stressed-Out to Energized Within”

-Harrell (2013)

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Essential Wellness-Promoting EnergiesSix Essential Wellness-Promoting Energies can be identified and

understood as emergent properties of activity in the PEaCETransactional Field. The energies of Adaptability, Acceptance, Centering, Interconnectedness, Openness, and Empowerment circulate and are exchanged in the ongoing transactions between person, culture, and environment.

These energies emerge from wellness-promoting PEaCEtransactions and are expressed as individual, relational, and collective ways of “Being-in-Culture-in-the-World”

Activating Essential Wellness Energies involves the modification of PEaCE Transactions (i.e., “Being-in-Culture-in-the-World”) and enables movement toward well-being, thriving, and optimal functioning in the presence of the socioecological stressors.


ESSENTIAL WELLNESS ENERGIES OPTIMAL HEALTH AND WELLNESS THEMES (OHWTs) for PEaCE-Informed Interventions

Adaptability Flexibility, Creativity, Liberation

Empowerment Authenticity, Engagement, Intentionality

Centering Groundedness, Affirmation, Faith, Transcendence

Interconnectedness Wholeness, Relationality, Compassion, Forgiveness

Openness Release, Receptivity, Inclusion, Sharing

Acceptance Presence, Patience, Gratitude


Essential Wellness Energies and Associated Themes for Interventions

The multiple historical, sociopolitically-situated, and organizing systems of meaning, knowledge, and living in the world that:➢ consist of patterns of being, believing, bonding,

belonging, behaving, and becoming (see the works of Wade Nobles and Daryl Rowe)

➢ emerge and transform over time through cumulative and adaptation-oriented person-environment-culture transactions

➢ are maintained and transmitted through collective memory, narrative, and socialization processes

Integrated Definition of Culture (from Harrell, 2015)

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These patterns of being, believing, bonding, belonging, behaving, and becoming➢Provide the foundational frames for developing

worldviews, interpreting reality, and acting in the world➢For a group of people who share common ancestry,

social location, group identity, or defining experiential contexts;

➢But for whom, as individuals or intersectional subgroups, elements of a particular cultural system may be embraced, internalized, and expressed differently

Understanding How Culture is Manifested

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Cultural systems are essentially dynamic energy patterns of being, believing, bonding, belonging, behaving and becoming and are

-embedded in social and institutional contexts,-internalized as patterns of meaning and identity,-expressed through actions and relationships, and-interactive with co-existing cultural systems that

reflect the multiple dimensions of human diversity that carry culture (the intersectional nature of culture).

Cultural Systems are Dynamic Energies

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The Biopsychorelational “PERSON”

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The Socioecological ENVIRONMENT”

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BECAUSE…➢The focus of analysis is human experience is

“Being-in-Culture-in-the-World”➢Culture is infused of ALL person and

environment processes through Psychocultural and Sociocultural Processes

➢Thus, any understanding the Person or the Environment MUST include the consideration of Culture

PEaCE as a Framework for Culturally-Infused Approaches and Culturally-Syntonic Practice

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The goal of interventions grounded in PEaCE Theory is to create and strengthen PEaCE Transactions that promote individual, relational, and collective wellness

Rather than starting with a traditional theoretical orientation (e.g., psychodynamic) or treatment protocol (e.g., ACT) and considering culture after the orientation is chosen, PEaCE-Informed Intervention BEGINS by understanding “Being-in-Culture-in-the-World” such that the intervention approach emerges from the analysis of the PEaCE Transactional Field.

Utilizing PII can inform the selection and implementation of culturally-syntonic treatment and prevention strategies that come from diverse schools of theory and practice, as well as the creation and development of original strategies specific to the particular application

PEaCE-Informed Intervention (PII)

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➢ Conceptualization of the PEaCE Transactional Field and analysis of presenting issues with reference to the three systems:○ The Biopsychorelational “Person” ○ The multilevel Socioecological “Environment”○ The multiple dimensions and expressions of “Culture”

➢ Identification of culturally-syntonic intervention strategies that optimize Person-Environment-Culture Fit via the mobilization of Wellness Energies that facilitate the creation and manifestation of wellness-promoting ways of “Being-in-Culture-in-the-World”

