Reconciling Humanity with Psychotherapist Dennis Windego, Episode 6
- February 22nd, 2024
Jody Harbour and I continue our conversation with Indigenous Wholistic Psychotherapist Dennis Windego.
Dennis specializes in an indigenous, spiritual approach to healing for mental health issues, addictions, grief and trauma. This is part two of a two part series.
This conversation was heartfelt and healing, around the trauma of colonization. We discuss the importance of self care in nature, our connections to community, Creator, and our ancestors.
Also interesting is their indigenous perspectives on giving Land Acknowledgements, for example before meetings!
We are passionate about creating time and space for healing connections in community. It is our purpose to bring together people in relationship for wellness and reconciliation.
This is the spiritual path to mental health, mission of our platforms @SkywardTV & Hopeful Radio ☮
How can we reconnect to our Souls, our village, and our environment across Canada and beyond? Your feedback, questions and shares are most welcome!
About Skyward/Hopeful platforms:
Millions today suffer from depression and anxiety. Often ignored is the spiritual side of recovery. Skyward TV is a new free resource that explores spirituality and self-healing to promote mental health.
Hopeful Radio Podcast features interviews with wellness experts, coaches and spiritual leaders. We also talk to a wide range of people who have suffered from depression and anxiety who have a story to tell about recovery and inner strength.
Listen to HOPEFUL RADIO or watch SKYWARD TV to discover powerful strategies to coping and winning in today’s insane world:
1
00:00:00,000 –> 00:00:22,000
Welcome everybody to Reconciling Humanity. I’m Eleanor Hayward, a Holistic Facilitator here joined by my co-host, Jody Harbour, co-founder of Grandmother’s Voice, and our very special guest, Dennis Windego.
2
00:00:22,000 –> 00:00:35,000
This is our part two, following from a conversation that we had with Dennis a while back. But I do want to read a land acknowledgement.
3
00:00:35,000 –> 00:00:39,000
I identify as a settler descendant.
4
00:00:39,000 –> 00:00:47,000
And I acknowledge the past and current stewards of this land, the Haudenosaunee, the Wendat -Huron, and Attawandoran peoples.
5
00:00:47,000 –> 00:01:00,000
We have the responsibility to honour and respect all of the wonderful elements of creation that exist, including the four directions, the land, waters, plants, animals, and ancestors that walk before us.
6
00:01:00,000 –> 00:01:23,000
This territory of Mississauga, we’re between Toronto and Niagara Falls area, is subject to the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant, which is an agreement between the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy, the Anishinaabe Ojibwe, and allied nations to peaceably share and care for the lands and the relationships around the Great Lakes.
7
00:01:23,000 –> 00:01:35,000
May we live up to this agreement with reverence towards Truth and Reconciliation. We acknowledge and thank the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation for sharing their traditional territory with us.
8
00:01:35,000 –> 00:01:44,000
And on a personal note, I love the crispness of the air as we transition from autumn into winter.
9
00:01:44,000 –> 00:01:52,000
Missing some of the animals as they’re a little less active, but still enjoying the bounty of our harvest season.
10
00:01:52,000 –> 00:01:54,000
Blessed be.
11
00:01:54,000 –> 00:01:59,000
So Jody, would you like to introduce Dennis, please?
12
00:01:59,000 –> 00:02:15,000
Oh, and I just want to add to that because I forgot that last time. Here on Reconciling Humanity, we are very grateful to be hosted by Skyward TV and Hopeful Radio with their mission to discuss the spiritual path to mental wellness.
13
00:02:15,000 –> 00:02:26,000
And we are very passionate about creating community and healing and looking at this from an angle of decolonization.
14
00:02:26,000 –> 00:02:40,000
I really respect that decolonization is an institutional issue, a policy issue, but I really feel in my heart that we need to discuss how do we decolonize our minds? What is the mindset? Decolonize our hearts? What’s the value system
15
00:02:40,000 –> 00:02:55,000
that status quo makes up in this world, that is very extractive and very exploitative. How do we heal our bodies? How do we heal our communities? Jody?
16
00:02:55,000 –> 00:03:16,000
Yeah, well, Eleanor, when you start to talk about the land acknowledgement, I don’t know what it is. I get a little uncomfortable and I just try to hold myself steady. But I appreciate it so much because you and I have talked about this position and why we created this together.
17
00:03:16,000 –> 00:03:27,000
So just knowing that we’re walking this path together and as Indigenous and non-Indigenous people really showing up to support each other.
18
00:03:27,000 –> 00:03:38,000
And I love when you get that written piece out of the way and then you close your eyes and you just embody who you are as I know you.
19
00:03:38,000 –> 00:03:47,000
And I love that. So I just want to acknowledge that and tell you that that’s my favorite part of your opening. So, skano..
20
00:03:47,000 –> 00:03:50,000
I’m curious about the discomfort?
