My name is Linda Duverné, the Founder and Director of Sajès Living.

Sajès Living connects people with their intergenerational wisdom to promote intergenerational healing through mindfulness programming, meditation sessions, journaling workshops, flower essence therapy, wellness consulting, and speaking engagements.  

Healing myself as a first-generation Haitian American woman to two Haitian immigrant parents has taught me to understand the trauma behind the resilience. In addition to my upbringing in Brooklyn, New York, my trip to Haiti in 2012 awakened my commitment to Haiti and my ancestral roots. The promise was to collaborate with the Haitian diaspora to rebuild Haiti. At that time I did not know in what capacity I would be able to support or collaborate with the Haitian diaspora. Now that I am able to contextualize my feelings and experiences, I know I am committed to guiding Haitians and Black people to use intergenerational wisdom to heal from intergenerational trauma. 

At New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, I created a concentration called “Self-Care, Mindfulness, and Ancestral Healing for Haiti’s future”. My concentration investigated the impact of intergenerational trauma within the Haitian diaspora, specifically focusing on Haitian Millennials and Gen Z (outside of academic study, my work spans generations beyond these two). I used Haitian history as a guide to understand how trauma has manifested in the lives of Haitians living at the time of the U.S. Occupation, Parsley Massacre, and the Duvalier regime. Haitian history, Black feminist ideology, and the epistemology of Haitian Vodou informed my study and offered me an opportunity to remember our intergenerational wisdom.