➢ Implementation of interventions that serve Ameliorative, Protective, and Transformative functions, and facilitate movement towards Positive Wellness Outcomes

Basics of PEaCE-Informed Intervention

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1. Culturally-Syntonic Engagement

2. Complexity and Contextualization

3. Affirmative Humanization

4. Relational Interconnectedness

5. Existential-Diunital Thinking

6. Creative Transformation

7. Empowering Liberation

PII Guiding Principles for Intervention(see handout)

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PEaCE-Informed Intervention (PII) Strategies

Culturally-Diverse “Communal and Contemplative Practices”+ Social Justice and Empowering Practices

COMMON THEMES ACROSS DIVERSE CULTURES:= “Connectedness”, “Consciousness”, “Commitment”

Understandings of Health, Healing, and Humanity

Indigenous Psychologies & Diverse Cultural Contexts



➢ Primary Target of Change in PII○ Increase Positive Wellness Outcomes of Resilience, Well-

Being, Thriving, & Optimal Functioning➢ Three primary Change Processes are hypothesized to lead to

enhancement of Positive Wellness Outcomes○ Communal Processes (change mechanism = relatedness)

○ Contemplative Processes (change mechanism = awareness)

○ Empowerment Processes (chance mechanism = agency)

➢ Change occurs as a result of creating or strengthening Wellness-Promoting PEaCE Transactions using strategies and practices that involve Communal, Contemplative, and/or Empowerment Processes (i.e., increase relatedness, awareness, and agency)

PEaCE-Informed Intervention (PII) Change Model

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CoCos are a culturally-diverse family of methods involving the intentional creation of temporal, physical, mental, emotional, relational space to create and nurture interpersonal relatedness and

sense of community practice sustained and directed attention, and facilitate intimate connection with internal, relational,

and/or spiritual experience,thus creating the conditions for empowered action,

transformation and optimal well-being to develop.

Foundational PEaCE-Informed Intervention Strategies: Communal and Contemplative Practices (CoCos)

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Facilitate connection with persons, groups, communities, culture, nature, spirit

Facilitate communal bonding and shared experience

Create and nurture relationality and belongingness

Objectives of Communal Practices

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•Creating Opportunities for Interpersonal Relationships to form or deepen

•Creating Relational Conditions for Optimal Growth and Actualization (Rogers)

•Healing and Transformation Through Dialogue, “Giving Testimony, and Bearing Witness”

•Developing and Strengthening Healing and Growth Alliances (HGAs)•Community Development and Building Sense of Community•Group Experiential & Expressive Activities•Communing with Nature•Rituals and Collective Spiritual Practices

Ways of Activating Communal Processes

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Contemplative Practices can be thought of as encompassing a variety of strategies for

deepening and expanding experiential and critical awareness by bearing witness to one’s own

experience, both internally and in the world.

In PII, contemplative practices are a culturally-diverse group of meditative and consciousness

practices that involve experiencing and directing Mind-Body-Spirit energies.

Contemplative Practices

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➢ “Culture” because there are diverse contemplative practices in many cultural and religious traditions and the resonance and effectiveness of any meditative or contemplative approach is a function of its congruence with values, beliefs, and cultural worldview

➢ “Context” because contemplative practices such as meditation, like all human behavior, occurs in multiple ecological contexts and these must be understood to maximize the potential effectiveness of any particular meditative or contemplative practice

➢ “Liberation” because the meaningful core of all contemplative practices is freedom in the context of the challenges and boundaries of the human condition such that the effectiveness of the practice is enhanced when it remains connected to this ultimate purpose of liberation

Contemplative Practices involveCulture, Context, & Liberation

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Practice sustained and directed attention

Deepen and expand experiential and critical awareness of internal and external experience

Facilitate processes to enhance insight, understanding, higher levels of consciousness

Objectives of Contemplative Practices

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Meditation refers to a culturally-diverse family of methods involving the intentional regulation of attention to

facilitate intimate connection with internal, relational, and/or spiritual experience, thus creating the conditions

for transformation and optimal well-being to develop. (Harrell, 2013/14)

As a type of Contemplative Practice, meditation occurs within the context of larger values-centered,

transformative and liberatory purposes with the intention of being manifested in how we live individually,

relationally, and collectively.

