Somatic Anti-Racism Coaching
Healing from racialized trauma is not an intellectual exercise; it requires feeling our way through, and metabolizing our pain.
As a white, Jewish, Israeli-American who spent her formative years in East Africa, my relationship with my identity is complex. I am on a lifelong journey of unlearning patterns of both oppression and supremacy, including those held in my body at an unconscious level. Sometimes the learning has been painful, but it has been - and continues to be - so, so worth it! In Jewish tradition, Tikkun Olam - repairing the world - is the sacred duty of all humans. It is my deep belief in Tikkun Olam, and the accompanying belief that none of us is free until all of us are free, that keeps me going in this work of collective liberation.
I offer one-on-one coaching for those who want to deepen their anti-racism work by taking a somatic, embodied approach to healing from racialized supremacy. I support individuals, and sometimes small groups, to grow their window of tolerance when talking about racialized issues and when facing racial rupture, so there is more capacity to hold, repair, and heal.
Guided by the work of Resmaa Menakem as well as my Hakomi training, my practice is built on two main beliefs:
Racialized supremacy lives in our bodies. As a result, we need to transform ourselves at a cellular level. Whether we inhabit Black, white, Jewish, Indigenous, or other bodies, racial trauma lives in our bodies somatically. As hard as we try, we won’t be able to think our way out of it: Like any other pain and grief, we’ll have to feel our way through and metabolize it.
Racism is a communal pain so it must be addressed communally. The pain of racism in this country was inflicted by white communities on non-white communities, so we must heal that pain in community.
Unfortunately, most white individuals haven’t built the skills to do this work in community. We don’t have a good understanding of how to navigate race as a collective, because we haven't had to; our survival doesn’t rely on it. Black and brown bodies in this country have practiced this out of necessity.
Whether you’re new to this work and some of the terms on this page are foreign to you, or you have a lifelong commitment to racial justice and are wanting to deepen it somatically and in community, if you’re here, I believe this work is for you. Wherever you are, I’m delighted to meet you there.