Healing Rage, Terror & All Our Stuff:
Tools for Becoming Whole in a World of Oppression
and Violence against SGLBT Communities of Color
(Panel Discussion & Healing Intensives at the World Pride & Power Conference in Los Angeles, Feb. 21–24, 2008)
Below are descriptions of the featured healing modalities, along with biographies of panelists & practitioners.
Generative Somatics
The word, “Somatics,” implies," the living body in its wholeness,” i.e., an integrated mind/body/spirit. Generative Somatics is an integrative approach using somatic awareness, somatic bodywork and somatic practices to create lasting change. Working with trauma through the psycho-biology is a powerful way to move from managing traumatic symptoms to transforming trauma and your life. Transforming trauma includes being able to change the deep reactions that linger long after traumatic experiences — the fight, flight, freeze and dissociative responses which emerge automatically to protect us. While these responses are initially life saving, they tend to create havoc over time. Through Generative Somatics people are able to learn presence and boundaries and re-establish connection with themselves, others and community. They are able to connect with what gives their life meaning and growth and leverage their resilience to live that.
Generative Somatics approaches trauma as both an individual and collective experience. Individuals can experience specific incidences of trauma that deeply impact them and the people they are in relationship with for years. We are also living amidst family and community practices, public and private institutions and broader social norms that support and perpetuate violence and domination. In this work we look toward both the individual experiences of trauma and the social context in which we are living to understand, heal, and transform. Generative Somatics is used in one-on-one and small group settings as well as in social change and community building work.
- Staci Haines
Staci Haines is the founder of generation FIVE, a highly-regarded nonprofit whose mission is to end the sexual abuse of children within five generations. She has been organizing and educating in the area of child sexual abuse since 1985. She is a long-time activist in sexual assault, racial justice, and environmental sustainability work — and the attempts to interconnect these agendas. She is the author of the book Healing Sex and the DVD Healing Sex, both offering a mind/body (somatic) approach to healing from sexual trauma and developing vital sexual and intimate relationships. She is the originator of Somatics and Trauma and leads courses teaching this work to community activists, social justice leaders, therapists and other practitioners. Staci is committed to the intersection of personal healing and social justice work, and sees that both have to be addressed to bring the change and justice we want in the world.
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- Vassi Johri
Vassi Johri, M.S.W., A.C.S.W., is the Co-Founder/Co-Director of The Sankofa Project at McClymonds Educational Complex in West Oakland CA. Ms. Johri is a social justice therapist who has been working with oppressed communities for over fourteen years in both crisis intervention and prevention/wellness capacities, blending clinical skills with a social activist perspective. A graduate of Smith College, Ms. Johri has been the recipient of numerous awards for leadership and community service. Her current work involves the cross sections of oppression and trauma, cultural competency, institutional and interpersonal anti-oppression models, and the somatic, mental and emotional effects on the ability of oppressed communities to function and thrive.
Healing Rage
Rage sits at the crossroads of personal transformation. Those of us seeking peace will inevitably stumble upon the undeniable truth of personal rage. Rage is not to be understood as a useless emotion, empty of story, knowledge or wisdom. We each embody the unresolved rage of our parents and ancestors that we carry forth out of an unconscious loyalty. When we understand that rage is symbolic of what is denied, forgotten, and ungrieved, this trapped energy becomes an intimate and empathic teacher of balance and integrity in our personal and professional lives. In our mini intensive, you will deepen your understanding of personal rage and discover that when you are paying kind attention to rage, it ceases to be a problem.
- Ruth King
Ruth King, MA, a respected voice on transforming rage, is president of Bridges, Branches & Braids — an organization working with negative emotions in positive ways. She is the author of Healing Rage — Women Making Inner Peace Possible and the audio CD Soothing the Inner Flames of Rage — Meditations that Educate the Heart & Transform the Mind. King weaves eastern and western psychology, leadership development, and teachings from wisdom traditions to lecture, coach, and facilitate retreats that transform the emotional body and mind.
