Embodiment allows the nervous system to complete responses that were interrupted long ago.

Healing begins to shift when the body experiences something new: a breath that deepens instead of constricts, a boundary held without collapse or guilt, movement replacing immobilization, tears flowing instead of freezing, pleasure allowed without bracing, connection that feels safe enough to stay present. These moments cannot be understood into existence. They must be lived. The nervous system learns through experience.

People re-enact the patterns that feel most familiar to them because, for better or worse, “familiar” feels safe and people gravitate toward safety even if, from an outside perspective, the relationship is not safe. And the term “familiar” shares its origin with “family,” underscoring how early family dynamics, including sibling harm, can become the template for both what later feels recognizable or tolerable in relationships and the roles, defenses, and expectations a person brings into them.

This is why conversations about embodiment, sexuality, and trauma cannot be separated from conversations about race and power. Sexual health, consent, pleasure, and agency are not peripheral concerns. They are central to dignity and healing.

Black History Month offers a moment of collective attention. But this work cannot live in one month of the year. If we only speak about race, history, and embodied trauma in February, we risk treating them as occasional topics rather than ongoing realities.

At a collective level, this kind of gaslighting has predictable effects. When leaders insist that removing truth is an act of clarity, or that denying violence is an act of sanity, people become disoriented. They question their perceptions. Communities fracture. Trust erodes. This is not stability. It is psychological destabilization.

Decolonizing therapy means creating approaches that value multiple ways of knowing, including embodied and relational wisdom. It means recognizing that healing is not just personal but connected to culture, history, and community.

In communities affected by historical oppression or intergenerational trauma, the window of tolerance may be narrowed by chronic stress, marginalization, or the need for vigilance in unsafe environments.