Meditation as a Contemplative Practice

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Close your eyes and open your heart-mind-spirit.Exhale into the present here-and-now moment.Notice your internal experience by observing (without evaluating)

what is going on physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.Trust in what matters most to you by bringing it to consciousness

using a meaningful word, an affirmation, proverb, sacred text passage, image, symbol,

Explore your choices.Release what does not serve your highest purpose and return to the

situation more centered.

The “reCENTERing” Meditation


“Meditation is to see deeply into things, to see how we can change, how we can transform

our situation.”

“Meditation is not to escape from society, but to come back to ourselves and see what is

going on. Once there is seeing, there must be acting.”

Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes on Meditation

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➢Empowerment Practices are what we DO in the World➢Empowerment Practices are the “action” implications of

Communal and Contemplative Practices➢Empowerment Practices involve activating and manifesting

Wellness Energies in our relationships, communities, and daily life toward positive transformation and change

➢They are characterized by active movement toward individual, relational, and collective well-being, thriving, and optimal functioning

➢Because “power” can be abused and distorted, it is important to implement CO-COs prior to or simultaneously with Empowerment Practices

Empowerment Practices: Acting in the World

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Ability/capacity to do or act; capability of doing or accomplishing something; exercise of one’s authority; Energy and power as often cited as synonyms

Expressions of Power

○ Power Over – act ON others, control and dominate○ Power To – act TOWARD something, pursue goals and opportunities○ Power From – act AWAY FROM something, resistance

(from Riger, 1993)

○ Power Of - act GUIDED BY deeply held principles that are actively and openly expressed; often accompanied by social justice actions

● Satyagraha – Power of Truth (Gandhi)

○ Power With- act WITH others, capacity to build groups, bring people together, create community, engage in collective action

Understanding Power

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➢ Empowerment involves the affirmative and transformative exercise of power within an ubuntu consciousness of interconnectedness and can be manifested as “POWER TO…”, “POWER FROM…”, “POWER OF…”, and/or “POWER WITH…”.

➢ Empowerment is experienced and expressed through multiple MODEs as an affirmative and transformative energy that reflects having the internal and external resources, as well as the personal and collective efficacy and will to affect culturally-syntonic changes in self, relationships, and contexts that enhance the well-being of individuals, groups, and communities.

➢ To facilitate empowerment means to nurture that affirmative and transformative energy within an ubuntu consciousness

➢Necessary for creating community and social change

Power and Empowerment

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Ultimately, PEaCE Theory and PEaCE-Informed Intervention (PII) are tools to facilitate liberation of the human spirit

and expression of our highest collective humanity from the effects of pathogenic “Being-in-Culture-in-the-World” transactions that dehumanize

us, make us sick, and suppress our divine and spirited nature.

Summary Remarks

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Presentation #2:

“Womanist Psychospiritual Strengths and Virtues: Empowering Wisdom from the Lived Experience of

Women of African Descent”

Authored by Ashley Coleman, Shelly Harrell, & Tyonna Adams

Presented by Ashley Coleman, M.A.Pepperdine University

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I’m a womanPhenomenally.

Phenomenal woman,That’s me.

Now you understandJust why my head’s not bowed.

I don’t shout or jump aboutOr have to talk real loud.

When you see me passing,It ought to make you proud.

I say,It’s in the click of my heels,

The bend of my hair, the palm of my hand, The need for my care. ’Cause I’m a woman

Phenomenally.Phenomenal woman,

That’s me.

Phenomenal Woman Excerpt (by Maya Angelou)

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MveYqOO06Ic&app=desktop

Phenomenal Women, are we wearing our crowns?

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MveYqOO06Ic&app=desktop

http://youtube.com/v/MveYqOO06Ic

http://youtube.com/v/MveYqOO06Ic

● To describe a framework of identifying strengths and facilitating wellness for Black women, as well as for women from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds

● To introduce the Positive Womanist Life Principles (PWLP) developed by Dr. Harrell and described a PEaCE-Informed Intervention based on the principles and inspired by the life and work of Dr. Maya Angelou.

