Harrell et al - ABPsi 2015 Conceptual Contributions Symposium full page slides

Conceptual Contributions to Developing
and Delivering Wellness Interventions for
Persons of African Descent
Shelly P. Harrell, Ph.D.
Ashley Coleman, M.A.
Tyonna Adams, M.A.
Cheryl Grills, Ph.D.
1
Symposium Presented at the Annual Convention
of The Association of Black Psychologists
July 25, 2015
Las Vegas, NV

➢Dysfunctional and oppressive contexts
can block the natural human tendency
toward optimal development and
impede healthy functioning and well-
being by
○ compromising and confusing
personal and collective identity,
○ suppressing or misdirecting health-
promoting behaviors
Introductory Remarks
2

❖Introduction to PEaCE Theory and its
implications for intervention
❖Incorporate three African-inspired
conceptual ideas to explore PEaCE-
Informed Interventions for persons of
African descent
● Ubuntu Consciousness
● Positive Womanist Life Principles
● Adinkra Wisdom Symbology
Overview of the Symposium
3

Presentation #1:
“PEaCE Theory and Ubuntu Consciousness:
Person-Environment-and-Culture-Emergence as a
Framework for Culturally-Syntonic Interventions”
Authored and Presented by Shelly P. Harrell, Ph.D.
Pepperdine University
Copyright 2015. Shelly P. Harrell, Ph.D.. All Rights Reserved. 4

THE FOUNDATION:
A Brief Introduction to
“PEaCE” Theory
5

 Person-Environment-and-Culture-Emergence
 Developed to provide a foundation for the
meaningful integration of culture into the practice
of psychotherapeutic and preventive interventions
 A comprehensive, holistic, culture-infused meta-
theoretical model that is inclusive of the multiple
dimensions and contexts of human expression and
experience
What is PEaCE Theory?
6Copyright 2015. Shelly P. Harrell, Ph.D.. All Rights Reserved.

➢Dissatisfied with lack of substantive attention to
culture and context in the dominant theories of
psychology and psychotherapy
➢Need for a comprehensive meta-theory that
allows for the centering of culture in the analysis
of human behavior that can be utilized as a
culture-centered conceptual framework for
psychological practice
➢Wanted a way to center the interconnected nature
of human experience in how we talk about
functioning and transformation
Why PEaCE Theory?

Culturally-Sensitive Culturally-Appropriate
Culturally-Relevant Culturally-Intentional
Culturally-Adaptive Culturally-Alert
Culturally-Responsive Culturally-Informed
Cultural Humility Culturally-Competent
Culturally-Grounded Culturally-Centered
Culturally-Infused Culturally-Congruent
Cultural Attunement Cultural Resonance
Culturally-Syntonic (Harrell, 2008)
Copyright 2015. Shelly P. Harrell, Ph.D.. All Rights Reserved.
Some Terminology for Incorporating
Culture in Psychological Research &
Practice
8

Two approaches that do NOT meaningfully integrate
culture
Cultural Categorization – Label or identify diverse
participants without any modifications to methods or
consideration of cultural variability
Cultural Comparison – Include diverse participants
for the purpose of comparing groups on universal
constructs
Culture in Psychological Research
& Practice

➢CENTERS culture by starting with the premise that
culture is infused in all human activity and
incorporates culturally-syntonic constructs,
strategies and methods with an ongoing awareness
of sociopolitical and historical dynamics
➢Two types of Cultural Infusion Approaches
● Cultural-Adaptation - Start with presumably
universal constructs, strategies and methods and
then make cultural adaptations that are
grounded in the target culture
★ Cultural-Specificity – Start with a specific culture-
carrying group and design strategies that emerge
from constructs authentic to the target group;
should occur in all phases of the work
The Cultural Infusion Approach

In the context of psychological and preventive
interventions, culturally-syntonic practice involves:
 processes, activities, relationships, and experiential
presence
 that reflect attunement, harmony, and resonance
 with relevant dimensions of collective cultural
elements (reflecting sociocultural processes) and
their individual expressions (reflecting
psychocultural processes)
 such that engagement with, and the effectiveness
of, interventions is enhanced and optimized.
What is Culturally-Syntonic Practice?
11

● Syn – with or together
● In harmony with; emotionally in harmony with one’s
environment -Collins English Dictionary
● Normally responsive and adaptive to the social or
interpersonal environment -Merriam Webster’s Medical Dictionary
● Describes somebody who is normally attuned to the
environment; used to describe behavior that does not conflict
with somebody’s basic attitudes and beliefs –Microsoft Encarta
College Dictionary
● Characterized by a high degree of emotional responsiveness
to the environment; Of or relating to two oscillating circuits
having the same resonant frequency -American Heritage Dictionary
Why Syntonic?
12

African-centered/Black Psychology
Multicultural Psychology & Diverse Cultural Psychologies
Community Psychology
Humanistic-Existential Psychology
Interpersonal Neurobiology
Primary Influences on the Development
of PEaCE Theory & Practice

