Psychologist Leigh Sheldon discusses how culture heals complex trauma

By Laura Mushumanski

(ANNews) – Have you ever felt misunderstood or thought there was something ‘wrong’ with you? Or perhaps you started to get this insatiable hunger for knowledge about who you are and where you came from – and why engaging with certain people, places, and things are so hard to do? Why somethings come easy to you, and other things make you feel so disconnected and lost?

Another challenging thing that comes up for people is relationships – what are relationships and how to go about them in a good way, how to get along with people, how to feel safe and connected with others, and how to not overstep our own emotional and mental boundaries.

Throughout the history of trying to understand human behaviours, it turns out Indigenous peoples are leaders of understanding the complexity that comes with heart heavy traumatic experiences – complex trauma and how it is held within the brain and our most loyal companion, the body.

Indigenous trauma is complex, it changes the nervous system and brain and “all [body] parts are not in relationship with each other,” explains founder of Indigenous Psychological Services, Leigh Sheldon with the understanding that “the reptilian brain cannot connect to spirit.” So, in those moments when one is feeling not like themselves, that usually is an indicator that the body and spirit are separate, in other words the relationship between body parts have not yet built a bond and connection to feel safe with each other.

The understanding that Sheldon has come to know was through her own healing journey, diving deep into her own complex trauma that became an invaluable teacher that she walks with to support others in their own understanding of how culture heals complex trauma.

“I had a backpack of shit – [that was] affecting my way of living my life.”

A common understanding and lived experience by Indigenous peoples is not knowing where they came from, a disconnection from culture, language and in depth understanding of how to walk in the world in a good way.

“Part of becoming a psychologist is a personal journey for me of not knowing my place in this world and not knowing who I am. It [has taken] a lot of prayers, coming from a place of disconnection,” Sheldon shared as she reflected on not growing up in the Indigenous ways of knowing, being and doing. “There was a part of me that I couldn’t really embrace my Indigenous side…There was so much negativity, racism, and barriers, it was almost like a not knowing there was a possibility until there was a part of me [asking], ‘what am I living for? why do I want to live, what is this really about?’ That’s where so many things started.”

Leigh’s curiosity to explore what it means to her to be an Indigenous person, welcomed her with loving arms, “an eagle flying over, a simple thing like that. It’s just how Creator kind of puts itself in front of you and says, ‘Hey I’m here’ and start praying or start listening or start really connecting on such a deeper level. It takes being in such a dark place to see light.”

Sheldon started to learn how to walk in two worlds as a psychologist to support community in a good way. “It wasn’t until after I was finished my master’s that I learned about two-eyed seeing … I had to become a psychologist to work with Indigenous people, but when I worked with Indigenous people, I really had to embrace everything about my culture.”

A lot of us, including Sheldon were never raised with culture. “I wasn’t really exposed to much of the teachings growing up. The violence towards it, you couldn’t really connect with it, you couldn’t speak the language. When you are coming from a place of nothing and walking into it, you have to [first] observe, you have to start learning how to speak it, start learning how to experience it. The two-eyed seeing really taught me about this on-going embodiment of being with and in this way of life, that I was never able to be exposed to.”

The two-eyed seeing that Sheldon spoke fondly of, is embedded in the ways of knowing how walking in the world through the lens of Western Science and Indigenous worldviews help the understanding of how we can walk in a good way. “The two-eyed seeing has really taught me that I can walk into this Western world in a way that honours being a psychologist professionally and learning those skills of mental health, but then there is this Indigenous ways of knowing in the way of life – it’s all about the way of life…If I am looking at my own mental health I need to go to a sweat or ceremony to connect with spirit in a place where I can listen to Creator or those ancestors, and also the connection to land. .. I never really thought about those things growing up, those important things and how much they have an influence on my health.”

What led Sheldon into the world of psychology was from her own lived experience, followed by her healing journey and the lack of support to be understood as an Indigenous woman with complex trauma. “I have suffered from complex trauma. I had a significant amount of trauma when I was young. I was electrocuted at 18 months old, I almost died, my mom brought me back to life. … It really messed my system up where I couldn’t trust people, I couldn’t have relationships, I wasn’t coping well. I was kind of doing these things where I was either going to go right or left”.

Within the world of psychology, western science has developed skills to learn how to manage anxiety and depression. On the other hand there is a lack of understanding when it comes to Indigenous trauma. This is when Sheldon started to embrace and incorporate culture into her practice.

That pivotal moment for Sheldon shaped her fundamental understanding and ways of knowing within her own practice as an Indigenous psychologist. “Why weren’t people talking about how culture heals? Back then in 2008 when I really started to change my life and connect in something that was so foreign to me, it changed me [toward] a field of psychology – because back then there was no such thing as an Indigenous counselling, Indigenous trauma, Indigenous psychologist. It paved the way of how I got into psychology, knowing it needs to change and it needs to be different…We have to be better at this. That whole time of my life, of I either go left or right, Creator kept coming into my dreams, it was like “I got something here for you, you got to listen, and if you don’t listen then you are going to really struggle and that’s exactly what happened.”

For Sheldon, these understandings, prayers and engaging with ceremony brought clarity to her own healing, an embodiment of understanding about what happened to the body after a traumatic experience – how Indigenous trauma changes the nervous system and brain. It is what Sheldon spoke about, “[The brain and body] will function so differently, [they] are not in relationship with each other. They kind of break a part, stop communicating.  … so, when you can build a relationship, or rebuild or repair that relationship, that is how we heal trauma. We lose our gut intuition, we lose connection to our spirit, because when you have trauma [and] once that brain starts to separate with those parts, it can’t grow back, unless it is in connection to or feels safe…And even though we have this Indigenous trauma that makes it difficult with having relationships and conflict, and bringing in love and joy, we also have this Indigenous healing.”

Laura Mushumanski is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter