Episode 4: Empowered Healing: Reconnecting Through Kānaka-Centered Therapy

[0:00] It is a symptom of this trickle-down effect from colonization, and I can’t wait to share it. I have some upcoming kind of content that I’m hoping to share soon of how colonization and capitalism and supremacy has really, like, trickled down in so many ways into our society, into our lives, and, you know, our mental health and trauma is just like one piece of that, right? It’s one symptom of this bigger systemic, all these systemic problems that we have experienced since.

[0:39] Join us as we explore the hidden histories of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander people. Together, we hope to provide healing and strengthen cultural pride. This is Roots Reclaimed.

[0:53] Aloha nui kakou. My name is Lilinoe Kauahikaua and I am the project manager for the ‘Ohana Center of Excellence for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Behavioral Health. And I’m so excited to be bringing you today’s episode of our Roots for Claim podcast entitled Empowered Healing Reconnecting Through Kānaka Centered Therapy. In this episode, I sit down with Native Hawaiian licensed marriage and family therapist Anuhea St. Laurent, who is also the founder of the company Kanaka to Kanaka. We talk about the importance of reclaiming cultural identity and reconnecting to one’s roots through culturally aligned therapy, which starts by finding a therapist who understands one’s worldviews, values, and offers a sense of comfort and familiarity. We also discuss the growing need for more Native Hawaiian therapists, challenges around stigma and seeking support, and how cultural reconnection can help empower people on their healing journey. Anuhea also reflects with us on her own experience navigating her identity while learning Western behavioral health practices and how she integrates both worlds into her work today. Mahalo Nui Anuhea for sitting down with us for this episode of our Roots Reclaimed podcast.

[2:04] Aloha Nui, my name is Lilinoe Kauahikaua, and I’m the project manager for the ‘Ohana Center of Excellence. I’m really excited to be here today talking with Anuhea, who runs the Kanaka to Kanaka Instagram page. And I was wondering, actually, if you could tell us a little bit about yourself and kind of your practice. And I know I’ve been I really wanted you to come on and talk a little bit about the your focus on culturally aligned therapy. So if you wouldn’t mind sharing just a little bit about yourself and kind of how you got into that work. I’ve been in practice for just a few years now, although I’ve worked for a few nonprofit organizations since I graduated from grad school about 12 years ago. And it kind of just evolved naturally into working with Kanaka Maoli.

[2:58] Personally I was always interested in understanding psychology and behavior because of my own ohana and just wanting to understand myself and kind of the things going on in my own family dynamics and so I started kind of learning about psychology in high school and that you know went on and on um into grad school and um it wasn’t until I had my own ohana um right after grad school that I really started to think about the things that I was taught in school formally um with psychology and how like some things aligned with native Hawaiian culture and some things didn’t and so just a lot of questions came up and as I grew into motherhood I started having just this deep i‘ini this deep desire to connect more deeply with culture and going through many challenges too of like that transition into motherhood and I think that’s a big one for a lot of parents in general um the shift in the mindset becomes more focused on future generations, right?

[4:16] I think naturally we become more motivated to be intentional with our lives and the things that we’re teaching. And we start to question, like, oh, where did this tradition or belief or holiday come from? Like, you know, simple things like, why do we even have the tooth fairy? Like, where did that come from? And do I want to teach my kids that you just get free money from, you know, like little things like that to like bigger things like, you know, organized religion and Christianity.

[4:45] And um Christmas right or um so so many things start to started for me at least personally um come to the surface through motherhood that I started to question a lot of the things that you know as you grow up you just kind of accept are the norm as an adult right and especially as a Makul you can start to question like where did this come from what do I really know about this and do a lot of research and exploration and then try to figure out, well, what do I believe now and what do I want to pass on to my keiki? And so that natural progression into motherhood and parenthood, I think really motivated me to connect more deeply to my Native Hawaiian identity.

[5:29] And so that happened in a lot of ways. But the first really foundational shift was having our keiki attend Punalaleo. And really reconnecting with Ola L’Hawai’i, no matter what avenue you’re trying to reconnect to culture, I think there’s this peeling back the layers of, like, shame, right? It’s all related to trauma because if you trace it all back, it all stems from colonization and Western contact and how, you know, pieces of our connections to culture were fragmented, right? When we were displaced from Aina, we were displaced from Kailulu, we were displaced from each other and our spiritual connections to Akua. And for me, that transition into motherhood naturally made me question so many things that made me.