Presentation Objectives

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To counter the deficit-oriented, pathologizing, and marginalizing tendencies of the science and practice of psychology

To highlight strengths, assets, and resources in the context of the intersectionality of women’s oppression

Positive Womanist Life PrinciplesWhy “Positive”?

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● “Womanist” term coined by Alice Walker in 1983 that describes the heart and behavior of a woman who is empowered, loving, spirited and strong

● Grounded in the lived experience of Black women

● Challenged white supremacy embedded in White feminism, the patriarchy of the African American church and the dominance of male voices in Africentric theory

Positive Womanist Life PrinciplesRoots and Overview of Womanism

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Walker’s four-part conceptualization of a womanist:o Courageous, audacious, wants to

know more; o Commits to love and wholeness of

all people; o Cherishes and celebrates life; o Embodies strength, intensity and

passion (as purple is to lavender)

Positive Womanist Life Principles Who is a Womanist?

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● WT has been utilized across disciplines as a way to enhance the lives of African American women

● WT affirms spirited living and calls for expression of one’s truth in the service of the liberation of self and humanity

● WT is a way of understanding the struggle for wholeness among women who refuse to collude with the invisibility of their personhood demanded by gender, class, sexuality, and racial oppression

Womanist Theory (WT)

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Generally, principles are meant to guide us and provide a grounding place from which we can navigate our lives

The Positive Womanist Life Principles offer a culturally- embedded framework for identifying, enhancing and building the strengths and gifts of women of African descent.

These Principles are meant to reconnect us to a culturally-rooted understanding of of positive womanhood.

Positive Womanist Life PrinciplesWhy Life Principles?

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➢The structure of the Positive Womanist Life Principles integrates work from Positive Psychology to develop a system for categorizing positive human behavior referred to as the Values-In-Action (VIA) Character Strengths and Virtues

➢Positive Psychology converges with African-centered/ Black Psychology and other cultural psychologies, community psychology, and humanistic psychology in its emphasis on strengths, assets, well-being, and optimal functioning.

The PWLPs and Positive Psychology

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(1)Extended ways of knowing (Wisdom)

(2)Spirited and Inspired living (Transcendence)

(3)Loving Interconnectedness (Humanity)

(4)Balance and flexibility (Temperance)

(5)Liberation and Inclusion (Justice)

(6)Empowered Authenticity (Courage)

➢ Forty specific strengths and gifts are organized within the six life principles. (Harrell, 2014)

The Six Positive Womanist Life Principles

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Positive Womanist Life Principle #1: Extended Ways of Knowing

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Womanist “Wisdom”: Extended Ways of Knowing

1.1 - Intuitive, Spiritual, and Relational Knowing (through signs, symbols, body, etc.)

1.2 - Historical and Contextual Perspective

1.3 - Nonlinear and diunital thinking; Understands co-existence of seeming opposites

1.4 - Creativity - Resourcefulness; ingenuity (making a way out of no way)

1.5 - Seeks to “know more and in more depth”; Questioning, interrogates reality

1.6 - Insight and Understanding; Critical consciousness; Understands the “big picture”; broader perspective

1.7 - Teaches, passes lessons down; Holder of wisdom; Mentor; advice giver

1.8 - “Mother wit”; Common- sense

Positive Womanist Life Principle #2: Spirited and Inspired Living

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Womanist “Transcendence”: Spirited and Inspired Living

2.1 - Reverence for the spirit-infused essence of all life - humans, animals, plants, nature, etc.

