RooT’s People's Healing Conference and Clinic is an opportunity for people who have been impacted by trauma and violence to explore holistic and collective approaches to healing. Our workshops are introductory and acknowledge the healing capacity that exists within each participant. The facilitator's role is to create the conditions for participants' inherent healing to emerge.
 
Collective healing workshops and one on one space holding offer participants a variety of practical skills to address the impacts of trauma.

This year we are working with a hybrid model, offering workshops that include both in person and virtual participants. 
 
Unlike most conferences, sessions are interactive and geared toward assuring that participants walk away with knowledge that is immediately usable, for both personal and communal growth.  Sessions are NOT recorded, as participants may share sensitive content.

This is a practice space. Come ready to participate. 

FREE for Oakland residents,
thanks to funding from the Akonadi Foundation!


Free childcare provided by Abundant Beginnings with age appropriate workshops for children. 

Access Info:
In person sessions and one-on-ones are accessed via stairs (childcare on first floor, no stairs).

Participants must provide proof of negative COVID tests
(phone images ok).

Tests and masks available on site
(please arrive 15 min early to test). 

Please do not attend if:
 
You have COVID, cold, or flu symptoms
(even if you test negative).

You have been exposed to someone with COVID
in the past 48 hours.

You have tested positive for COVID
within the last week.

Live captioning will be available for
online and hybrid sessions.


Free meals.
Coffee/tea and breakfast snacks provided in the morning.
Vegan lunch provided in the afternoon. 

Contact Rosa@wetakeroot.com with other access needs requests.

In-person workshop participants receive coupons for our local vendors. 

15% of all proceeds will go to Shumi Land Tax to support the rematriation of Ohlone Land.

The rest of the proceeds are used to help make future workshops accessible to those furthest from economic access.

Candice earned a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities and Philosophy at Loyola Marymount University, received a teaching credential from Alliant University, and a Master of Arts in East-West Psychology at the California Institute for Integral Studies. Candice is certified as a trauma-informed yoga and mindfulness instructor through the Niroga Institute. Candice is currently training as a Marriage and Family Therapist in California.

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Candice believes that ancestral, community and ecological healing are the most urgent issues of our time. She coaches school leaders and trains teachers at schools throughout the nation, and works as an adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco School of Education. Candice offers counseling and healing services on a limited, heart and spirit led basis. When she is not working, dreaming or studying, she enjoys time in nature with her five year old child.

A native of  the San Francisco Bay Area, he received a BFA  in fine art painting from UC Berkeley, and completed post graduate studies with curricular emphasis on the performing arts of theatre and music at CSU East Bay.  He has enjoyed a 42 year career of teaching visual and performing arts, primarily at Saint Mary’s College High School in Berkeley, California, and being the Artistic Director for 60+ theatrical productions.  In addition, he has developed and directed multiple performance programs for many schools and community organizations throughout the East Bay with the Theatrical Directors for the City of Oakland Dramatic Arts program, through the Oakland Parks and Recreation Department for a total of 10 years since 1980.  As a performer he is a recipient of a Bay Area Theatre Critic’s Circle Award for acting, and a National College Theatre Award winner as Performer, Musical Director, and Composer of Original Music for a production of “OEDIPUS REX,”performed at the Kennedy Center for the Arts in Washington D.C.

I’m a queer herbalist, healing practitioner, and community organizer. Being both a survivor of violence and having experienced health issues throughout my life, I’ve learned to support my mind, body and spirit by reconnecting to Mother Earth and my indigenous Mexican roots through sacred rituals and herbal remedies.

Some of these rituals and herbal remedies were passed down through many generations within my family, others were taught to me by my spiritual teachers and western herbal school training and some were shared to me in dreams, but my biggest teacher was La Tierra.

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For the last 17 years I’ve had the honor of supporting the self-determination, healing and wellness of survivors of violence.

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I’m currently working at Community United Against Violence (CUAV) as a Co-Executive Director and Wellness Organizer. 

This work and my personal experience has taught me about the severe impacts that interpersonal and systemic violence has on our mind, body and spirit. This is what drives my passion and commitment to address health and wellness holistically, with a healing justice, harm reduction and anti-oppression framework. 

Two years ago, I was initiated as a Sahuamadora (sacred fire keeper) in Yucatan, Mexico within the Ticiyotl path. 

Rosa (she/her) is a queer single mama from Harlem, born to Dominican working-class parents. She has published personal essays and fiction writing on motherhood, daughterhood, sexuality, Black feminism, and love. She has taught English in New York City and Oakland high schools for a total of 5 years, and currently resides in Oakland, California.