[6:20] Really start to delve deeper into my identity as a Kanaka and that was part of my personal healing.

[6:30] With a lot of things but especially after my third KK I had postpartum depression and anxiety. I come from a family and part of my generational trauma you know since western contact is a lot of anxiety that was passed on to me through my lineages and I was trying to heal that so I don’t pass too much of that on to my keiki because I know inevitably some will pass on right we can’t fix everything in every generation it’s it’s going to be gradual healing happens gradually as like traumas passed on gradually I think too a lot of the times and so after I kind of took pause from working in the mental health fields to raise my keiki I was home for like six years um I gained a lot of just personal life experience that I felt was so valuable to bring to my work as a therapist. I came back and I was looking for somebody to mentor me to finish up my licensure hours so I could be a private practice. And I was having a hard time finding somebody who was Native Hawaiian.

[7:36] And then, you know, I got connected with a couple people. Our Olam had also moved during the COVID pandemic and that was, we had always kind of thought about moving we had always wanted to move from i’m from kane’oe um and we moved here to puna on hawaii island and um it was just like the right time but also you know it was out of necessity too things were so expensive our rent was going to be raised we couldn’t picture ourselves like we’re just in the rat race right and still we’re still trying to make ends meet, You don’t make a whole ton of money being a therapist. Nobody goes into this work to get rich. I was having a hard time finding somebody who was working as a therapist.

[8:33] Who I thought could help me in the way that I wanted to and needed to be helped. And there’s a lot of, you know, nonprofit organizations doing great work that are sharing culturally-based values and practices. But I didn’t see it a lot in the therapy space. And I was like, oh, how come? Well, because in school, we’re taught in the Western way, right?

[8:56] But when I was doing so much thought and research, is like so much of western psychology is extracted from indigenous practices right you can like trace it back to um well this actually comes from like eastern asian philosophies and this comes from you know these indigenous peoples and i just kept feeling this call to be that person i don’t know there’s this shift that happens i feel like as you’re getting older that’s like oh somebody should do this somebody should do that right and then you’re like oh man like we are that somebody now we’re like that generation and it’s like oh but I don’t want to be that somebody like my nature is not to be forward-facing and to put myself out there like it’s been really difficult I’ve been working through a lot of personal insecurities and anxiety putting myself out And as we know, there’s a whole spectrum of opinion from our la hui on all these really significant issues that people are so passionate about, right? So to be out there presenting any kind of mana’o on anything is putting yourself out there for potential criticism, right? But I just kept feeling that call, and I talked to a couple of my mentors and peers, and they’re like, if you’re feeling this call.

[10:21] Your kupuna are choosing you for a reason i’ve been experiencing a lot of personal growth as i’ve been stepping into this role and so many life lessons that are just parallel to the lessons that you know a lot of my clients are going through and i don’t know if i answered the question yeah so much yeah i just now i was as you were sharing i was thinking about that that concept like kohoia you know you’re like you’re chosen like your kupuna are telling you this is the way that this is the path this is this is what your your your function um can be within the la hui and i think that’s that’s beautiful and it kind of reminds me like my own healing journey of um you know healing from from you know long-term addiction and mental health issues and justice involvement and all those things and and you know that that return to culture finding someone who you can connect with that understands your culture the importance of your culture to you and your healing like that is such a crucial part of continued healing along the healing journey because you know there’s there’s supports here and there there’s some supports for those the early parts of your healing journey if you’re you know going through treatment or you’re going you know you’re looking at those kinds of services but healing is a lifelong journey and it changes you know it it goes through these like seasons basically you know and it continues to change and evolve as.

[11:51] You continue to change and evolve and it’s so crucial to have a connection to somebody like have a therapist that can support you in that healing journey that understands your cultural worldview and what that what that means to you in your healing journey and so you know i i’ve just i’ve been so drawn to the stuff that you post on on instagram and your whole like all of your manao around you know healing and reconnecting to culture and things like that because there’s not a lot of therapists out there that you know do have this that embrace the a more culturally grounded philosophy and i hear it so often from the people you know around me and people that reach out to the ohana center of excellence as well that they’re looking for people that hold their identities when they’re looking for therapists they want to be able to talk to someone that holds their identity that understands their worldview and you know i think you you embody that so beautifully um in the work that you do and it makes my not all like warm and fuzzy to know that there is such a, you have such a healing space that you’ve created for your clients, for the people that you, that you help to heal. I was wondering if you could kind of, I think you kind of touched on this, but how you navigate that intersection of.

