Erika Totten
Erika Totten supports Black, Indigenous, and People of Color leaders, visionaries, and caregivers in healing from racialized trauma, burnout, and self-abandonment.
Rooted in Black feminist wisdom, somatics, and spiritual care, my work centers rest, remembrance, and liberation -- helping us unlearn the lies we've been told (and tell ourselves), and reclaim joy and pleasure as medicine.
About
Erika Totten (she/they) is a dynamic facilitator, activist, spiritual life coach, and community builder from Washington, D.C. committed to the movement for Black liberation and the evolution of our collective consciousness. She is the founder and director of Unchained Visioning, a core member of Harriet's Apothecary Healer's Collective, and co-creator of the WildSeed Society where she focuses on centering healing and visioning within liberation movements.
From South Africa to Charlottesville, Erika creates and facilitates transformative healing spaces for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) of all identities to process racial stress and trauma, and to experience embodied liberation & collective Joy, in the midst of dismantling systems of oppression. She is also a devoted wife and mother of two who organizes to build chosen families of health, restoration and radical love.
Services
1:1 Coaching: A 90-day coaching experience to support you in breaking the chains of self-limiting beliefs and past trauma in order to create a life rooted in joy, authenticity and liberation.
Group Coaching: A cohort based coaching experience supporting BIPOC leaders and change-makers in processing how systemic and internalized oppression impacts their self-worth, power, and leadership.
SPEAKING/WORKSHOPS
For mission driven institutions committed to leaning into the liberatory values of healing, restoration, and transformation in order to better support their employees, grantees, and community members.
EMOTIONAL SUPPORT FOR RETREATS + CONFERENCES: Creating a trust-based environment that honors the emotional needs of participants. Offering one-on-one, small group, and emergent care to support processing, vulnerability, and relational safety across differences and shared experience. Sensing shifts in the room and responding with energy work to restore balance and coherence. Includes vibe-checking, coaching, and spontaneous or planned energy movement practices for individuals and the group. (for funders, collectives, non-profit conferences, movement groups, etc.)
WORKSHOPS:
SHARED IDENTITY GROUP HEALING CIRCLES: For BIPOC of all racial, gender + sexual identities around topics like: processing the impacts of racial stress and trauma, gender based violence, working & learning in predominantly white institutions, internalized oppression, etc.
EMOTIONAL EMANCIPATION CIRCLES: An evidence-informed, psychologically sound, culturally grounded, and community-defined self-help support group, specifically designed for Black people, to help heal the trauma caused by anti-Black racism.
HEALING JUSTICE 101: An interactive workshop where we examine core concepts of Healing Justice and consider practices for personal, role, and systemic integration; understand how a trauma analysis and HJ framework can cultivate accountable, sustainable and rigorous short and long term movement building; and illuminate ancient and current tools of wellness, healing and resilience.
VISIONING OURSELVES FREE: In this workshop we will allow ourselves to get clear about what liberation looks like for each of us individually — right now, in the midst of dismantling systems of oppression + surviving a pandemic, by answering the questions.
1. What does the Unchained you look like? spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, sexually, and financially…
2. What are the chains (lies/self-limiting beliefs) that might be keeping me bound? And how did they get there?
3. What truths must I embody/practices must I incorporate to set *myself* free?
NAMING YOUR CHAINS & SETTING YOURSELF FREE: A healing circle for BIPOC folks that moves participants through a process of emotional emancipation by acknowledging and processing the emotional impact of intersecting oppression and stress we’ve amassed over the years (i.e. racism, sexism, anti-Blackness, Queerphobia, Transphobia, etc.), how it impacts how we see ourselves, our community, our place in the world, and our work. Participants will also be introduced to several emotional wellness tools that can be used as daily practices to move stagnant energy up and out of your body.
*All available in-person/virtual/hybrid
Approach
“Personal and collective healing requires that we get to the root of where the lies of internalized oppression (and superiority) reside in our mind, body and spirit...and ripping them out at the root.” - Erika Totten
Erika's Philosophies for Personal and Collective Healing:
THERE IS A LIBERATION THAT EXISTS WITHIN US THAT WE CAN ACCESS AT ANY TIME.
We are free. Unfortunately, there are systems of oppression that we bump up against externally, and that we’ve internalized, that have us believing and experiencing the lie that we are not.
HEALING DOES NOT HAVE TO TAKE LONG.
Healing does not have to take long… It’s the resistance to it that keeps us stuck in patterns of self-sabotage…prolonging our suffering.
HEALING CANNOT HAPPEN IN ISOLATION.
Trying to work on ourselves, by ourselves, can only get us so far. We’re going to need to reach for our people, beloved community, a therapist, a coach, our ancestors, the Land, and Divine Spirit/God/Goddess, etc. to support us along our journey, and that’s ok.
WE’VE GOT TO GET TO THE ROOT.
There’s nothing surface level about this work. Liberation requires that we get to the root of where the lies of internalized oppression reside in our mind, body and spirit. And we must do it with each and every lie to truly set ourselves free.
ENERGY WORK IS AN ESSENTIAL HEALING MODALITY.
When we “know better”, but our actions aren’t lining up, we’re often stuck in a somatic pattern. As trauma is stored in our bodies, we can’t just talk about it (or pray about it) to break the pattern, we must use energy exercises to clear it from our bodies, so we can choose differently.
Relevant Experiences and Background
Co-Creator and Steward of the WildSeed Society
Spiritual Life Coach + Facilitator
Founder and Director of Unchained Visioning since 2011
Leadership Council of Harriet's Apothecary Healer's Collective
Energy 4 Life (E4L) Spiritual Life + Wellness Coach Training (Certified 2017)
Co-Creator of Black Lives Matter: DC where she focused on centering healing and visioning within the Black liberation movement.
20+yrs of experience creating and facilitating healing spaces all across the world for BIPOC of all identities to process racial stress and trauma, and to experience embodied liberation & collective Joy, in the midst of dismantling systems of oppression.
Why I Do This Work
I do this work because I know what it feels like to carry the weight of unprocessed grief, internalized oppression, and ancestral trauma --and I also know the freedom, pleasure, and joy that become possible when we begin to lay that weight down.
As a healing justice practitioner, I hold space for BIPOC folks, especially mission-driven leaders, to come home to themselves: to rest, to feel, to remember their wholeness. This work is sacred to me. It's not just what I do --it's how I live.
I believe that liberation begins in the body, our relationships, and in our everyday choices to turn toward love, even when it's hard. I offer practices that are trauma-informed, spiritually grounded, and rooted in Black feminist wisdom so we can practice what it means to live unchained -- together.
Contact Info
Email: erika@toliveunchained.com
Website: www.ErikaTotten.com
Instagram: @toliveunchained
TikTok: @erikatotten
Location: Mérida, Mexico
