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Somatic Coach Training for Kelsey

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Hello Loved Ones! I need your support to attend the Strozzi Institute to become a trained and certified somatic coach and to launch the next chapter of my career.

WHY I'M CALLED TO BE A SOMATIC COACH
I believe that for all oppressed peoples the personal is political. The systems that govern our society are designed to privilege a select few while squelching possibilities for thriving and well-being for anyone outside the dominant group. As a woman of color, to claim my space, claim my worth, claim my belonging, and demand that I too thrive  stares in the face of systems entrenched in oppression and harm.

It will be those who have least contributed and have been most harmed by the design of our society who will usher in new ways of relating, being and creating. The work we’re called to do is not just the work of this time, but the work of healing past generations whose blossoming could never come forth.

We need the voices of the marginalized many to create communities that recognize the inherent dignity of all beings, our fundamental interdependence, and our place within the tapestry of all living things.

Connecting to our somatic wisdom is the path.


WHAT IS SOMATICS?
Somatics is a fancy word for embodied transforamtion. It is a path and methodology  in which we can learn to align our deepest values  with our  musculature, thinking,  actions, moods and emotions. It is change that can be sustained under pressure and over time. 

WHY SOMATICS?

Somatics is essential for social change. If we're disconnected from our body, we're disconnected from not only ourselves but each other and the planet. We live at a time when disembodiment has become an epidemic. The impact of this is felt by our growing sense of isolation and subsequent "fixes" to help us feel better that only exacerbate the issues. Coming back into alignment with our body and relearning how to center its wisdom for living more holisiticly is not just a helpful practice for our lives but I believe the practices for addressing the ills of our time. We can't create the better world we long for without including the body.

The tool of somatics is not a “master’s tool.”
 In learning to reconnect to and trust our body wisdom, we reestablish ties with our ancestral wisdom. This knowing takes us out of patriarchal, white supremacist, capitalistic ideologies into the space of authentic connection with self, other and the planet, inclusion and deep knowing.

Somatics is the path for unlearning internalized oppression. Because the society we live in is inherently oppressive, to survive, we’ve learned how to diminish aspects of ourselves. While in our head we may believe we’ve unlearned these harmful behaviors, the body often indicates otherwise. Somatics gives us embodied practices that align with our conceptual beliefs so we can truly be and move in alignment with our values. Because the body doesn’t lie, it also uncovers the ways we’re still acting out old patterns.

Somatics centers inclusion. As Rev. angel Kyodo williams reminds us, it is the places we don’t include in ourselves that we don’t include in others. The work of somatics is the work of learning how to let all our pieces belong -- especially when we've been told these aspects of ourselves are shameful or not desirable. It is the work of  forgiving, staying open, connected to what is felt and moving from the heart rather than the head. Learning to trust the soma means learning to be curious, to deeply listen and how to move forward with vulnerability and courage.

I deeply believe in this work and need financial support to make my vision of supporting marginalized populations with somatic coaching possible.



COST BREAKDOWN
Tuition: $5343.72
GoFundMe Fees: $500
Total: $5843.72

WHY THE STROZZI INSTITUTE?

Richard Strozzi Heckler is recognized as a pioneer in somatic learning and, from reading his books and speaking with him, he’s someone I deeply respect for his integrity of practice, vision and holistic approach. The Strozzi Institute, which he founded, is considered at the forefront of somatic learning. The pedagogy of practice not only includes somatics but also the neuroscience of our learning and the necessity of holistic living.  Though some part of me was hesitant to be learning these practices from a white man, having explored the values of the organization, it is clear that Strozzi and its nonprofit organization Generative Somatics center social justice and systems change in their approach. In fact, Adrienne Maree Brown,  who I consider one of my teachers and is a proponent of somatics, and studied with some of the same teachers I'll be learning from.

WHY ME?
Teaching somatics and supporting PoC to ground in confidence and step forward with the work and projects they long to do is the work I’m uniquely designed for. Being bi-racial and growing up in Utah, I know the pain of feeling I have to shave off aspects of my being to “get along.” I found my home in movement, writing and theater. I’m particularly interested in how the body can help us reclaim the wisdom practices many of us have lost and how, by centering serious play, we can tap into aspects of ourselves and society that may not often get explored.

I teach the practice of InterPlay, a body wisdom practice that centers our birthright practices of movement, storytelling and song, to activists, artists and dabblers in the Bay area and most recently to BIPoC women. I'm also a student of Theater of the Oppressed, regularly publish writing in The Arrow Journal about how the mindfulness and social justice movements can inform each other, write the blog The Marvelous Crumb and am a loving auntie, yogi, and meditator who loves cooking good food, sitting on the patio and watching birds with my love and reading creative non fiction like this amazing book.  Bringing more joy and expression into the world and supporitng communities of belonging is how I long to be of service as well as living by these values myself as a writer, teacher and general enjoyer of life. 


HOW MUCH SHOULD YOU GIVE?
As a proponent of Charles Eisenstein’s Sacred Economics, I ask, do you support my vision of more empowered marginalized voices claiming their worth and heart work in the world? If so, what would make you feel like you helped to make this vision a reality?

THANK YOU FOR BEING SOMEONE IN MY LIFE WHO I FEEL I CAN ASK FOR SUPPORT.

With love and a deep bow of gratitude.
Kelsey

 

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Donations 

  • Mariamne Ingalls
    • $40 
    • 4 yrs
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Organizer

Kelsey Blackwell
Organizer
Emeryville, CA

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