Why "Regulating the Nervous System" Isn't Enough
Trauma, Chronic Illness & Systems Thinking with Nkem Ndefo
At a time when tools for ‘nervous system regulation’ are everywhere we look, it’s easy to forget that we aren’t meant to always be “regulated.” In this episode, I’m joined by Nkem Ndefo, trauma therapist, nurse-midwife, somatic practitioner, and founder of the Resilience Toolkit. Nkem brings a rare synthesis of biological training, lived experience, social activism, disability and systems thinking to their work. We dig into the limits of nervous system regulation as a panacea, the politics of the word “dysregulation,” what birth and midwifery taught Nkem about intergenerational trauma, and why understanding just how interwoven physical and emotional healing are can be life-saving. We also explore the modality of Emotional Transformation Therapy, Internal Family Systems, and we even talk about the healing quality of colors.
In this episode we discuss:
Nkem’s journey from community organizer and needle exchange worker, to nurse-midwife, to trauma therapist and somatic practitioner
What birth taught her about the “long arms of intergenerational and historical trauma”
Why medicine’s hyper-specialization keeps people trapped in cycles of suffering
The link between trauma, autoimmunity, and conditions like mast cell activation and why the “hardest to treat” psychiatric presentations may have an immunological root
Why Nkem is moving away from the word “dysregulation” and toward the concept of “coherence”
Utilizing light, color, and bilateral stimulation for rapid transformation
What collective healing looks like when systems themselves are treated as organisms
Bio
Nkem Ndefo is foremost an alchemist and also a disabled Black midwife, facilitator, coach, and strategist. She is the founder of Lumos Transforms and creator of the Resilience Toolkit, vehicles for healing and liberatory change across borders and at all scales. Her work builds embodied capacity to stabilize the impacts of personal and collective trauma and catalyze structural transformation. Nkem has led multi-year initiatives in embodied antiracism, healing justice, and resilience capacity building across the U.S., the UK, and Palestine, and directs several certification and professional training programs internationally.
Links
Lumos Transforms: https://lumostransforms.com/
The Resilience Toolkit: https://theresiliencetoolkit.co/
Resources:
Get the book: Mad Studies Reader: Interdisciplinary Innovations in Mental Health
Become a member: The Institute for the Development of Human Arts
Train with us: Transformative Mental Health Core Curriculum
Sessions & Information about the host: JazmineRussell.com
Disclaimer: The DEPTH Work Podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Any information on this podcast in no way to be construed or substituted as psychological counseling, psychotherapy, mental health counseling, or any other type of therapy or medical advice.