Who Taught You to be White? Retelling Our Nation's History In the Classroom

An online workshop with Goddess Carroll
June 25th, 2021
1:00 – 4:00 pm ET

What are the stories that have been passed down in your family? Can you see your own history deeply woven into your classroom's curriculum, and where were Black and brown folx in these moments?

This workshop invites participants to reclaim their ancestors' stories and repair generational trauma. We will be following the stories and values passed down from generation to generation, acknowledging the power structures we uphold as educators and leaders, and co-creating ways to disrupt the belief that the colonizer's retelling of our history is the only valid one.

Goddess (they/them/theirs) is the Proud MoMo of Sun Seed Community; a platform for the practice of collective healing. The intention of SSC is to feel into and sit with emotional, mental, and physical trauma while acknowledging whiteness, cis-heteronormativity, and patriarchy through their podcast, consulting, body/energy sessions, workshops, and group and individual container building. Creating Goddess’ tools of liberation took a whole community of support and they hope their village's stories can resonate with others. They graduated from the Healing Arts Institute of Massage in October of 2018 and continue to explore therapeutic and spiritual practices while teaching workshops internationally and practicing body and energy work. You can usually find them in the "pagan" section of the bookstore, sitting in the back of a concert, caressing crystals at your local metaphysical shop, or binge-watching old sci-fi movies while cooking.

The Healing Wisdom of the African Diaspora:
Strategies for Contemplative Practice

An online workshop with Dr. Shelly Harrell
May 14th, 1:00 – 4:00 pm ET

This workshop will describe the use of cultural, ancestral, and collective wisdom in contemplative practices with a particular focus on the wisdom of the African diaspora. Wisdom can generally be conceptualized as deep insight, experiential knowing, clarity, and understandings of life that inform discernment, choice, and action. Wisdom is frequently associated with ancient Greece or traditions from the Asian diaspora, with African wisdom being largely ignored. This workshop lifts up African diasporic wisdom as a healing resource for humanity.

The workshop features descriptions of practices within the facilitator’s “soulfulness” approach including (1) the use of cultural expressions of Black wisdom (e.g., quotes, music, poetry, art, symbols) as pathways to experiential resonance and profound insight, and (2) practices that are grounded in specific aspects of an African-centered worldview (e.g., ubuntu). Selected practices will be offered for participants to experience during the workshop.

Born and raised in Detroit, Dr. Shelly Harrell is a Professor at Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Education and Psychology, a licensed psychologist, a certified meditation teacher, and a member of the faculty of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy. She has been helping, healing, mentoring, teaching, and training for over 30 years. Her soulfulness approach represents an integration of her extensive professional experience and is informed by cultural, African-centered, and liberation psychologies, contemplative practices, and stress science. She has published, presented, and consulted widely in the areas of culture and psychotherapy, mindfulness in sociocultural and sociopolitical context, racism-related stress and mental health, resilience and psychological well-being among Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), and intergroup relations. Among her passions are music, dance, inspirational quotes, and the color purple.

Technology: A Relational Tool for Changing Times

A live workshop with Dr. Doreen Maller and Steve Maller
Friday, April 9th, 1:00 – 4:00 pm ET/ 10:00 am – 1:00 pm PT
Broadcast via Zoom

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A step in the process of becoming our best selves is working with the challenges we are handed, and boy, have we had them this year!

Together and apart we faced a changing world, changing tools and changing and challenging times.  As we consider the prospects of re-opening, this workshop offers a chance for reflection and an introduction to some advanced technology tools.

Nearly every aspect of our lives has been impacted by illness, traumatic events in the world around us, grief, loss, anger and the impact of the loss of the class and meeting rooms we hold dear.  Our tools have changed, the lecture hall, the small discussion groups have been replaced by zoom after endless zoom. We were forced into an unfamiliar environment before we had the opportunity to master a new tool set. We know we are not connecting as we had before and yet, for some, the time away from our traditional notions of how things work (and how we work) offered some pleasant surprises.

