A warm welcome to
the leading blog for healing African American family trauma using the transformative power of connection.
Welcome from Manicka Thomas, Clinical Director
Kindred Connections Therapy Center is a community of parents, teachers, therapists and Social Workers who share resources, trainings and tools to help you heal from childhood trauma. We provide guidance that helps you break free from symptoms of childhood trauma, which are fear-driven reactions that block you from having the happy life, intimate relationships and healthy connections with your children that you so desperately desire.
Many Black people struggling with symptoms of childhood trauma don’t even realize it.
Maybe you thought it was “just you,” but the effects of childhood abuse and neglect follow a common pattern. Have you found that:
You have trouble focusing or staying organized
You’re sometimes emotionally triggered into anger or sad around certain family members
You get stuck in negative thoughts, telling yourself that you can’t take a break or that you have to be responsible for everything
You keep ending up with partners who are emotionally unavailable or unhealthy for you
You’ve tried dozens of self-help tools and listened to tons of relationship “experts” and none of it actually helps
Here’s the thing…it’s not your fault.
These are common signs that abuse and neglect in childhood are affecting you now. If you are looking for help that is expert, confidential, culturally relevant and tailored to you and your family's needs, I can help.
In my experience, the most common reasons for seeking help are if you feel stressed, "stuck," or you notice general unhappiness. You may also be experiencing concerns with your child's behaviors, difficulty managing your anger, or struggling to recover from an unhealthy relationship.
Your old patterns are not likely to heal by themselves. And I don’t want you to waste another day feeling isolated, stressed and trapped by your symptoms. Healing is possible! You just have to be willing to give yourself the tools and support you need to heal from the past, so you can start living fully in the present.
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I would love to talk with you about how I can help you reconcile the painful and traumatic life events and reconnect with yourself; or how I can help your family get back on track, reconnecting with each other. The goal of doing early childhood trauma work is to carve out time to focus on you…to reconnect with what motivates you, to discover who you truly are, what your ideal life looks like, and how you can work toward the changes you want in your life.
Within the Black community, it is so common to normalize your trauma and to act as if it has to be an everyday part of your life. If not managed, your trauma will show up in how you parent, how you show and receive love and how you care for yourself mentally, emotionally and physically. Your childhood experiences within your family now shapes how you navigate hardships and process difficult emotions. And despite your resilience, it's important to acknowledge and address these early childhood wounds with compassion and grace toward yourself and others.
I teach simple techniques that anyone can use to calm the symptoms of early trauma.
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Create The Life of Your Dreams
Where there used to be confusion, discover clarity and a sense of purpose, where there use to be chaos, reimagine a life of comfort, becoming who you were always meant to be.
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Enjoy Fulfilling Relationships Naturally
Let go of unhealthy relationships, and cultivate real connections with people who respect you, love you and allow you to live a drama-free life.
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Feel Consistently Better
Discover productive ways to release your emotions without letting them control you. Feel less stressed, more focused, and more like your real self.
I know about childhood trauma because I lived it…
I grew up in an African American home that was deeply affected by domestic violence, and all the problems that tend to go with that -poverty, fear, violence, lack of control and guilt. There were really great things about my family too, and I was a pretty resilient girl, but I was also reserve, quiet and shy. By the time I was in my 20s, the trauma of early childhood was showing up in my relationships. Back then, I struggled with speaking up for myself, caring about how other’s perceived me, and making sure that I looked like I had it all together. I longed to feel connected, but kept finding myself in unhealthy relationships. My extreme inconsistency and distant exterior, pushed away friends and work opportunities, causing me to feel increasingly lonely. So I stuffed my shelves with self-help books, but nothing seemed to help. No one seemed to be able to understand what was going on with me and so many other black girls who grew up in abusive African American families. There was no name for it, until I came across the work of Dr. Joy Degruy. Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome.
In my life and in the lives of so many others, this was the culprit of my early childhood trauma…and it all stems from chronic exposure to intense stress, most commonly experienced during childhood in Black families.
We now know that the effects of childhood trauma are not just emotional — they also affect your brain!
Your nervous system regulates every part of your being. Early Childhood Trauma (ECT) can disrupt and dysregulate the function of both your brain and your nervous system.
Dysregulation + Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: The Core Problem That Drives Early Childhood Trauma in Black Families
Dysregulation in your brain can trigger:
Depression and anxiety
Intense emotions out of proportion to the circumstances
Problems with learning, focus and memory
Impulsive decisions to jump into relationships (or to abruptly leave them)
Auto-immune disease, diabetes, heart disease and cancer
A loss of confidence that you can safely navigate life
A feeling of overwhelm that causes you to isolate
Here’s my method for healing the Early Childhood Trauma (ECT)
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Understand ECT and Dysregulation
Identify your trauma and its long-term impact on your emotions, your relationships, your career and your body.
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Learn re-regulation techniques
Reclaim a sense of mastery over your thinking and emotions, using simple methods you can use daily. Build the skills you need to heal your symptoms
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Re-write Your Cultural Story
Join an online community with other women and men who are healing their own CPTSD, supporting one another to integrate this new and powerful approach to healing.
Learn and Try My Approach to Healing
Start slowly with a single course, or dive right into membership and coaching for extra support & faster results!
What support do you need? Let’s tackle it together!
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Understanding Your Childhood Trauma
Learn the daily writing and meditation techniques that help heal dyregulation and other symptoms of Childhood PTSD. Once enrolled, you’ll receive an invitation to free Zoom calls where we use the techniques together. This is a great place to start if you want some immediate relief.
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Emotional Regulation for Kids Living Through Trauma
Taking a course is a good way to learn the basics of my methods and start feeling better quickly. Each course includes videos and worksheets to complete at home, at your own pace. All students are invited to my twice-monthly free Zoom calls. Courses start at $97
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The Kindred Collective Membership
This is my most popular program, and offers access to all my courses plus a healing community to support you in learning techniques, applying principles and sharing your success with others. You’ll get access to twice-monthly Group Coaching calls for members, plus an invitation to the secret Facebook group for members. Just $59/mo or $499/yea
Available Courses
“Kindred Connections helped me do the work I had been neglecting for years. Their services aligned with what I needed at a very low point in my life. Kindred helped me to begin trusting my voice.”
— J.H., KINDRED CONNECTIONS CLIENT
