Root & Ritual (2021) by Becca Piastrelli: Timeless Ways to Connect to Land, Lineage, Community, and the Self
Becca Piastrelli calls out how disconnected we’ve become–from ourselves, our lineage, our communities, and from the land and nature that surrounds us. She outlines the progression of this disconnection by means of competition and individualism of our modern world that have separated us from our instinct for connection and relationship. She asserts that the grief, restlessness, loneliness, addictions, etc. are symptoms of this disconnection. Through prescribed rituals to provide some sense of structure, Pisastrelli leads us to rediscover a sense of wholeness and belonging by coming back to our roots and reasserting our connection with land, lineage, community, and Self.
How was this book recommended to me? It was cited in Jennifer Mullan’s Decolonizing Therapy (Easter egg)
Would I recommend this to my colleagues? Yes
Would I recommend this to my clients? Yes, and have already
How do I apply this content to my work: As a trauma therapist, an addictions counselor, a dance/movement therapist, and as a human being, I have witnessed this and experienced this in myself. I have experienced the disconnection that Piastrelli describes, including the loneliness, the longing, and trying to fill “a void we sense in our souls from feeling unrooted and not belonging in this world.” In my role as the aforementioned therapist, I utilize a variety of verbal and body-based techniques to help my clients find safety and connection within their own bodies and within their relationships with others in order to help them connect with their core sense of Self–to help them find ‘home’ (“Another way to look at belonging is as feeling at home, where to be at home is to be seen and known”) and safety in and of themselves. I have often used the Polyvagal Theory as a foundation to guide my clients back to the instinctual drive toward safe connections and relationships with self and others, and have integrated this with concepts of connecting with nature. I appreciate the recommendations in this book to go further than rooting us in the ground we live in and among the communities we are connected, but to connect with our ancestral lineages and to integrate the epigenetics and the energies from the past that are present in our bodies today as a part of our Whole Self – who we are and what we carry forward.
“Slip on your backpack and meet me at the edge of the forest. We’re going home.” Becca, I’m in. LFG!
If you live in WA state and feel like you need a mental health and/or addictions professional to help you connect with your core sense of Self, contact me. Let’s schedule a free 15-minute consultation and see if we might be a good fit to work together.