With tools we hate, can we create experiences we love? Where is this knowledge to be found? How can we reach beyond the limitations of the tools to create the kind of intimacy for which we yearn, similar to what we had to leave behind, satisfying in its own right?

In this workshop the team of Doreen and Steve Maller will create space for reflection on a year of changes and share some tips to improve your ability to connect with others using technology tools and tweaks. Simple tricks that include lighting, angles, adaptive tools will be introduced in the workshop, which will allow you to explore interactivity and connectivity in new and different ways.

The items below are some of the topics that will be addressed during the workshop:

• A group reflection on the impact of change on our academic connections. Impacts on intimacy, networking, classroom access and management will be discussed as well as ideas of what we may want to bring forward with us into the next phase of re-opening.
• Creating a “scene” by composing a calm, representative backdrop that will add to the overall aesthetic and talk about why “virtual” backdrops may be a distraction.
• Arranging a “basic” setup using only tools everybody has (laptop, tablet or phone in combination with good eyelines, natural light and ear buds).
• Demonstration of  an “advanced” setup (not really all that advanced) using some additional light, an optional “real” camera, and a 2nd overhead camera for  physical demonstrations (what we call the “hand view”).
• We will include a shopping list of inexpensive gadgets that will work on any computer for these setups.

Dr. Doreen Maller, LMFT, PhD, is a lifetime “maker” and educator.  She began her career in clothing manufacturing and pivoted in mid-life towards Mental Health and Education. She earned her MA in Expressive Arts Therapy and her PhD in Transformative Learning both at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, California. For a decade, Dr. Maller served as Professor and Chair of Holistic Counseling Psychology at John F. Kennedy University in Northern California, retiring in 2019 to take care of her family elders and work differently in her local community. She is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, practicing mostly on-line during these challenging times, as well as an adjunct professor and Zoom classroom art teacher.

During COVID she juggled many new opportunities: producing webinars on parenting, short films on art-making, and in the early days, produced over 100 masks from fabrics she had collected over the years. Dr. Maller has authored and produced multiple educational volumes and papers on Mental Health and has presented domestically and internationally on topics related to art, trauma, counseling, and families. Recently, Dr. Maller has returned to her artist roots with a renewed practice of multimedia art, focused mainly on the natural world that exists just outside her window.

Steve Maller began his career in the mid 1980s as a self–taught computer programmer. He went on to work at Apple, General Magic and Microsoft, and was at the epicenter of the internet, multimedia and portable computing revolutions. In 2000, Steve decided to pursue his passion for photography as a profession, and has been fortunate to be able to do so for 20 years. He still loves technology, and constantly looks for ways to integrate his artistic and technological vision. When the world flipped on its axis a year ago, Steve and his wife Doreen looked for ways of adapting, and have tried to help others in whatever way they can.

Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness

led by Dr. David Treleaven

Wednesday, March 24, 2021, 1 pm – 4 pm ET
A recording has been emailed to registrants.

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A 3-hour online training in Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness.

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Unbeknownst to many, mindfulness practice can exacerbate trauma symptoms. By asking someone to pay close, sustained attention to their inner world, people struggling with trauma can experience flashbacks, dissociation, and even retraumatization. 

This means that as practitioners, we can unintentionally lead people into the heart of wounds that require more than mindful attention to heal.

At the same time, mindfulness can be invaluable for trauma survivors. It can increase body awareness, one’s capacity for attention, and emotional regulation—all essential assets for trauma recovery. 

So what can you do?

The first answer is awareness. The more you understand the reasons mindfulness is a double-edged sword for trauma survivors, the more effective you’ll be in your role.

Weaving theory and Q&A with experiential practice, you’ll leave the workshop: 

• Aware of the ways trauma can manifest in meditation practice
• Confident in identifying non-verbal signs of traumatic stress in mindfulness practice
• Equipped with a series of practical modifications to help traumatized people safely access meditation.

