Facing Fragility: Toward Building a Culture of Coliberation
We invite you to work with us toward building a sane, loving, compassionate and brave anti-racist culture.
Facing Fragility is an advanced anti-racism course for white-bodied folx, offered in seven sessions along the expanded, decolonized spiral of the Work That Reconnects. Designed to deepen emotional, somatic, cognitive, and social capacity, this course builds the tools needed to confront white supremacy and systems of oppression—while staying engaged without overwhelm, burnout, or shutdown.
Through guided learning, somatic practices, and self-regulation techniques, participants will explore the difference between safety, challenge, and overwhelm, as well as activation versus trigger responses. By building awareness and nervous system resilience, participants will practice interrupting patterns of harm—on emotional, cognitive, and somatic levels—to enable more intentional and compassionate interactions in mixed-race settings.
At the same time, we will critically examine how oppression operates globally, systemically, and internally—recognizing that while no individual created these systems, we all have a role in either perpetuating or disrupting them.
Throughout the course, participants will:
- Strengthen resilience through resourcing, self-compassion, slowing down, and energy release practices
- Develop a practical toolkit for self-regulation and collective support
- Build frameworks for navigating feedback and conflict with accountability and care
- Deepen understanding of how supremacy culture shapes emotions, beliefs, and group dynamics
- Set “going forth” commitments tailored to their personal or organizational contexts, sustaining anti-oppression work beyond the course
Ideal Participants Include:
- Majority-white teams serving racially diverse communities
- White members of mixed-race groups working in predominantly white institutions
- Individuals seeking to explore whiteness, deepen anti-oppressive practice, or build capacity for transformative change
- People applying to the Spiral Journey International Facilitator Development Program in preparation for the anti-oppression and decolonization work within the program
Whether participating individually or as part of a team, you’ll leave with a practical toolkit, greater self-awareness, and stronger collective insight to support your anti-racist journey with integrity, resilience, and courage.
Course Structure
Facing Fragility meets monthly over seven 2.5-hour sessions, held on the third Saturday of each month from August 2025 through February 2026.
Each session runs 9:00–11:30 AM MT / 11:00–13:30 ET / 17:00–19:30 CET.
Session dates and themes are as follows:
- Gratitude – August 16, 2025
- Self-Awareness/Social Location – September 20, 2025
- Systems of Oppression – October 18, 2025
- Honoring our Pain for the World – November 15, 2025
- Seeing with New/Ancient Eyes – December 20, 2025
- Liberation – January 17, 2026
- Going Forth – February 21, 2026
Participants can expect approximately 2-3 hours of prep work each month, along with a minimum of 20 minutes/week of somatic practice between sessions. You are encouraged to meet with a buddy between gatherings to build support systems, deepen your learning, and debrief your experiences.
Please have the following two books on hand throughout the course of this program:
- Layla F. Saad, 2020. Me and White Fragility – Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor
- Ijeoma Oluo, 2025. Be a Revolution – How Everyday People Are Fighting Oppression and Changing the World—and How You Can, Too
Time Commitment:
- 2.5-hour live session monthly
- 2-3 hours of prep work monthly
- Ongoing somatic practices (minimum 20 minutes/week)
Financial Details
The cost for the full course is $900, with a sliding scale from $450 to $1,550 to honor diverse economic realities. We ask that you contribute as generously as you are able, knowing your contribution helps create access for others.
All post-production profits will be donated to Black- and Indigenous-led organizations and projects.
Limited scholarships (beyond the sliding scale provided) will be available.
Important Note
This course builds on your foundational understanding of anti-racist theory and white supremacy. Please come prepared with prior experience or study in these areas.
Facilitators
This course is facilitated by Leah Pearson and Yulia Smagorinsky, who are deeply committed to holding brave, compassionate spaces for transformative anti-oppression work.
Accreditation
Facing Fragility meets the training prerequisites for the Spiral Journey International Facilitator Development Program, fulfilling both the 12-hour Work That Reconnects spiral and required Anti-Oppression training.
Leah Pearson (she/her) has over 20 years of experience as a teacher, coach, facilitator, and trainer specializing in culturally relevant pedagogy. In recent years, she has led white affinity groups for racial justice, fostering vulnerability while interrogating racism within herself and the systems she engages with, centering Global Majority voices, and speaking truth to power.
A graduate of the 2024-2025 Spiral Journey Facilitator Development Program, Leah deepened her practice in anti-oppression work and facilitation. She is excited to co-facilitate Facing Fragility, creating a brave space for white people to engage in antiracist practices both somatically and through daily risk-taking.
Leah lives in Denver with her husband, Nick, and their two children, Ronin and June. She finds joy in spending time in nature. Her writing has been featured in Deep Times Journal.
Yulia Smagorinsky (they/them), M.Sc.Agr, Spiral Journey administrator and co-facilitator. Yulia is a farmer, weaver of social change and healing, permaculture designer and a graduate of the Spiral Journey Facilitator Development Program and registered facilitator of the Work That Reconnects Network.
Yulia works as a horticultural educator and restorative justice practitioner in the Healing Garden – a project of Down North Foundation – at the Philadelphia Juvenile Justice Service Center.
Yulia is a co-founder of Emergent Abundance Farming Collective, sharing food, knowledge, skills, information, access to land and sources of healing with the local community. They are actively creating platforms and pathways to hold space for others to heal, to listen deeply and transform.