RBST describes the specific experiences of individuals who are surviving racial discrimination, threats, humiliation, racial bias, microaggressions, being unseen, and shaming events that happen at work, home, or in the community. These experiences create emotional injuries that accumulate over time and result in symptoms that are consistent with traumatic stress disorders, deplete energy, and activate a constant sense of survival mode.
Examples of race-based stress and traumatic experiences:
- Microaggressions
- Hate speech, threats, and intimidation
- Police harassment, community violence, and government abandonment
- Workplace discrimination, bias, and retaliation
- Medical invalidation and trauma
- Immigration difficulties and citizenship threats
- Underrepresentation and misrepresentation
- Environmental threats
- Etc.
Signs and symptoms of race-based stress and trauma include:
- Hypervigilance (i.e. constant scanning for threats)
- Anger and rage
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Headaches
- Upset stomach
- Humiliation
- Difficulty sleeping
- Rumination
- Avoidance (e.g., emotional numbing, behavioral inhibition)
Nightmares
Individual behavioral health support can help you recover from experiences related to RBST. It can also assist you to learn protective strategies such as connecting with your own cultural identity and tapping into the strengths, history, and wisdom of your cultural communities.
Our therapists will validate and affirm the reality of your lived experience and offer you a safe space that is focused on your healing, resilience, and emotional freedom. Click here to request an appointment
Social support can have a buffering effect on the relationship between race-based or discriminatory experiences and psychological distress. Experiencing racism in any form is stressful, degrading, and upsetting, and it does not impact everyone in the same way. Connecting with others with similar experiences can help you feel safe, validated, and supported as you talk with others about how they have coped and grown as a result of how they handled different situations. Finding a community with your shared values also helps you to feel a greater sense of connection and belonging, which reduces feelings of isolation.
We currently offer the following social support programs:
Kultivate Konnection
Kultivate Konnection is a monthly, 30-minute virtual drop-in group developed through a partnership with UVA-Population Health department and UVA Faculty, Employee, Assistance Program. Kultivate Konnection groups offer an emotional wellness break and is a space that facilitates racial healing through a connection with colleagues, shared experiences, and the cultivation of a sense of authenticity and kinship. Visit the group to learn and share strategies for challenges you are facing and feel uplifted in a welcoming and soulful environment.
Facilitators will also share other resources available to support you. It works best if you are able to have your camera on and talk in the session.
Facilitators:
Arminda B. Perch, MBA, LCSW, and Pamela Meredith Hamilton, MAMF, Mental Health Ally
Start date: First Thursdays of the Month, starting February 1, 2024
Time: 11:30 am
Eligibility: UVA Employees (Health System and Academic; includes UPG & UVA-Wise): e.g., Fellows, Medical Residents, Staff, Faculty, Clinicians, and Clinical Team Members) and employees of FEAP Partner organizations.
Click Here to Register for Kultivate Konnection
Circle of Light
The Circle of Light (COL) is a six-session group that was developed in partnership with the Population Health Department and Faculty and Employee Assistance Program (FEAP) for the purpose of creating an emotional wellness space where individuals can process their experience with racial trauma through the exploration of shared stories and lived experiences. COL will also help participants understand what racial trauma is and how it can affect their mental and emotional well-being and to incorporate ways to interrupt the trauma response by drawing upon culturally-grounded healing strategies.
We welcome and invite you to virtually drop into the Circle of Light on the 4th Thursday of each month to be seen, heard, felt, and to let your light shine!
Facilitators:
Arminda B. Perch, MBA, LCSW, and Pamela Meredith Hamilton, MAMF, Mental Health Ally
Start date: Most recent Circle of Light group ended on July 27, 2023 - check back for 2024 dates.
Eligibility: UVA Employees (Health System and Academic; includes UPG & UVA-Wise): e.g., Fellows, Medical Residents, Staff, Faculty, Clinicians, and Clinical Team Members) and employees of FEAP Partner organizations
Click Here to Register for Circle of Light
Positive Affirmations, Poetry, Apps, Articles, & Stories
- 4 Ways People of Color Can Foster Mental Health and Practice Restorative Healing
- Affirmations for Morning Meditation, Confidence, and Self Care
- Affirmations for Self-Care
- Daily Affirmations
- Filling our Cups: How to Foster Mental Health and Practice Restorative Healing
- The Four Bodies: A Holistic Toolkit for Coping with Racial Trauma
- Liberate meditation app
- Mental toughness is the secret to success
- Positive Affirmations
- More Positive Affirmations
- Positive Affirmations in Mandarin and English
- The Power a of Black Woman's Self Love Journey
- Proactively Coping with Racism | Psychology Today
- What it means to grow up Asian American
- You So Black
Education about Racism as Trauma
- Racial Battle Fatigue: What is it and What are the Symptoms?
- Racial Trauma
- Racism Recovery Plan
- What is Race-Based Trauma
- Assaulted Sense of Self, Dr. Ken Hardy on Racial Trauma
- Intergenerational Trauma - Animation
- Internalized Racism with Dr. Dee Watts-Jones
- Racial Trauma
- Racism and Mental Health
- Trauma not Transformed is Transferred
- Understanding Racial Trauma
- National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 988, available 24/7 | Lifeline Chat
- Region Ten Emergency Services: (434) 972-1800, available 24/7