David Treleaven, PhD, is a writer, educator, trauma professional, and author of the acclaimed book Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness: Practices for Safe and Transformative Healing. David focuses on offering mindfulness providers with the knowledge and tools they require to meet the needs of those struggling with trauma. Through workshops, keynotes, podcasts, and online education, he is closely engaged with current empirical research to inform best practices. 

David is currently a visiting scholar at Brown University and has worked with a number of organizations including The Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute developed at Google, University of Massachusetts Medical School, The Center for Contemplative Mind in Society, the Institute for Mindfulness South Africa, the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness, and the Mindfulness Training Institute of Australia and New Zealand.

Inner Dialogues: Exploring Self Through Art, Community, and Connection

led by Dr. Doreen Maller, LMFT, PhD

Friday, January 15, 2021, 1 pm – 4 pm ET
A recording has been emailed to registrants.

Perhaps the greatest loss of 2020 is our connection to one another. This retreat will focus on the complexity of connection in these challenging moments using various forms of arts-based visualization and meditation. Through guided visualization, art practice, mindful sharing, and listening, we will be able to turn within to each other to restore the beauty of life that can be found through interconnection.

Using art made with household objects–pens, paper, fastening tape, and scissors–we will explore together various states of feeling and being, internal and external: how we present to the world and how we feel inside our own hearts. Holding the space of truth and dignity, we will support each other by listening to the emergence of feelings and honoring the strength and resilience we demonstrate every day in small and large gestures.  We will explore the beauty of perseverance we have each discovered as we harness our resilience and stamina.

Making art in community provides an opportunity to share and learn together. Sharing art with others invites a new geography to life on-line: a deepening and broadening of experience. Together we will create a place to see as well as say. A place to share and listen and support. A place to learn and to connect.  A place to tell and create. Together we will create a community where art is a language of connection.

This workshop is intended for all levels of artists, new and timid, eager and enthusiastic, well versed and experienced. Instruction will be in English but I welcome translation. While I will offer instruction and prompts along the way, the day will unfold as your art emerges. You will be invited to share in small groups and with the whole group. The day will flow between individual work and art creation, group sharing, and reflection, all within a co-created supportive community.

Dr. Doreen Maller, LMFT, PhD, is a lifetime “maker” and educator.  She began her career in clothing manufacturing and pivoted in mid-life towards Mental Health and Education. She earned her MA in Expressive Arts Therapy and her PhD in Transformative Learning both at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, California. For a decade, Dr. Maller served as Professor and Chair of Holistic Counseling Psychology at John F. Kennedy University in Northern California, retiring in 2019 to take care of her family elders and work differently in her local community. She is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, practicing mostly on-line during these challenging times, as well as an adjunct professor and Zoom classroom art teacher.

During COVID she juggled many new opportunities: producing webinars on parenting, short films on art-making, and in the early days, produced over 100 masks from fabrics she had collected over the years. Dr. Maller has authored and produced multiple educational volumes and papers on Mental Health and has presented domestically and internationally on topics related to art, trauma, counseling, and families. Recently, Dr. Maller has returned to her artist roots with a renewed practice of multimedia art, focused mainly on the natural world that exists just outside her window.

Strategies for Challenging Racism in Daily Life:
A Workshop for White People Working for Racial Justice

a workshop with Beth Berila
Friday, November 13th, 11 am – 2 pm EST
A recording has been emailed to registrants.

This interactive workshop will offer tools for white people talking with other white people about racism in a way that supports anti-racist transformation. We will address common defensive reactions of white fragility and offer specific strategies for successfully engaging those conversations. We will examine what prevents white people from speaking up and offer paths for courage, humility, accountability and repair.

Since anti-racism needs to happen collectively and systemically as well as individually, we will close with some principles for white people engaging in anti-racist structural change.

This workshop will include contemplative practices, small group breakouts, presentation, and discussions, so that participants can learn from one another.