Her previous work as a rape crisis counselor for SF WAR and her own personal experiences in surviving domestic violence, sexual violence, and intimate partner violence while attempting to love informs her work. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction Writing from Mills College, MS in English Education from University of Rochester as an Urban Teaching Leadership Fellow, and a BA in Black and Latino Urban Studies from San Francisco State University. She taught English at California community colleges before founding Reclaiming Our Own Transcendence in 2018 to explore abolitionist and transformative healing methods to address and end violence.

Over the past 20 years I have curated my gifts through deep study with master practitioners and immersive trainings in shamanic traditions, ancient mystery schools, sacred ceremony and sound healing. I create one-of-a-kind archetypal talismans, uniquely designed for each individual. These tools are crafted by deeply listening to the guidance of divine wisdom. As a trained priest of Ariel Spilsbury’s 13 Moon Mystery School, and certified anointing priest/ teacher of Diana DuBrow’s Emerald Temple, I create personal custom holy anointing oil blends, and work with the sacred art of anointing. I am a Reiki master and teacher of the Usui Lineage. I am certified in Quantum Touch and massage therapy, and I am a Universal Life Church Ordained Minister. 

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 My work is an expression of love and beauty, the art of alchemy, and my passion about honoring the sacredness of all life. In service to divine wisdom, I help the physical body return to balance, as we call the spirit home. I dedicate myself and my work to walking as love’s presence and healing the Heart of Humanity.

(En Español Abajo)

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Dr. Patty Ramirez (she/her), DSW, MSW is the Founder and Executive Director of the Healing Justice Transformative Leadership Institute where she is developing the Leading with HEART model, a healing-leadership methodology that proposes a process for healing, transformation, and liberation in social justice organizations and movements. Dr. Patty believes that reimagining how we heal and lead by creating a new ecosystem for healing, social justice, and leadership development will increase the sustainability of social justice leaders, organizations, and social justice movements. 

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For nearly a decade, Dr. Patty has dedicated her work to serving immigrant victims of crimes, and justice-impacted folks. Patty’s experience ranges from working with the immigrant and refugee population, violence prevention, criminal justice policy advocacy, program development, and organizational development. She is also a founding member of the Los Angeles County Crime Victims Advisory Board. Dr. Ramirez is committed to the vision of collective healing and breaking down barriers that discredit the voice and thought leadership of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.

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Dr. Ramirez is also the creator of her own micro-enterprise, Wild Luna Botanicals, a self-care and wellness lifestyle brand where healing and brujita magic come together.

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La Dra. Patty Ramirez (ella/ella), DSW, MSW es ​​la Fundadora y Directora Ejecutiva del Healing Justice Transformative Leadership Institute donde está desarrollando el modelo Liderando con CORAZÓN, una metodología de liderazgo-sanación que propone un proceso de sanación, transformación, y liberación en organizaciones y movimientos de justicia social. La Dra. Patty cree que reinventar cómo sanamos y lideramos mediante la creación de un nuevo ecosistema para la curación, la justicia social y el desarrollo del liderazgo aumentará la sostenibilidad de los líderes, organizaciones y movimientos de justicia social.

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Durante casi una década, la Dra. Patty ha dedicado su trabajo a servir a inmigrantes víctimas de delitos y a personas afectadas por la justicia. La experiencia de Patty abarca desde el trabajo con la población de inmigrantes y refugiados, la prevención de la violencia, la promoción de políticas de justicia penal, el desarrollo de programas y el desarrollo organizacional. También es miembro fundador de la Junta Asesora de Víctimas del Crimen del Condado de Los Ángeles. El Dr. Ramírez está comprometido con la visión de la curación colectiva y la eliminación de barreras que desacreditan la voz y el liderazgo intelectual de las personas negras, indígenas y de color.

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La Dra. Ramírez también es creadora de su propia microempresa, Wild Luna Botanicals, una marca de estilo de vida de cuidado personal y bienestar donde la curación y la magia de la brujita se unen.

Sal Tran is a queer Vietnamese filmmaker and touring speaker based in the San Francisco Bay Area. They are one of the co-founders of SunKissed Productions - an independent queer Asian film collective. Sal’s work is rooted within the power of storytelling in film, visual and performative art. They focus on mental health advocacy work within queer trans Asian Pacific Islander (QTAPI) communities. Their work has been featured in UC Berkeley's Queer & Asian Conference, National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI), Seattle Transgender Film Festival, National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA) Conference, NYC Queer Asian Short Films, As[I]Am Magazine, UC Santa Barbara - Queer Trans People of Color Conference and many more.

