PARENT RESILIENCE PROGRAM

Clysta is YuPik/Adopted Crow, she is a mother of 6 and proud to be one of the first ever Parent Resilience Specialists to join Perinatal Support Washington. Clysta joined the team with a background of life experiences of continued trauma from childhood trauma, furthering trauma experiences, and is a Domestic Violence survivor. She is an advocate for reducing trauma with a passion for peer support. She is trained as a full spectrum Indigenous Doula, Certified Peer Counselor, a 2020-2021 Native Action Network Leadership Cohort Graduate and Alumni.. She volunteers her time in her community including being the first Aunty with United Indians of All Tribe's Ina Maka Family Program. 

She understands the importance of being supported and feeling supported in all aspects of our lives, especially during the perinatal period. With the knowledge she gained from the combination of life experience, navigating mental health care, and her individual journey through finding her foundation in healing, she knows that we need to have more support in our communities, especially for our mothers in the early stages of their journey. She is a firm believer that it takes a village to raise a child, she also knows that it takes a village to support our parents.

Clysta has personal experience with  singular pregnancies, pregnancy of multiples, high risk pregnancies, anxiety and trauma in pregnancies, pregnancy loss. She knows what it feels like to be alone in some of the most challenging and important events in our lives. She is available to support anyone without judgement, weather it be a high risk pregnancy, pregnancy of multiples, feeling the need to decide what decision to make in your pregnancy, abortion, adoption, not sure what to do, in recovery, or if you are experiencing child removal. Clysta will hold space for YOU Where you are with hopes to ensure our communities have the support they need while holding space for individual growth, our communities deserve to be held where they are, and she knows how difficult it can be to reach out for support. Clysta has been surviving the homicide of her 19 year old son since 12/09/2018, this pushed her to strengthen the need for support in our communities, and address Trauma awareness as intergenerational trauma is closely related to what lead to her son’s homicide. She loves supporting parents where they are, and holding space to have honest conversations that society might deem unacceptable. Her story of her first pregnancy  as a teen mom can be read on our blog at: click link

Some of her favorite coping strategies are looking back at where she once was compared to where she is when she is insecure about not being where she wants to be, breathing and being in the moment when anxiety gets to be too much, and knowing she is not perfect none of us are, we know what we know until we learn what we need in order for us to grow from where we are.