21
00:03:50,000 –> 00:04:07,000
Yeah, well, I don’t know. I’m just kind of like, oh, really? Another land acknowledgement? That’s right. So, and I think that we’re really we are growing as a nation that understands, I believe, and this is why I kind of wanted to talk with, even just mentioned this to hear what Dennis has to think about land
22
00:04:07,000 –> 00:04:24,000
acknowledgements. But for me, when I’m sharing, when people ask about land acknowledgements and how and what we do with them and how we can support them, it’s obviously speaking from your heart and just connection to the land that you’re on.
23
00:04:24,000 –> 00:04:40,000
And, and that’s the importance, like waking, waking people, people are awakening to where they are in this present moment, our consciousness, like right now, because there’s enough this is we’re creating history right now in this moment, the three of us.
24
00:04:40,000 –> 00:04:55,000
So, Skano Jody nigasso, my great grandmother was of the Cayuga Nation, Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. On my father’s side, he, that was his, his mom, or his grandma.
25
00:04:55,000 –> 00:05:12,000
On his dad’s side, still learning that the government has his files, his adoption papers, and it’s, my uncle said that, you know, it’s believed that his father was Ojibwe. And on my mom’s side is Romanian and English, and we love this time of year because we’re
26
00:05:12,000 –> 00:05:31,000
getting ready and knowing that, you know, it’s, it’s almost Christmas when we’re filming this, acknowledging those people who will join us later at another time, and we’re, we’re going to have this on for a long time, Dennis, you are going to be on film for a long time and
27
00:05:31,000 –> 00:05:48,000
this was a, you know, and Dennis, I met Dennis, you know, several, four years ago or so now. And, you know, I, when I saw him, I was like, this guy is great, and he’s going to heal the world and there’s me thinking big and, you know, I, when I see people that have
28
00:05:48,000 –> 00:06:05,000
gifts, doesn’t, you know, how big or small or whatever, I just see them for what, what they are and, and it’s been a pleasure to meet Dennis and, and just support his journey, sharing knowledge where it needs to be shared to move people towards healing
29
00:06:05,000 –> 00:06:26,000
themselves, and then helping others heal. And to walk with you, Dennis, is amazing. It’s changed my life as a mom of two and a wife of 30 years, and an auntie and a great auntie and a daughter and a wife. I’m just, it’s, I’m healing.
30
00:06:26,000 –> 00:06:36,000
I’m on a healing journey and I truly sometimes wonder how I got into this circle.
31
00:06:36,000 –> 00:06:56,000
I know I push a little bit, I’m a little forceful, Dennis, but I’m, I’m always honored to introduce you to the space, with in the circle and new people and I, I’m excited for this next, next year, together with you and this next 40 minutes or so.
32
00:06:56,000 –> 00:07:03,000
So Dennis Windego tell the people who are watching who you are, and why we love you so much.
33
00:07:03,000 –> 00:07:07,000
I don’t know, I don’t know if I can answer that!
34
00:07:07,000 –> 00:07:14,000
Thank you for the introduction. Thank you for inviting me onto this platform.
35
00:07:14,000 –> 00:07:34,000
I’m very pleased to be here today. I would like to welcome everyone that’s tuning in here, and, you know, I welcome you into the circle. You just tuned into a circle, a virtual circle.
36
00:07:34,000 –> 00:07:50,000
And it is just as good as the sharing circles that we sit in, in life, when we’re person to person. So I welcome everybody into this very sacred space, I’m honored to be here.
37
00:07:50,000 –> 00:08:01,000
Beautiful. Thank you, Dennis, I got shivers there, I can feel, I can feel the safe sacred space that we’re cultivating and co-creating with spirit.
38
00:08:01,000 –> 00:08:20,000
We left off our last conversation you were telling us this amazing story about this, this young man who, and his story really touched me, especially I remember you mentioning the, the sound of his voice and the look in his eyes and how that transformed with
39
00:08:20,000 –> 00:08:23,000
your healing facilitation.
40
00:08:23,000 –> 00:08:36,000
You also shared about how you were inspired and and connected through spirit to learn of his spirit name.
41
00:08:36,000 –> 00:08:49,000
And then you received confirmation from the other elders who were in community with you that they also received that name and I just love those synchronicities and those deep connections.
42
00:08:49,000 –> 00:08:57,000
I would love to hear from you, your perspective on that for anybody who didn’t watch the last one so please do.
43
00:08:57,000 –> 00:09:01,000
But there was also an element of self care
44
00:09:01,000 –> 00:09:18,000
that was missing so can you please share with us because you said specifically that as you were facilitating space for him that you took on some of some of his his trauma, whether it was his grief, or some other energy; can you share with us more about how you
45
00:09:18,000 –> 00:09:22,000
deal with that in your self care please?
46
00:09:22,000 –> 00:09:26,000
Yeah, I would certainly be happy to share that.
47
00:09:26,000 –> 00:09:32,000
And I think it’s very important in any capacity.
48
00:09:32,000 –> 00:09:46,000
When we are involved with other people when we are listening when we are just sitting with someone who might be in some in some anger or sadness or whatever it is in emotional state.
49
00:09:46,000 –> 00:09:53,000
Because we are wired to connect. We are very much wired in every way to connect.