[13:13] Cultural practices and Western mental health frameworks. And I ask this because, you know, we hear that what you shared a lot as people are entering into the behavioral health field and we’re educated through a strictly Western view. And for myself as well, you know, going into school and now trying to work on getting my license as well. It’s such a Western focused education system and the certifications and.

[13:43] The testing it’s all very western focused and we want to increase our kanaka in the field so.

[13:49] How do we support them in embracing.

[13:52] Their cultural identity as they’re navigating through these western.

[13:55] Frameworks and you know i think there’s a lot that we can learn from your own pathway and how you’ve kind of put all of this together well mahalo first of all i there’s so many things that i thought of while you were just kind of sharing all of that like one is i’m sure there are other therapists out there who are also kanaka who are doing this as well they just might not be as visible or marketing themselves in this way and so since i have been like on instagram doing this which has only been for a short time the demand has been huge like i’ve just been overwhelmed and it’s really made me realize that one there are therapists other therapists or people in grad school pre-licensed coming to me saying oh can I work with you you know like um and then there are clients who are like you know my waitlist is so long and I’m like I need to refer out like I can’t I’m not specialized to help every Konaka with every single issue right so I’m like okay I need to create a directory I need to connect with more Konaka therapists so we can expand like the accessibility of care out there and it just it is a bit overwhelming there’s like this sense of urgency like our people need help yesterday like years ago right and that is part of my focus now is like how can I connect with more people who are already doing the work and how can we work alongside each other to help our people.

[15:22] Um which is very non-western right like western way is like you can work for my group practice and when you leave you can’t take any of your clients even though it’s in the best interest of the clients to remain with the person they already have a good relationship right you sign these non-compete agreements that say and it’s all for what for profit for capital gain right that’s why i love the work that um travis is doing over at emu a health group yeah he’s literally helping pre-licensed therapists get in the door like learn about private practice open up a private practice and then take all your clients with you because he realizes Hawaii needs more providers we need more of that you know like that’s part of my vision is um how can maybe I do that in the future when I have the capacity but make it you know very focused on kanaka therapists and kanaka clients yeah although my heart you know like us as kanaka we’re all mixed right there’s many like very few of us who are what full kanaka i mean i know we’re not supposed to like fragment ourselves in that way but the demand is there the urgency is there to try and fill these gaps between western and indigenous and in this modern world that we live in right because we’re also navigating health care systems western health care systems.

[16:44] Because people can’t afford to pay out of pocket. And we would love to give these services for free. But, you know, we got to pay our bills too. Because I’m not living 100% sustainably yet. You know, I’m not sure if I ever will in my lifetime.

[16:59] So navigating the healthcare system, it’s like, okay, I’m realizing I try to be that person who can understand generally the background of the Kanaka who are coming to me in therapy. I’m still not gonna know all the things for every single client but I do think that being trauma informed helps so that you know if Kanaka do come to me and they’re talking about this aspect of their cultural identity that I don’t have experience with I’m not gonna pretend like I do I’m gonna ask them right but like there’s a general sense of shared understanding about the culture right that they don’t have to explain themselves or they don’t feel like you know they have to hide that part of themselves or be ashamed of that part of themselves you know how do i connect to the western framework within like cultural how do you just how do you navigate it i guess like how you know um with within your work or as you were in school or as you continue even um in your in your therapeutic practice is yeah do you still encounter it you still encounter the need to navigate between those spaces or now that you’re in private practice is is it solely you know can you focus primarily on indigenous frameworks yeah i think in private practice you do have a lot more flexibility i myself allow clients to utilize insurance so there is.

[18:26] Um, you know, I do have to submit notes. Insurance companies still get the final say on whether they pay for clients to have those services. So, you know, different insurance companies still do require you to like do.

[18:39] Certain, you know, certain Western therapy approaches are more acceptable or understood by them. So in a way you know you kind of.