xóchicoatl bello (they/she/amor) is an indigequeer healing practitioner, cultural worker, educator, earth steward, and elder-in-training. xóchicoatl focuses on cultivating cultures of healing by restoring our connections to the sacredness of self, each other, earth, and ancestor through ceremony, circle practice, indigenous technologies & agricultural traditions. They have been co-creating healing spaces for over a decade in Boston Public Schools, community gardens, in the Hudson Valley with Kite’s Nest and Sweet Freedom Farm, and across Turtle Island through their virtual learning herbal programming explicitly for queer, trans, Black, Indigenous, people of color (QTBIPOC) through La Mala Yerba. Their work invites the community into herbal medicine making, farming, ceremony, and circle practice. xóchicoatl believes that these indigenous technologies have kept our people healing for generations, and how we find our way back from the violences of colonization and; transform the wounds of oppression into more healthy, harmonious, and justice-filled connections with ourselves, community, and the Earth.

xóchicoatl comes from Afro-indigenous, Portuguese & Spanish bloods via love and colonization rooted in Southern Mexico, from a people recovering their memory, from a people in treaties with peoples & lands alike reclaiming their sovereignty. They hold healing spaces in relationship with the Earth with the prayer that when we heal the soils that sustain us, tend to the seeds, tend to our hearts, and tend to our relations, we remember our bodies as sites of wisdom, we heal our souls, and we awaken ancestral memory that we have always been free. 

weave with them on IG @lamalayerbalove

Bronwyn (she/they) is a CTI-Trained life coach with over 14 years of experience in the wellness industry. As a queer, multiracial survivor of both religious and spiritual abuse, they are deeply passionate about facilitating the healing of others who have bravely chosen to do the work of reclaiming and recreating their lives, and empowering them to step into their purpose. 

Eugenia Suh-Young Park is the daughter of Korean immigrants, now residing on Ohlone territory, SF Bay Area. As a somatic healing practitioner + embodiment educator, she is committed to supporting BIPOC in transmuting trauma into liberated living, through inhabiting our bodies (personal and collective) with more ease, connection, friendliness, and resilience.

Eugenia holds degrees in psychology and dance from UC Berkeley, along with years of training in yoga, craniosacral + massage therapy, and Somatic Experiencing, a trauma healing modality. She trusts deeply in the healing powers of safe connection and touch, whether that's the touch of awareness, heart, breath, physical, or energetic/ancestral. She brings a compassionate presence, playfulness, and embodied care to meet and support bodies right where they are...and then the magic begins!

Eugenia enjoys showing up with the local community through Asian Health Services, GoodGoodEatz, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, API Healing Collective, and EBMC (East Bay Meditation Center) POC Sangha. She is thrilled to be a founding member of a new BIPOC healing collective of bodyworkers, traditional Chinese medicine, intuitive + somatic healers, and more. Yet to be named and more to come...

Gabby {G} Momah (they/them) is a Black queer nonbinary storyteller, actor, writer, director, and producer raised on the unceded territories of the Tongva and Ohlone peoples on the west coast. G’s writing, directing and performance work is rooted in showcasing black trans voices and experiences from both comedic and dramatic lenses. They have also performed in various Bay Area theater productions including Schoolgirls; Or the African Mean Girls Play at Berkeley Repertory Theater, Top Girls at American Conservatory Theater and numerous shows with the sketch comedy group Killing My Lobster and the National Queer Arts Festival.

Gabby is a Resident Artist of Crowded Fire Theater in the Bay Area, and has trained at Stanford University, San Francisco Mime Troupe, and The Actors Space. They are currently pursuing their MFA in Acting and Directing at Brown / Trinity Repertory Theater on occupied Narragansett and Wampanoag land. They are also a bomb cook, enjoy expressing their creativity in the kitchen and always down to build community and prism resources through food.

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As Gabby started working with a Somatic Behavioral Therapist last spring, they applied and joined the BIPOC Summer 2020 Cohort as facilitator-in-training and participant.

I graduated from the American College of Traditional Chinese Medicine in SF in 2009. Since then I have worked in a private fertility clinic and two community clinics, Tiny Needles and Alameda Community Acupuncture, before founding Tune Up Community Acupuncture.

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I love tending to a room full of people resting, allowing the body to regenerate and recenter. The simple beauty of community acupuncture is healing together and to this, I dedicate my life. 

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I believe in the social model of business that doesn't exploit or extract capital from our communities for personal profit driven motives but to give back and grow our own marginalized and criminalized communities' social and political power starting with access to health and healing. Let's build the world we want together!

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I am committed to widening access to healthcare by making acupuncture accessible, effective, and affordable not just for some of us, but for all of us.

