Verbiage
This verbiage was developed to better understand, explain, and teach complex concepts in the work around neurobiologically informed healing from complex and developmental trauma.
Community Activated Medicine™
Abbreviated to “CAM™” this term was first developed in 2016. It means the people are the medicine, it is a process of informing to activate the healing within and around us. It was started to support collective grieving for collective healing. Within the communities that Denny walked in she saw historical trauma manifested in generations of disenfranchised and complex grief. Using practice-based medicine she saw immediate results with gathering community members together to create a space where we can collectively grieve. Informed by cultural and ancestral knowledge she created connections with land, people, stories, and food as a way of healing.
Decolonized Mental Health
Decolonized Mental Health represents a paradigm shift towards culturally responsive, respectful, and socially just approaches to mental health care. It embodies a commitment to dismantling systems of oppression and colonial legacies that have historically marginalized and excluded communities of the global majority from accessing mental health services.
At its essence, Decolonized Mental Health is trauma-informed, recognizing the intergenerational impacts of colonization and systemic injustices on mental health. It seeks to remove and reduce barriers such as paywalls and gatekeeping that limit access to mental health care, ensuring that services are equitable and accessible to all individuals, regardless of socioeconomic status or cultural background.
Central to Decolonized Mental Health is the recognition and honoring of ancient Indigenous wisdoms and practices as foundational to mental health knowledge and healing. It acknowledges the resilience and wisdom of Indigenous cultures, centering their traditional healing methods and cultural practices as cornerstones of mental health care.
This approach is deeply rooted in cultural humility and reciprocity, valuing the expertise and perspectives of Indigenous communities and other marginalized groups in shaping mental health policies, practices, and interventions. It prioritizes collaboration and partnership with community members and cultural leaders to co-create culturally relevant and effective mental health services.
Decolonized Mental Health is not only about addressing individual mental health needs but also about challenging systemic injustices and working towards collective healing and liberation. It seeks to empower individuals and communities to reclaim agency over their mental health and well-being, fostering resilience, connection, and healing at individual, community, and societal levels.
Healing Informed Care™
Healing Informed Care™ represents a transformative approach to mental health and wellness that transcends traditional boundaries and embraces a holistic understanding of healing. Drawing from the fusion of Evidenced Based Practices and Practice Based Evidence, it acknowledges the multifaceted nature of trauma and its impact across individual, collective, spiritual, and cultural dimensions.
At its core, Healing Informed Care™ recognizes that trauma extends beyond the individual and permeates through communities, affecting relationships, cultural identities, and collective well-being. It values community-centric approaches, emphasizing the importance of community values, actions, and collective healing practices.
This approach prioritizes accessibility and inclusivity, striving to break down barriers to mental health support and ensure that all members of the community have access to resources and care. It is rooted in relational resiliency, understanding that healing occurs within the context of supportive relationships and interconnectedness.
Healing Informed Care™ intentionally creates spaces for the discharge of pain and stress, while also fostering opportunities for healthy coping mechanisms and therapeutic interventions. It seeks to empower individuals and communities to identify what works for them and to actively participate in their own healing journeys.
Healing Informed Practices™
Combining the knowledge of Evidenced Based Practices and Practice Based Evidenced to bridge trauma informed, relationally centered, wellness practices together. These identify what is working and builds an understands that trauma does not stop at an individual level and travels through a collective, spiritual, cultural one. This involves community-values, action, and ways to discharge pain and stress, and intentionally building opportunities for healthy ways to dose appropriate therapeutic and collective healing ways.
Interdevelopmental
Interdevelopmental, within the framework of omni-dimensional mental health practices, refers to an integrative approach that recognizes the interconnectedness and mutual influence of various dimensions of human development and well-being. This practice acknowledge that mental health and well-being are influenced by a multitude of factors, including psychological, physiological, developmental, occupational, and sensory dimensions. Rather than viewing these dimensions in isolation, interdevelopmental approaches recognize their interplay and seek to address them holistically.
Interdevelopmental practices are characterized by their dynamic and adaptive nature, drawing from diverse sources of knowledge and expertise to tailor interventions to the unique needs and experiences of each individual. They emphasize collaboration and integration across disciplines, fostering a multidimensional understanding of mental health and well-being that transcends traditional silos and boundaries.
Overall, interdevelopmental approaches represent a forward-thinking and inclusive approach to mental health care, one that recognizes the complex and multifaceted nature of human experience and seeks to address it with depth, sensitivity, and innovation.
Intergenerational Healing Approach™
This radical-accessibility practice centers healing for inclusive collective and complex grief experienced and/or inherited from historical and intergenerational trauma, often manifested as transgenerational trauma. This is done through a process of integrating ancestral and cultural wisdoms, decolonizing practices, practicing radical grieving, and whole-health justice. This includes past, present, and future generations represented within the healing process, where reciprocity and responsibility for community healing is in perpetuity.
Persistent Toxic Systems and Environments™
This term was first developed in 2016. These are everyday environmental traumatic or stressful events that negatively impact ones mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical health outcomes. This is repeated and regular exposure to toxic surroundings and systems that are felt, seen, heard, and interpreted by the individual as inescapable barriers or hardships.
Radical Grief
This is a practice of unlearning colonial grieving practices based on individual stages of mourning mainly understood through the loss of death. Creating a shared and collective space for disenfranchised, anticipatory, unresolved, and complex losses that do not have time limits or societal parameters. Allowing yourself to process disease, duress, and discomfort. This practice releases stored tension and pain within the body and allowing the natural ebb and flow of physical and sensory sensations to surface, be felt, and healed.
Triple Attunement™
This term was first developed in 2016. The responsive awareness, connection, and relationships that we cultivate to ourselves, others, and the environment around you. Building deeper connections to spaces by recognizing your own responsibility and reciprocity to the physical, spiritual, communal, and energetical portions of a space. This includes honoring animate and inanimate beings that inform your senses, neurobiology, and relational health.
Citations
Denny, L. S. (2016). Community Activated Medicine™. In All Nations One Tribe Healing Historical Trauma Study. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States of America.
Denny, L. S. (2022). Decolonized Mental Health. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States of America.
Denny, L. S. (2018). Healing Informed Care™. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States of America.
Denny, L. S. (2018). Healing Informed Practices. In Historical Trauma & Resiliency. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States of America.
Denny, L. S. (2021). Interdevelopmental. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States of America.
Denny, L. S. (2016). Intergenerational Healing Approach™. In All Nations One Tribe Healing Historical Trauma Study. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States of America.
Denny, L. S. (2016). Persistent Toxic Systems and Environments™. In All Nations One Tribe Healing Historical Trauma Study. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States of America.
Denny, L. S. (2021). Radical Grief. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States of America: HIR Wellness Institute.
Denny, L. S. (2016). Triple Attunement. In All Nations One Tribe Healing Historical Trauma Study. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States of America.