2.2 - Soulfulness; Feels deeply; Being “moved”; Passionate aliveness in joy and pain

2.3 - Hope in adversity; transcendence of limitations and barriers; possibility of change

2.4 - Faith - supreme confidence that God/Spirit is always there and will protect and get you through hard times

2.5 - Personal and intimate relationship with God, Nature, Ancestors

2.6 - Expressiveness and improvisationality through music, dance, poetry, art, orality; Celebration

2.7 - Life-giving and renewing; birthing and re-birthing; transformative energy

2.8 - Sense of purpose and “calling”

Positive Womanist Life Principle #3: Loving Interconnectedness

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Womanist “Humanity”: Loving Interconnectedness

3.1 - Collective; interdependent, and unitive consciousness; Ubuntu- “I am because we are and because we are I am”

3.2 - Hospitality, welcoming, sharing (what’s mine is yours”)

3.3 - Communal nurturance and caring; participates in growth and development of others

3.4 - Compassionate presence; witnessing; being “with” the experience of others

3.5 - Sisterfriend relationships; Lifts up, encourages, supports others

3.6 - Healer; provides healing where there is suffering

Positive Womanist Life Principle #4: Balance and Flexibility

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Womanist “Temperance”: Balance and Flexibility

4.1 - Harmony and balance; understanding and patience with cycles of life and natural order

4.2 - Forgiveness and mercy

4.3 - Purposeful sacrifice and discipline; responsible, takes care of business; does what is needed

4.4 - Flexible and adaptive when necessary; role flexibility; can change directions if the situation calls for it

4.5 - Acceptance and surrender; seeing “what is” and “turning it over”

4.6 - Discernment, judgment, sees through insincerity; prioritizing based on values

Positive Womanist Life Principle #5: Liberation and Inclusion

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Womanist “Justice”: Liberation and Inclusion

5.1 - Respect for the worth and dignity of ALL people in the context of honoring differences; universalism, egalitarianism

5.2 - Movement toward wholeness within self; movement towards inclusiveness across persons

5.3 - Resists oppression; stands up against exploitation and violence in any form; protects the weak and downtrodden

5.4 - In-charge and serious; initiative; “Do it yourself” spirit

5.5 - Collective responsibility and participatory action; mobilizes and brings people together for common cause

5.6 - Moral - spiritual responsibility for the conduct of self and others; doing the right thing for humanity

Positive Womanist Life Principle #6: Empowered Authenticity

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Womanist “Courage”: Empowered Authenticity

6.1 - Self-determination; self-defining; self-affirming; “loves herself...regardless”

6.2 - Audacious, willful, outrageous when necessary

6.3 - Speaks truth to power; truth-telling; straightforward communication; giving testimony

6.4 - Conviction, standing one’s ground; follows beliefs; integrity, “walks her talk”; capability

6.5 - Perseverance, endurance, “can do” attitude

6.6 - Transgressive and revolutionary; risk-taking; subversive; acts for a higher cause

The Positive Womanist Life Principles can be used to inform and organize the

development of strengths-based interventions for women of African descent. The principles may also

resonate with other women of color.

Positive Womanist Life Principles

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● Phenomenal Women Rising (PWR) is a group intervention in development that is guided by the lived experiential wisdom of Black women as represented in our Positive Womanist Life Principles

● Inspired by Dr. Maya Angelou’s life and body of work, particularly her poems “Phenomenal Woman” and “Still I Rise”

● PWR’s mission is to empower, to uplift, to reconnect to our authentic African American womanhood, and to enhance the well-being of its participants

● PWR was initially conceptualized as a weekly support group, but its format can be amended to accommodate other audiences (e.g. workshops and retreats)

Phenomenal Women Rising (PWR)

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Informed by the PWLPs, PWR aims to provide opportunities for its participants to identify and fortify existing strengths, to develop new strengths and to utilize existing strengths in new ways

This process can be healing as participants can use their new strengths to combat the internalized “isms” and negative stereotypical characterizations of Black women’s emotional reactions and behavior.

The Benefits of PWR

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The target outcome of the PWR intervention is WELLNESS defined as Resilience, Well-Being, Thriving, and Optimal Functioning

Considering Person, Culture, and Environment are each critical for understanding and enhancing wellness among women of African descent

The three primary change processes involveo Communal Practiceso Contemplative Practiceso Empowerment Practices

PWR as a PEaCE-Informed Intervention

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-The “I Rise” activity utilizes Poetry Therapy techniques and draws upon Testimony Therapy, an African-centered narrative therapy developed by Akinyela

-The activity incorporates all of the PEaCE-Informed Intervention change processes: Communal, Contemplative, and Empowerment

-The PEaCE-Informed Communal Practice of “Giving Testimony and Bearing Witness” provides the structure for the activity

An Example of a PWR Intervention Strategy

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➢ Facilitation of the process of giving the testimony of one’s lived experience, telling one’s story, and expressing one’s experiential truths

➢Group members bear witness to each others experiences by the willingness to be emotionally and relationally present during the testimony and by engaging in empathic, active, and responsive listening. As a “Call and Response” process, the component of bearing witness is a “connected witnessing”rather than a dispassionate observing.