IDEAS AND CONSTRUCTS EMBEDDED IN PEaCE THEORY
• NTU: Spirit energy and life force that flows through and
enlivens all living things
• Ubuntu: Interconnected nature of life and centrality of
relationship and community
• 7 Principles of Ma’at: Truth, Balance, Harmony, Justice, Love,
Order, Propriety
• The Maafa & Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome: Historical trauma
of enslavement and the ongoing retraumatization of racial and
cultural oppression that violate our human beingness (the
underlying source of stress for African Americans)
• Optimal Psychology (Linda James Myers)
• Community of Self (Na’im Akbar)
• Extended Self (Wade Nobles)
• Culturecology (Wade Nobles and Lawford Goddard)
• Diunital Thinking: “both-and”
Foundations in African-Centered/Black Psychology
14

“I am because we are and,
therefore because we are I am”.
Ubuntu is a South African Zulu principle which
defines the essence of being human as a spiritually-
infused interconnectedness and interdependence
such that the foundation for living optimally and
manifesting our highest humanity comes from the
nature of our relationships with others in the
context of being in community (see Washington’s work)
Ubuntu: The relational nature of our humanness
15

➢ An Ubuntu Consciousness is an internalized and lived
appreciation of the spiritually-infused, interdependent
nature of our humanity
➢ An Ubuntu Consciousness is about understanding that the
essence of being fully human and the optimal expression of
the fullness of our collective humanity is fundamentally
about interconnectedness
○ The most basic and necessary conditions for optimal
health and well-being lie in our connectedness with
others, with community, with nature, and with the
transcendent.
➢ An Ubuntu Consciousness must inform how wellness is
defined, understood, and promoted.
An Ubuntu Consciousness for Wellness
16

OTHER INFLUENTIAL IDEAS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PEaCE THEORY
➢ Multicultural and Cultural Psychologies: Worldview, Cultural Values, Cultural Identity,
Collectivism, Intersectionality, Cultural Socialization, Acculturation, Historical Trauma,
Oppression Theory, Liberation Psychology, Cultural Soul Wounds, Espiritismo,
Nonduality, Enlightenment, Heart-centered Transformation, Interdependent Self, Jeong
➢ Socioecological and Systems Theories: Community Psychology: Community, Wellness,
Social Justice, Social Ecology; Embeddedness in layers of social contexts, Dynamic
Systems Theory; Complexity Science
➢ Humanistic and Existential Theories: Concern with the nature of the human condition
and its challenges; Authentic relationship and human connection as the “soil” for the
emergence of optimal growth and functioning; Value on the experiential and
phenomenological; transpersonal experience
➢ Interpersonal Neurobiology: The mind as relational and understood as patterns of flow
of energy and information; exchanged between people; the nature of relationships
effect the flow of energy and information; Health is conceptualized as integration and
balance.

1. Interconnectedness and Relationality
o Inseparability of Person, Culture, and Context
2. Multiple Levels of Analysis &
Complex Systems Thinking
o The Flow, Shifts, and Exchange of Energy within
and between Systems
3. Wellness-Focused
o Counters the deviance and pathologizing
orientation of Western psychology
Core Tenets of PEaCE Theory & Practice
18

The
Person-Environment-and-Culture-Emergence
Transactional Wellness Model
19

Copyright 2015. Shelly P. Harrell, Ph.D..
All Rights Reserved.
20

The ongoing interrelationships between
Person, Environment and Culture can
be thought of as a “Transactional
Field” where interconnected physical,
psychological, relational, communal,
and spiritual energies are always
flowing within and between person,
environment, and cultural systems.
21

The PEaCE Transactional Field as Energy
“Energy is everything and that’s all there is to it.” -Albert Einstein
 Many cultural and spiritual traditions have some type of concept of an
interconnecting essence of life, a dynamic energy that flows through and connects
everything.
-Ntu (African) -Chi (Taoist/Chinese) -Pi (Japanese)
-Wakan (Lakota) -Prana (Indian) -Holy Spirit (Christian)
 Energy can be understood as a potentiality for action that is in constant circulation.
Particular energies can be felt in the atmosphere of our individual, relational, and
collective lived experience. Energy flows and is exchanged in the ongoing “Being-in-
Culture-in-the-World” transactions between and within persons, environments, and
cultures.
 Energy is always flowing within and across the five Modalities of Daily Experience
(MODEs): Sensing, Thinking, Doing, Relating, and Transcending.
 An important property of energy is that it shifts. The movement of energy in one
place affects energy patterns somewhere else. It is within the shifting of energies
that the potential for human agency and transformational change is created.

➢The energy field of living human
experience where person, environment
and culture are inseparable
➢Where “lived experience” is created
through transactions (flow of energies)
between and within Persons,
Environments, and Cultures
➢Where the capacity for human agency
(purposeful, self-determined action) is
created
“Being-in-Culture-in-the-World”
23

➢ Pathogenic Transactions
○ Decrease the likelihood that the positive wellness
outcomes of resilience, wellbeing, thriving, and
optimal functioning will emerge
○ Increase the likelihood that the negative wellness
outcomes of distress, dysfunction, disorder, and
disease will emerge
➢ Wellness-Promoting Transactions
○ Increase the likelihood that the positive wellness
outcomes of resilience, wellbeing, thriving, and
optimal functioning will emerge
○ Decrease the likelihood that the negative wellness
outcomes of distress, dysfunction, disorder, and
disease will emerge
Two Primary Types of PEaCE Transactions
24

