In this episode of Social Workers Matter, I’m joined by Cornelius Browne and Dr Christina Browne, a husband-and-wife team who offer trauma-informed art and therapy to people in their community living with mental ill health.

I first encountered Cornelius’s Work at his White City exhibition and more recently at his Peckham exhibition, Trauma in Black Bodies: Art and Therapeutic Space. I left with two of his publications, ‘Dealing with recurring events’ & ‘The weight we carry ’, and a head full of questions, and this conversation was my chance to ask them.

In this episode, we explore:

• The thinking behind the exhibition, and why art can reach what words sometimes cannot.
• How trauma is held in the body, and what it means to centre Black bodies and Black experience.
• The ideas and influences that shape Cornelius and Christina’s practice, in their own words.
• What their trauma-informed art and therapy look like in practice, and who they're for.

For anyone working in Social Work, mental health, or community settings, this conversation reminds us that healing doesn’t only happen in clinical rooms. It can also happen in galleries, studios and shared community spaces.

Whether you are a social worker, therapist, artist, student, or simply curious about trauma and healing, this episode offers a thoughtful, grounded look at art as a therapeutic space.

To find out more: To learn about Cornelius and Christina’s Work and the support they offer, visit www.adumaadan.uk

#SocialWorkersMatter #TraumaInformedPractice #ArtTherapy #SocialWork #MentalHealth

About the host: Social Workers Matter is hosted by Dr Sylvia B. Smith, DSW, FHEA, MBASW, founder and director of Incline Training Consultants Ltd. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate and share.

• Do share your feedback at: adosylv@gmail.com
• Follow us on social media: https://www.facebook.com/groups/412169436067530
• Subscribe and leave a review to help us reach more listeners!
• Join us and remember—social workers matter!
• Website: www.inclinetrainingconsultants.co

Healing in the Circle of Life: Taking Black Psychology Home to Dominica (Episode 1 of 3)

What happens when a mental health conference stops talking at a community and starts learning from one?

In this episode, I sit down with Clancy Williams, President of UK ABPsi and project lead, and LaReo Riviere, a proud Dominican, Mental Health Professional and conference subcommittee member, headed by Dr Michelle Perry-Springer, to introduce Healing in the Circle of Life. It's a four-day gathering on African Black Psychology, Indigenous healing and decolonising mental health, taking place in Dominica from 13 to 16 April 2027.

In this episode:

• How a conversation between three women sparked the idea of showcasing Indigenous African and Caribbean healing practices
• Why the medical model can't hold the whole story of distress, and what social context adds
• The conference themes: ancestral beginnings, healing in community, and intergenerational trauma
• What genuine co-production with the Kalinago people and local practitioners looks like
• Giving back to the island, from sustainable travel to working with Discover Dominica
• Keynote speaker Dr Wade Nobles, a founding voice of African Black Psychology

Who's it for?
Psychologists, social workers, therapists, allied health and care professionals, academics, students, community practitioners and traditional healers. If you Work with people and their wellbeing, this conference is for you.

Get involved:

• 📅 Abstract deadline extended to 30th November 2026. Papers, workshops and panel discussions are all welcome.
• 🌿 Sponsors and partners: get in touch through the website.
• 🌍 Conference website: https://www.ukabpsi.co.uk/event-details-1/healing-in-the-circle-of-life
• 👌🏾 Call for papers: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfSuNuZvflzhKEgV3tp1rwVpmCvctW8HRdusD_KU98HkodEiw/viewform
• 🎙️ Coming up: two more episodes with updates, and the full steering group joins us for the finale.

Healing in the Circle of Life is presented by UK ABPsi and partners.

Listen, share, and come and stand in the circle with us.

• Do share your feedback at: adosylv@gmail.com
• Follow us on social media: https://www.facebook.com/groups/412169436067530
• Subscribe and leave a review to help us reach more listeners!
• Join us and remember—social workers matter!
• Website: www.inclinetrainingconsultants.co

• Do share your feedback at: adosylv@gmail.com
• Follow us on social media: https://www.facebook.com/groups/412169436067530
• Subscribe and leave a review to help us reach more listeners!
• Join us and remember—social workers matter!
• Website: www.inclinetrainingconsultants.co

Social Workers Matter - Episode Notes

Content Warning
This episode contains honest, detailed discussion of childhood emotional neglect and physical abuse, and touches on pregnancy loss by choice. Karen's story is raw and, at times, harrowing. This is not easy listening. Please take care while listening, and consider whether now is the right time for you - it's absolutely fine to pause or come back to it when you're ready.

Episode Summary
In this deeply personal conversation, Karen shares what it was like growing up in Belize as the twin sister who was treated as invisible while her brother was treated as the centre of the family's world. She speaks candidly about the emotional neglect and physical abuse she endured, and how those wounds followed her into her own experience of motherhood - including a decision she made about a pregnancy early in her marriage, shaped by the same cultural and generational pressures she was trying to understand.

What makes this conversation so powerful is not just the pain Karen describes, but where she has arrived. Across the years since, she has done the work of holding two things at once - understanding her mother as a woman shaped by her own hardship, while still naming the harm without minimising it. Karen shares that forgiveness has come to her gradually, a little more with each passing year, and that it has never required her to excuse what happened or pretend it didn't.

This is ultimately a story about interruption - about a daughter who became a mother and chose, deliberately, what would end with her and what she would carry forward instead.

A Note on Karen
Karen has shown real courage in sharing this material. These are not easy memories to put into words, let alone offer to listeners. We're grateful for her openness and for her generosity in letting others learn from a journey that has clearly asked a great deal of her.

Key Themes

• Growing up in Belize within a Central American and Caribbean cultural context
• Being treated differently from a twin brother
• The emotional stakes of unequal expectations for sons and daughters
• Emotional neglect and childhood physical abuse
• The long-term impact of abuse on identity, relationships, and motherhood
• Generational trauma and inherited survival strategies
• Loving one's culture while challenging harmful traditions
• Becoming a mother and confronting one's own childhood
• Seeing a mother as a complex woman without absolving her
• Forgiveness as a gradual, ongoing process rather than a single decision
• Transforming inherited wounds into intentional strength
• Choosing what to pass on to the next generation

Questions to Sit With

• What does it mean to forgive someone a little more each year, rather than all at once?
• How do you hold a parent accountable while also understanding the forces that shaped them?
• What patterns have you noticed being passed down in your own family - and which ones are you choosing not to carry forward?
• What would it take for you to offer yourself the same compassion Karen is learning to offer her mother?

If This Episode Raises Something for You
If anything in this conversation brings up difficult feelings or memories of your own, please be gentle with yourself. Reaching out to a trusted friend, a counsellor, or a support service is a sign of strength, not weakness.

Thank You

Thank you to Karen for trusting us with her story, and thank you for listening. Conversations like this one are part of how we break cycles - together. We look forward to the publication of her new book about her experiences.

• Do share your feedback at: adosylv@gmail.com
• Follow us on social media: https://www.facebook.com/groups/412169436067530
• Subscribe and leave a review to help us reach more listeners!
• Join us and remember—social workers matter!
• Website: www.inclinetrainingconsultants.co