Ancestral Institute

The Ancestral Institute first emerged as a corollary to DBGM’s annual In My Mind (IMM) LGBTQ+ People of Color Mental Health Conference. The Ancestral Institute focuses for 2022 on LGBTQ+ Seniors of color mental health.

Knowing that, traditionally, our elders are a community from whom teachings, wisdom, and experience are shared, the Ancestral Institute brings together elders and community members experienced in traditional healing practices, and psychological clinicians and educators, to fuse/meld traditional healing with contemporary psychoanalytic treatment paradigms to form a unique treatment model/module that is comprehensive and provides for the “whole person” type of treatment for Black and people of color. It is intended that this fusion will provide a mental health paradigm that is culturally sensitive and appropriate, and connects to a Black person’s inherent experiences.

The Ancestral Institute is intended to be a forum in which participants will draw on their respective cultures, bring and share their ancestral/traditional healing practices, and examine how together with contemporary mental health psychological constructs/paradigms work toward achieving a “whole person” type of treatment for Black and peoples of color; and which will work on crafting a curriculum for inclusion in training modules and therapeutic practices, especially for Black and people of color practitioners.