Reclaiming Our Stories

Layers of Identity

Our identities are constructed, discovered, revealed — and sometimes forced upon us. Moving through five layers, from the individual to the universal, and what the left and right brain each contribute.
Layers of Identity

So many of us spend our entire lives trying to prove this label: our identity. Yes, proving this identity can offer self confidence, motivation, and a sense of purpose at times, but it can also be a liability. Our left brain offers a limited view of ourselves, “boxing” our identities into categories that only paints a small corner of the entire picture. When we make room for the right brain into the picture, we can see the whole picture of our identity.

Notice your self talk at this time. Which identity are you speaking from?

It can be difficult to shift from one identity to another, so I invite curiosity as you continue to move through this writing. Take note that the world projects our old identities, and we can become attached to these identities, making life quite limiting. It takes courage to shift, but because you are reading this, your curiosity will allow your inner courage to take up some space.

What Shapes an Identity

Identity unfolds through layers that build on one another:

  • Time
  • Place
  • Culture
  • Systems
  • Bodily awareness
  • Feelings
  • Auto biographies
  • Core values

Our identities are constructed, discovered, revealed, and forced upon based on these factors.

The Five Layers

In a nutshell, identities can be categorized in five layers:

  1. Individual
  2. Group
  3. Human
  4. Eco
  5. Universal

Bringing in back some brain knowledge, the left brain is known for its logical, linear, concrete, and rational reasoning, whereas the right brain is known for the more abstract, creative, non sensical, intuitive, and artistic parts of understanding. Let’s look at the layers of identity from this framework:

  • Individual — dominantly left brain
  • Group — mostly left brain
  • Human — both left & right brain
  • Eco — mostly right brain
  • Universal — dominantly right brain

1. Individual Identity

  • Uniqueness
  • Personality traits
  • Appearance
  • Values
  • Age
  • Interests
  • Epigenetics (behaviors, preferences, fears passed down onto us from biological ancestors)
  • Shaped by childhood
  • Socio-economic status
  • Career choices
  • Creative outlets
  • Likes / dislikes
  • Sense of agency (which are shaped by culture, politics, geography, history, and parenting)

Individual vs. Other Identities

It is common for our individual identities to be in conflict with other identities. Many of us are less privileged than others. At times we can receive pressure from our occupation/ employer to “be” a particular identity that is not authentic. It is important to understand and acknowledge that oppressed groups are intentionally marginalized and exploited.

Identity and Social Media

  • Many of us have a “virtual” identity
  • Audiences impact how we think about ourselves
  • Pros to social media:
    • Can build an identity if we are authentic
    • We can choose
    • Connect with others
    • Way to express ourselves
    • Peer acceptance
  • Cons to social media:
    • Loss of control
    • Identity confusion
    • AI threats
    • Loss of meaning

2. Group Identity

Some are earned, others are not.

  • What we have in common
  • Nationality, race, culture, gender
  • Ability, age group, politics
  • Areas of activity or study level of education
  • Some are caught
  • Some can be taught to us (religion)
  • Some are in power, socio-economic status group, oppressed
  • Some groups are constant while others change
  • We all have the need to belong:
    • Safety
    • Pride
    • Trust
    • Connection
    • Shared history
    • Shame
    • Guilt
    • Sports teams

Diversity of relationships within or outside of our groups enriches our friendships, teamwork, and the way we understand and appreciate the world. Exposure to diversity is healthy for our microbiome.

Cons of Group Identity: The Asch Conformity Experiment

  • Revealed how group consensus (overall agreement of an idea) can override individual judgment
  • This experiment also revealed how group conformity suppresses TRUTH and perception

Group identity is the primary basis for both inclusion and exclusion (subconsciously). This can lead to stereotypes and unconscious biases — which happens all the time, and is part of being a human being.