➢Stress is major contributing factor to the negative Wellness
Outcomes of Distress, Dysfunction, Disorder, and Disease
➢Stressors are conceptualized as types of “Being-in-Culture-
in-the-World” transactions that emerge at the intersection
of biopsychorelational dimensions of the person,
socioecological levels of the environment, and cultural
dynamics
➢The experience of stress, “The Stress Response” can be
manifested at multiple dimensions of the
biopsychorelational person system (e.g., somatic,
emotional, cognitive, spiritual, etc.)“Being-in-Culture-in-
the-World” transactions
Pathogenic Transactions and Stress
25

● The Stress Response is an evolutionary response to threat or danger and signifies
compromised wellness; “Fight” or “Flight” (Walter Cannon)
○ Recent research has expanded this to include “Freeze” (hypervigilance),
“Fright” (immobility), and “Faint” (collapse) as additional evolutionary
responses to stress (Freeze-Flight-Fight-Fright-Faint)
○ I add “Freak-out” (disorganized and dysregulated behavior)
● The Stress Response is triggered when one’s resources for “survival” (i.e., coping)
have been taxed or exceeded
● Reactivity to the subjective experience of stress can lead to additional pathogenic
transactions resulting in a vicious spiral of accumulating stressors and chronic
stress responses
● Sustained or chronic stress can do significant damage to health and well-being
through its impact on systems in the body (brain (through neurochemical activity),
autonomic nervous system (ANS; sympathetic and parasympathetic systems),
hormonal activity through the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, immune
system functioning; organ damage (heart, etc.)
● Oppressive transactions create a context where persons of African descent
frequently experience The Stress Response due to the ongoing threats and
assaults on our personhood and lives
The Stress Response
26

 We can lessen the occurrence and severity of The Stress
Response and impact Wellness Outcomes by modifying
PEaCE Transactions
 Wellness-promoting PEaCE Transactions create energies
that can generate an enlivening vitality that facilitates
human agency and contain potentialities for action.
 Since the shifting of energy in one place affects energy
patterns somewhere else, when wellness-promoting
energies are activated, the energy created can be felt by
persons and in the atmosphere of a setting.
Promoting Health and Wellness
“From Stressed-Out to Energized Within”
-Harrell (2013)
27

Essential Wellness-Promoting Energies
Six Essential Wellness-Promoting Energies can be identified and
understood as emergent properties of activity in the PEaCE
Transactional Field. The energies of Adaptability, Acceptance,
Centering, Interconnectedness, Openness, and Empowerment
circulate and are exchanged in the ongoing transactions between
person, culture, and environment.
These energies emerge from wellness-promoting PEaCE
transactions and are expressed as individual, relational, and
collective ways of “Being-in-Culture-in-the-World”
Activating Essential Wellness Energies involves the modification of
PEaCE Transactions (i.e., “Being-in-Culture-in-the-World”) and
enables movement toward well-being, thriving, and optimal
functioning in the presence of the socioecological stressors.

ESSENTIAL WELLNESS ENERGIES OPTIMAL HEALTH AND WELLNESS THEMES (OHWTs)
for PEaCE-Informed Interventions
Adaptability Flexibility, Creativity, Liberation
Empowerment Authenticity, Engagement, Intentionality
Centering Groundedness, Affirmation, Faith, Transcendence
Interconnectedness Wholeness, Relationality, Compassion, Forgiveness
Openness Release, Receptivity, Inclusion, Sharing
Acceptance Presence, Patience, Gratitude
Essential Wellness Energies
and Associated Themes for Interventions

The multiple historical, sociopolitically-situated, and
organizing systems of meaning, knowledge, and living
in the world that:
➢ consist of patterns of being, believing, bonding,
belonging, behaving, and becoming (see the works of
Wade Nobles and Daryl Rowe)
➢ emerge and transform over time through cumulative
and adaptation-oriented person-environment-
culture transactions
➢ are maintained and transmitted through collective
memory, narrative, and socialization processes
Integrated Definition of Culture
(from Harrell, 2015)
30

These patterns of being, believing, bonding, belonging,
behaving, and becoming
➢Provide the foundational frames for developing
worldviews, interpreting reality, and acting in the world
➢For a group of people who share common ancestry,
social location, group identity, or defining experiential
contexts;
➢But for whom, as individuals or intersectional
subgroups, elements of a particular cultural system
may be embraced, internalized, and expressed
differently
Understanding How Culture is Manifested
31

Cultural systems are essentially dynamic energy
patterns of being, believing, bonding, belonging,
behaving and becoming and are
-embedded in social and institutional contexts,
-internalized as patterns of meaning and identity,
-expressed through actions and relationships, and
-interactive with co-existing cultural systems that
reflect the multiple dimensions of human
diversity that carry culture (the intersectional nature
of culture).
Cultural Systems are Dynamic Energies
32

The Biopsychorelational “PERSON”
33

The Socioecological ENVIRONMENT”
34

BECAUSE…
➢The focus of analysis is human experience is
“Being-in-Culture-in-the-World”
➢Culture is infused of ALL person and
environment processes through
Psychocultural and Sociocultural Processes
➢Thus, any understanding the Person or the
Environment MUST include the
consideration of Culture
PEaCE as a Framework for Culturally-Infused
Approaches and Culturally-Syntonic Practice
35

