Spiral Journey Webinar August 13, 2022
Webinar Recordings
Our Panelists
Mary Duckett and Ellen Serfaty – When Research is Practice
Matt Streit – Preaching Outside the Choir: Communicating the Work That Reconnects to underserved audiences
Further Resources:
Container for My Grandmother’s Hands
Blank Book Group Breakout
To participate in future online book groups, contact ehoffserf@gmail.com
Mary Duckett and Ellen Serfaty
When Research is Practice
Mary and Ellen will share their experience as participants and co-facilitators of WTR self-organized book groups; from personal spiral journeys to empowered community explorations of our main guides and resources. The book groups followed the co-facilitation model, with sessions planned together facilitating the exercises specific to the texts. This has enabled a wide range of creative applications and sharing talents and abilities. The book groups have evolved with each text as a result of group experience and participation, and the peer-developed, non-hierarchical way of operating allows members to draw from and share equally, which is why the groups are so enriching for those involved.
Ellen Serfaty is living in the northern Mediterranean area of Israel.
after 30 years in Jerusalem as part of a North African “tribe”, and over 3 decades in the Bronx, and rural areas of New York and the deep south – as a retiree, Ellen encountered dead turtles, who had swallowed plastic bags, in the lagoons next to her new home-paradise. COVID provided the opportunity to transform her frozen grief into local activism through the Work That Reconnects. This is her third year scanning the beaches for turtle nests at dawn, protecting hatchlings on their first journeys to the sea, and helping other volunteers do so. Ellen is also a part of research projects for documenting the effects of the climate crisis on jellyfish and snails, and after leading her local community in a horrific tar cleanup, she is part of emergency teams with Ecocean. Such a change from careers as a public criminal defense lawyer, child abuse advocate, lobbyist and special needs teacher and trainer! In addition to their book groups, Ellen facilitates a course offered through the Charter for Compassion Education Institute, https://charterforcompassion.org/how-to-become-an-activist, an Introduction to the WTR, and hasco-facilitated with an educational climate teacher several post- screenings of Once You Know, https://workthatreconnects.org/event/once-you-know-hosted-screenings-and-facilitated-wtr-experiences/. Ellen is active in several WTR anti-oppression/de-escalating harm work and practice groups, and the Facilitator Support committee.
Mary Duckett is based in Wales. Her career has been orientated by service to support wellbeing of individuals and groups, particularly those most disadvantaged. She has 20 years community development and project management experience, facilitating groups, events and training. Mary also has 19 years’ experience consistently engaging in meditation, yoga and other contemplative practices and is now a self-employed creator and facilitator, under the business name Ecobalance Courses. Her courses are for organizations, teams and groups of people wishing to make conscious, sustainable change. Workshops are suitable for Public Service managers and teams working in the context of the Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act, as well as small businesses seeking to improve their practice and policies: https://www.ecobalancecourses.com/
Matt Streit
Preaching Outside the Choir: Communicating the Work That Reconnects to underserved audiences.
Matt will discuss some partnerships he is working with on a local, national, and hopefully international scope. Locally, he is working with Minneapolis Community Education to offer WTR classes and workshops to lower-income participants in Minneapolis and elsewhere in the Twin Cities. He is also offering WTR workshops to some Twin Cities Buddhist and interfaith organizations. Nationally, he is partnering with a Zen Buddhist center in Chicago to offer a Joanna Macy book group/study group and some WTR workshops. Internationally, he is hoping to work with Venerable Ding (a Buddhist nun and environmental activist from China who lived at his Zen center for a month). Matt’s overall goal is to communicate the Work That Reconnects to audiences who normally aren’t reached by these helpful environmentalist messages.
Matt Streit is a certified WTR facilitator and also a Zen Buddhist priest-in-training at Minnesota Zen Meditation Center. Matt has taught middle school for the past fourteen years for Minneapolis Public Schools. He is a single father of two amazing children.
Spiral Journey Webinar July 23rd
Webinar recording.
Our Panelists
Jo del Amor, New Paradigm Parenting: Reframing parenting as a powerful opportunity to contribute to the radical shift from the Power Over Paradigm to the Thriving Life Paradigm.
Parenting in Tumultuous Times | Radiant Balance
Krista Gaston. The Spiral as a Life-Sustaining Practice: Community Process Groups in Community Mental Health NonProfits.
