ART + DREAMS + IMAGINATION
Camara Meri Rajabari, LMFT
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My "Why"
I am the Great Great Great+ Granddaughter of enslaved Africans and African Freedmen of the Muskogee (Creek) Nation. I stand on their shoulders.
I believe that society is shifting its focus—companies/billionaires are planning to create “metaverses” and it leaves me wondering about the role of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color in these new “worlds.” Considering that many of the current roles for communities of color have been that of consumers, are “we” planning to assume the same roles in new worlds?
I am an AfroFuturist and I propose that we RE-Imagine our roles in the new world meta landscape from consumer to CREATOR. I believe we can only do that by REIMAGINING Liberation. So, my contribution is a space for Black, Indigenous, and POC to safely explore lineage healing as a roadmap to a future of our own design—we create our participation from a place of power, imagination, and equity.
The paradox of Ancestor psychotherapy is that it wants us to look back at the past and identify the roots of our suffering to contribute to our future. My theory is that it is in this process we go back and RETRIEVE what is nurturing, what is healing, and what is necessary for our evolutionary journey. This is what the Akan of Ghana refer to as Sankofa.
Ancestral psychotherapy holds that we (BIPOC) are critical shapers of the future and that the key to our survival is rooted in the past wisdom of our Ancestors.
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About Me
I grew up in a family where social justice was a regular topic of conversation at the kitchen table. My family linked personal success with knowing one's self, history, and culture as a source of strength. I have worked and lived within a variety of communities and have had the opportunity to learn from many rich cultural traditions. It is important to me to practice cultural humility by being respectful and curious. As a clinician, I believe deeply in the exploration of ancient ancestral wisdom as a psychological resource. Over the last few years, I have been working with traditional African Indigenous practices and honoring the wisdom of plant medicines to help heal generational trauma.
Work Experience
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, CA & NM
Adjunct Professor, John F. Kennedy University
Trainer, CIIS- Emergent Black Clinicians Program
Faculty, Somotopia
Faculty, The Embody Lab
Trainer, Fred Finch Youth & Family Services
PolyTrauma Case Manager, Veterans AssociationEducation
San Francisco State University, BA, Black Studies
John F. Kennedy University, MA, PsychologyTraining
MAPS (Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies)
Sage Institute (KAP)
Linda Thai/Collectively Rooted (Somatics & Trauma)
Brainspotting
EMDR (EMDRIA -2024)
Family Constellations SystemsCommunity
Board Member, EB-CAMFT (2022)
Volunteer, Therapists of Color for Social Justice
Member, Femtheogen Collaborative
Member, Therapists of Color*See Below For Professional Milestones
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My Approach
My psychotherapy practice is holistic in its foundation—meaning my primary focus is the whole person. Everything a person brings into therapy is important, valid, and worthy of exploration. I hold sacred the intersectionality of race, age, sexuality, religion, gender, ability, socio-economic background, citizenship status, and more. All identities are welcome in my practice, which I hold with integrity and respect. I work with the understanding that people are multiplicitous and there exist unique relationships to the many parts of the self. As an African American womxn, I understand the importance of linking our mental health to re-remembering our personal narratives and evolving identities. I am an advocate for addressing historical harms and healing intergenerational wounds through trauma-informed practices, that can include ancestral veneration, expressive arts, mindfulness, depth/dream analysis, nature-based spirituality, and the exploration of consciousness.
Professional Milestones
NPR’s LifeKit guest interview with Marielle Segarra, 2023.
2023, Co-Author, Invoking The Numinous: Ritual, Medicine, and Magic in Psychedelic Psychotherapy with Shanna Butler, PhD
2024, Ep 19: How your family history can show up as pain with Camara Rajabari, LMFT Beyond The Pelvis Podcast
Interview with Chris Marmolejo,
author Red Tarot: A Decolonial Guide To Divinatory Literacy
May 23, 2024, CIIS, San Francisco, CA
Brown, queer, and trans writer, diviner, and educator Christopher Marmolejo frames literacy as key to liberation, exploring tarot as critical literacy. Through their work, Christopher reveals how the cards can be read to subvert the dynamics of white supremacist-capitalist-imperialist-patriarchy, weaving historical context and spiritual practice into a comprehensive overview of the tarot. Situating tarot imagery within cosmologies outside the Hellenistic frame—Death as interpreted through the lens of Hindu goddess Chhinnamasta, the High Priestess through Aztec goddess Coyolxauhqui—Christopher’s work and writing is a profound act of reclamation and liberation. In their latest book, Red Tarot, each card’s interpretation is further bolstered by the teachings of Toni Morrison, bell hooks, Paulo Freire, José Esteban Muñoz, and others in an offering that integrates intersectional wisdom with the author’s divination practice—revealing tarot as an essential language for liberation. Christopher’s work speaks to anyone othered for their identity or ways of being or thinking—LGBTQIA2S+ and BIPOC folks in particular—presenting the tarot as a radical epistemology that shifts the authority of knowing into the hands of the people themselves.