This workshop is open to all but is geared toward white people committed to doing anti-racism work. This model is based on affinity groups, which recognizes that while we all have work and healing to do on the path to racial justice, our work is different based on our identities and experiences. Sometimes that work is best done in separate affinity groups so we do not cause more harm or get in each other’s way. Ultimately, we can then come back together and work more skillfully toward racial justice.

This is the last in a 3-part workshop series. Participants can take it as part of the series or as a stand-alone workshop. The workshop will be recorded and made available to those who register for the event.

Beth Berila, Ph.D. is the Director of the Gender & Women’s Studies Program and Professor in the Ethnic, Gender & Women’s Studies Department at St. Cloud State University. She is also a yoga and mindfulness practitioner and an Embodied Leadership Coach and facilitator. Her most recent book, Radiating Feminism: Resilience Practices to Transform our Inner and Outer Lives, is newly available from Routledge. Learn more at http://www.bethberila.com.

Embodied Leadership for Administrators

an online workshop with Anita Chari and Angelica Singh

Broadcast live via Zoom on Friday, November 6th, 2020
1:00 – 4:00 pm EST

The recording has been emailed to registrants.

In this 3-hour online workshop, you’ll engage with the fundamentals of embodied leadership to support you in a time of overwhelm and re-connect you to your sense of purpose as an academic leader. In this powerful process, you’ll explore your core values through embodied inquiry, and how these values form the foundation of your leadership. As you confront institutional challenges and limited resources in this time of the pandemic, you’ll learn tools to help regulate your nervous system and hold appropriate boundaries. The tools offered here can be implemented in your work immediately, but they’ll also sustain you in a more holistic process of embodied leadership.

• Receive and practice tools for regulating your nervous system during a time of overwhelm and social and political upheaval to promote collaborative and relational work environments.
• Engage in embodied inquiry about your core values and how to place them at the center of your life and work.
• Practice skills for holding healthy boundaries along with learning new ways of listening and engaging in conversations about race and intersectional oppression during a time of crisis.

Anita Chari is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Oregon and has received multiple teaching awards for her work in bringing trauma-informed paradigms into higher education. She has been a leader on her campus for innovative online education and her work in bringing trauma informed pedagogies into the context of prison education. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on the political significance of embodied practices.

Angelica Singh M.A., BCST is a somatic educator and trauma therapist with over 20 years of experience working with trauma with individuals, groups, and institutions. Her work has been featured in O, The Oprah Magazine and offered through the UCLA Medical Center. Singh specializes in using online platforms to create a palpable sense of embodied connection with her students.

Chari and Singh are the co-founders of “Embodying your Curriculum,” an online program that teaches professors how to integrate trauma-informed practices, pedagogies of social justice and diversity, and the neuroscience of mental health into the classroom. Learn more and register for the program.

Becoming a Contemplative Change Agent for Your Organization

with Michael Kimball
Professor of Anthropology, University of Northern Colorado

To be broadcast live via Zoom on Wednesday, October 28th, 1pm – 4pm ET

A recording has been emailed to registrants

Given what’s happening right now in higher education—and the world in general—we all know that contemplative practices are needed more than ever on our campuses and in our communities. But how do we accomplish this in the midst of pervasive budget cuts, restructuring, and Zoom-orama? In this three-hour online workshop, each participant will learn a set of tools and perspectives arising from organizational change and community engagement leadership, share their own stories and expertise, and develop an action plan for infusing contemplative practices into their organization.

• Definition of your Action Plan objectives
• Identification of organizational change partners
• Identification of organizational challenges and strategies to engage with and resolve them
• Definition of personal, collective, and organizational resources for mobilizing your Action Plan.
• A community of like-minded change agents to turn to for support, guidance, and encouragement!