50
00:09:53,000 –> 00:10:10,000
So being in that strong connection with this person, you’re sitting in spirit, and it, and it opens the ancestry, our lineage, our link to the past, to the present, to the future.
51
00:10:10,000 –> 00:10:14,000
So we have all of that in presence.
52
00:10:14,000 –> 00:10:23,000
And so as I was listening and sitting and being with this person in that very spiritual way.
53
00:10:23,000 –> 00:10:34,000
I had no idea intellectually that I was sitting in a space that our ancestors have said and many times since time immemorial.
54
00:10:34,000 –> 00:10:38,000
And to me that’s a very, very important concept.
55
00:10:38,000 –> 00:10:44,000
Since time immemorial, we’ve always had that connection.
56
00:10:44,000 –> 00:10:50,000
And we’re always going to have that connection with others as human beings.
57
00:10:50,000 –> 00:11:02,000
And I stress that very importantly, human beings, because in the history of colonialism, we haven’t been viewed as human beings.
58
00:11:02,000 –> 00:11:14,000
But we are much more than human beings. We are also spirits that are fully developed, fully spiritually developed before we even arrive here.
59
00:11:14,000 –> 00:11:21,000
And when I connected with this young man, I knew he was carrying a lot of pain.
60
00:11:21,000 –> 00:11:36,000
And I could feel where he’s carrying it because I’m connected with him, but I’m also connected to the trauma and to the pain and to the depression and everything that he was carrying, carrying inside of him.
61
00:11:36,000 –> 00:11:44,000
Because when we are affected by trauma, it’s not only an emotional state of being, in emotional pain.
62
00:11:44,000 –> 00:12:02,000
It’s also psychological. It’s also physical. And it runs so deep inside of us. It can get stuck in the bones, in the muscles, in the blood, in the cells, in every fiber of our being.
63
00:12:02,000 –> 00:12:12,000
So I could feel all of that. And there were times where I felt overwhelmed by it because at that time, I was just starting out in this field.
64
00:12:12,000 –> 00:12:25,000
And I’m glad I was being guided by spirit, and being supported by the women that were there and the elders that were there and their powerful prayers, because that is what lifted me.
65
00:12:25,000 –> 00:12:39,000
That is what took care of me. And I know that is also what took care of this young man, because he had very little experience in having anyone take care of him.
66
00:12:39,000 –> 00:12:48,000
So as I started to do this ceremony with him, it was as if I’m watching someone do a ceremony.
67
00:12:48,000 –> 00:13:01,000
And it’s not an out of my body type of experience, but this awareness of this part of me strongly observing this ceremony happening.
68
00:13:01,000 –> 00:13:12,000
And instinctively and spiritually knowing what to do, how to remove that illness and that, in what he was suffering with.
69
00:13:12,000 –> 00:13:27,000
And after that was complete, after that was over, he looked like he was so light. His body was moving different. His posture was different. His eyes were different.
70
00:13:27,000 –> 00:13:33,000
The skin color was different. And you could just feel a big difference about him.
71
00:13:33,000 –> 00:13:48,000
But I noticed after he left the room and after he had shared his name that was given by the spirits, by the ancestors through that doorway,
72
00:13:48,000 –> 00:13:59,000
I could feel something inside of me moving. And I knew that I have to release this, because anytime anyone takes care of others,
73
00:13:59,000 –> 00:14:09,000
anytime anyone takes on what others are feeling, what others are being affected by, we have to move it out.
74
00:14:09,000 –> 00:14:24,000
We have to give that up. And I knew that if I was going to hold this, it’s not mine. And even if it’s not mine, it could harm me if I don’t do anything to release it.
75
00:14:24,000 –> 00:14:34,000
So when I told the elders and the women, I’ll be right back. I went outside and I went to the land.
76
00:14:34,000 –> 00:14:48,000
And I’ve seen these rocks. I’ve seen these trees. I’ve seen the grass. I could hear the birds singing. I could feel that sunlight as it’s warming up my body.
77
00:14:48,000 –> 00:14:59,000
But yet I could feel this stuff inside of me. So it was like I’m making a sacred agreement, a very sacred agreement for the land.
78
00:14:59,000 –> 00:15:08,000
If it can hold what I’m holding in my body, whatever it is that was taken out of this young man and what was harming him,
79
00:15:08,000 –> 00:15:14,000
and what was continuing to harm him, even though what harmed him happened a long time ago.
80
00:15:14,000 –> 00:15:24,000
But it doesn’t feel like a long time ago when it’s actively playing out inside the body and the bones and the muscles and the whole being.
81
00:15:24,000 –> 00:15:30,000
So I could feel all that and I could just get a sense of what he must have been living with.
82
00:15:30,000 –> 00:15:39,000
So then the rocks and the grass and the water and the trees had made an agreement and they said, we’ll hold this.
83
00:15:39,000 –> 00:15:48,000
And I started to release it. I could feel it in my body. It felt like I wanted to vomit.
84
00:15:48,000 –> 00:15:56,000
But I always remember one of my teachers, she would always say, when you’re releasing things, be gentle with your body.