[18:49] Have to explain the cultural practices that you know you might be using with a client in a way that they’ll understand through a western lens so a lot of the work i do with folks is like let’s talk story and you tell me about like what are your mo’olagos like what are your beliefs systems and your attitudes around i don’t know your self-worth where does that come from tell me stories about when you were insecure you didn’t feel like you were enough or where does that come from let’s trace it back right yeah you know how can we draw on the strengths of your kupuna like what are the strengths within your lineage you know what do you know about your makua and your kupuna and the places that you come from um how can we kind of connect the dots there culturally and how do i justify that with insurance oh narrative therapy right you kind of like you kind of it’s kind of like you’re playing the game of how do we navigate this Western world that we’re living in using Western insurance and still provide people the cultural alignment and therapy that they’re asking for or needing or wanting you know and it’s hard because.

[20:14] So we’re all in different places on a spectrum of cultural identity and like what we know and what we’re craving and what we’re yearning for. And so like some clients want that a lot. Some clients are just kind of dipping their toes into it. And so I kind of take the lead of the client if they’re coming to me talking about these different things or wanting it. And more and more as I’m, you know, marketing myself this way, I’m getting the clients who are very involved and connected to their cultural identities and wanting this, you know, to be a big part of their healing practice. I guess one of the other things I also want to ask you, have you ever thought about building a group of Kanaka therapists to kind of support one another and serve the greater need that is kind of coming right now? I have so many ideas of the things I want to do. I have a long list of things that I feel like could fill the gaps of the needs that are out there. Part of my work, too, is balancing it with how do I also do this work and keep myself healthy.

[21:26] In the first year of like transitioning into private practice I like physically got sick, when I was in grad school and even afterwards it’s kind of like the norm for therapists to see like 30 or 40 clients a week and for myself like no matter what kind of boundaries you try to set with your clients and like all the self-care stuff you try to do for me I was like, oh how do people do this is like too much for me i’m navigating the current climate in the world and all the things going on it’s just like how do you balance caring for yourself keeping yourself well so you can sustain this work right i mean i’m sure you know you wear so many hats you’re engaging so much important good work but it does take a toll on us right so i do tend to also attract like a lot of my clients are like uh ceos or um like not they run non-profit organizations are very engaged in the Hawaiian communities like very focused on this work and they too are also trying to figure out how do I balance that right caring for self while caring for others and um.

[22:37] I would love to eventually open up a group practice that really mentors and nurtures other Kanaka clinicians and focuses on Kanaka clients. I would love to also, like, usher in therapists that speak a lot of Hawaii. You know, my kids go to Kaiapuni, and we’re looking at the future of, like, what other jobs can they have to perpetuate our culture and our language that are not just, like, becoming kumu at Kaiapuni. And we’re seeing that now, right, that those keiki are taking those skills and they’re integrating it into this Western, you know, post-contact colonized Hawaii that we live in. And we are re-indigenizing Hawaii, right?

[23:22] And how can we do that in the mental health space and the health care space in general here? My PCP speaks a Hawaiian with our keiki, and it’s like, it was amazing that we found her, you know? And so we’re seeing it more and more that as more generations go through Kaya Pune or whatever.

[23:44] Hula halau right like generations of hula halau or um whatever the practice is the cultural practices like we will take those skills and we integrate it into every aspect of our life because that ike that we learn it does overlap into like the lessons that we learn they overlap into everything right lessons we learned from ʻāina from. That’s on the list also i think i’m moving um i’m moving more towards like facilitating more groups because they’re just recognizing people need and are creating pilina with other kanaka and i’m just one person i’m also limited you know if i’m just working one-on-one with folks i can only see so many people but if we do group facilitation i can help more people and it’s i’m not the only one helping people like they’re gaining perspective of everybody in the group that that brings so much wisdom and knowledge and experience that can facilitate in the healing yeah of everyone right so i think i’m moving more towards that right now.

[24:48] As you were talking to i was thinking about um when you’re sharing a little bit about like how many clients are are seen on average and that like what it is that we do to kind of because it’s a lot of it’s a lot of mana right that we’re that we’re we’re engaging in a lot of energy is being shared in a space and it’s a lot to hold you know with your own especially with the trauma that we carry within our bodies of our own past and and all and you know intergenerational cultural and historical traumas and what i realized also in school as you were mentioning i wasn’t really taught about how to cleanse myself of it like i think we just we spent a like maybe one class on like what trauma stewardship should look like but when i think about it from a cultural perspective and different cleansing and protection rituals and I wish I had more experience around those and how to ready myself for some of the work that we engage in. I was kind of just wondering do you have you have are there you know rituals that you kind of find comforting within within this work to help kind of cleanse yourself and be ready for the next energy you know energy transfer kind of thing.

