Beyond Trauma: A Conversation with Afreeka, the Traumatized Traumatologist

In a world where Black trauma is often dismissed, minimized, or misunderstood, voices like Abena Afreeka’s are essential beacons of truth and healing. In a recent episode of the Black Trauma Podcast, host Reverend Dr. Philippe Shock Matthews engaged in a profound conversation with Abena Afreeka (also known as Joni McCullum), a licensed social worker with over three and a half decades of experience supporting society’s most vulnerable populations.

Afreeka describes herself as a “traumatized traumatologist” and a “representative from the voices in the margins.” Her journey is one of recovery, resilience, and revolution – a path that began in the tumultuous era of the 1980s when crack cocaine ravaged Black communities across America.

The Beginning of a Healing Journey

Afreeka’s story of healing began in 1986 when crack cocaine hit her Philadelphia neighborhood. With remarkable self-awareness, she recognized the danger after just six months of use: “This feels too good. This shit dangerous.” By July 4th that year, she had driven herself to rehab, marking the start of her journey into recovery, treatment, therapy, and self-knowledge.

This critical decision came just as systemic forces were unleashing devastation on Black communities. As Afreeka poignantly states, “They shook the shit up. They dropped a whole lot of shit and that shit was like nitrogen… it freezes everything.”

While the crack epidemic fractured many families and communities, Afreeka took a different path. She returned to education, earning multiple degrees, including a bachelor’s in mental health technology, a master’s in social work from Bryn Mawr College, and pursuing doctoral studies in couple and family therapy at Drexel University.

Ostracization and Family Dynamics

One of the most heart-wrenching aspects of Afreeka’s story is her experience of being marginalized by her own family. As she evolved through education and recovery, the divide between her and her siblings grew wider. They remained caught in cycles that she had broken free from, leading to her ostracization.

“I got kicked out of the village,” she explains, referring to how her family dismissed her insights because she didn’t have children of her own. “You don’t have no children. So we know more than you,” they would say, despite her professional training and natural rapport with children.

This rejection was especially painful because it came wrapped in what Afreeka identifies as gaslighting – the systematic denial of her lived experience and perspective. The family dynamics reflected a broader pattern she recognizes in Black communities: the suppression of truth-tellers.

“The programming, the suppressing of the truth sayer because that’s what it was about,” Afreeka explains. “Anytime somebody spoke the truth or questioned or said something that snapped people to the truth, you had to be suppressed.”

T-S-H-I-T: Traumatic Stress of the Human Intentional Type

A powerful moment in the conversation comes when Afreeka breaks down her understanding of trauma, particularly what she calls “T-S-H-I-T” – Traumatic Stress of the Human Intentional Type. This framework helps explain the deliberate nature of the trauma inflicted on Black communities.

Afreeka’s perspective on trauma is multilayered, encompassing individual, family, community, and societal dimensions. She describes how Black people experience trauma at all these levels simultaneously:

“Trauma on the societal level we catch it. We are the ones who catch it first and last. All the laws that if you don’t have enough money to pay your bill, we’re going to charge you more money… Societal level, trauma intentional. So we catching it on all levels of lived experience.”

This understanding forms the foundation of Afreeka’s approach to healing and recovery, which emphasizes reconnecting with one’s spirit and authentic self.

Racism Non-Anonymous: A Revolutionary 12-Step Program

Perhaps Afreeka’s most significant contribution to healing is “Racism Non-Anonymous,” a revolutionary 12-step self-help program she developed about 25 years ago. Inspired by Malcolm X’s call for self-help programs for the Black community, RNA provides a framework for recovering from what Afreeka identifies as an addiction to “European cultural thought and behavior.”

Unlike traditional anonymous programs like AA, Afreeka’s approach deliberately removes anonymity because “racism is not a damn secret.” The program helps participants recognize how they’ve been programmed, admit the addiction to Eurocentric thinking, and work through steps to reclaim their African culture and mindset.

As Afreeka explains: “If it’s true, we are in the addiction we have is we have an addiction to European cultural thought and behavior… This is non-anonymous because racism is not a damn secret.”