85
00:15:56,000 –> 00:16:03,000
You don’t want to tear your body apart. You want to honor your body for what it does for you every day.
86
00:16:03,000 –> 00:16:08,000
And so I was gentle with that. And it was a vomit to me,
87
00:16:08,000 –> 00:16:15,000
it indicated that this is an illness I was making this young man sick. And this is how it was living inside of him.
88
00:16:15,000 –> 00:16:23,000
And it doesn’t have to live inside of me. So I gave it up because the land is always there to take care of us.
89
00:16:23,000 –> 00:16:28,000
And we have a sacred agreement to also take care of the land.
90
00:16:28,000 –> 00:16:40,000
And that goes back to time immemorial when Creator had placed us here through the hole in the sky, onto this land, onto this part of the earth.
91
00:16:40,000 –> 00:16:46,000
And that sacred agreement is with us still today. And we still honor that.
92
00:16:46,000 –> 00:16:53,000
So I knew the land was going to be OK to hold that. And I was going to be OK in releasing that.
93
00:16:53,000 –> 00:16:57,000
And I did whatever I had to do just to release it.
94
00:16:57,000 –> 00:17:07,000
And to me, this is, you know, when they talk about clinical supervision for therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists,
95
00:17:07,000 –> 00:17:22,000
how you have to do clinical supervision so that you’re not carrying the impact of the cases that you’ve listened to and the details that you went through and everything you felt inside of you about that.
96
00:17:22,000 –> 00:17:27,000
You have to do clinical supervision. You need to have a clinical supervisor.
97
00:17:27,000 –> 00:17:38,000
But to me, it was the land is my spiritual supervisor. It’s my spiritual guide. And it’s telling me I’m here to carry this with you.
98
00:17:38,000 –> 00:17:44,000
I’m here to carry it beside you. And I’m here to even hold it.
99
00:17:44,000 –> 00:17:51,000
And you’re going to know exactly where it is because it’s not going to go back and harm that young man.
100
00:17:51,000 –> 00:18:01,000
It’s not going to harm you. And it’s not going to harm the people that were there to support. So self-care is also very collective.
101
00:18:01,000 –> 00:18:07,000
It takes care of everybody when the person who was conducting the ceremony.
102
00:18:07,000 –> 00:18:19,000
And that’s what I come to realize today. There was, I was being I was a conductor, Creator was using me as a conductor to hear to do this healing ceremony and to conduct that.
103
00:18:19,000 –> 00:18:25,000
But I’m responsible for everyone that I asked to be there in that supportive role.
104
00:18:25,000 –> 00:18:36,000
So taking care of me is taking care of this young man that I’m working with and taking care of the people that stay there to support and to take care of the community,
105
00:18:36,000 –> 00:18:46,000
because the community did benefit from that intervention, because when we do an intervention,
106
00:18:46,000 –> 00:18:54,000
there’s this thing that I refer to as we, I, and we.
107
00:18:54,000 –> 00:19:03,000
So we carry the trauma. We are impacted by the trauma. We feel like this. We experience this around that trauma.
108
00:19:03,000 –> 00:19:10,000
So that’s collective. And that’s also vicarious.
109
00:19:10,000 –> 00:19:18,000
And when we work through that and we start to separate it and we get to I, ah there I am.
110
00:19:18,000 –> 00:19:28,000
How much of that pain is really me? How much of that am I carrying for others? How much of that is affecting me that’s not even mine?
111
00:19:28,000 –> 00:19:36,000
How much of that did not even originate from me? And then you get to I, wow, it’s not 100 percent when it gets to I,
112
00:19:36,000 –> 00:19:45,000
It’s maybe only about 5 percent. So 95 percent or maybe 80 percent of what we carry isn’t even ours.
113
00:19:45,000 –> 00:19:49,000
But yet it’s affecting us. It’s harming us. It’s hurting us.
114
00:19:49,000 –> 00:20:02,000
And so when, so when I, so then we get to I and we take care of I and that and that’s what happened with that young man through receiving his name,
115
00:20:02,000 –> 00:20:20,000
expelling and removing the harm that his body was carrying and how deep that trauma gets into the body and and accepting that name and introducing himself and and feeling different because he had to also learn to let go.
116
00:20:20,000 –> 00:20:27,000
He didn’t know how to let go. He knew how to hold it. He knew how to breathe it every day.
117
00:20:27,000 –> 00:20:38,000
But now he had to live a different life. And so when, when he started to accept that, I started to change.
118
00:20:38,000 –> 00:20:41,000
He started to change. That’s what I mean by I.
119
00:20:41,000 –> 00:20:54,000
He started to feel different inside because he found I identity, the self, because then in that moment he realizes, I am not the trauma.
120
00:20:54,000 –> 00:21:02,000
The trauma is something that happened to me. Trauma is something that was living and attacking me in my body.
121
00:21:02,000 –> 00:21:11,000
I was able to release it. And it wasn’t only my trauma. It was mixed in with my family’s trauma and some other people I was in contact with.
122
00:21:11,000 –> 00:21:16,000
So it’s very collective and he was able to release all that.
