WRITINGS
Resources, Stories & Poetry
Explore a wealth of articles on relational trauma, systemic burnout, and decolonizing well-being. Whether you're seeking practical guidance or transformative perspectives, you'll find resources to help you nurture connection, resilience, and collective healing.
AI-Ethical ‘Stance’ Statement
As a scholar and researcher, I am committed to ethics and transparency in my work. All academic-related writings are rigorously cited and will not appear on this site, while fully original pieces are shared on my Substack. On this blog, I use AI tools to support clarity, structure, and flow, helping translate my detailed, dense writing style into accessible posts for wider audiences. All ideas originate from my own research and writing, with AI serving as a supportive tool. As an Autistic researcher, this helps me to make complex topics more engaging. I also use midjourney to produce artwork for the site, along with use of open-source images.
I explore AI, post-humanism, and cyborg futures in my academic work, reflecting critically on its potential and ethical implications. This is my ‘stance’ today, the ground on which my feet are held. This could change tomorrow. Life is dynamic, and so is technological ‘innovation.’ If you wish, you are welcome to write me to share perspectives, or to ask for references and guidance.
The Roots of Trauma: Colonial Modernity and the Logic of Separation
Trauma is rooted in colonial modernity’s logic of separation, but healing begins when we reconnect with ourselves, each other, and the world around us.
The Dominant Ontology of Trauma: Why It Keeps Us Stuck
The dominant ontology of trauma isolates individuals, but relational approaches invite us to restore connections and address the systems that perpetuate harm.
What Is Trauma? A New Way to See the Cracks in Our World
Trauma isn’t just a rupture—it’s also an opening, inviting us to reconnect and reimagine the relationships that sustain life.
Why Is It So Hard to Be a Parent These Days?
Parenting feels harder than ever because we’re expected to do it all alone in a world that demands perfection but no longer provides the village our ancestors relied on.
Author Jennifer Mullan: Why I Love Her Book “Decolonizing Therapy”
Jennifer Mullan’s Decolonizing Therapy challenges us to rethink mental health as more than personal recovery, offering a path to liberation through ancestral wisdom, collective care, and systemic accountability.
Báyò Akómoláfé: A Brilliant Bard Breaking Boundaries and Bouncing off Backslashes
Bayo Akomolafe invites us to step away from doors that confine us within the known and into the cracks, where new realities and transformative possibilities emerge.
Why the Way We Think About Trauma Often Perpetuates More Trauma
By framing trauma as an individual issue, we overlook its systemic and relational roots, perpetuating harm instead of fostering true healing.
Why Is the Dominant Ontology Harmful?
The dominant ontology of separation and control harms individuals, communities, and the planet, but embracing relationality offers a path to healing and connection.
The Origin of Separation: How “Man vs. Nature” Became the Dominant Story
The story of 'man vs. nature' has shaped our world, but reconnecting with the Earth as kin offers a path to healing, balance, and belonging."
Burnout Isn’t Personal: Why Aid Work Ignores Its Systemic Roots
Unlearning and relationality challenge the foundations of aid work, inviting us to confront systemic harm, rethink success, and build a future rooted in care and connection.
Why the Unlearning Journey Is Difficult: Embracing the Discomfort of Growth
Unlearning is a courageous journey of peeling back the layers of what we've been taught, embracing discomfort, and re-imagining a world rooted in connection and justice
What is Aid Worker Burnout?
Aid worker burnout arises from the relentless pressures of humanitarian and development work, compounded by systemic barriers, chronic stress, and emotional toll, requiring a shift from individual resilience to systemic accountability and collective care
What is compassion fatigue?
Compassion fatigue is a form of emotional and physical exhaustion that arises from prolonged exposure to the suffering of others.
What is moral distress?
Moral distress arises when systemic barriers conflict with ethical values, reflecting a need for relational care and collective action to transform systems of harm.
How are compassion fatigue, moral distress and burnout related to each other? How do they impact people working in helping professions?
Compassion fatigue, moral distress, and burnout intersect in helping professions, compounding emotional and systemic challenges, and highlighting the urgent need for relational and systemic approaches to care and sustainability.