 The goal of interventions grounded in PEaCE Theory is to create
and strengthen PEaCE Transactions that promote individual,
relational, and collective wellness
 Rather than starting with a traditional theoretical orientation
(e.g., psychodynamic) or treatment protocol (e.g., ACT) and
considering culture after the orientation is chosen, PEaCE-
Informed Intervention BEGINS by understanding “Being-in-
Culture-in-the-World” such that the intervention approach
emerges from the analysis of the PEaCE Transactional Field.
 Utilizing PII can inform the selection and implementation of
culturally-syntonic treatment and prevention strategies that
come from diverse schools of theory and practice, as well as the
creation and development of original strategies specific to the
particular application
PEaCE-Informed Intervention (PII)
36

➢ Conceptualization of the PEaCE Transactional Field and analysis of
presenting issues with reference to the three systems:
○ The Biopsychorelational “Person”
○ The multilevel Socioecological “Environment”
○ The multiple dimensions and expressions of “Culture”
➢ Identification of culturally-syntonic intervention strategies that
optimize Person-Environment-Culture Fit via the mobilization of
Wellness Energies that facilitate the creation and manifestation of
wellness-promoting ways of “Being-in-Culture-in-the-World”
➢ Implementation of interventions that serve Ameliorative,
Protective, and Transformative functions, and facilitate movement
towards Positive Wellness Outcomes
Basics of PEaCE-Informed Intervention
37

1. Culturally-Syntonic Engagement
2. Complexity and Contextualization
3. Affirmative Humanization
4. Relational Interconnectedness
5. Existential-Diunital Thinking
6. Creative Transformation
7. Empowering Liberation
PII Guiding Principles for Intervention
(see handout)
38

PEaCE-Informed Intervention (PII) Strategies
Culturally-Diverse “Communal and Contemplative Practices”
+ Social Justice and Empowering Practices
COMMON THEMES ACROSS DIVERSE CULTURES:
= “Connectedness”, “Consciousness”, “Commitment”
Understandings of Health, Healing, and Humanity
Indigenous Psychologies & Diverse Cultural Contexts

➢ Primary Target of Change in PII
○ Increase Positive Wellness Outcomes of Resilience, Well-
Being, Thriving, & Optimal Functioning
➢ Three primary Change Processes are hypothesized to lead to
enhancement of Positive Wellness Outcomes
○ Communal Processes (change mechanism = relatedness)
○ Contemplative Processes (change mechanism = awareness)
○ Empowerment Processes (chance mechanism = agency)
➢ Change occurs as a result of creating or strengthening
Wellness-Promoting PEaCE Transactions using strategies and
practices that involve Communal, Contemplative, and/or
Empowerment Processes (i.e., increase relatedness,
awareness, and agency)
PEaCE-Informed Intervention (PII) Change Model
41

CoCos are a culturally-diverse family of methods involving
the intentional creation of temporal, physical, mental,
emotional, relational space to
 create and nurture interpersonal relatedness and
sense of community
 practice sustained and directed attention, and
 facilitate intimate connection with internal, relational,
and/or spiritual experience,
thus creating the conditions for empowered action,
transformation and optimal well-being to develop.
Foundational PEaCE-Informed Intervention Strategies:
Communal and Contemplative Practices (CoCos)
42

 Facilitate connection with persons,
groups, communities, culture,
nature, spirit
 Facilitate communal bonding and
shared experience
 Create and nurture relationality and
belongingness
Objectives of Communal Practices
43

•Creating Opportunities for Interpersonal Relationships to form or
deepen
•Creating Relational Conditions for Optimal Growth and Actualization
(Rogers)
•Healing and Transformation Through Dialogue, “Giving Testimony,
and Bearing Witness”
•Developing and Strengthening Healing and Growth Alliances (HGAs)
•Community Development and Building Sense of Community
•Group Experiential & Expressive Activities
•Communing with Nature
•Rituals and Collective Spiritual Practices
Ways of Activating Communal Processes
44

Contemplative Practices can be thought of as
encompassing a variety of strategies for
deepening and expanding experiential and critical
awareness by bearing witness to one’s own
experience, both internally and in the world.
In PII, contemplative practices are a culturally-
diverse group of meditative and consciousness
practices that involve experiencing and directing
Mind-Body-Spirit energies.
Contemplative Practices
45

➢ “Culture” because there are diverse contemplative practices in
many cultural and religious traditions and the resonance and
effectiveness of any meditative or contemplative approach is a
function of its congruence with values, beliefs, and cultural
worldview
➢ “Context” because contemplative practices such as meditation, like
all human behavior, occurs in multiple ecological contexts and these
must be understood to maximize the potential effectiveness of any
particular meditative or contemplative practice
➢ “Liberation” because the meaningful core of all contemplative
practices is freedom in the context of the challenges and boundaries
of the human condition such that the effectiveness of the practice is
enhanced when it remains connected to this ultimate purpose of
liberation
Contemplative Practices involve
Culture, Context, & Liberation
46

 Practice sustained and directed
attention
 Deepen and expand experiential and
critical awareness of internal and
external experience
 Facilitate processes to enhance insight,
understanding, higher levels of
consciousness
Objectives of Contemplative Practices
47

