The FRAY Origin Story: Ancestral Healing for Black Women
- Takia Thompson
- May 14
- 2 min read
Updated: May 18
Before The FRAY Alchemist became a coaching practice rooted in ancestral healing, it was a personal ritual. A trauma-informed meditation practice that helped me release stress, regulate my nervous system, and reconnect with myself as a Black woman.
Years ago, I began something I called FRAY: Meditation + Macramé. At the time, I didn’t know I was creating a practice. I just knew I needed something to quiet the noise in my mind. The weight of doing too much. Holding too much. Thinking too much.
So I picked up a macramé cord.
And I frayed it.
One strand at a time.
This practice later became a cornerstone of my approach to ancestral healing for Black women—a path of embodied, trauma-informed liberation.
The Power of Sensory Repetition
The small, repetitive motion of fraying the cords created a soothing rhythm—an anchoring that allowed my mind to settle. It was the first time I truly understood how powerful repetition and touch can be in bringing the nervous system out of survival and back into presence.
Forgiveness = Freedom became the foundation of the practice.As I untangled the threads, I untangled the guilt. The resentment. The expectations that weren’t mine.And in that space, I found peace.
This Practice Is Rooted in Ancestral Healing for Black Women
As I deepened into this ritual, I realized: this wasn’t new.
Our ancestors had always known the healing power of small, repeated movements—done in rhythm, done in community. They wove baskets. Picked berries. Twisted tobacco. Braided hair. Quilted stories. Each movement not just functional, but sacred.
Fraying the cord connected me to something ancient. It was quiet work. Communal work.This repetition wasn’t just a coping mechanism—it was a spiritual lineage.
We Don’t Heal Alone—We Build Together
What I first began as a way to release the static in my brain has evolved into a full framework for healing and liberation.
That ritual became the seed of The FRAY Method, a transformational path now woven through my coaching:
Forgive – Release what was never yours to carry
Reconcile – Return to your whole, intuitive self
Amplify – Take up space and speak your truth
Yield – Let the world reflect back the changes you’ve made within
But make no mistake: this work doesn’t happen in isolation.We heal in community. We build together.
Because we were never meant to do this alone.
We carry the threads of our past—our ancestral wisdom—and we bring them forward into today’s world. We weave wholeness. We create new legacies. We initiate ourselves into something greater than our individual stories.
This Work Is a Living Lineage
The FRAY Alchemist is not just a brand. It is a practice. A remembering.A call to transform what was meant to break us into something sacred and sovereign.
This work is an initiation into our collective legacy.
A legacy that says: we are allowed to be free.
That healing is not just personal—it is cultural.
That joy, rest, and clarity are our inheritance.
And that liberation is built—thread by thread, body by body, together.
Want to explore the FRAY path for yourself?
Let’s weave your next chapter together.
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