Healing ancestral trauma begins with befriending the shadow within.

Part of my healing journey included connecting to my (deceased) great-grandparents and learning about their lives by way of speaking with my grandparents about their early childhood experiences. Through this process of un/learning I came to understand what’s mine and what’s not mine to carry.

I saw the correlation between my ancestors experiences and my night terrors and physically manifested emotional pain. I acknowledged my ancestors’ trauma and my night terrors almost immediately came to a halt. I wrote to one of my ancestors and got to know her intimately through letters and conversations. I did hear responses from her through the universe. It was a powerful experience.

Here are some photos I took during the conversation with my grandparents:

The photos were taken on Kodak Portra 400 film using a Hasselblad 500cm camera.