What is the Ancestral Institute?

The Ancestral Institute emerged as a corollary to DBGM’s annual In My Mind (IMM) LGBTQ+ People of Color Mental Health Conference, where for 2022 will focus on LGBTQ+ Seniors of color mental health. And, knowing that traditionally, our elders are a community from whom teachings, wisdom, and experience are shared, that the Ancestral Institute was created to bring together on the eve of this year’s IMM, on Oct 6, 2022, elders and those 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 Indigenous, 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 an indigenous and or Black person’s inherent experiences.