From Silencing to Empowerment:

This workshop explores how anger—often silenced, stigmatized, or misinterpreted in the lives of refugee women and women of color—can become a transformative force for healing and justice. Many who experience trauma, violence, and displacement learn to suppress emotional expression to survive, protect others, or conform to systems that reward quiet endurance. Yet unacknowledged anger often becomes internalized as shame or self-blame. From Silencing to Empowerment reframes anger as a powerful signal of violated dignity and a catalyst for posttraumatic growth and collective empowerment. 

Guided by the Ka Bogso (“Be Healed”) trauma-healing framework—co-developed by Lewiston-based refugee community leader Fowsia Musse and psychologist Yun Garrison—this workshop integrates the 5Rs of Healing within the Posttraumatic growth model to chart a path from pain to purpose: (a) Running (recognizing self-silencing as a survival strategy), (b) Resettlement (noticing how anger can show up in different forms, such as anxiety, fear, or uncertainty when safety and belonging feel disrupted), (c) Residual Stagnation (identifying the invisible burdens of suppressed emotion, (d) Reconciliation (allowing anger to meet compassion and community validation), and (e) Resolution (transforming emotional pain into agency, justice, and renewed connection). 

Through storytelling, art-based reflection, and small-group dialogue, participants will explore how anger can coexist with compassion and vision, moving from silence and isolation to voice and community. Ultimately, From Silencing to Empowerment bridges the Ka Bogso 5Rs and the theme of Love, Anger, and the Struggle for Justice, honoring anger not as destructive, but as a source of connection and transformation. This force illuminates pathways toward voice and healing for individuals and communities.

Presenters: Yun Garrison, Assistant Professor of Psychology; Fowsia Musse, Maine Community Integration

Sponsor: Department of Psychology

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Host or Publisher Martin Luther King Jr Planning Committee