➢ In a group intervention context the facilitator encourages group members to both “give testimony” of their own experience by telling their story to the group, as well as to actively “bear witness” to the stories of others.

“Giving Testimony and Bearing Witness”

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Community Reading of the Poem

Brief meditation on the word “rise” and contemplative reflection on “what I am rising from”

Giving Testimony and Bearing Witness: Participants stand and declare what they are rising from. Other group members actively demonstrate their listening and affirmation of the testimony.

Overview of The “I Rise” Activity

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You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may tread me in the very dirtBut still, like dust, I’ll rise

Does my sassiness upset you?Why are you beset with gloom?

‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high, Still I’ll rise.

Dr. Maya Angelou’s Testimony: Still I Rise

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Did you want to see me broken?Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops. Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?Don’t you take it awful hard

‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines Digging in my own backyard.

You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?Does it come as a surprise

That I dance like I’ve got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs?


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Out of the huts of history’s shameI rise

Up from a past that’s rooted in painI rise

I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fearI rise.

Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clearI rise.

Bringing the gifts that the ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise.I rise.I rise.


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Brief Meditation and Contemplative Reflection

on the Word “Rise” and the Experience of

“Rising”


Giving Testimony (Call)“I” am rising from

__________________.


Bearing Witness (Response)“My Sister/Brother,

I See You Rising”

“We Rise”

“We Rise”

“We Rise”

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Presentation #3:

“Themes for a Culture-Centered Stress Management Intervention:

The Wisdom of Adinkra”

Authored by Tyonna Adams, Shelly Harrell, & Ashley Coleman

Presented by Tyonna P. Adams, M.A.Pepperdine University

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Imperialism leaves behind germs of riot which we must clinically detect and remove from our land but from

our minds as well. ~Frantz Fanon

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The images powerfully portray the threats to our humanity as persons of African descent living in the United States of America

We must reclaim our humanity for ourselves

These ongoing threats to our human beingness are the underlying sources of stress for African Americans

Humanization and Our Collective Humanity

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To describe a PEaCE-informed approach to stress management that reflects the unique needs of individuals of African descent.

To illustrate how integration of the wisdom embedded in Adinkra symbols and proverbs can help promote communal and contemplative practices for wellness enhancement.

Presentation Objectives

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Sources of stress are invariably linked to the struggle for an empowered existence, in a society infused with assumptions of African inferiority.

Historical, transgenerational, and contemporary trauma are barriers to the affirmation of our humanity as Black persons

The Struggle to “BE” as a Source of Stress

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“Stress management” for African Americans is NOT simply about discrete coping behaviors or problem-solving.

Managing stress is about accessing the cultural wisdom within to reclaim our humanity, affirm our existence, and manifest our highest potentialities.

How Can We Heal?

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Instead of relying on a Eurocentric treatment paradigm, culturally-syntonic practices are necessary

PEaCE Theory and Practice was derived from various healing and transformative practices taken from diverse cultures outside of the European and North American cultural perspectives.

Traditional and contemporary African philosophical perspectives are valuable sources of wisdom for stress management in the context of oppression

PEaCE Theory and African Philosophy for Stress Management

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● As a thread in contemporary African Philosophy, African existentialism emphasizes the struggle to express one’s authentic self and to simply “be” within contexts that actively work against validation and affirmation of Black persons and communities.

● African existential thought brings the notion of “being in the world” to the forefront:○ What it means to be human.

○ The meaning of freedom and liberation.

○ The degradation of humanity and dehumanization of persons.

Contemporary African Philosophy

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For people of African descent, existential questions relate primarily to issues of identity and liberation in the context of oppression, objectification, dehumanization and expendability.