Michael Kimball is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Northern Colorado (“the other UNC!”), Certified Koru Mindfulness teacher, co-founder and inaugural director of UNC’s emergent Center for Applied Contemplative Studies, former director of UNC’s Center for Honors, Scholars & Leadership, and recipient of the Maine Campus Compact’s 2006 Donald Harward Faculty Award for Service-Learning Excellence and UNC’s 2017 Engaged Scholar Award. He is also a 2010 graduate of Virginia Tech’s Engagement Academy for University Leaders and co-author of UNC’s community and civic engagement plan, which laid the foundation for UNC’s receipt of a 2015 Carnegie Foundation Elective Classification for Community Engagement. His work includes community engaged and contemplative teaching and scholarship. He authored the recent textbook, Ethnowise: Embracing Culture Shock to Build Resilience, Responsiveness & Connection (Kendall Hunt Publishing).

Complexity Resilience:
Mindful Leadership for Being with This Moment

with Melissa Carter
Interim Senior Director of Global Spiritual Life and MindfulNYU at New York University
Broadcast live via Zoom on Monday, October 19th, 2020, 1:00 – 4:00 pm EDT

A recording has been emailed to registrants.

Right now, in a time where our world is being propelled into divisiveness, isolation, loneliness and turmoil, our practices are more important than ever. Being with what is while building a new world requires one’s leadership to be transparent and available to hold multiple complexities. As a leader, one must know their role and those of whom they serve. Holding space for those trying to process, navigate and heal during this time is becoming an everyday aspect of leadership rather than something touched. How do you show up for those you disagree with? How can you BE present with the complexities of this season of life with compassion and empathy?

Join Melissa Carter, Interim Senior Director of Global Spiritual Life and MindfulNYU at New York University, for a 3-hour interactive skill-building workshop and discussion. You will receive:

• new skills for active listening during moments of tension
• framing techniques for calling in community members into difficult dialogues
• body self-assessment tools to identify your comfort range in moments of tension
• space to practice with other participants
• connection and diverse community cultivation techniques.

Melissa Carter is the Interim Senior Director for Global Spiritual Life at New York University and is the Head of Mindfulness Education and Programming for MindfulNYU. In 2019, Melissa launched MindfulNYU internationally, expanding its reach to become the largest campus-wide global mindfulness initiative. Melissa’s career began in the hip-hop music business at Violator management. From there she became a digital sales and marketing executive at both Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group. After a decade in the industry, Melissa embarked on a spiritual journey that inspired transformations in both her career and daily life. Melissa serves as a meditation teacher, reiki master, intuitive coach and wellness consultant.

Over the last ten years, Melissa has traveled to 15 different countries to present and lead workshops on the intersection of spirituality, social justice and mindfulness, and their interconnectedness with belonging, self-care, intuitive and emotional intelligence, and understand the microcosm of their impact on one’s suffering & liberation. As a spiritual thought leader, Melissa takes a holistic approach to problem solving. She has a drive to understand how systems work and how they can function more efficiently using mindfulness and grassroots practices.

Melissa holds an MBA in Media Management from the Metropolitan College of New York and has an undergraduate degree in Communication and Interpersonal Skills from the University of South Florida. She is an Adjunct Professor for the Silver School of Social Work and is the New York Trauma-Informed facilitator for Connection Coalition.

She is a Mama Glow-trained doula. Melissa has been featured in Good Housekeeping magazine and Billboard magazine’s “Top 30 Under 30 Executives” as well as various mindfulness blogs and podcasts, including The Naked Podcast, The Trailblazer Podcast and The Financial Diet.

Connect with Melissa on Instagram: @ignitewithmelissa

From Allyship to Solidarity:
A Workshop for White People Working for Racial Justice

With Beth Berila, PhD
To be broadcast live via Zoom on Friday, September 11th
10am – 1pm CT

A recording has been emailed to registrants.

This workshop will explore how white people can move from being well-intentioned allies to “working in solidarity with” communities of color on the path toward racial justice (Mackenzie 2013). We will practice shifting the common blocks to showing up (white guilt, freeze, white supremacy values, white fragility and flammability, fear of doing it “wrong”). We will explore some useful considerations for white people to weigh so we can show up “right sized,” and how to repair when we intentionally or unintentionally commit harm. As we consider the invaluable role of anti-racist communities, we will develop more skill in the work of both individual and collective racial justice.