[26:02] I wasn’t taught that either in grad school or with many of my supervisors afterwards in the non-profits that I was working with it was kind of just assumed and normalized that you would just keep going right and in if we think back to, traditional Hawaiian culture the healers in the community all the kahuna no matter what kind of kahuna it was um it was very intentional that you cannot do any healing if you yourself are not healed if you yourself are not in the right.

[26:39] If you’re not pono right in right relationship whether that’s physically mentally emotionally, spiritually especially. And that one honestly is so tricky for me because it’s like, how many of us are fully healed right now in this world that we live in—yeah—yet yet like the work still needs to go on and so how can we do our best to try to be pono with ourselves, with our relationships and caring for ourselves and still you know care for others. But yeah so some things that I have learned along the way especially in the past few years and some things I’ve learned from my clients who are engaged in really important work like like iwi kupuna and stuff that you have to have pule right so I’ve learned specific pule I pull it for myself and I pull it for clients in between. I have like my little kind of, I call it like a transition meditation where I also create gaps between my clients now, which I never used to do.

[27:43] I also limit my how many clients I can take now. So really learning to set boundaries, right? Which before I just was like not doing. And to be realistic. Yeah. realistic is like the wages that i was getting paid pre-licensed and in the beginning it’s like well we’ve got to pay the bills got to just go go go right so there’s very realistic motivations to push yourselves over your limits right and our all of our people know that living trying to live here in Hawaii and afford to live here and stay here and not get pushed out right yeah but yeah I’m still looking for mentorship. There’s one kumu that I really want to work with and I’m trying to wait for his program to open a new cohort soon. And I really hope to be invited to, you know, be a part of that.

[28:44] But yeah, it’s hard when it’s like you want to honor traditional cultural learning, which comes from lineage and kupuna. And also because we’ve been colonized, because things have been fragmented, because therapy is a Western concept, and not necessarily cultural, right? It’s not lomi, it’s not laʻau lapaʻau, it’s not ho’oponopono necessarily, right? It’s like in a way I am trying to create something new, that is as connected to culture as I can possibly connect it, but it’s not traditionally exactly Hawaiian.

[29:33] Yeah, sometimes I get a little anxious about that, right? That people might be like, well, that’s really not Hawaiian what you’re trying to do, but my intentions are pure. I hope people see that, and I try to do it with as much care and reverence as I can, and I don’t know all the things i’m not a cultural practitioner i’m not fluent in ʻōlelo Hawaii yet um and i’m not the expert of other people. I really hope that comes through with my messaging is like i empower each kanaka to be the expert of themselves and to connect with whoever’s around them that gives them strength to connect to their stories their lineages their special lahi their their amakua their kupuna in whatever ways gives them strength to be a better expert of themselves and care for themselves in the ways that they need to be cared for at this time and so i just see myself as a vessel of healing i like i don’t consider myself a healer at all i just kind of facilitate and i don’t think i share any ʻike that’s my own i just think i pass on the things that i learn through like my own perspective you know and i present it to people so that they can consider it for themselves.

[30:42] And I don’t think I pressure people to take on my manaʻo. I think I just present it to them in a way of like, this is what I know. And this is what I’ve learned. And this is kind of where I’ve learned it from. What do you think about that? How does this resonate with you? You can take it or leave it, right? If it feels aligned, great. If it doesn’t, no pressure, right? Like dismiss it. I think that’s a major difference between my approach And maybe some of the approaches I’ve seen of other therapists out there, you know, and certainly things my clients have come to me with and said, like, oh.

[31:17] I didn’t like my therapist because X, Y, and Z. I’m looking for a therapist who instead is like this instead, right? I mean, when I was looking for a therapist.

[31:28] I also wanted to find a Native Hawaiian therapist so that I didn’t have to explain every, you know, every single part of, you know, how I kind of encountered the world. And I think that was really important to me. And I did find one, which I’m still with, you know, because of that. I can say Hawaiian concepts, I can talk about practices, and I don’t have to spend half of the time explaining what they are and why they’re important to me. And, you know, that’s such a valuable part of therapy. You know, I will still say it like a million times because I know how important that is. I hear, you know, in friends of mine that are still looking for someone to connect with in that way. Yeah, I think you do amazing work. So, you know, I love that manaʻo about being a conduit for the ʻike coming from, you know, ancestors and the ʻike that you’ve come into contact with along your own journey. And, you know, and it sounds like, you know, it’s kind of what you’re sharing. Like it helps people to strengthen their identities, you know. Do you see people as they start to strengthen their identities, do you see them looking for more opportunities to kind of learn and continue to strengthen that in different ways?

