Decolonizing the Body with Amber McZeal

In trauma therapies, we begin with a question--"what happened to me"? The arch of integration insists we begin with the full story about our experiences, offering moments of sacred pause as containers for settling the charge of embodied memories and form new somatic patterns. This workshop explores the decolonial arc of our collective healing--tending the human family by locating the body within this project of racialization. What happened to the body within the decolonial project? We will unpackage how attitudes about bodies, informed by colonial values, shaped and continues to influence our social imaginary--the set of beliefs, values and institutions that constitute notions of social wholeness. As Frantz Fanon writes, "What we are attempting to do is liberate the [human being] from the arsenal of [psychosomatic] complexes that germinated in colonial situations" (1952, p. 14). Through deepened knowledge about the body within a colonial imagination, this session continues a journey into somatic abolitionsim. In this workshop, Amber guides and shapes our exploration with this Embodied Research Question: What Cultural/Experiential perspectives have informed my concept of embodiment? What do we draw from to cultivate our relationship to the body? We Discuss: Race as an organizing factor // The social imaginary; the set of values, institutions, laws in which people imagine themselves // What are the laws, values, institutions and symbols that have informed my sense of embodiment? // The Art of Release - This is no small feat, it requires repetition, gentleness, self compassion. // If we are all living here with distortion in how we view the other, none of us are immune to the oppression. // How Imagination Shapes Human Consciousness // What happens if my insides have been hijacked? // Racism as a social construct that bites into bodies. ADDITIONAL RESOURCES TO EXPLORE:Supreme Court Case Mentioned: United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, 261 U.S. 204 (1923)Music From The Session: Sudan Archives - Nont For Sale About AmberWriter, vocalist, sacred scholar, and activist Amber McZeal utilizes sound therapy and guided somatic imagery to engage the knowledge of the body within an interactive and liberatory arts practice. Amber McZeal weaves together somatic practice with social justice and spirituality. Her approach centers imagination as foundational to movements to end oppression and create more humane social relationships. McZeal holds an MA degree in somatic depth psychology and is currently a doctoral candidate at Pacifica Graduate Institute.