Themes of African existentialism are seen prominently in the works of Ralph Ellison, Franz Fanon, and James Baldwin

African existentialism also considers the importance of transpersonal experience (experience “beyond” the personal and material), as well as the relationship between the human and spiritual realms, in addressing questions of human existence.

For more on African Existentialism, see the work of the African American scholar Lewis Gordon

African Existentialism

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African wisdom traditions, such as that which is embedded in Akan Cosmology, provides us with a “way of being” in the context of oppression that is wellness-

promoting and affirming of our humanity

How should we “BE” in the world?

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● Akan cosmology affirms the centrality of God (Nyame) within the universe.

● Akan use cultural symbols to portray their belief about God, their attitudes towards God and His Creation and their understanding of their relationship to God and His Creation.

Traditional African Philosophy: Akan Cosmology and Adinkra Symbols

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Adinkra are visual symbols created by the Akan to represent concepts and aphorisms.

Adinkra symbols embody various aspects of an African cosmology, such as the centrality of the spirit and interconnectedness.

Each symbol has a distinct meaning to convey particular wisdom and values, many have associated proverbs or sayings.

Adinkra Wisdom Symbology

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Symbols, proverbs and metaphors can serve ameliorative, protective and transformative wellness functions.

Symbols help to anchor us in what we need to remember and activate for wellness

Symbols can create, change, maintain, and transmit socially constructed realities.

Symbols carry energy and particular energies are felt from symbolso Symbolism is embedded throughout African-

centered psychology

The Important Role of Symbols

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● As described in Dr. Harrell’s presentation, PEaCE-Informed Interventions identify 6 Essential Wellness Energies including: Interconnectedness, Acceptance, Centering, Adaptability, Empowerment and Openness.

● The integration of Adinkra Symbology serves to intensify the meaning and expression of wellness energies for persons of African descent

Essential Wellness Energies

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● Boa Me Na Me Boa Wo (Cooperation, Interdependence)

● Mpatapo (Peacemaking, Reconciliation)

The Energy of Interconnectedness

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● Adwo (Peace, It is finished)

● Nokore (Truth Cannot Hide, Veracity)

The Energy of Acceptance

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● Sankofa (Learn from the Past,Heritage)

● Gye Nyame (Omnipotence of God)

The Energy of Centering

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● Ananse Ntontan (Creativity, Wisdom)

● Aya (Versatility, Perseverance)

The Energy of Adaptability

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● Gyawu Atiko (Bravery, Courage)

● Wawa Aba (Determination, Strong Purpose)

The Energy of Empowerment

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● Matie Masie (Learning, Deep Listening)

● Sesa Woruban (Transformation, Change)

The Energy of Openness

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PEaCE Informed Interventions can be tailored to resonate with people of African descent by integrating Adinkra symbols into Communal, Contemplative, and Empowerment Practices.

Connecting people to the linked proverbs, metaphors and meanings of the symbols facilitates communal and contemplative practices for stress management and wellness enhancement.

Using Adinkra Symbols in PEaCE-Informed Intervention Strategy

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Using the chart on the handout, write down the meaning of your Adinkra Symbol on the back of the card

Look at the Adinkras that you chose. Select one of your symbols for your “Living Wisdom” first name and one for your “Living Wisdom” last name.

The Adinkra “Living Wisdom” Activity

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Select your “Living Wisdom” middle name from the following “activating” words:

Illuminating Affirming Manifesting MobilizingExpressing Igniting Revealing Creating Amplifying Radiating Liberating Engaging

Write down your “Living Wisdom” Name on the back of one of your cards.

The Adinkra “Living Wisdom” Activity

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Stand and Proclaim Your “Living Wisdom” Identity

I am _______________.

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Reflect on how you would orient toward the stress in your life if you were to manifest the energy embedded

in your “Living Wisdom” identity?

Discussant Commentary:

Dr. Cheryl Tawede Grills

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Discussion with

Audience

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Slides may be requested by email to: [email protected]

Education

Harrell et al - Conceptual Contributions to Developing and Delivering Wellness Interventions for Persons of African Descent