This workshop is open to all but is geared toward white people committed to doing anti-racism work. This model is based on affinity groups, which recognizes that while we all have work and healing to do on the path to racial justice, our work is different based on our identities and experiences. Sometimes that work is best done in separate affinity groups so we do not cause more harm or get in each other’s way. Ultimately, we can then come back together and work more skillfully toward racial justice.

The workshop will include reflection, contemplative practice, small and large group discussion, and sharing of concepts. This is the second in a 3-part workshop series. Participants can take it as part of the series or as a stand-alone workshop.

—
Mackenzie. M, “No More Allies,” (2013). http://www.blackgirldangerous.com/2013/09/no-more-allies/.

Beth Berila, Ph.D. is the Director of the Gender & Women’s Studies Program and Professor in the Ethnic, Gender & Women’s Studies Department at St. Cloud State University. She is also a yoga and mindfulness practitioner and an Embodied Leadership Coach and facilitator. Her most recent book is Radiating Feminism: Resilience Practices to Transform our Inner and Outer Lives (Routledge). Learn more at http://www.bethberila.com.

To Breathe is to Live – To Breathe is to Resist:
A Call To Action for Reimagining Breathing as an Act of Resistance

with Alberto López Pulido
Founding Chair, Department of Ethnic Studies, University of San Diego

To be broadcast live via Zoom on Tuesday, August 11th, 2020
1:00 – 4:00 pm EDT
30% of proceeds from this event will go towards the Black Womxn Deserve Mutual Aid Fund

A recording has been emailed to registrants.

Alberto draws from his teaching and writings that call for our contemplative practices to be understood as occurring within a social context that he refers to as situated contemplation. Situated contemplation recognizes that contemplation must be practiced, understood and situated in a social and political context. Contemplative practices must grow from out of the community, where all forms of practices and expressions are recognized and validated, and where contemplative practices are imbued with meaning that arises from within these communities.

This workshop is calling for a reimagining of the contemplative practice of breathing in our lives. It recognizes that the ability to breathe is deeply situated and political because not everyone has access to the right to breathe, as others with more power than you can determine if you will breathe or not.

Therefore, you are invited to engage, contemplate, and reimagine the following:

• How can we bring forth resistance and social change by the simple act of breathing?
• How can I embrace mindfulness meditation practices such as breathing while at the same time standing one with George Floyd and others who have suffocated at the hands of state-sanctioned violence?
• How might I modify and situate my practice of mindfulness meditation in community by adopting situated practices, and what might this practice look like?

This workshop strives to provide a safe and brave space where such critical reflection and analysis will take place and provide hands-on and applied practices to address these issues.

Alberto Pulido is the founding chair of the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of San Diego. He works in the areas of Chicanx Religions and Chicanx material culture and practices. He encountered the world of contemplative educational practices when he met Dr. Laura Rendón who recognized and affirmed his work in Cajitas Pedagogy that is featured in Dr. Rendón’s groundbreaking work entitled Sentipensante (sensing/thinking) Pedagogy. Alberto is currently at work on expanding and developing his work on Cajitas as a contemplative practice and continues to serve the Logan Heights community as an activist and writer wishing to tell the history of this historic neighborhood and the sacred space known to all as Chicano Park. In addition to serving the community with his mobile classroom project known as Turning Wheel, he is a proud and active member of the Chicano Park Steering Committee (CPSC) and Vice Chair of the Chicano Park Museum and Cultural Center.

Embodying Antiracism as a White Person

To be broadcast live via Zoom on Wednesday, July 15th
11:30am – 2pm EDT/8:30 – 11am PDT

A recording has been emailed to registrants.

The recent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and so many others, along with the subsequent national and global uprisings, have once again amplified calls for racial justice. This workshop will address how structural racism has shaped particular harmful embodiments of whiteness. Through a combination of reflection, practice, discussion, and other content, participants will work to dismantle the embodiment of white privilege and what Resmaa Menakam calls “white-body supremacy.” We will practice reconnecting with our embodied self in a way that better supports racial justice.