Celebration of Rage retreats have impacted the lives of women and men throughout the world in the last 11 years. This body of knowledge springs from King's 10 years of experience as a healing rage workshop leader and 20 years of experience as an international management consultant. Currently, King specializes in life coaching and team development, and is recognized as a consultant to consultants. Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize Winner for The Color Purple says: “Healing Rage is a classic self-help book filled with the passion, earthiness and wisdom of a self-described wounded healer. Ruth King's desire for our wellness and freedom radiates throughout. This is a book that can change your life."
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Indigenous Ritual
At this critical time in history, the Earth's people are awakening to a deep need for global healing. African wisdom, so long held secret, is being called on to provide tools to enable us to move into a more peaceful and empowered way of being, both within ourselves, and within our communities. The Indigenous spirit in each of us is calling for cleansing and reconciliation. The ancestors are responding. In the Dagara and other Indigenous traditions, it is believed that LGBTIQ (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Intersexed & Queer)/SGL (Same-Gender-Loving)/Twin Spirit people hold the key to the ancestral and spiritual realm.
- Malidoma Somé
Malidoma Somé, Ph.D. as representative of his village in Burkina Faso, West Africa, and an initiated elder, has come to the West to share the ancient wisdom and practices which have supported his people for thousands of years. A double-Ph.D. (The Sorbonne in Paris, and Brandeis University), Malidoma is the author of the New York Times best-seller Of Water & Spirit, and is the Founder of the Ancestralization Series. He is heralded as one of the most innovative spiritual and cultural teachers of this era. His best-selling books, lectures, retreats and conferences have attracted hundreds of thousands to his spirited gatherings. As a heterosexual ally, he stands boldly in support of the full reemergence and integration of LGBTIQ (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Intersexed Queer)/SGL (Same-Gender-Loving)/Twin Spirit people in a society supporting global healing.
In Summer of 2007, a major Hollywood motion picture based on Of Water and the Spirit began filming in South Africa. The film, currently titled Initiation, is directed by Levar Burton, produced by Mark Wolfe, Julia Roberson and Anthony Johnson, and written by Anthony Johnson, Howard Besserman, Julia Roberson and LeVar Burton.
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Meditation (Indigenous Meditation)
Meditation provides an opening; an awareness of attention that penetrates a deeper insight and connection to the nature of who you are… From an Indigenous point of view, Nature mirrors the object of internal focus; it provides a reflection of beauty and truth. Like Nature, all elements present themselves – and the rising of each moment is a mystery. Yet each transition provides an opportunity into our own Inner Substance. At a time in society where external influences distract us from this intimate relationship with ourselves and the world around us, the calling of internal peace lays with the focus of solitude.
Nature provides us with “beauty” all year around. Are we open to unfold the essence of our true nature from an Indigenous perspective? The four seasons offer the teaching of our true nature. In this intensive we will explore each season as a possibility and a useful tool that prepares for the deep internal work that comes with having a meditative practice.
- Carol Cano
Carol Cano is the co-founder of Inner Substance®, LLC. Inner Substance® is a treatment philosophy that bridges modern knowledge and Indigenous spiritual and cultural traditions to foster transformational change. Applying the model of Inner Substance®, Carol specializes in mental health, HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, conflict resolution, and cultural issues with the Native American population.
In addition to her work with Inner Substance® Carol is a certified eastern practitioner in Shiatsu and Traditional Medical Thai Massage. She practices at the Institute for Health and Healing at California Pacific Medical Center, in San Francisco.
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Meditation (Mindful Awareness Meditation)
Contemporary culture in the United States is marked by extraordinary advances in science and technology, yet coupled with these advances is an increasing sense of pressure, complexity and information overload. Individuals across the lifespan are feeling tremendous stress, which is contributing to a variety of mental and physical health problems and diseases.
Mindful awareness is a practice that comes to us from a variety of contemplative traditions throughout history. It invites us to stop, breathe, observe, and connect with one's inner experience. There are many ways to bring mindfulness into one's life, such as meditation, yoga, art, or time in nature. Mindfulness can be trained systematically, and can be implemented in daily life, by people of any age, profession or background. In the last ten years, significant research has shown that mindfulness can address health issues. It can lower blood pressure and boost the immune system; increase attention and focus, including aiding those suffering from ADHD; help with difficult mental states such as anxiety and depression, fostering well-being and less emotional reactivity; and thicken the brain in areas in charge of decision making, emotional flexibility, and empathy.