123
00:21:16,000 –> 00:21:24,000
And then because it benefited him it now returns to we, we benefit from this intervention.
124
00:21:24,000 –> 00:21:39,000
We as a community will create this, or not create, because the elders said these ceremonies happened in the history of their community.
125
00:21:39,000 –> 00:21:48,000
And for the past 80 or so years, they haven’t been practicing that because of various circumstances,
126
00:21:48,000 –> 00:22:02,000
whether it’s Indian Act policies and laws and things that prevent, in the past that prevented us from picking up our ways and practicing our ways and honoring our ways.
127
00:22:02,000 –> 00:22:12,000
We have to do it secretly underground. And I’m very thankful to those elders who held it in that in such secrecy,
128
00:22:12,000 –> 00:22:22,000
because now it gave the community that vision of saying we have to pick these tools up once again, because we’ve always had it.
129
00:22:22,000 –> 00:22:38,000
We put it away for many years and now we’re on this journey to reclaiming what was not valued, what was banished, what was.. illegal.
130
00:22:38,000 –> 00:22:47,000
Yeah, illegal. It became illegal. And so then they started to go to ceremonies.
131
00:22:47,000 –> 00:22:54,000
And I thought after or, you know, and it took me a couple of years to really start seeing it in these ways.
132
00:22:54,000 –> 00:23:06,000
I was going, I was thinking, I don’t know if there’s such a thing in for Indigenous people in psychotherapy, if there’s such a thing as individual counseling.
133
00:23:06,000 –> 00:23:19,000
I worked with this individual, but it was so collective and vicarious and including, since time immemorial, the spirits coming in to help the elders that were there,
134
00:23:19,000 –> 00:23:30,000
that witnessed and that helped the community to create that change because this young man was suffering and he thought he was the problem.
135
00:23:30,000 –> 00:23:39,000
So he’s carrying his whole history of not only his life, but the life of his family and his community inside.
136
00:23:39,000 –> 00:23:45,000
So I truly believe it goes through that stage. We feel like this.
137
00:23:45,000 –> 00:23:50,000
And then you have to find an I identity, who you truly are.
138
00:23:50,000 –> 00:23:59,000
And then it turns to we, we will now benefit and we will now heal and we will move forward together.
139
00:23:59,000 –> 00:24:08,000
So that’s what I wanted to share. And all of that to me is about self-care and healing collectively.
140
00:24:08,000 –> 00:24:17,000
And just, yeah, completely being well conscious and like connected, feeling, being, everything that you speak of.
141
00:24:17,000 –> 00:24:27,000
And this was what I saw, like him describing this in, you know, just how he spoke when I originally met you at Wabanow in Ottawa.
142
00:24:27,000 –> 00:24:42,000
But just to be beside you in this space when you are sharing this knowledge, moving people into healing is, it’s an amazing space to be in.
143
00:24:42,000 –> 00:24:49,000
And so I just want to acknowledge all of this land work, right? This connection to land.
144
00:24:49,000 –> 00:24:57,000
And I think that’s why I do want to ask your opinion about land acknowledgements and connections.
145
00:24:57,000 –> 00:25:06,000
So before we leave this space, because I believe that there are some really great understandings of why, you know,
146
00:25:06,000 –> 00:25:15,000
it was even said to talk about land acknowledgements, because I think that’s a big part of our healing nationally to connect people back to the land.
147
00:25:15,000 –> 00:25:31,000
But you are doing a program beginning of January. And this is the Awakened Healing Program that you’ve been, I guess, you know, I would say, practicing for several years.
148
00:25:31,000 –> 00:25:48,000
And, you know, now we’re walking alongside you to bring this program out for Indigenous people that are in these spaces where they’re serving and supporting Indigenous people and communities,
149
00:25:48,000 –> 00:26:00,000
but also for non-Indigenous practitioners and people practice, not even just practicing, those in the role of supporting people while they’re on their healing journey.
150
00:26:00,000 –> 00:26:08,000
So this program is called Awakened Healing, Weaving Ancient Indigenous Wisdom with Evidence-Based Psychotherapy.
151
00:26:08,000 –> 00:26:26,000
And what you were just speaking about is, is this, like the transformative skills, I guess, like the knowledge that participants will, will gain through this 21-day program that you’re offering?
152
00:26:26,000 –> 00:26:34,000
Like everything you talked about just made me feel like I was in the room with you, a part of that community.
153
00:26:34,000 –> 00:26:40,000
Is that what people will learn doing this training with you? Like, will you think, how does that work?
154
00:26:40,000 –> 00:27:03,000
I certainly believe that they will gain a lot of valuable skills because they will start to think and be in a different part of their whole being, including in those brain spaces that are just sitting there, waiting to form new pathways
155
00:27:03,000 –> 00:27:15,000
and to be creative at whatever age and to start thinking about issues totally different and connecting to our ancestry.