[32:44] The growth that you see in individuals really gives them this confidence and this empowerment, feeling like they are enough to enter spaces that maybe before they were a little too hilahila to enter. I think most specifically with their own ʻōhana, right? Because a lot of the individuals coming to therapy, I think the most common challenge is like, I’m learning all this stuff. It’s helping me. But then I still struggle with some of my ʻōhana because they’re not learning all this stuff. I wish they could learn all this stuff, but maybe they’re not open to it, right? I think that’s the hard part, is that sometimes

[33:24] All of this inner work that clients are doing on themselves they might not necessarily see the fruits of that labor in their immediate ʻōhana like with their parents or their siblings or whoever they might have a little pilikia with because maybe those people are not open to it yet.

[33:44] Um maybe some of them may not ever be right there’s still that stigma of mental health but like oh we’re gonna talk to somebody tell them all of our stories and but who is it for why do we do it? It’s for generational healing right it’s for everyone who comes after us and it is still bittersweet sometimes you know i don’t think there’s i guess it’s rare for people to to see the healing effects and be like okay everything’s great now right of course there are those moments but the healing is is more like okay well everything’s okay you know everything’s okay i i have a little more joy i have a little more confidence i have more tools to navigate you know this world that is still very challenging um and i have motivation that continues to build to keep doing this work you know and to be consistent with it.

[34:43] There’s one more thing i wanted to touch on to actually a couple more things but one was about stigma to talk a little bit about any challenges you might have faced in addressing like mental health stigma with your clients or communities or maybe ʻōhana you know and has there been able to kind of make folks a little bit more comfortable with seeking kind of support within the therapy world or just talking to someone?

[35:14] There are some clients who start therapy and you can tell like that first session that they’re not totally sure that they’re ready for it. Yeah. And unfortunately, you know, sometimes, you know, after one session, they never come back or they’re just not ready for it yet. So that stigma definitely still exists. Majority of my clients, though, they’re there and they want to be there. Majority of my clients, they’ve already done therapy work before or like they’ve studied psychology or they’ve done the self-help books or they’ve been in other avenues of healing culturally like umi or laʻau lapaʻau or, you know, they’ve learned in Hawaiian studies or they’ve been in Kaiapuni or something like that. And so majority of my clients come to me and they’re already sold on you know i’m committed to my healing whatever it takes and i also want to say like therapy is just one little piece of the puzzle right there’s there’s so many other things that we can do to heal. But yeah the stigma yeah i see that sometimes too with people who they sign up for the waitlist and when they’re called they don’t actually start.

[36:32] Which is why I’ve been motivated to share more mental health education online on Instagram I want to expand the accessibility of mental health education so that people can just look at it see it, think about it you know.

[36:47] It’s normalized a little bit maybe it’s part of a conversation they have with somebody in their life right because i understand that some people will never ever go to a therapist right but how can they just learn about these things and think about it a little bit .And maybe practice some of these things and try it out as an experiment and see if it works for them you know. So i think that’s what I’m trying to do with the online mental health education stuff is try to break that stigma that way because it’s very real it’s still there but I think as things become a lot more challenging in the world I think people are realizing more and more that they’re willing to seek other avenues of help and support that maybe before they weren’t as open to I think there’s a gradual shift of people becoming more and more open to mental health conversations and support than, you know, even 10, 20, 30 years ago.

[37:48] Yeah, that’s so awesome. And I know some of your most recent IG posts have really centered around that, like how colonization has impacted our self identity or self sovereignty and those kind of aspects. And we’ve had a few I feel like that have been um just recent have you had a lot of responses uh from from folks about you know like wanting to that really like that that concept of how colonization has impacted our our mental health and our our well-being um have you had a lot of responses about how that resonates with folks yeah i think i had a couple posts where there’s a lot of engagement and got a lot of followers I think like the ones that have got the most engagement really spoke to.

