[gentle music]
- Rainer Posselt: I knew I always wanted
to be a healer, but I don't think I knew
what path it was gonna be.
I started wanting to be a doctor,
then it was a nurse practitioner,
but then it just really clicked that talking can be my medicine.
Words are my medicine.
Konamanthe, ndineeweethe Rainer.
Niya Maã'eekaneew, Maã'eekaneewe Seekwaneewik nom.
Niya aachumookees.
So, my name is Rainer.
I am Stockbridge-Munsee.
I'm from here on the reservation,
and I'm a therapist.
Psychology and counseling is very Western,
and if you have a deeply rooted Indigenous identity,
you know who you are.
You can kind of blend both of them.
And that helps meet Native patients where they're at.
Western therapy pushes people
towards choice and individualism.
I moved to Milwaukee when I was 18.
I feel like I can be myself in Milwaukee.
Me and my friend joke that we're Rez City Indians
because we grew up on the rez and moved to the city.
I have room to grow into who I wanna be
without maybe a community expectation
or a family expectation.
It speaks more to individual growth than collective growth.
Working on the rez and still having a home in Milwaukee
is the best of both worlds.
There is beauty in being connected to blood
and also having room to be yourself in the city.
For collectivist communities like Native communities,
it's like, "How can I have volition, autonomy
within the contexts of, like, a family or a community?"
And a lot of the times, it's compromise.
Like, it's "How can I help my family, my community,
and get my own needs met?"
So, I run an art therapy group.
It's a nonverbal way to process emotion,
so it's creating kind of like a physical safety
to calm the limbic system.
Not much needs to be said.
It's amazing how some healing can happen
without any words, you know?
Sometimes, healing is this creating
or being in community, talking.
Well studies show that
any time you incorporate activities
that encourage cultural identity growth,
that it has good outcomes for patients.
Potato stamps are a traditional Mohican art.
When we would make baskets,
we'd often decorate them with potatoes
and use dyes from different roots and plants.
It kind of teaches us
that there's beauty in imperfections,
'cause it's not always gonna come out the way you want it to.
Does that make it any less valuable?
I don't think so, you know.
And there's lessons in that.
And, you know, also lessons in failure,
and sometimes, you gotta start over.
My family, there's a lot of wisdom
and knowledge on plants.
I take pride in incorporating Indigenous practices
such as smudging or herbal medicine into my practice.
A plant has a spirit, so any time we're using a plant,
we're asking to give its spirit to us.
Medicines that we burned,
we're taking that energy, and it helps heal.
Sweetgrass, it's a feminine energy.
It reminds us of our mothers, of our grandmas.
It's sweet, it's springtime.
And sometimes, when a patient is,
they're bringing in a lot of grief,
it can just clear that out of the room.
Remind them that life is still sweet, you know?
Spring will come.
In a lot of the creation stories,
like, cedar was the first tree, right?
So, cedar is a very powerful medicine.
It has a lot of, like, physical benefits,
but it also helps us get rid of grief
and also helps us deal with fear too.
I think in my own community,
my dream is that it will become less stigmatized
and people will be more open to seeking help
when they need it.
That's why therapists,
that's why we do what we do is to help.
So, if I'm able to include, like, traditional art forms
or things connected to history,
I think it's a form of radical healing,
of building identity,
of being proud of who you are, knowing who you are.
'Cause someone once told me,
"If you know who you are, what can stop you?"