FINDING THE SOURCE: FACING EPIGENETIC GRIEF

Like many other providers, empowerHER runs programs offering strategies to combat micro-aggressions, marginalization, isolation, or prevention of access to professional development opportunities. These are practical workshops with tools to establish boundaries, handle interruptions, being spoken over, addressing the appropriation of ideas and being stereotyped as the Strong Black Woman. ?As successful as they are in the short term, the effects may not be as deep-rooted as we’d like to think. How is it that, after all the training, women are still feeling unstable, insecure, and lacking in confidence? Could it be that we are addressing symptoms and not underlying cause?

It's worth taking a step back and examining the causes for work stressors, particularly for women of color, including anxiety and grief caused by a toxic work environment, the failure of the health system, as well as personal and familial grief. All of these are significantly contributory. After over eighteen months of observation and research we’ve come to determine that the main or underlying cause of grief and identity instability is epigenetic.

The generational impact of trauma include historical atrocities such as slavery, colonization, forced displacement, and systemic oppression. Such events leave long-lasting epigenetic marks that influence stress reactivity, behavior, and well-being. This form of grief, often unacknowledged in mainstream discourse, deeply affects the emotional, psychological, and physiological health of women. Epigenetic inheritance suggests that the trauma endured by previous generations can alter gene expression, affecting how generations respond to stress, regulate emotions, and navigate adversity.

This is emphatically significant as it directly impacts professional women of color, struggling to add more letters after their names to be recognized as equal, struggling to navigate hard-won management positions with no support, no allies, nor sponsor backing. And all while struggling to suppress grief since their colleagues find it distasteful, and embarrassing in a grief-blind society.

We cannot practice and center in self-advocacy and self-empowerment unless we know who we’re advocating for. ?Thus, epigenetic grief is the essence of discovering and situating in identity. This reaches beyond familial trauma exploration since it examines inherited behaviors and health effects, influenced by racism and gender bias, from preceding generations.

Aziz Elbasheir argues that “racial discrimination contributes to accelerated biological aging … increasing vulnerability for brain health problems”. It was found that nervous system impacts from chronic exposure to racial bias lead to hyper vigilance based on past events that, in turn, lead to mental health issues.

Research demonstrates that historical and collective traumas—such as enslavement, racial segregation, forced assimilation, and institutionalized violence—can manifest in the bodies and minds of future generations, perpetuating cycles of anxiety, depression, and heightened stress sensitivity.

These historic grief burdens exacerbate stresses already experienced by women seeking to drive their career trajectories but who are radically overburdened by griefs that they may not have recognized or, essentially, acknowledged.

No amount of determined effort can eradicate where you come from, but understanding where you come from is your greatest ally if you are prepared to face it.

WHAT TO DO

An example of addressing such grief is demonstrated by empowerHER’s series of programs aimed at encouraging participants to step into historic grief, adjust to its place in their lives and feel firmly embedded in their entire identities. In subsequent workshops, participants learn how to use that self-knowledge to empower themselves professionally, control the effects of negative work cultures, understand and leverage power structures to succeed in their careers.

empowerHER's workshops represent a single approach. There are many other practitioners who are effectively using different approaches so that women can situate powerfully in identity. Most of these practices are founded on the basis that it takes a long-term strategy with a gradual building of trust – for the workshop communities and for the self – to make deep and enduring changes. This will enable women to combat negative work cultures and flourish in a deep-rooted and enduring sense of self.

?

Reference

Aziz Elbasheir, BA, Seyma Katrinli, PhD, Breanne E. Kearney, MS; et al. (2024). Racial Discrimination, Neural Connectivity, and Epigenetic Aging Among Black Women. Jama Network Open/Psychiatry

?

Building trusting and bonded communities in the face of national and international grief is particularly needed now.? If you’re struggling with loss, identity confusion, or the stress and grief from feeling helpless in the face of world issues, please join us for an Art as Release workshop at The Grief House on March 7th and April 4th. More dates to follow.

Ticket link: https://bit.ly/42VwKl9