Meditation refers to a culturally-diverse family of methods
involving the intentional regulation of attention to
facilitate intimate connection with internal, relational,
and/or spiritual experience, thus creating the conditions
for transformation and optimal well-being to develop.
(Harrell, 2013/14)
As a type of Contemplative Practice, meditation occurs
within the context of larger values-centered,
transformative and liberatory purposes with the
intention of being manifested in how we live individually,
relationally, and collectively.
Meditation as a Contemplative Practice
48

Close your eyes and open your heart-mind-spirit.
Exhale into the present here-and-now moment.
Notice your internal experience by observing (without evaluating)
what is going on physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
Trust in what matters most to you by bringing it to consciousness
using a meaningful word, an affirmation, proverb, sacred text
passage, image, symbol,
Explore your choices.
Release what does not serve your highest purpose and return to the
situation more centered.
The “reCENTERing” Meditation

“Meditation is to see deeply into things, to see
how we can change, how we can transform
our situation.”
“Meditation is not to escape from society, but
to come back to ourselves and see what is
going on. Once there is seeing, there must be
acting.”
Thich Nhat Hanh Quotes on
Meditation
51

➢Empowerment Practices are what we DO in the World
➢Empowerment Practices are the “action” implications of
Communal and Contemplative Practices
➢Empowerment Practices involve activating and manifesting
Wellness Energies in our relationships, communities, and
daily life toward positive transformation and change
➢They are characterized by active movement toward
individual, relational, and collective well-being, thriving, and
optimal functioning
➢Because “power” can be abused and distorted, it is
important to implement CO-COs prior to or simultaneously
with Empowerment Practices
Empowerment Practices:
Acting in the World
52

Ability/capacity to do or act; capability of doing or accomplishing
something; exercise of one’s authority; Energy and power as often cited
as synonyms
Expressions of Power
○ Power Over – act ON others, control and dominate
○ Power To – act TOWARD something, pursue goals and opportunities
○ Power From – act AWAY FROM something, resistance
(from Riger, 1993)
○ Power Of - act GUIDED BY deeply held principles that are actively
and openly expressed; often accompanied by social justice actions
● Satyagraha – Power of Truth (Gandhi)
○ Power With- act WITH others, capacity to build groups, bring people
together, create community, engage in collective action
Understanding Power
53

➢ Empowerment involves the affirmative and transformative
exercise of power within an ubuntu consciousness of
interconnectedness and can be manifested as “POWER TO…”,
“POWER FROM…”, “POWER OF…”, and/or “POWER WITH…”.
➢ Empowerment is experienced and expressed through multiple
MODEs as an affirmative and transformative energy that
reflects having the internal and external resources, as well as
the personal and collective efficacy and will to affect
culturally-syntonic changes in self, relationships, and contexts
that enhance the well-being of individuals, groups, and
communities.
➢ To facilitate empowerment means to nurture that affirmative
and transformative energy within an ubuntu consciousness
➢ Necessary for creating community and social change
Power and Empowerment
54

Ultimately, PEaCE Theory and PEaCE-
Informed Intervention (PII) are tools to
facilitate liberation of the human spirit
and expression of our highest
collective humanity from the effects of
pathogenic “Being-in-Culture-in-the-
World” transactions that dehumanize
us, make us sick, and suppress our
divine and spirited nature.
Summary Remarks
55

Presentation #2:
“Womanist Psychospiritual Strengths and Virtues:
Empowering Wisdom from the Lived Experience of
Women of African Descent”
Authored by Ashley Coleman, Shelly Harrell, & Tyonna Adams
Presented by Ashley Coleman, M.A.
56

I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Now you understand
Just why my head’s not bowed.
I don’t shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing,
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It’s in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
the palm of my hand,
The need for my care.
’Cause I’m a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That’s me.
Phenomenal Woman Excerpt (by Maya Angelou)
57

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MveYqOO06Ic&app=desktop
Phenomenal Women, are we wearing our
crowns?
58

● To describe a framework of identifying
strengths and facilitating wellness for Black
women, as well as for women from diverse
racial/ethnic backgrounds
● To introduce the Positive Womanist Life
Principles (PWLP) developed by Dr. Harrell and
described a PEaCE-Informed Intervention
based on the principles and inspired by the life
and work of Dr. Maya Angelou.
Presentation Objectives
59

 To counter the deficit-oriented,
pathologizing, and marginalizing
tendencies of the science and practice
of psychology
 To highlight strengths, assets, and
resources in the context of the
intersectionality of women’s
oppression
Positive Womanist Life Principles
Why “Positive”?
60

● “Womanist” term coined by Alice Walker in
1983 that describes the heart and behavior
of a woman who is empowered, loving,
spirited and strong
● Grounded in the lived experience of Black
women
● Challenged white supremacy embedded in
White feminism, the patriarchy of the African
American church and the dominance of male
voices in Africentric theory
Roots and Overview of Womanism
61

Walker’s four-part conceptualization of
a womanist:
o Courageous, audacious, wants to
know more;
o Commits to love and wholeness of
all people;
o Cherishes and celebrates life;
o Embodies strength, intensity and
passion (as purple is to lavender)
Who is a Womanist?
62

