Surviving Trauma and Fueling Yourself to Help Others with Gina de la Chesnaye
In today’s episode, Yuliana is joined by Gina de la Chesnaye, who shares her Phoenix Tale of surviving parental sexual abuse to become a humanitarian worker with traumatized communities. In her work, Gina draws on her own painful past to teach these communities how not only to survive their traumas but to thrive beyond the boundaries set by their experiences. She is the founder and director of The Nachan Project, an NGO that brings mindfulness-based practices to the women and children living in the Katwe and Kisenyi slums of Kampala, Uganda.
Gina opens the conversation by discussing the sexual abuse she experienced at the hands of her father from the age of eleven. She speaks about burying those memories until they resurfaced after her father’s death and recognizing the ripple effects of his abuse on her lifestyle and relationships. She also reflects on mothering as a trauma survivor, how her experiences shaped her parenting, and the importance of breaking intergenerational cycles of abuse, including by caring for her father at the end of his life and discussing her trauma with her daughters. Gina then shares how practicing Buddhism and yoga have allowed her to use her body as a tool and resource for regulating her nervous system and emotions and gain a different perspective on her trauma. She also speaks about using that perspective to share skills and tools with other survivors, particularly in her work with women and children living in the slums of Uganda. Finally, the episode closes with Gina choosing her future self as the one person throughout time she would like the chance to sit down with, to thank her for inspiring her.
Episode Highlights:
The challenging events that have redirected the course of Gina’s life
Suffering sexual abuse at the hands of her father
Unlocking buried memories after her father’s death
The ripple effects of experiencing abuse
Recreating a pattern of dysregulation in her adult relationships
Mothering as a trauma survivor
Breaking intergenerational cycles of abuse
Practicing Buddhism
Putting her experiences in a different perspective through sharing practice
Feeling free after her father’s death
Discovering her daughter’s sexual abuse
Working with abused women and children in the Katwe slums of Kampala, Uganda
One person Gina would go back in time to sit with