Griselda (Grace) Alvarez Sesma, Curandera
Griselda (Grace) Alvarez Sesma, Curandera
Griselda (Grace) Alvarez Sesma is a curandera, bridge-builder, activist, and cultural educator of Mexican and Yaqui heritage, born in Baja California, Mexico. Her calling to walk the path of the heart began in childhood through her family's Curanderismo practices.
As a cultural practitioner, Grace provides culturally relevant psychological, spiritual counsel, and support to Mexican/Chicano/Native and Non-Native individuals through private sessions in her clinical practice. In the workplace, she works with individuals and organizations who are affected by problems arising from cultural differences. Grace advises and, provides opportunities for management and staff to become knowledgeable about, and sensitive to, the historical experiences of Indigenous peoples of Mexico, the United States, and Canada, and their contemporary situation as well as the vision they have for themselves and their community.
As a cultural educator, she works with Chicano/Latinx/ Indigenous mental health therapists and other healthcare providers to promote understanding of Mexican and Indigenous culture-specific interventions and to encourage mutually respectful collaboration.
Grace has lectured on Curanderismo at the International Society for the Study of Subtle Energy & Energy Medicine Conference, Children’s Hospital-Denver, University of Southern California, Great River Symposium, Murdoch University-Australia, the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology Conference, and other institutions. She contributed to the book, "Meditations for InterSpiritual Practice: Practices and Readings Drawn from the World's Spiritual Traditions," and to “Voice of the Ancestors: Xicanx and Latinx Spiritual Expressions and Healing Practices.”
A leader in the Chicana/Indigenous community, in 1993 she was the recipient of the prestigious leadership fellowship award by the National Hispana Leadership Institute in collaboration with Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and recipient of many leadership awards including two commendations from the California State Senate.
Grace continues to have diverse roles in community building and social justice coalitions. She served as coordinator of Traditional & Holistic Healing Practitioners and led a traditional healing circle for the 2019 Native Truth & Healing- California Genocide Conference at San Diego State University. She is a member of the Kumeyaay-led Kanap Kuahan (Tell the Truth) Coalition, and advisor to the House of the Moon for its Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women Advocacy & Training Program. She also serves on the Yaquis of Southern California tribal council, the practitioners' council of CHI: Consciousness & Healing Initiative, and the BIPOC Committee of the Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine.