Resources for Understanding Ourselves, Our Bodies & the Systems Around Us
Resources for Mind, Body & Systems
Knowledge can support understanding, reflection, healing, and self-determination.
The S&A Resource Library offers thoughtfully selected educational resources exploring the connections between our minds, bodies, relationships, communities, healthcare experiences, identities, and the systems that shape our lives.
Our library intentionally includes resources that help us understand trauma, adversity, inequity, and systemic conditions while also making room for agency, embodiment, community, well-being, and the knowledge we carry about our own lives.
Resources are provided for education and exploration and do not replace individualized medical or mental health care.
MIND | Psychology, Mental Health & Healing
BIPOC Mental Health Resource Center — Mental Health America
Explore mental health through culture, race, community, racial trauma, generational wisdom, culturally based practices, community care, and the experiences of specific communities of color. Mental Health America
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Learn about Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), their potential relationship to health and well-being across the lifespan, and the importance of safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments. CDC
Complex Trauma and Its Effects — National Child Traumatic Stress Network
Explore how complex trauma can influence attachment and relationships, emotional responses, physical health, thinking, learning, self-concept, and other areas of life. National Child Stress Network
BODY | Embodiment, Stress & Mind-Body Connection
Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) — Center for Trauma and Embodiment
Learn more about Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY), a body-centered approach emphasizing embodiment, choice, interoception, collaboration, and agency. Trauma Sensitive Yoga
Mind and Body Practices — National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health
Explore evidence and information about practices involving mind-body interaction, including mindfulness, meditation, yoga, relaxation practices, tai chi, and other approaches. NCCIH
Learn what current research says about mindfulness and meditation, including potential benefits, limitations, and considerations for safe use. NCCIH
SYSTEMS | Culture, Trauma, Community & Context
Trauma-Informed Care — Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
Learn how trauma can affect mental, physical, social, emotional, and spiritual well-being and how trauma-informed systems seek to recognize trauma, respond thoughtfully, and resist retraumatization. SAMHSA
Explore how well-being and adversity are influenced not only by individual experiences, but by interconnected factors at the individual, relationship, community, and societal levels. CDC
Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Explore the role that relationships, families, communities, environments, and broader conditions can play in preventing adversity and supporting people in thriving. CDC
ADVOCACY | Healthcare Knowledge, Voice & Agency
Questions Are the Answer — Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Practical tools for becoming more engaged in your healthcare, preparing for medical appointments, developing questions, and making better use of the time you have with healthcare professionals. AHRQ
Shared Decision Making — Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
Learn about shared decision-making, a collaborative approach in which patients and healthcare professionals consider evidence and treatment options alongside the patient's values, goals, preferences, and circumstances. AHRQ
A Note About Our Resources
We encourage curiosity rather than prescribing a single way to understand yourself, your body, or your experiences.
No resource can fully account for the complexity of a person's culture, identity, relationships, community, spirituality, body, history, or lived experience. We invite you to engage with these materials critically, keep what is useful, question what is not, and continue developing your own understanding.
The S&A Resource Library will continue to evolve as our work, communities, and knowledge evolve.
“ If you don't understand yourself you don't understand anybody else.”
— Nikki Giovanni