Home | Krista Gaston (kristagastontherapy.com)
Amy Lister and Simone Hanchet: Spiral Center – Our Spiral Journey: Going Forth Together.
https://www.facebook.com/spiralcentrecoaching
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/spiralcentre/
Jo del Amor
New Paradigm Parenting
New Paradigm Parenting is a body of work that grows out of the fertile soil of the WTR. It is designed specifically for parents who feel anxious and overwhelmed by the responsibility of raising emotionally and physically healthy children in this time of social, economic and environmental collapse. It reframes parenting as a powerful opportunity to contribute to the radical shift from the Power Over Paradigm to the Thriving Life Paradigm that is being called forth by the converging crises facing our world today. It empowers parents with practical tools and inner resources for rising together, with their children, to meet the challenges and opportunities of this unique moment in history.
Bio: Jo delAmor is a mom and a step-mom to two brand new young adults (19 and 21 years old) who graduated high school in 2020, right in the midst of Covid lockdowns and school closures.
In her dedication to personal and cultural transformation as a catalyst for planetary healing, she has paid close attention to what this new generation needs at this pivotal time on planet Earth; charting what works, what doesn’t and what is being called forth from us as parents. She has woven the insights and practical tools she’s gathered through all of this experience into her practice of New Paradigm Parenting and her forthcoming book “Raising Children in the Midst of Global Crisis: A Compassionate Guidebook for Parenting in Turbulent Times
Krista Gaston
The Spiral as a Life-Sustaining Practice: Community Process Groups in Community Mental Health NonProfits.
Folks who work in Trauma-Organized Non-profits bring their own grief for the world into their healing work. In addition to supporting folks in active trauma to navigate dead-end systems, mental health agency staff carry the loss of our clients, our peers, and grief for local and national headlines along to our sessions. For almost 2 years via zoom, I facilitated a monthly Community Process Group, in which staff gathered to process current events. The Work that Reconnects Spiral was foundational for this group, with folks prepared to gather in gratitude, move into honoring our pain in breakout rooms, reflect on the community witnessing and impact of showing these emotional burdens to new eyes, and move forth. Over time, Moving Forth, became our Call To Action space, and action items for change were shared out to leadership and workgroups based on these conversations. Over even more time, and in a moment of loving chaos and change, the Spiral framework was blown across the agency and became a responsive tool for navigating cultural conversations across programs. Staff who had been participating in Community Process Group were now called to hold difficult cultural conversations in their fractal groups, and I began consulting leadership in a Spiral framework. By rooting in consistent practice within an eco-system, when the time was right, the Spiral was propagated to provide community wellness spaces. And while, I’ve left the agency, I trust that the life-sustaining nature of the spiral whenever exposed to industrialization will have lasting impact.
Bio: Krista/She/They) is a Licensed Marriage Family Therapist, Organizer, Eco-Therapist, andTrauma-Informed Systems Specialist. They’re a white, ADHD, queer/femme, and lovingly rocking it in the upper-lower class, Krista is TX-seeded-CA-Grown and currently back in Texas at the foot of the mother tree.
Amy Lister and Simone Hanchet
Spiral Center – Our Spiral Journey: Going Forth Together
Amy Lister and Simone Hanchet are looking forward to share their journey from dreaming and working in isolation to training alongside one another, to most recently creating Spiral Centre, a platform through which they are delivering online workshops and practices to a global community of participants. They hope their spiral journey will help encourage and inspire your own in some way! They look forward to holding space for a Q&A and/or facilitating a creative mindfulness practice from one of their programs – based on what is deemed most meaningful or needed during our time together. Spiral Centre – Home | Facebook
Amy Lister, Bio: Amy Lister runs a successful coaching business serving clients across the globe. She supports people to explore and integrate pivotal transition experiences in life and work so they can courageously live in alignment with their values while expanding their capacity for caring for self and the wellbeing of the planet. More recently, Amy has pursued education in art therapy through the Toronto Art Therapy Institute. She is filled with gratitude for the opportunity to collaborate with amazing people and their gifts to honour and process the challenges that arise in today’s world and to connect with inspiration that nourishes the soul and the ceaseless creative process of sacred living. When she is not working, she enjoys being creative, learning about living more sustainably, engaging in social outreach and spending time outdoors with her family.
Simone Hanchet, Bio: Simone Hanchet came to the Work That Reconnects after almost two decades working with various international conservation and human rights organizations, and several years in an academic setting. As a life and health coach, she supports environmental and social justice activists and other heart warriors around the world who are struggling with health, energy, direction, and hope. She loves watching people discover that they can heal, thrive, and lead with integrity and joy. She holds a Masters in Public Policy from Concordia University and an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies from McGill University. Simone lives on the shores of the magnificent Kitchissippi River near Ottawa, Canada, with her beloved partner and their two young children. Half her heart resides in Rwanda, her beautiful, complicated country-inlaw. Our Spiral Journey: Going Forth Together Follow Us at Spiral Centre.