Contemplative practices for healing historical trauma among BIPOC populations: a scoping review

Contemplative practices encompass a range of mental and physical exercises that cultivate awareness, steadiness, and compassion. While contemplative practices have been shown to treat trauma, their application toward historical trauma is limited. To address this gap, our scoping review aims to answer the following research questions: (1) What contemplative practices have been applied toward individual and collective healing of historical trauma, (2) what are the mechanisms by which contemplative practices can facilitate healing historical trauma, and (3) what research methods are used to develop, evaluate, and adapt contemplative practices for healing historical trauma?

Rigorous search protocol were established to find English-language articles published after 1998 that were intervention studies incorporating contemplative practices to treat historical trauma or an outcome connected to historical trauma theory. Of 645 identified articles, 35 met eligibility criteria. Covidence software was used to extract general study information, sample characteristics, intervention details, and contemplative components. Thematic analysis was performed to identify mechanisms of healing across all articles.

Results showed a rising rate of publications within the last decade. Most articles were qualitative or mixed methods, applied community-engaged methods, and included Indigenous populations. Most interventions took place at a community (53%) or group level (36%), and more than half (58%) used contemplative practices as a core component. The most common practices were creative (56%), relational (53%), ritual (47%), and stillness (42%). Thematic analysis identified seven healing mechanisms: (1) Establishing Safety and Belonging, (2) Revitalizing Culture, (3) Increasing Well-being, (4) Processing Emotion, (5) Raising Consciousness, (6) Changing Narratives, and (7) Growing Empowerment.

This study provides a foundation to understand healing mechanisms within specific branches of contemplative practice in relation to historical trauma. Many culturally grounded contemplative practices support Indigenous well-being and should be recognized more explicitly in the contemplative science literature as effective, evidence-based approaches for improving public health in communities impacted by historical trauma. The fields of contemplative practice and historical trauma can be advanced by bridging Indigenous studies and BIPOC community practice with contemplative science, so long as this work continues to be carried out in deep partnership with and for BIPOC communities.