The Framework Of
Daughters of the Yam
A space for theological repair, embodied practice, and returning to yourself.
Daughters of the Yam is a spiritual care and theological education space for people reclaiming their bodies as sacred. It exists for those who have experienced a disconnect between their spirituality and their embodiment—especially those who were taught, directly or indirectly, that their bodies were incompatible with holiness. This is not a space built on fixing you. It is a space built on the belief that your wholeness was never lost—only disrupted.
The Gap That This Space Seeks to Fill
Many people leave religious spaces to survive. But leaving does not always resolve what those spaces taught the body. You may understand, intellectually, that certain beliefs were harmful — but still feel their effects: in your body, in your desire, in your ability to rest, in how you take up space.
Daughters of the Yam exists to address that gap. The space between knowing and living. Between deconstruction and embodiment.
Touch Me Not Embodiment
The Disconnect that Occurs During Religious Harm
This work is grounded in Touch Me Not Embodiment (TMNE) theology.
A framework that names how disconnection from the body is formed—and how it can be undone.
In plain language: TMNE is a defensive posture toward your own body that develops as survival. When you’ve been taught that your body is dangerous to God, you learn to split yourself from your own flesh. It can sound like: “My body is not a safe place to be in.” TMNE names the pattern, not to blame you, but to set you free from it.
Touch Me Not Embodiment names the moment your body became a place you couldn’t stay.
Religious Harm
The Crisis
This work is grounded in Touch Me Not Embodiment (TMNE) theology.
A framework that names how disconnection from the body is formed—and how it can be undone.
Touch Me Not
embodiment
The Response
This work is grounded in Touch Me Not Embodiment (TMNE) theology.
A framework that names how disconnection from the body is formed—and how it can be undone.
Daughters of the yam
The Solution
This work is grounded in Touch Me Not Embodiment (TMNE) theology.
A framework that names how disconnection from the body is formed—and how it can be undone.
Dissecting the situation (needs refinement)
The intellectual, geneological and spiritual inheritance that grounds the work.
DOTY is situated within the womanist tradition and names the scholars, activists, and theologians whose frameworks make this work possible. We stand in the tradition of Audre Lorde, bell hooks, and Alice Walker — women who insisted that the full range of Black women’s experience is sacred ground. Our foremothers survived within the crisis. We have space to complete the work they left for us.
Womanist Foremothers
Audre Lorde
Brief description of theology correlation or overview of womanist author's work and how it informs the work done within DOTY. Can also make the ancestral/lineage connection in this section as well.
bell hooks
Brief description of theology correlation or overview of womanist author's work and how it informs the work done within DOTY. Can also make the ancestral/lineage connection in this section as well.
Alice Walker
Brief description of theology correlation or overview of womanist author's work and how it informs the work done within DOTY. Can also make the ancestral/lineage connection in this section as well.
To begin your journey towards wholeness, learn more about our offerings and routes to healing, take our free assessment and discover the resources to go deeper and uncover the path back to yourself. (this needs to be refined)