● WT has been utilized across disciplines as a
way to enhance the lives of African
American women
● WT affirms spirited living and calls for
expression of one’s truth in the service of
the liberation of self and humanity
● WT is a way of understanding the struggle
for wholeness among women who refuse to
collude with the invisibility of their
personhood demanded by gender, class,
sexuality, and racial oppression
Womanist Theory (WT)
63

 Generally, principles are meant to guide us and
provide a grounding place from which we can
navigate our lives
 The Positive Womanist Life Principles offer a
culturally- embedded framework for identifying,
enhancing and building the strengths and gifts of
women of African descent.
 These Principles are meant to reconnect us to a
culturally-rooted understanding of of positive
womanhood.
Why Life Principles?
64

➢The structure of the Positive Womanist Life
Principles integrates work from Positive
Psychology to develop a system for categorizing
positive human behavior referred to as the
Values-In-Action (VIA) Character Strengths and
Virtues
➢Positive Psychology converges with African-
centered/ Black Psychology and other cultural
psychologies, community psychology, and
humanistic psychology in its emphasis on
strengths, assets, well-being, and optimal
functioning.
The PWLPs and Positive Psychology
65

(1)Extended ways of knowing (Wisdom)
(2)Spirited and Inspired living (Transcendence)
(3)Loving Interconnectedness (Humanity)
(4)Balance and flexibility (Temperance)
(5)Liberation and Inclusion (Justice)
(6)Empowered Authenticity (Courage)
➢ Forty specific strengths and gifts are organized within the six
life principles. (Harrell, 2014)
The Six Positive Womanist Life Principles
66

Positive Womanist Life Principle #1:
Extended Ways of Knowing
67
Womanist “Wisdom”: Extended Ways of Knowing
1.1 - Intuitive, Spiritual, and Relational Knowing (through signs, symbols, body, etc.)
1.2 - Historical and Contextual Perspective
1.3 - Nonlinear and diunital thinking; Understands co-existence of seeming
opposites
1.4 - Creativity - Resourcefulness; ingenuity (making a way out of no way)
1.5 - Seeks to “know more and in more depth”; Questioning, interrogates reality
1.6 - Insight and Understanding; Critical consciousness; Understands the “big
picture”; broader perspective
1.7 - Teaches, passes lessons down; Holder of wisdom; Mentor; advice giver
1.8 - “Mother wit”; Common- sense

Spirited and Inspired Living
68
Womanist “Transcendence”: Spirited and Inspired Living
2.1 - Reverence for the spirit-infused essence of all life - humans, animals, plants,
nature, etc.
2.2 - Soulfulness; Feels deeply; Being “moved”; Passionate aliveness in joy and pain
2.3 - Hope in adversity; transcendence of limitations and barriers; possibility of change
2.4 - Faith - supreme confidence that God/Spirit is always there and will protect and get
you through hard times
2.5 - Personal and intimate relationship with God, Nature, Ancestors
2.6 - Expressiveness and improvisationality through music, dance, poetry, art, orality;
Celebration
2.7 - Life-giving and renewing; birthing and re-birthing; transformative energy
2.8 - Sense of purpose and “calling”

Loving Interconnectedness
69
Womanist “Humanity”: Loving Interconnectedness
3.1 - Collective; interdependent, and unitive consciousness; Ubuntu- “I
am because we are and because we are I am”
3.2 - Hospitality, welcoming, sharing (what’s mine is yours”)
3.3 - Communal nurturance and caring; participates in growth and
development of others
3.4 - Compassionate presence; witnessing; being “with” the experience
of others
3.5 - Sisterfriend relationships; Lifts up, encourages, supports others
3.6 - Healer; provides healing where there is suffering

Balance and Flexibility
70
Womanist “Temperance”: Balance and Flexibility
4.1 - Harmony and balance; understanding and patience with cycles of life
and natural order
4.2 - Forgiveness and mercy
4.3 - Purposeful sacrifice and discipline; responsible, takes care of business;
does what is needed
4.4 - Flexible and adaptive when necessary; role flexibility; can change
directions if the situation calls for it
4.5 - Acceptance and surrender; seeing “what is” and “turning it over”
4.6 - Discernment, judgment, sees through insincerity; prioritizing based on
values

Liberation and Inclusion
71
Womanist “Justice”: Liberation and Inclusion
5.1 - Respect for the worth and dignity of ALL people in the context of
honoring differences; universalism, egalitarianism
5.2 - Movement toward wholeness within self; movement towards
inclusiveness across persons
5.3 - Resists oppression; stands up against exploitation and violence in any
form; protects the weak and downtrodden
5.4 - In-charge and serious; initiative; “Do it yourself” spirit
5.5 - Collective responsibility and participatory action; mobilizes and brings
people together for common cause
5.6 - Moral - spiritual responsibility for the conduct of self and others; doing
the right thing for humanity

Empowered Authenticity
72
Womanist “Courage”: Empowered Authenticity
6.1 - Self-determination; self-defining; self-affirming; “loves
herself...regardless”
6.2 - Audacious, willful, outrageous when necessary
6.3 - Speaks truth to power; truth-telling; straightforward communication;
giving testimony
6.4 - Conviction, standing one’s ground; follows beliefs; integrity, “walks
her talk”; capability
6.5 - Perseverance, endurance, “can do” attitude
6.6 - Transgressive and revolutionary; risk-taking; subversive; acts for a
higher cause