156
00:27:15,000 –> 00:27:34,000
If we all come from a land somewhere and land has medicine, then we are all land, we all have medicine and whatever we have in there, we tap into that without question, without judgment, without falsely creating it,
157
00:27:34,000 –> 00:27:51,000
but just really having that deep connection within ourselves that is going to connect to our ancient wisdom, our intergenerational powers and wisdom for healing.
158
00:27:51,000 –> 00:28:00,000
And I truly believe all humankind can, has the capacity to do that.
159
00:28:00,000 –> 00:28:21,000
So I will be teaching a very good formats, or what can I call them? Is that a format or is it like a system or a framework?
160
00:28:21,000 –> 00:28:40,000
Yeah.. You used the word template earlier. Is that what you want? Yeah, to have their template because it’s, you know, like what I would do is I would share pieces from my life and from how that a lot of that,
161
00:28:40,000 –> 00:28:57,000
those teachings and ways of healing were handed down to me by my father, also my mother, but also my aunts, my uncles, like people who are very influential in my life and who still are.
162
00:28:57,000 –> 00:29:10,000
And keeping that sacred because they’ve always told me you cannot share everything about what we know here, it’s very sacred.
163
00:29:10,000 –> 00:29:27,000
So I always want to respect the sacredness to anyone’s knowledge, because it may come from a very sacred source that comes from their culture, and maybe there’s protocols to follow.
164
00:29:27,000 –> 00:29:47,000
But everybody has that. And, and I can use that, my own experience and how I’ve learned and what I learned from people that I’ve learned, and that were influential in my in my life.
165
00:29:47,000 –> 00:30:07,000
And that helped me to get to where I am today because we don’t get to these places without people supporting us and having some kind of impact in our lives and it, and to me that’s very important so people will learn
166
00:30:07,000 –> 00:30:13,000
different ways of listening, different ways of spotting trauma.
167
00:30:13,000 –> 00:30:25,000
Where the body is holding that trauma, how it’s holding it, how it’s sounding, how it’s responding, maybe the sounds that needs to hear or whatever it is.
168
00:30:25,000 –> 00:30:45,000
Listening through all of our sensory, listening through sound, listening through many various ways like even little movements that the body might make during some kind of expression of a something that might have harmed them.
169
00:30:45,000 –> 00:31:02,000
And sitting beside that and helping people explore that in a very safe and attuned way, so that that person isn’t being overwhelmed by something that overwhelmed and traumatized them in the past.
170
00:31:02,000 –> 00:31:24,000
So, it’s really about creating that space of calmness, that space of groundedness, where they can start to listen inward and not judge what comes through that process that comes through from from that place.
171
00:31:24,000 –> 00:31:47,000
So, we will also, they will also learn just many different ways, many different things like how to, how to sit beside, when a person when they’ve had grief when they’ve had a loss or multiple losses because sometimes people don’t know what to do when they have
172
00:31:47,000 –> 00:32:07,000
multiple losses, just where do I start with all that. And I think it’ll be very good for people to know how to sit and listen to someone who has multiple losses, and they’ll know how to sit with that and how to even start providing that grief process and healing
173
00:32:07,000 –> 00:32:18,000
for that person, or someone who has multiple types of traumas, and all the different types of trauma that people go through.
174
00:32:18,000 –> 00:32:27,000
It’s just to have all these different ways of sitting with any kind of trauma, without judging it.
175
00:32:27,000 –> 00:32:47,000
You know, just connecting with the person and being able to observe and see that trauma, and how to create some distance, how to create some containment of that so that the person has some power and control in their life to be able to sit with that,
176
00:32:47,000 –> 00:32:52,000
without becoming overwhelmed by, by all that.
177
00:32:52,000 –> 00:33:03,000
And I think a lot of the tools that I described here are very important for any community.
178
00:33:03,000 –> 00:33:19,000
I receive a lot of positive feedback. When people learn, and when they have the, ah ha, what you just talked about is what my friend is dealing with. Now I know how to listen, now I know how to respond to them.
179
00:33:19,000 –> 00:33:41,000
Now I understand, or ah ha, what you just told me about, it helps me to understand my child, because I thought that my child was just acting in a bad way, they’re being a bad kid, but I realize now that there’s something much more than that, there’s something attached to that, and now I can
180
00:33:41,000 –> 00:33:52,000
listen to that differently and see the power of my child, because my child is actually expressing it, but I respond to it
181
00:33:52,000 –> 00:34:05,000
in a disempowering way, so now I know how to be empowered around my children, you know, like just some of the comments that I would get from, from people that learn some of these ways.
182
00:34:05,000 –> 00:34:22,000
But we would get further and deeper into practicing these ways because only through practice and experience can we get better at it, can we get stronger and can we get more accurate in how we’re helping people.
183
00:34:22,000 –> 00:34:45,000
And it’s the way we listen to people that’s going to make us 100% right on in, in getting to what we need to get to, to help them unhook that trauma, help them to see who they are in the present without getting lost in the past or, you know, just all these different ways.
184
00:34:45,000 –> 00:34:51,000
So, and the, and because it is psychotherapy.
185
00:34:51,000 –> 00:34:56,000
And because it’s also about land base.
