#275 | The Poison Contains The Medicine: Ancestral Healing & Unintegrated Trauma w/ Dare Sohei
In this episode, I speak with animist counselor and artist Dare Sohei.
In the very beginning of this discussion, I ask Dare what the animism in animist counseling is. As they state on their website and elaborate on further in this interview:
Animism, briefly, is the felt sense that all matter, all bodies are inhabited with spirit, including non-corporeal bodies such as ancestors, beliefs and ideas, that exert influence on our bodies, actions and cultures. All of our ancient ancestors were animists, even though that term is more modern.
From there, Dare tells me how recognizing of our inherent relationships — whether they are secure or insecure attachments to our bodies, the land, ancestors, more-than-human life, and cultural somas (such as "white supremacy," and this thing we call "The United States of America") — can allow us to address the fundamental disconnection that is producing the crises we find ourselves in presently. This discussion gets a bit emotional for me towards the latter half, as we really dig into the deeper elements of this work, discussing trauma, death, relationship with our bodies, and ultimately where we stand in this time of trouble.
Dare Sohei is a queer mixed-race somatic educator, ancestral healing practitioner, and neurodivergent ritual animist who specializes in helping humans heal relationships with their bodies, the earth, their ancestors, and the more-than-human world. Dare has trained for many years in somatic movement practices, as a dancer/theater maker/trainer on Ohlone land in the SF Bay area, and has a long ongoing study/praxis into the human nervous system and trauma and how that relates to indigenous wisdom and medicine practices.
Episode Notes:
- Learn more about Dare’s work on their website and at The Ritual as Justice School website: https://bodyaltar.org / https://ritualasjustice.school
- The music in this episode was produced by Eli Stonemets.