The program reflects Afreeka’s understanding that the root cause of many issues in Black communities is the disconnection from authentic cultural identity and spiritual grounding, systematically engineered through centuries of oppression.

The Role of Mental Health in Black Communities

Afreeka challenges the notion that mental health is a “white” concept, pointing out the contradiction in how some in the conscious community reject mental health perspectives while accepting that Europeans appropriated other aspects of African knowledge.

“The conscious community have this thing that almost says, ‘oh, except for the mental health shit, that’s just their stuff.’ And we don’t have to necessarily think about it,” she observes. “That to me is a huge fallacy. Y’all might want to, if it is true that everything they got from us, then is true that everything they got from us, they got from us. Mental, emotional health and understanding the dynamics of the mind, spirit, function and mind, body, spirit work.”

Dr. Matthews points out that the dismissal of mental health in Black communities may be tied to the interruption of African spiritual traditions through Christianity: “We invented mental health. We are the archetype of mental health. We got interrupted really bad with this religion and Christianity.”

Afreeka agrees, explaining how this disconnection from spirit has been devastating: “The thing that the societal level right there is shit flow down. What happened to us down here as we growing up in this family community and this world and shit, they cut off the spirit part of who we really are. And they replaced it with the shit called religion.”

The Path Forward: Revolution from Within

For Afreeka, true revolution begins internally. She emphasizes that healing happens when people reconnect with their authentic selves and cleanse themselves of the programming that has kept them disconnected and self-destructive.

“The real revolution is inside of you,” she insists. “You learn to close these two eyes. Take a nice deep breath and allow that third eye to activate and open and begin to look at yourself.”

This inner work involves reviewing one’s stories, clearing away the accumulated trauma and conditioning, and reconnecting with one’s spirit. Afreeka describes how she uses music, particularly roots reggae, as a tool for this healing process, as it helps move the spirit and express emotions safely.

Afreeka’s Approach to Healing

When asked about her therapeutic approach, Afreeka describes it simply: “We just talk.” Her empathic abilities allow her to connect on a spiritual level with clients: “My spirit will connect with your spirit, and I can feel what’s happening in your spirit and where the wounds are in your spirit.”

This authentic connection is what sets her apart from many other therapists. Clients frequently tell her, “You see me and you hear me” – a profound acknowledgment in a world where Black experiences are often invalidated or ignored.

Afreeka’s goal isn’t to keep clients in therapy indefinitely: “I’m not trying to get people in therapy for a year and a half or two years. No six months pops.” She believes that within a relatively short period, people can gain the tools they need to continue their healing journey.

The Legacy of Malcolm X

Throughout the conversation, Afreeka references the profound influence Malcolm X had on her thinking and work. Her book, “Malcolm’s Mandate,” connects his vision to her RNA program, fulfilling what she sees as his call for self-help programs in the Black community.

The parallels between Malcolm’s truth-telling and Afreeka’s own experiences of being silenced for speaking truth highlight how little has changed in some ways. Yet Afreeka remains committed to carrying forward a revolutionary healing approach that honors African traditions while addressing contemporary trauma.

Conclusion

Afreeka’s journey from addiction to becoming a healer represents a powerful counter-narrative to the destructive forces that have ravaged Black communities. Her holistic understanding of trauma – as intentional, multilayered, and rooted in disconnection from authentic identity – offers a framework for healing that goes beyond conventional therapeutic approaches.

Through her RNA program, her clinical work, and now her public voice, Afreeka embodies the very revolution she describes – one that begins within and radiates outward. As systems of oppression continue to inflict trauma, voices like hers remind us that healing is not just possible but essential to reclaiming our full humanity.

For those seeking to connect with Afreeka’s work, she can be found on Instagram as “the third I insight” (spelled with the number 3), on Facebook as “AB and Afreeka” and “Traumatized,” and through her business page “Trauma Recovery with Love.”

In a world still saturated with unacknowledged trauma, Afreeka stands as both witness and guide – a traumatized traumatologist who transforms her own wounds into wisdom for others seeking to heal.

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