This workshop is open to all but is geared toward white people committed to doing antiracism work. This model is based on affinity groups*, which recognizes that while we all have work and healing to do on the path to racial justice, our work is different based on our identities and experiences. Sometimes that work is best done in separate affinity groups so we do not cause more harm or get in each other’s way. Ultimately, we can then come back together and work more skillfully toward racial justice.

* Here are some resources from Racial Equity Tools about racial affinity groups (also called caucusing).

Beth Berila, Ph.D. is the Director of the Gender & Women’s Studies Program and Professor in the Ethnic, Gender & Women’s Studies Department at St. Cloud State University. She is also a yoga and mindfulness practitioner and an Embodied Leadership Coach and facilitator. Her most recent book, Radiating Feminism: Resilience Practices to Transform our Inner and Outer Lives, is forthcoming from Routledge in Summer 2020. Learn more at http://www.bethberila.com.

From Self-Care to Soul-Care:
Mindfulness and Soulfulness for Educators and Academics

with Dr. Shelly Harrell
Professor of Psychology and Psy.D. Research Coordinator, Pepperdine University

Broadcast live via Zoom on Wednesday, June 24th, 2:00 – 5:00 pm ET

A recording has been emailed to registrants.

This workshop introduces Dr. Shelly Harrell’s “soulfulness” approach to contemplative practice with special attention to supporting educators and academics. In this time of both racial and the COVID-19 pandemics, it is vital for us to attend to the insidious and collective nature of pandemic-related stress that is “in the air we breathe” (both literally and metaphorically). Beyond physical health and safety, these pandemics threaten connection with others, as well as connection to ourselves. Strategies to minimize disconnection and facilitate reconnection will be offered. The focus will be on the value of mindfulness meditation to enhance psychological well-being, to move “from stressed out to energized within,” as a way of cultivating an inner refuge, and path to mental and emotional liberation as foundations for meaningful participation in actions toward social justice.

Soulfulness reflects the synergistic integration of the psychological, spiritual, and cultural dimensions of “soul” to facilitate inner aliveness and authentic relationship to self, others, and the world. Soulfulness emphasizes reconnection with our humanity; sensing the stirrings and callings of soul; listening to whisperings of soul wisdom; and being deeply touched, “moved”, and inspired through soul-level experiencing (that includes connection to music, poetry, art, nature, culture, Spirit, and sacred/collective wisdom). Particular attention will be given to the relevance of mindfulness and soulfulness for racism-related experience among those we teach and serve, as well as our own.

Workshop attendees will gain an enhanced understanding of a soulfulness-oriented approach to incorporating mindfulness and meditation as sources of support for educators and academics in the context of both the COVID-19 and racial pandemics.

Shelly P. Harrell, Ph.D. is a psychologist whose work focuses on individual, relational, and collective well-being in the context of culture and oppression. She has been a Professor at Pepperdine University’s Graduate School of Education and Psychology for 20 years where she primarily teaches and trains clinical psychology doctoral students. Her work focuses on enhancing the well-being and resilience of BIPOC and other marginalized populations integrating contemplative, communal, and empowerment change processes. She does consulting and conducts workshops with individuals, groups, educational and healthcare institutions on culturally-attuned mindfulness and meditation, stress and resilience, cultural considerations in evidence-based practices, and a variety of diversity-related trainings. Her soulfulness approach to contemplative practice was introduced in the Journal of Contemplative Inquiry in 2018 and has been presented at several conferences including ACMHE’s annual conference and webinar series. Dr. Harrell has numerous publications and professional presentations on topics including racism-related stress, intergroup relations, diversity principles for practice, therapeutic journaling, race and culture in clinical supervision, and conceptualizing the role of culture in well-being. She also has a psychotherapy practice in Los Angeles.