Christina Marie Sprayberry, LCSW LLC

11/02/2025

On my altar. A relic of Saint Cabrini - the patron saint of immigrants who died here in Chicago. The importance of this object for me is that I found it amongst my grandmas things after she died. I don’t know the story of how she acquired it - she was far from Catholic. She was an immigrant and told me she always felt like a foreigner everywhere and always in her life.

My grandmas story was given to me in many ways - she told me, I learned the histories over time, and I gather the pieces. It is a story of a woman who was aware of being a different nationality at a young age. A woman who endured political violence - watched both her parents taken away by police to camps to die. A woman who was separated from family due to war, hid in the ground for days from bombs. A woman who had no choice but to flee what she knew to be her home in order to survive. A woman who had to marry a U.S. soldier in order to get away from the war - dreaming of better things and leaving behind dreams. A woman who hid her true national identity even from family out of fear. A woman who never felt she belonged but made her life the best she could, even if imperfectly, where she could have a family and grow a garden.

I’m grateful my grandma shared her stories with me so that I could better understand the human experience of survival and what it means to be a refuge and an immigrant.

So many don’t know and don’t care to know and it breaks my heart the cycles repeat. If I could teach anything, perhaps it would be how to have a heart. empathy.

This is one of the many stories that I attribute to why I became a social worker and therapist. May all heal their traumas in order to make space for more empathy for both self and others. May we learn from the past to have a better future for all. May all beings be safe and free from harm. May all beings be free.

Thanks for reading as I remember my ancestors during this time of year. 🤍

09/19/2025

A mindfulness walk & circle for community care. Covid Conscious, kindly wear a mask. Sign up on Eventbrite on bio (or message me and I’ll send the link) 🤍

09/15/2025

Getting to know this land so much better with Robin Wall Kimmerer “ and I remember the swish of big blue stem rolling above my head, the shushbrush of Indian grass soft against my arms, the rattle of wild indigo in a dry September wind. Lived experience and ancestral memory blur in the hypnotic sway of grass. The ground rumbles with buffalo. Is this homesickness for what I left behind or for what has left me?

If you stand among in the Tallgrass prairie you can discern the different sounds of the collective swoosh. Stems clack together at the base, the waist-high leaves rub with grasshopper buzz and the seed heads are a soft hiss dissipating above my head. Goldfinches bounce their wavy flight pattern above the waves, the rise and fall of their voices mirror their path and the surge of moving grass. The sound of the prairie is like the inhale and exhale of the land itself. The boom of a prairie chicken, the lilt of a bobolink, the rasp of a Sandhill crane – these are voices you may never hear.

But they linger in our Potawatomi language. You can hear that same sibilance in the word for grass, Mishkos. Feel the grass in the delicious onomatopoeia of ishpashkosiwagaa – the place of high grass. This liquid language rippled through the southern Great Lakes where Potawatomi and other nations made their homes. You won’t hear that either. Unless concealed in the word for what is now called Chicago, chi gagua taking its name from the skunky smell of wild onions that grew in the wet lakeshore prairie. “

A lovely moment today gathering, finding our space, bringing small land connections, sharing and listening to each other. I read aloud from Braiding Sweetgrass, chapter “Council of Pecans” if only we knew to listen to what the earth has to teach us.

“The trees act not as individuals, but somehow as a collective. Exactly how they do this, we don’t yet know. But what we see is the power of unity. What happens to one happens to us all. We can starve together or feast together.”

“Through Unity, survival. All flourishing is mutual. Soil, fungus, tree, squirrel, boy - all are beneficiaries of reciprocity.”

09/11/2025

reflecting on words of a true real political activist and leader today - in service of love, not hatred.

At the core of all this I see hatred. In my life I strive to not continue to perpetuate vicious cycles of hatred. To reflect to look within, to help others heal so they also don’t continue cycles. Some of us do this work and some do not. It’s a choice.

Many others have been shot who do not receive this amount of media attention.

Why am I posting? Perhaps it’s the Irony. Irony can be an important marker for someone to stop and reflect - or for a society to reflect. Certainly is a lot of it lately.

08/23/2025

Hang out in a Pullman park with blankets chairs and a journal … options for meditation, movement, reflection and sharing. All are welcome! All of you is welcome! Qs to chat or RSVP
CHRISTINASPRAYBERRY@gmail.com

drop ins welcome too although RSVP helps me tell you where exactly we will be located ;)

05/17/2025

05/07/2025

there are a lot of experiences created to “heal trauma” that are not “trauma informed” - i wonder if people are aware of this important distinction. i suspect that most people just don’t understand this nuanced difference.

i wonder how others view words like trauma informed- or even understand the differences between doing something like a “breathwork” or any other healing modality that’s often focused on some sort of trauma healing - and something being “trauma informed” - many of these practices are not, ironically.

“trauma informed” is human informed and is a perspective that can be applied to many things.

by way of background- this has been important to me for a long time. as a trauma survivor and someone who curiously sought out experiences for healing at a young age - experiences that were definitely not right for me or trauma informed. Although I was ok, I wish my 20 year old self had been around those trained in more trauma informed approaches and -also more trained in general. yes we need more healing in the world but let’s also do it mindfully and with awareness. we are all learning and growing. this is not a judgement. i also look back at myself with what i know now and wish i had known more then. hopefully the more we know- the more we learn we don’t know and it keeps us pursing knowledge and awareness. in the past i’ve been hypervigilant to those trauma-informed or not, and now becoming more simply, vigilant and wanting to share collaborate and hope we can all support each other in the journey.

curious to how this is for others

05/03/2025

if you happen to be in Punta Banco CR… 🌺

04/28/2025

Invitations to the fertile void, dark moon:::
Sleeping In The Forest.
I thought the earth remembered me,
she took me back so tenderly,
arranging her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds.
I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed,
nothing between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths
among the branches of the perfect trees.
All night I heard the small kingdoms
breathing around me, the insects,
and the birds who do their work in the darkness.
All night I rose and fell, as if in water,
grappling with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better.
~Mary Oliver, Twelve Moons