[38:38] The differences between western psychology and therapy versus more indigenous practices and how, you know my aim is to kind of bridge the gap between those two if I could share with with our lovely one thing is that the challenges the mental health challenges that we all face today are not our fault it is a symptom of this trickle-down effect from colonization and I can’t wait to share it I have some upcoming kind of content that I’m hoping to share soon of how colonization and capitalism and supremacy, has really like trickled down in so many ways into our society, into our lives. And our mental health and trauma is just like one piece of that, right? It’s one symptom of this bigger systemic, all these systemic problems that we have experienced since, And I think Western psychology teaches us it’s our fault, like we should be able to just change our mindset and just work hard and just overcome these things.

[39:55] And I think there is some truth to that. I don’t think we are victims. I don’t think our kupuna would see ourselves as victims. I think our lineages are ones of great resilience and strength of just brilliance, right? Our Kourou are so smart. If you just think about everything that was happening during the overthrow and how they got around certain things and how they still communicated and how they were engaged politically and they were so adaptable. Acceptable and i want to motivate us to remember those parts of our stories because i think it’s easy to just say well we are the way we are because colonization and that can be an excuse or that can be a motivation to do something about it because i do still think it’s our responsibility it’s our kuleana to do the best that we can with our situation for future generations right and so it’s not our fault if we realize and understand more of our story of our people, then we will you know there’s some validation in that i guess it’s it alleviates some of the burden that some people feel like oh my gosh this is so me i’m supposed to fix it all by myself.

[41:13] But like no we’re supposed to fix this in community we’re supposed to fix this in connections connections to each other connections to ʻāina and connections to akua in community Like, we, it’s a kako thing. I wish people understood that more. I hope my clients really understand that you know by the time our our work together is through.

[41:36] Yeah it’s like i’ve seen a whole picture when you were explaining that right now because you know we use the ahupua’a to kind of connect to those that that kind of mana’o and so as you were kind of sharing like i’m seeing all of these impacts within you know our land systems within our ahupua’a how it impacts ourselves our families um our communities our our law as a whole is there anything that you would want to add i guess to kind of what we’ve talked about so far?

[42:07] I think that was a lot i’m getting kind of emotional just because i feel like there’s there’s so much to say and so much work to be done the work will never be over you know yeah.

[42:20] It won’t work is so important i think being able to connect to people that want to do this work together I think that beauty there’s so much beauty and strength in our connections to one another you know so I’m I’m so grateful to be connected with you because you know I just love the work that you do and I want to help support whatever you know the direction that you’re going in I’m I’m down if you want to start like a kanaka cohort kind of therapist group let’s do it let’s do it um yeah this with all of our free time all of the free time yeah so much of it so much of it.

[42:58] Let’s change the world you know what i mean and yeah i think um i’m just excited you know to to hear about the work that you’re doing and to continue to see the the content that you create because i think you’re right like it it is it’s shifting mindsets it’s it’s creating resonance within people that may not have have thought about therapy before and i think you’re even shifting you’re shifting the narrative around therapy and how it’s viewed too because you know people can.

[43:30] Can connect to therapy in a different way and not just in a western way anymore like there there is a more culturally grounded way to do it that can be more encompassing of our our full identities you know and not just native Hawaiian culture like you said our full identities are all you know many of us are mixed I’m you know no exception like I’m very mixed myself you know so being able to embrace fully who we are and realize the strength within our own cultural identities and what connects us to to the world to the ʻāina to one another to all the things being able to fully realize that in a in a different way is i think really valuable and incredibly meaningful so mahalo for the work that you do every day.

[44:20] And you as well you’re engaged in such meaningful more I will say also as kind of a disclaimer I don’t do all of that social media content by myself I have um shout out to Kohina Media those are my social media girls like we collaborate on you know it is kind of the content and the information I want to share much of it is you know the the main ideas and concepts that I want to share but they make it all pretty and put it out there otherwise I would never do it because um I’m a little tech challenged and.

[44:58] But you know I’m learning to collaborate with other people and to connect with other people and that’s part of my journey too is that for so long I’ve thought I just have to do everything myself that’s part of my trauma and I am trying to connect with more people to heal parts of my own drama and so this journey has been healing personally and expansive professionally you know to start to branch out and make more connections.

[45:27] Oh mahalo nui for just sharing your time and space and ʻike and mana and all the things in this space really. I want to mahalo you for all of that and all that you do. Oh, mahalo to you as well.

[45:42] Roots Reclaimed is a production of the AANHPI ʻOhana Center of Excellence, a culturally-centered behavioral health resource center aimed to empower Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities. To get access to resources, referrals, trainings, workshops, and so much more, visit us at aanhpi-ohana.org. Mahalo. Thank you.