Indigenous Holistic Psychologies and Ancestral Wisdom with Elmina Bell

Have you been curious about ancestral healing but unsure how to engage? Most of us have been disconnected from our ancestors through colonialism, but that doesn’t mean we can’t access the wisdom that lives on through us. This week I had the huge privilege of getting to talk with Elmina Bell of Mulema Alchemy.

In this episode, we talk about re-thinking psychiatric diagnoses from a holistic indigenous perspective. We discuss practical ways to engage with our ancestors. We talk about colonial oppression, racism and how we’re each called to do the work of dismantling oppression in different ways according to our unique gifts and calling, how we can re-center spirit in mental health work, de-center whiteness in astrology and how to prepare for the upcoming eclipse season in sidereal Libra.

NOTE FROM ELMINA: Sidereal Astrology actually gave me an opportunity to look at ways I can develop roots and foundational astral interpretations that can be applicable regardless of climate while honoring locality. There’s something foundational in Sidereal that works closely with constellations that were used long ago and shares similarities with fixed stars which is the type of astrology that all indigenous societies used. I talk about this more through Sankofa Rising Indigenous Astro, a community and podcast with Black/POC astrologers using Indigenous cosmologies, healing justice, and decolonial approaches.

“Don’t shrink the power of your cultures and ancestors to fit into oppressive systems”

— Elmina Bell, Depth Work Podcast Episode 14

“There are words that exist in indigenous languages that don’t exist in Western languages and there are words that exist in Western languages that don’t exist in indigenous languages because our conception of reality is different. These terms: ADHD, Bipolar, Autism, I haven’t found those DSM conceptions in indigenous psychologies, cosmologies, or medicine. I have found people who have the signs associated with those in other traditions, such as a person who has an elevated and then a down mood. But in terms of how we relate to that, it’s not through the lens of a pathologizing model. It’s through a holistic indigenous model which looks at the root causes of an Issue and the systemic causes of an issue. I also feel the treatments in western mental health are insufficient because they don’t care for the whole person.”

— Elmina Bell, Depth Work Podcast Episode 14

About Elmina Bell:

Elmina Bell (she/they) hails from Indigenous African parents from the Indigenous Bantu Sawa/Subu peoples of coastal, southwest Cameroon in Central Africa, and the Ewe peoples of Togo West Africa and was born and raised in the United States. Elmina is multiply neurodivergent/neuroexpansive person who centers Indigenous holistic psychologies and cosmologies for improved mental health, community building, and for the dismantling of oppressive colonial capitalistic societal systems that are at the root of health and housing disparities. Their work as a trained trauma-informed peer support facilitator, crisis counselor, tropical and sidereal astrologer, sound healer, and medium, is guided by Mulema Alchemy. Mulema means heart in the Indigenous Sawa languages of her parents and she believes in the transformative, alchemical power of the heart.

Elmina’s Website

DEPTH Work - A Holistic Mental Health Podcast

This is a space for those who love to dive into the underbelly, to revel in the mystery, question assumptions about what is normal, play in both/and, and honor the wide range of human emotions.

As a complex trauma survivor, holistic counsellor and co-founder of a mental health institute, I learned that there is immense wisdom in our pain and what we call crazy is just what we are yet not willing to understand and explore. Let’s dive in!

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