Mariana’s Lament

Can a healer heal herself? Since Mariana was a little girl in Mexico City, her mother Victoria, a psychologist, barely hugged her. Eventually Victoria became an alcoholic. Mariana studied to become a psychologist too, both to help others and to better understand herself.

Then Mariana started to experience similar problems with her Finnish husband. She realized the two most important people in her life had both inherited a “shadow” from their families; a generational trauma – but had not found ways to deal with it. In a women’s circle in a temazcal, an ancient Mexican heated lodge similar to a Finnish sauna, where women share personal stories in the spirit of sisterhood, Mariana hears from a Finnish therapist about women’s lament singing circles in Finland.

In this unique Finnish therapeutic tradition, the aim is to write and perform your own lament song to heal your negative emotions with the communal support of fellow practitioners. Mariana comes to Finland in order to create a lament in which she tells her mother how she feels about their relationship.

Can the ancient Finnish lament singing tradition help a Mexican psychologist Mariana, a wounded healer, to heal herself?