186
00:34:56,000 –> 00:35:07,000
It doesn’t always have to be in an office setting, where some of these healing experiences happen, or intervention experiences happen.
187
00:35:07,000 –> 00:35:11,000
We can be sitting by the lake.
188
00:35:11,000 –> 00:35:26,000
And I remember over 30 years ago when, when I first took this, this training with with my mentor Shirley Turcutt, we were out at a resort.
189
00:35:26,000 –> 00:35:46,000
And she asked to go and practice sessions in a different part of the room. And because you know we just think our own ways, and we didn’t even listen to her we ended up go walking up this hill on top of this rock and there’s a nice open area there and that’s where we sat.
190
00:35:46,000 –> 00:36:02,000
And we had some pretty amazing sessions up there with, you know, with the wind coming in with the leaves around there, the brush, the grass, the rock, the sunlight, it was just so amazing.
191
00:36:02,000 –> 00:36:06,000
And I thought, wow, we’re listening into land.
192
00:36:06,000 –> 00:36:16,000
And little did I know that what we were learning in psychotherapy out there on the land.
193
00:36:16,000 –> 00:36:20,000
We would someday come to name it land based therapy.
194
00:36:20,000 –> 00:36:26,000
So it’s always been with us it’s always been around and we’ve always done land based therapy.
195
00:36:26,000 –> 00:36:37,000
And we’re saying, instead of listening to our instructors saying go and sit in that corner over there and practice instead we went out on the land.
196
00:36:37,000 –> 00:36:53,000
And you say and and I love that you say that, listening because it’s not just listening with your ears. Right, it’s listening with with everything from your body to your, you know, I just have so much I want to talk to you about more like okay let’s just, we’re
197
00:36:53,000 –> 00:36:59,000
going to try to keep it to 30 minutes or 45 minutes you just can’t Dennis because you’re just so engaging.
198
00:36:59,000 –> 00:37:08,000
And, you know what people say about you is so true you just have this beautiful spirit that, I want, I feel healed.
199
00:37:08,000 –> 00:37:11,000
Until I say, leave this.
200
00:37:11,000 –> 00:37:13,000
Until I say, leave this space.
201
00:37:13,000 –> 00:37:27,000
And just you know just acknowledging the time that we have here with you. But I would I would like to say is what I’ve noticed the work that you do engaging the community.
202
00:37:27,000 –> 00:37:43,000
You know you don’t just go in and heal or work with healing one person you do really do that work and. And so if you can just share with us when you, when you do go into a community where you know that you’ve been called in to support a community.
203
00:37:43,000 –> 00:37:59,000
And just share what that’s like, because people have been asking, you know how, how can we support Dennis and, and his work and first I say, take his training, and then second, you know because of the, the beautiful work that you do in communities
204
00:37:59,000 –> 00:38:13,000
and you have time to possibly send some helpers with you into these, into these, you know remote communities that, that really do need support so how how do you, how does that happen when you’re called into a community.
205
00:38:13,000 –> 00:38:20,000
Do you sit with elders, do you sit with community how, how does that work, if you can share that?
206
00:38:20,000 –> 00:38:29,000
I would, I would request that we keep that a little bit short for our time because we want to also answer that question about the land acknowledgement,
207
00:38:29,000 –> 00:38:33,000
please Dennis but that’s, I would love to hear about this too!
208
00:38:33,000 –> 00:38:39,000
Well, it’s, everybody has knowledge from the smallest child to the elder.
209
00:38:39,000 –> 00:38:56,000
And I want in between all that we all have knowledge so it’s important to speak with knowledge keepers, and those are the community members. Those are the people that were born on the land that live on the land, and that are part of that land base right there.
210
00:38:56,000 –> 00:39:03,000
They know that land, they know their culture, they know their medicines, they know their waterways, and everything.
211
00:39:03,000 –> 00:39:07,000
So it’s about listening to them, because.
212
00:39:07,000 –> 00:39:20,000
If I go into an Ojibwe community, I’m Ojibwe, the Ojibwe community I go into doesn’t make me an expert just because I’m Ojibwe, I need to learn their ways and their culture and their differences.
213
00:39:20,000 –> 00:39:28,000
I can look at their similarities and their differences. So it’s about getting guidance from that community.
214
00:39:28,000 –> 00:39:47,000
And then I can go forward into whatever it is that they want to change and whatever it is that that they want to do, because it’s about knowing all that understanding that and using their own resources to mobilize them into a process of change.
215
00:39:47,000 –> 00:40:02,000
So land acknowledgments, Eleanor I’m thinking like everything that Dennis talked about is, is why we have land acknowledgments. We had to we had to bring the consciousness to the people to to connect to the land.
216
00:40:02,000 –> 00:40:18,000
And to me, it’s, it was brilliant. It was like, I feel like there are these elders that were talking about you know, how do we connect people, you know in this unconscious, you know, that are living unconsciously, I guess or subconsciously.
217
00:40:18,000 –> 00:40:28,000
How do we bring them to prepare them for where we’re going to be in, you know, the next two decades or whatever with everything coming out.