- Caitríona Reed
Caitríona Reed is trained in Hypnotherapy, Neurological Repatterning and Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). She is a Performance Consultant and Master Results Coach, and was certified as an NLP Trainer by Christopher Howard. She has been in practice as a clinical hypnotherapist since 1985. She trained with Gil Boyne in Hypnotherapy, Gestalt, and Dream Work, and subsequently studied with such luminaries as Ormond McGill, Don Motin and David Quigley. She was first exposed to Buddhist mindfulness practice in 1970. She began teaching in the Theravada/Vipassana tradition in 1982, and later in the Tien/Zen tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh, who formally empowered her as a Zen Teacher in 1992. She has led retreats and workshops in Buddhism, Meditation and Zen, Deep-Ecology, Socially Engaged Spiritual Practice, and Hypnosis in the U.S. and Europe. In addition, Caitríona is a “woman of transsexual experience”, who lived the first part of her life as a man. Thus she has a unique perspective on identity, relationships, life-transitions, and the issues that emerge from our basic instinct towards integrity, honesty, and living life at one hundred percent.
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- Dan Siegel
Dan Siegel, Ph.D. received his medical degree from Harvard University and completed his postgraduate medical education at UCLA with training in pediatrics and child, adolescent and adult psychiatry. He served as a National Institute of Mental Health Research Fellow at UCLA, studying family interactions with an emphasis on how attachment experiences influence emotions, behavior, autobiographical memory and narrative.
He is a child psychiatrist and internationally renowned speaker/teacher in the interface of neurobiology, psychiatry and mindful awareness. Dan is the Director of the Mindfulness Awareness Research Center at the Semel Institute for Neurosciences and Human Behavior at UCLA (MARC-UCLA). He is author and co-author of several books including, The Developing Mind: Toward a Neurobiology of Interpersonal Experience, Parenting from the Inside-Out: How a Deeper Self-Understanding Can Help You Raise Children Who Thrive, and The Mindful Brain.
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Reevaluation Counseling (“RC”)
RC is a process whereby people of all ages and of all backgrounds can learn how to exchange effective help with each other in order to free themselves from the effects of past distress experiences.
RC theory provides a model of what a human being can be like in the area of his/her interaction with other human beings and his/her environment. The theory assumes that everyone is born with tremendous intellectual potential, natural zest, and lovingness, but that these qualities have become blocked and obscured in adults as the result of accumulated distress experiences (fear, hurt, loss, pain, anger, embarrassment, etc.) which begin early in our lives. Any young person would recover from such distress spontaneously by use of the natural process of emotional discharge (crying, trembling, raging, laughing, etc.). However, this natural process is usually interfered with by well-meaning people ("Don't cry," "Be a big boy," etc.) who erroneously equate the emotional discharge (the healing of the hurt) with the hurt itself. When adequate emotional discharge can take place, the person is freed from the rigid pattern of behavior and feeling left by the hurt. The basic loving, cooperative, intelligent, and zestful nature is then free to operate. Such a person will tend to be more effective in looking out for his or her own interests and the interests of others, and will be more capable of acting successfully against injustice.
In recovering and using the natural discharge process, two people take turns counseling and being counseled. The one acting as the counselor listens, draws the other out and permits, encourages, and assists emotional discharge. The one acting as client talks and discharges and re-evaluates. With experience and increased confidence and trust in each other, the process works better and better.
- Granville Braxton
Granville is an RC counselor, and the creator of the "Rage & Terror" transformational practice. He grew up in the South under Jim Crow laws/US Apartheid. He was routinely spat upon, denied entry into front doors of establishments, and subject to spontaneous White Supremacist terrorism. Nonetheless, he was bound and determined to make a change in the craziness that surrounded him. One of his goals was to attempt to understand and dismantle racism.
