UMSSW adjunct professor explores how collective memory, embodied trauma, and nervous system awareness are reshaping global conversations on mental health, leadership, and healing.
Malaysia Harrell, LICSW, LCSW-C, BCD, adjunct professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work (UMSSW), reached a major milestone this year as a featured speaker at a TEDx Talk in Groningen, Netherlands. Her Feb. 27 talk, titled “The Forgotten Mind: How Collective Memory Shapes Mental Health,” brought UMSSW’s commitment to trauma-informed, holistic practice to an international stage.
In her talk, Harrell challenged the idea that memory is stored only in the brain. She explained how experiences also live in the body, the nervous system, and the collective narratives of families and communities. By examining how trauma, stress, and survival patterns are carried physiologically and culturally across generations, she highlighted the ways these invisible forces shape mental health, leadership, and resilience long before people can consciously name them.
Harrell introduced the concept of the “forgotten mind” to describe the embodied and inherited patterns that influence behavior, relationships, and well-being beneath the surface of awareness. She invited the audience to see symptoms not as personal shortcomings, but as adaptive responses rooted in what individuals and communities have endured. This lens, she argued, opens the door to more compassionate, healing-centered approaches in clinical care, workplaces, schools, and community systems.
“The forgotten mind is where our bodies, our histories, and our communities remember what our conscious minds have not yet found language for.”
The talk sparked meaningful dialogue among attendees about embodied memory, trauma-informed systems, and the growing importance of nervous system awareness in mental health practice. Harrell emphasized that the future of healing depends on integrating mind, body, and lived experience, shifting away from “fixing” individuals and toward creating environments that nurture alignment, safety, and lasting change.
Becoming a TEDx speaker marks a pivotal moment in Harrell’s career and expands the global reach of her work at UMSSW. Her appearance in Groningen underscores the school’s leadership in advancing trauma-informed, equity-focused approaches to mental health and social work practice worldwide.