Healthy Groups

  • Heal relational trauma
  • Feelings of safety, compassionate, authentic
  • Safe to be vulnerable, which can develop talents

Unconscious Bias

These are automatic thoughts of “others”. This leads to:

  • Affinity bias / in-group favoritism
  • Blind spots
  • Macroaggressions
  • Systemic racism
  • Colonialism
  • Microaggressions
  • Wars

3. Human Identity

  • Commonalities with all people
  • We all have needs, rights, feelings
  • We all face challenges
  • We all deal with health concerns
  • We all have family stressors
  • We all experience some level of trauma
  • We all pass through life cycles (many, not all), and we all will die
  • We can experience compassion of understanding
  • Universal Declarations of Human Rights recognizes universal human rights
  • We all create art, literature, dance, culture
  • We all need community, belonging, and fulfillment
  • We are all wired for empathy
  • All rooted from Africa
  • We all share common shared humanity

4. Eco Identity

  • How we perceive ourselves to the non-human life
  • Shared planet in closed system
  • All interrelated
  • All share air, climate, water, plants, animals
  • What we do to Earth, we do to ourselves
  • Right hemisphere of brain recognizes the sacredness of this reality of Earth
  • Currently, the world is on a run-away train of left brain train
  • Spending time in nature reconnects us back to this identity
  • Attachment to place is an emotional bond
  • Solastalgia — grief over environmental change while present
  • Ecological grief — especially true for Indigenous peoples:
    • Mirrors our traumas
    • Displacement severs our ties to ancestral lands, losing our group identities

Attachment to Earth

In most of human history, people lived in a reciprocal, intimate relationship with Land. Earth was home, provider, and kin. Post Industrial Revolution, dominant cultures shifted towards extraction. Colonization, urbanization, technological detachment have eroded our felt sense of belonging to the natural world. This rupture mirrors an insecure attachment– we have lost the lived experience that Earth is a responsive, nurturing presence.

  • Loss of trust
  • Defensive detachment (numbing)
  • Identity fragmentation (not seeing the self-harm)
  • Short term survival focus (by prioritizing short term gains)

Healing the Wound

Rebuilding secure attachment to Earth requires:

  • Direct sensory connection — time in wild, garden spaces to restore relationship with Land (it’s like being breastfed)
  • Reciprocal care — regenerative agriculture, rewilding, cultural ceremonies that express gratitude for Earth
  • Narrative repair — reclaiming stories of kinship and interdependence with Earth from Indigenous, local and traditional knowledge systems
  • Restoration of trust, rebuilding of empathy, and reintegration of a severed part of Self– our ecological identity

5. Universal Identity

  • This identity is experiential, cannot be intellectualized
  • This is the consciousness / essence of all beings
  • Pure, whole, indivisible
  • Beyond our planet, time and space
  • No “other”, no division
  • Unaffected by social or cultural influences
  • The Soul
  • Most authentic parts of Self
  • Beyond the roles, emotions, thoughts
  • Different dimensions of true nature:
    • Peace
    • Love
    • Joy
    • Strength
    • Compassion
  • Recognizing we exist in relation to all things
  • Integrates other four identities
  • We co-create as unified organism

Holding All Five Together

I believe many of us suffer and succumb to the dark spaces and corners of pain when there is conflict between these layers, the lack of acknowledgement of them, and when we hold tightly to old identities that do not align with our truth anymore. All these five layers co-exist, and we can navigate and respect all of them simultaneously. If one of these layers is denied, then we are not whole. We can apply these five layers of compassion to each by interacting with these concepts:

  • Well wishing
  • Recognition (sonder — the understanding that other beings are living complex and enriching lives such as ourselves)
  • Seeking to understand
  • There is truth of all situations
  • Possibility

References

Cartoon of a person with long black hair, glasses, a brown hat, green jacket, and yellow shirt.
Author
Anh Tran, LMFT, ATR

Thoughts on healing, art,
and being human

Art & Expression
The Power of Live Music

Something measurable happens to our brains in a room full of live music that recordings cannot reproduce. On neural phase-locking, community choirs, and music as social bonding.

Reflections
Raising Our Children

After nineteen years with children and families, the one book I recommend most is The Whole Brain Child. The upstairs and downstairs brain, and practical ways to connect before you redirect.

Decolonial Healing
Systems Worsen Our Mental Health

Anxiety under systemic racism is not irrational — it is survival. How capitalism and colonialism shape who we believe we are, and why “What do you do?” is never a neutral question.

Decolonial Healing
How to Create Change Under Growing Fascism

Feeling powerless is an understandable response to what we are watching unfold. A grounded look at what fascism is, and where ordinary people still hold real leverage — including rest.

Decolonial Healing
Limitations of Western Psychology

Most psychological research is built on a small, unrepresentative slice of humanity. An honest look at how Western psychology appropriated Indigenous knowledge, and why the field needs to become far less American.