From Holding It In to Letting It Go | Inside the Black Women Breakthrough Conference

Some healing moments don’t need words, but they deserve to be witnessed.

That’s exactly what happened at the Black Women Breakthrough Conference. It was more than a professional event. It was a communal pause, a deep breath, and a space where Black women could lay down what they’ve been carrying, sometimes for generations.

This gathering wasn’t about surface-level empowerment. It was about truth-telling, nervous system healing, and reclaiming emotions we’ve been taught to suppress. And the emotion we centered? Anger.

Let’s walk through the wisdom shared, the breakthroughs made, and the emotional release that closed this sacred space.

Unresolved Anger Isn’t Gone, It Just Hides

Sandtrice Russell opened the day with a truth we don’t hear often enough:
“When anger isn’t expressed, it doesn’t disappear, it morphs into something else. Often, that ‘something else’ is depression.”

Sandtrice’s talk hit home for so many attendees. She reminded us that being the “strong one” often means being the silent one—and that silence can make us sick. She offered strategies to gently acknowledge our anger, listen to it, and begin to move it through the body rather than letting it turn inward.

Takeaway: Naming our anger is a radical act of self-care, and an essential step toward emotional freedom.

Wired to Survive, Not to Heal. At First!

Felice Martin took us into the body and brain, breaking down the neuroscience of survival. She explained how our nervous systems are wired to protect us, not necessarily to process complex emotions like anger, grief, or betrayal.

Her insight?
“You’re not overreacting. You’re reacting based on how your brain has been shaped by your experiences.”

Through accessible language and deep wisdom, Felice helped attendees understand that freezing, fawning, or even lashing out aren’t character flaws. They’re survival strategies, and they can be re-patterned once safety is established.

Takeaway: Healing doesn’t start with trying to "fix" ourselves. It starts with understanding how we adapted.

When Anger Becomes a Way of Life

Marcia Blane delivered a powerful message on how unprocessed anger can evolve into a full-blown survival mode we operate from.

Her message was clear:
“When anger goes unacknowledged, it doesn't just fade, it hardens. And then it starts making decisions for us.”

Many women in the room recognized themselves in her words. The short temper. The guardedness. The constant readiness to protect. Marcia offered grounding tools for shifting from reactive patterns to responsive, rooted ways of being.

Takeaway: We don’t have to live in fight-or-flight. With intention and care, we can return to ourselves.

A Sacred Closing: Releasing at the Lake

To end the day, attendees gathered at the lake for a collective release ritual.

Some stood in stillness.
Some wept.
Some whispered prayers into the water.
Others screamed into the sky and let it all go.

Together, we honored the anger we had carried, and then we gave it back to the earth.

Because sometimes healing isn’t a journal entry or a deep breath. Sometimes, it’s standing by water with your feet on the ground and your heart cracked wide open.

This Was More Than a Moment

The Black Women Breakthrough Conference reminded us that healing doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens in circle. In shared breath. In honest conversations and collective release.

To every speaker, every attendee, every sister who showed up and let go, thank you.

You weren’t “too angry.”
You weren’t “too much.”
You were ready.
And we saw you.

The work continues, and so does the healing.

Stay close. There’s more to come.

Written by Marcia Blane, LPC, NCC, C.Ht.
Licensed Mental Health Counselor | Trauma-Informed Life Coach | Clinical Hypnotherapist
www.marciablane.com