The Positive Womanist Life Principles can
be used to inform and organize the
development of strengths-based
interventions for women of African
descent. The principles may also
resonate with other women of color.
Positive Womanist Life
Principles
73

● Phenomenal Women Rising (PWR) is a group
intervention in development that is guided by the lived
experiential wisdom of Black women as represented in
our Positive Womanist Life Principles
● Inspired by Dr. Maya Angelou’s life and body of work,
particularly her poems “Phenomenal Woman” and “Still
I Rise”
● PWR’s mission is to empower, to uplift, to reconnect to
our authentic African American womanhood, and to
enhance the well-being of its participants
● PWR was initially conceptualized as a weekly support
group, but its format can be amended to accommodate
other audiences (e.g. workshops and retreats)
Phenomenal Women Rising (PWR)
74

 Informed by the PWLPs, PWR aims to
provide opportunities for its participants to
identify and fortify existing strengths, to
develop new strengths and to utilize
existing strengths in new ways
 This process can be healing as participants
can use their new strengths to combat the
internalized “isms” and negative
stereotypical characterizations of Black
women’s emotional reactions and behavior.
The Benefits of PWR
75

 The target outcome of the PWR intervention
is WELLNESS defined as Resilience, Well-
Being, Thriving, and Optimal Functioning
 Considering Person, Culture, and
Environment are each critical for
understanding and enhancing wellness
among women of African descent
 The three primary change processes involve
o Communal Practices
o Contemplative Practices
o Empowerment Practices
PWR as a PEaCE-Informed Intervention
76

-The “I Rise” activity utilizes Poetry Therapy
techniques and draws upon Testimony
Therapy, an African-centered narrative therapy
developed by Akinyela
-The activity incorporates all of the PEaCE-
Informed Intervention change processes:
Communal, Contemplative, and Empowerment
-The PEaCE-Informed Communal Practice of
“Giving Testimony and Bearing Witness”
provides the structure for the activity
An Example of a PWR Intervention Strategy
77

➢ Facilitation of the process of giving the testimony of one’s
lived experience, telling one’s story, and expressing one’s
experiential truths
➢ Group members bear witness to each others experiences by
the willingness to be emotionally and relationally present
during the testimony and by engaging in empathic, active,
and responsive listening. As a “Call and Response” process,
the component of bearing witness is a “connected witnessing”
rather than a dispassionate observing.
➢ In a group intervention context the facilitator encourages
group members to both “give testimony” of their own
experience by telling their story to the group, as well as to
actively “bear witness” to the stories of others.
“Giving Testimony and Bearing Witness”
78

Community Reading of the Poem
Brief meditation on the word “rise” and
contemplative reflection on “what I am
rising from”
Giving Testimony and Bearing Witness:
Participants stand and declare what they
are rising from. Other group members
actively demonstrate their listening and
affirmation of the testimony.
Overview of The “I Rise” Activity
79

You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may tread me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise
Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
‘Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.
Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I’ll rise.
Dr. Maya Angelou’s Testimony: Still I Rise
80

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.
Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don’t you take it awful hard
‘Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines
Digging in my own backyard.
You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I’ll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I’ve got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
81

Out of the huts of history’s shame
I rise
Up from a past that’s rooted in pain
I rise
I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise.
Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear
I rise.
Bringing the gifts that the ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise.
I rise.
I rise.
82

Brief Meditation
and Contemplative Reflection
on the Word “Rise”
and the Experience of
“Rising”
83

Giving Testimony (Call)
“I” am rising from
__________________.
84
Bearing Witness (Response)
“My Sister/Brother,
I See You Rising”

“We Rise”
“We Rise”
“We Rise”
85

Presentation #3:
“Themes for a Culture-Centered
Stress Management Intervention:
The Wisdom of Adinkra”
Authored by Tyonna Adams, Shelly Harrell, & Ashley Coleman
Presented by Tyonna P. Adams, M.A.
86

Imperialism leaves behind germs of
riot which we must clinically detect
and remove from our land but from
our minds as well.
~Frantz Fanon
97

The images powerfully portray the threats to
our humanity as persons of African descent
living in the United States of America
We must reclaim our humanity for ourselves
These ongoing threats to our human beingness
are the underlying sources of stress for African
Americans
Humanization and Our Collective Humanity
98

 To describe a PEaCE-informed approach
to stress management that reflects the
unique needs of individuals of African
descent.
 To illustrate how integration of the
wisdom embedded in Adinkra symbols
and proverbs can help promote
communal and contemplative practices
for wellness enhancement.
Presentation Objectives
99

 Sources of stress are invariably linked
to the struggle for an empowered
existence, in a society infused with
assumptions of African inferiority.
 Historical, transgenerational, and
contemporary trauma are barriers to
the affirmation of our humanity as
Black persons
The Struggle to “BE” as a Source of Stress
100

“Stress management” for African Americans
is NOT simply about discrete coping
behaviors or problem-solving.
Managing stress is about accessing the
cultural wisdom within to reclaim our
humanity, affirm our existence, and
manifest our highest potentialities.
How Can We Heal?
101

 Instead of relying on a Eurocentric treatment
paradigm, culturally-syntonic practices are necessary
 PEaCE Theory and Practice was derived from various
healing and transformative practices taken from
diverse cultures outside of the European and North
American cultural perspectives.
 Traditional and contemporary African philosophical
perspectives are valuable sources of wisdom for
stress management in the context of oppression
PEaCE Theory and African Philosophy
for Stress Management
102

● As a thread in contemporary African Philosophy,
African existentialism emphasizes the struggle to
express one’s authentic self and to simply “be” within
contexts that actively work against validation and
affirmation of Black persons and communities.
● African existential thought brings the notion of “being
in the world” to the forefront:
○ What it means to be human.
○ The meaning of freedom and liberation.
○ The degradation of humanity and dehumanization of persons.
Contemporary African Philosophy
103

 For people of African descent, existential questions relate
primarily to issues of identity and liberation in the context of
oppression, objectification, dehumanization and
expendability.
 Themes of African existentialism are seen prominently in the
works of Ralph Ellison, Franz Fanon, and James Baldwin
 African existentialism also considers the importance of
transpersonal experience (experience “beyond” the personal
and material), as well as the relationship between the human
and spiritual realms, in addressing questions of human
existence.
 For more on African Existentialism, see the work of the African
American scholar Lewis Gordon
African Existentialism
104

African wisdom traditions, such as that
which is embedded in Akan Cosmology,
provides us with a “way of being” in the
context of oppression that is wellness-
promoting and affirming of our
humanity
How should we “BE” in the world?
105

● Akan cosmology affirms the centrality of
God (Nyame) within the universe.
● Akan use cultural symbols to portray their
belief about God, their attitudes towards
God and His Creation and their
understanding of their relationship to God
and His Creation.
Traditional African Philosophy:
Akan Cosmology and Adinkra Symbols
106

 Adinkra are visual symbols created by the Akan
to represent concepts and aphorisms.
 Adinkra symbols embody various aspects of an
African cosmology, such as the centrality of the
spirit and interconnectedness.
 Each symbol has a distinct meaning to convey
particular wisdom and values, many have
associated proverbs or sayings.
Adinkra Wisdom Symbology
107

 Symbols, proverbs and metaphors can serve
ameliorative, protective and transformative wellness
functions.
 Symbols help to anchor us in what we need to
remember and activate for wellness
 Symbols can create, change, maintain, and transmit
socially constructed realities.
 Symbols carry energy and particular energies are felt
from symbols
o Symbolism is embedded throughout African-
centered psychology
The Important Role of Symbols
108

● As described in Dr. Harrell’s presentation,
PEaCE-Informed Interventions identify 6
Essential Wellness Energies including:
Interconnectedness, Acceptance, Centering,
Adaptability, Empowerment and Openness.
● The integration of Adinkra Symbology serves to
intensify the meaning and expression of
wellness energies for persons of African descent
Essential Wellness Energies
109

● Boa Me Na Me Boa Wo (Cooperation,
Interdependence)
● Mpatapo (Peacemaking, Reconciliation)
The Energy of Interconnectedness
110

● Adwo (Peace, It is finished)
● Nokore (Truth Cannot Hide, Veracity)
The Energy of Acceptance
111

● Sankofa (Learn from the Past,Heritage)
● Gye Nyame (Omnipotence of God)
The Energy of Centering
112

● Ananse Ntontan (Creativity, Wisdom)
● Aya (Versatility, Perseverance)
The Energy of Adaptability
113

● Gyawu Atiko (Bravery, Courage)
● Wawa Aba (Determination, Strong Purpose)
The Energy of Empowerment
114

● Matie Masie (Learning, Deep Listening)
● Sesa Woruban (Transformation, Change)
The Energy of Openness
115

 PEaCE Informed Interventions can be tailored
to resonate with people of African descent by
integrating Adinkra symbols into Communal,
Contemplative, and Empowerment Practices.
 Connecting people to the linked proverbs,
metaphors and meanings of the symbols
facilitates communal and contemplative
practices for stress management and
wellness enhancement.
Using Adinkra Symbols in PEaCE-Informed
Intervention Strategy
116

 Using the chart on the handout,
write down the meaning of your
Adinkra Symbol on the back of the
card
 Look at the Adinkras that you chose.
Select one of your symbols for your
“Living Wisdom” first name and one
for your “Living Wisdom” last name.
The Adinkra “Living Wisdom” Activity
117

 Select your “Living Wisdom” middle name from
the following “activating” words:
Illuminating Affirming Manifesting Mobilizing
Expressing Igniting Revealing Creating
Amplifying Radiating Liberating Engaging
 Write down your “Living Wisdom” Name on the
back of one of your cards.
The Adinkra “Living Wisdom” Activity
118

Stand and Proclaim Your “Living
Wisdom” Identity
I am
_______________.
119
Reflect on how you would orient toward the stress in
your life if you were to manifest the energy embedded
in your “Living Wisdom” identity?

Discussant Commentary:
Dr. Cheryl Tawede Grills
120

Discussion
with
Audience
121
Slides may be requested by email to:
shelly.harrell@pepperdine.edu

Harrell et al - ABPsi 2015 Conceptual Contributions Symposium full page slides

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