Granville was a Drill Instructor with the US Armed Services for 15+ years. During that time he mastered the ability to lead people when they were afraid. He assisted people who had a tremendous fear of weapons and explosives. Granville began community leading as a District Rep in the Al-A-Non 12 step program, and was also a Group Leader and an Al-A-Teen Group Sponsor. He turned these experiences into a program to assist people in freeing themselves from the Rage & Terror that they may have experienced or witnessed in their lives. He introduced the "Rage & Terror" program 14 years ago to assist Black Men with the anger that was left unaddressed. From there it took off. He opened this program up to Black Women in the sixth year. The focus was to provide Black Women with a safe place to deal with their own rage. He then advanced to a much broader scale, and has been leading Rage & Terror work with groups comprised of numerous ethnicities and genders.
- Horace Williams
Horace Williams, Ph.D., was born and reared in Leesburg, Florida in central Florida in the late 30s and 40s. His first experience of racism occurred during WWII. There was a concentration camp housing captured German soldiers on the edge of the city, and the war prisoners would be brought to town on the weekends and were allowed to eat in the white restaurants and attend the movies. He asked his parents why they were allowed these privileges, and his family, as Negroes, were not. They explained that the prisoners were White, and therefore they had these privileges. At this moment, Horace set a goal to eliminate racism. He was 12 years old.
Horace became involved in several organizations that addressed eliminating racism during and after college. RC, so far, has been the best process that he knows to eliminate racism. It helps you get over the hurts so you can address change in a more rational and efficient manner. Horace is the Regional Reference Person, East Los Angeles/San Gabriel Valley Region of RC.
Horace is currently Pharmacy Director at EAST VALLEY HOSPITAL MEDICAL CENTER, GLENDORA, CA. He holds a Ph.D. in Public Administration from USC, an M.P.A., also from USC, and a B.S. in Pharmacy, Xavier University, New Orleans.
Paths To Change Institute — Convener
Paths To Change Institute (“PTCI”) is a network of activists, business people, scientists, spiritual teachers, thought-leaders, and other change-agents supporting humanity’s shift to a life-sustaining civilization in these perilous times. PTCI supports this shift by cultivating our capacity for deeply honoring “the web of life” — the world-view acknowledging that all life is profoundly interconnected and precious. This perspective is central to many ancient wisdom & mastery traditions, and to contemporary complexity science (in particular, though not exclusively, its application to eco-sciences, neurosciences, organizational dynamics and systems theory).
Our current ecological and human rights crises threaten the viability not just of humanity — but of life on Earth as we know it. The shift from our Industrial-Dominator Society to a life-sustaining civilization has been various called “The Prophecy of the Eagle and the Condor” (several Indigenous peoples of the Americas), “The Great Turning” (eco-philosopher and activist Joanna Macy), “The Great Work”, and many other names. Deepening our individual and collective capacities to honor the web of life is central to The Great Work.
PTCI exists to support The Great Work by synthesizing the best of the ancient and modern traditions in four key web-of-life areas: Honoring Mother Earth/the Eco-sciences; Healing Mind-Body/the Neurosciences; Organic Organizations/Organizational Dynamics; Describing the Mystery/Systems Theory. In particular, PTCI’s services and programs catalyze individual leadership capacity and create highly effective groups, teams, organizations, communities, and social-change movements.
- Lawrence Ellis (Panel Moderator)
Lawrence, Founder & President of Paths To Change Institute (“PTCI”), is a complexity-science organizational consultant whose initial training was at Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship. He is also a spiritual activist. For several years he served as a Senior Associate, and later Director, with Interaction Associates, one of the oldest consulting & training firms in the world specializing in managing organizational and community change. A spiritual teacher and leader representing Buddhist and Indigenous communities, he has used his teacher/leader status to organize and mobilize for justice and sustainability on numerous issues — from engaging in civil disobedience to win back-wages and benefits for exploited low-wage urban workers, to encouraging human rights organizations to weave ecological considerations into their actions and campaigns. At the invitation of Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, he represented the U.S. in a yatra (journey) in India commemorating Gandhi and Martin Luther King.
Lawrence strongly aligns with the perspective of many activists, futurists, Indigenous wisdom-keepers and other thought-leaders and change-agents that a key root cause of several contemporary ecological and social crises lies in an our global culture’s incapacity to honor the web of life. He founded PTCI to address this challenge. In particular, he seeks to bring more humane, just, interconnected, sustainable and spiritually-fulfilling approaches and results to individuals, groups, organizations, communities and movements.
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