Dr. Sabrina N’Diaye joins Mindrolling for a conversation around grief and gratitude, working with trauma, and the extraordinary healing power of listening.
Dr. Sabrina N’Diaye is an integrative psychotherapist and founder of the Heart Nest Center for Peace and Healing in Baltimore. She is a student of the late Sufi Master Sidi Muhammad al-Jamal of Jerusalem, and incorporates Sufi healing into her work with individuals, families, and communities. Dr. Sabrina is also a proud faculty member of the Center for Mind-Body Medicine, where she teaches the art of self-care to healthcare professionals around the globe. Learn more about her at drsabrinandiaye.com.
Grief and Gratitude
Raghu welcomes Dr. Sabrina, and they talk about how her life and work have been shaped by grief and gratitude. She shares stories from the work she’s done around traumas like school shootings and natural disasters, and explores how hope is a portal for healing.
“How do you experience grief and all those emotions? And also, how do you embrace the gratitude?” – Dr. Sabrina N’Diaye
Raghu Markus and James Gordon MD, talk about transforming trauma on Mindrolling Ep. 336
Lifting the Veil (18:30)
Raghu and Dr. Sabrina discuss her work doing sensitivity training for the Baltimore Police Department, and how some people are afraid to open their hearts because they’ve been taught it makes them weak. Dr. Sabrina tells a story about a beautiful moment of healing in one of her groups.
“The man cried, I cried, we all cried. I mean, this group, we were a hot mess of burning tears. Literally, you could feel it just burn away in that space. In Sufism, we call those healings veils. Once a veil gets lifted, it’s gone, it’s never coming back.” – Dr. Sabrina N’Diaye
An Exquisite Witness (39:49)
Dr. Sabrina talks about the extraordinary healing power of listening, and what it means to be an exquisite witness. Raghu asks Dr. Sabrina about an article she wrote on healthy relationships, and why it’s important to integrate mind, body, and spirit. Dr. Sabrina closes the episode with a brief meditation about asking the heart to be a vessel of hope and healing.
“When we sit and serve as an exquisite witness to another human being’s joy and sorrow… that, to me, is the portal to healing, that is medicine.” – Dr. Sabrina N’Diaye
