“Maybe it’s not about healing. Maybe it’s just about being with people who are wounded too. It’s maybe like wounded is we’re alive together.” ~Claude Cayemitte

Hello friends! This is the episode in which Claude Cayemitte, LCSW blows my mind — by answering the wounded healer question in a way I’ve never heard before.

So, who is Claude Cayemitte? He’s a NARM-certified, award-winning psychotherapist working with at-risk teenaged boys and their families. He’s a self-described passionate consumer of and advocate for outlets that address issues relating to social justice, systemic racism, and all forms of oppression. He’s a lover of comic books and chess. He’s a hater of spreadsheets (#same). He’s also a Black man living in a country grappling with the ugly, deadly realities of its white supremacist infrastructure and the confines of linear thinking.

In other words, he’s trying to hold space for his many “sides” while the world grapples with the necessary, messy, and wondrous changes waiting to be collectively claimed. Our conversation is a showcase for Claude’s deep insight into the process and practice of self-awareness, an entire semester of Duality 101 in under an hour. It’s also tons of fun, a quality that’s too often stuffed toward the bottom of our existential first aid kit.

Claude encourages listeners to reclaim joy, self-care, and intimacy – with themselves and others. They’re skills he’s had to pick up along his journey. “All I saw was my pain. All I saw was my trauma,” he recalls of his mental health challenge. “And I was so afraid of everyone else seeing it. But where I’m at now, like even with the George Floyd stuff, it’s like I’m more than just that pain.” (#same!)

Claude Cayemitte is a licensed clinical social worker who has experience working with trauma in substance abuse treatment and marginalized communities. Claude is an award-winning psychotherapist, receiving the Minority Fellowship Award from the Council of Social Work Education for his work with at-risk teens. Claude is a NARM certified therapist who currently works at Family First Adolescent Services, a residential treatment center that incorporates NARM in their programming. Claude also sees patients through his private practice using teletherapy. In 2020, in collaboration with the NARM training institute, Claude presented a Cultural Misattunement webinar on the topic of racial trauma and its impact on the therapeutic process. Claude believes in the healing power of conversation, allowing him the privilege to help people overcome obstacles to being healthy, authentic and connected.

CONNECT WITH CLAUDE

Family First Adolescent Services

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Transforming Trauma Podcast #05 – Claude Cayemitte

Transforming Trauma Podcast #13 – Claude Cayemitte

Transforming Trauma Podcast #14 – Giancarlo Simpson

The Power Of Now: A Guide To Spiritual Enlightenment – by Eckhart Tolle

The Leap: The Psychology of Spiritual Awakening – by Steve Taylor

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