218
00:40:28,000 –> 00:40:37,000
I don’t know. Hopefully. Right. I don’t know. Am I right, Dennis, I’m hanging around with you a lot so.
219
00:40:37,000 –> 00:40:42,000
Yeah, maybe picking up a few things. Of course you’re, you’re right on the right track.
220
00:40:42,000 –> 00:40:52,000
And there’s many tracks to it so I really appreciate that, that land acknowledgments right now, because it’s one little baby step in the right direction.
221
00:40:52,000 –> 00:40:59,000
And right now land acknowledgments start to make people feel more comfortable.
222
00:40:59,000 –> 00:41:07,000
But there are some people who are still not comfortable with it because of what it might mean to them. And that’s okay.
223
00:41:07,000 –> 00:41:24,000
And I do believe that the more we do land acknowledgments, it gets us, it sets the stage for the next step to understand the history of colonialism and land, and to know the processes that were used.
224
00:41:24,000 –> 00:41:46,000
And to learn about that kind of history and the reality of it because it’s all recorded. It may not be taught about in public, and in schools and that but it’s, it’s in, it’s written in history it’s written on the land it’s written in the stars, like, all that information is, is, is out there.
225
00:41:46,000 –> 00:42:03,000
But, are we comfortable enough to talk about the things that happened because of the land, because we, we do need to see and talk about the truth of that.
226
00:42:03,000 –> 00:42:31,000
Not to point any fingers or not to shame anyone but just to have an understanding and to, and to also know that it’s very important we always acknowledge land, the land that we come from, the land that we work on, the land that we enjoy, wherever it is that that we might go, that we might be part of.
227
00:42:31,000 –> 00:42:42,000
So, land acknowledgments, a very good step in the right direction, and it helps us to be more comfortable with with that.
228
00:42:42,000 –> 00:43:02,000
Until we get to the next part about what does that mean so now I need to learn about, about land claims I need to know, learn about Indian Act and, and even going back as far as the Doctrine of Discovery and the relationship to land and everything like that.
229
00:43:02,000 –> 00:43:12,000
So, it prepares us it helps us to move forward in those have those conversations at some point.
230
00:43:12,000 –> 00:43:32,000
So, a whole can of worms! Right? I know I’m like that’s what I think that’s what makes me me think of land acknowledgments like when people are reading it or it’s you know that I feel like it’s very surface there’s just a huge well, you know that you’re like, here, let’s start pulling it up, we’ll get to the bucket soon.
231
00:43:32,000 –> 00:43:42,000
Before we will we move into, you know, thanking you Dennis for being here and our closing.
232
00:43:42,000 –> 00:43:53,000
I feel with all of this talk of land I have to acknowledge an amazing woman who we lost yesterday, and I don’t even know what to call her because anytime I called her a grandma and elder she corrected me.
233
00:43:53,000 –> 00:44:15,000
But TerryLynn Brant was a really amazing woman in our, our community tragically lost her. Our environmental community, she was a very really important person for environment, and traditional knowledge for the people on Six Nations, and the Mohawk seed keeper.
234
00:44:15,000 –> 00:44:34,000
And so, TerryLynn Brant, we are thinking of her and and holding her family in our heart, and her community which I know is just trying to manage this loss, and the amazing knowledge that she carried and so graciously shared.
235
00:44:34,000 –> 00:44:50,000
And I know that grandmother’s voice was very fortunate to have her mentor, our Mohawk, Milton Mohawk seed keepers and I know that there are so many of us that are are sad and, and grieving the loss of this amazing woman.
236
00:44:50,000 –> 00:45:06,000
So, this, this video will live on and carry her spirit with it, I’m sure. Remind people of her when they, they listen to it so, niawah always for your time Dennis. Niawah for this space with you Eleanor you’re amazing.
237
00:45:06,000 –> 00:45:16,000
And I look forward to every single recording with you so take us out of this circle and send us home.
238
00:45:16,000 –> 00:45:22,000
Thank you and my my heart to TerryLynn Brant and her loved ones.
239
00:45:22,000 –> 00:45:30,000
And thank you, everyone for joining us. We hope that you gleaned a message or two
240
00:45:30,000 –> 00:45:33,000
and anchoring into your body.
241
00:45:33,000 –> 00:45:41,000
As we connect in community for deep healing with the land, as we are the land, we are the medicine.
242
00:45:41,000 –> 00:45:44,000
Blessed be.
243
00:45:44,000 –> 00:45:48,000
Thank you so much Dennis for your your time and your wisdom.
244
00:45:48,000 –> 00:45:59,000
It’s just, again, just like yes, this needs to be more, a longer show but we’re very grateful to Skyward TV and Hopeful Radio for this platform.
245
00:45:59,000 –> 00:46:04,000
And this path of spirituality towards mental wellness.
246
00:46:04,000 –> 00:46:07,000
Thanks for watching. Catch us next time.
247
00:46:07,000 –> 00:46:17,000
Miigwetch. Bye.
Relax, Refresh, Reflect and Rejuvenate
You Are the best investment you will ever make
Personal Empowerment, Embodiment and Evolution