Dominique (she, her) is a Bay Area native dedicated to transforming trauma and violence into opportunities of liberation. She is honored to share practices like trauma-informed yoga, mindfulness & ecotherapy to communities of color and folks who identify as LGBTQI2S. She currently works as the Healing Justice Program Director at Community United Against Violence (CUAV) offering peer counseling, support groups, and community trainings in San Francisco, Ca. Since 1979, CUAV's work has focused on building power and safety for queer and Trans survivors of Intimate partner violence, Hate violence and Police violence through direct service and organizing. 

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Her heart is guided by curiosity and a blooming relationship with the earth. To learn more, visit her website. 
 

(En Español Abajo)

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Vic Aguirre (they/he) is a Queer Trans Masculine identified Latinx Bay Area Native. They have been a practicing Certified CA Massage Therapist and Health Educator for the past 8 years, graduating from the National Holistic Institute of San Francisco. Along with their lived experiences, their educational training and experience working in the field allows them to service the larger Trans community with bodywork that is body-positive, Queer-friendly, trauma-informed and specifically tailored to address issues such as: postural issues due to chest binding, breast augmentation or other surgeries; scar revision, limited range of motion, decreasing muscle atrophy, relearning positive touch and combatting body incongruence.

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Vic Aguirre (they/he) es un Queer Trans Masculino identificado como Latinx Nativo del Área de la Bahía. Ha sido masajista certificado de California y educador de salud en ejercicio durante los últimos 8 años, y se graduó del Instituto Holístico Nacional de San Francisco. Junto con sus experiencias vividas, su formación educativa y experiencia de trabajo en el campo les permite servir a la comunidad trans en general con un trabajo corporal positivo para el cuerpo, amigable con los queer, informado sobre el trauma y diseñado específicamente para abordar problemas como: problemas posturales debidos a vendas de pecho, aumento de senos u otras cirugías; revisión de cicatrices, rango de movimiento limitado, disminución de la atrofia muscular, reaprendizaje del tacto positivo y lucha contra la incongruencia corporal.

Left eBay Europe in 2011 to co-found Gratitude Alliance after 14 years of working in finance, operations, project management, accounting/tax in the U.S. and Europe for Deloitte, SAP, eBay, and the US Embassy in Berlin.

Once an orphan herself, Amy is passionate about creating spaces for healing and transformation for children who have lost their mothers and for trauma survivors who most need to reclaim their inner mother.  She's served in the non-profit sector as a volunteer, international program manager, finance manager, and board member focusing on projects benefiting orphaned and vulnerable children in the US and abroad.

Based in San Francisco, Amy serves as CEO at Gratitude Alliance where she also facilitates community education workshops and healing circles. She holds a Master of Science in Nonprofit Management with a concentration in Global Studies from Northeastern University and a certificate in Trauma-Informed Interventions (UC Berkeley). Back in the day, Amy earned her BS in Business/Accounting and is a licensed CPA (inactive) in California.

Amy is also working on her first book, The Wound Myth, about her journey as a transracial, transnational adoptee, reuniting with her birth parents, and learning to embrace gratitude as a powerful catalyst for change.

Madaly Love (they/them) is currently based out of unceded Lisjan Ohlone Territory. They are a curanderx, addiction recovery coach, entheogenic guide, quantum energy healer, community leader, environmental justice advocate, and all around chingonx (bad-ass)! They are committed to trauma-informed facilitation and believe that you are your own best healer. Madaly's ancestors come from Mexico -- with roots in Zacatecas and Michoacán. They feel connected to their Chichimec, Nahua-Otomi, & Purepecha roots, and hold space for the Spanish roots too.Madaly shares their work through the form of 1:1 and group cacao ceremonies, 1:1 coaching, healing energy work with reiki and sound alchemy, transformational hikes in nature, sober dance events, and mindful meditations. Madaly has been in a deep study with cacao for 6 years. Cacao found Madaly when they first got sober

Madaly is a reiki master teacher and has been practicing for 4 years. They are a trained addiction recovery coach and entheogenic integration coach, and have been practicing for 3 years. They also have a potent background in bay area non-profit work by: connecting local CA farmer to food swamps areas, teaching trauma-informed mindfulness to young people ages 4 - 17, operationalizing and implementing systems/resources to support abolition movement organizers.

Angela Omulepu is a wellness consultant, change-maker and healer who facilitates personal, organizational, and societal healing through diverse healing modalities such as Reiki, guided imagery, qigong, somatic experiencing, creative writing, and wellness coaching.

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Her school, Reiki to the People (RTTP), represents the intersection of spirituality and sociopolitical revolution. RTTP is committed to enabling and assisting humankinds’ evolutionary leap into an integral age. Ms. Omulepu believes that through Reiki practice and the attention to self-healing, we can transform our world.

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Ms. Omulepu is a lover and maker of art. She is a published poet, a self-taught painter, performance artist and a lifelong student of music - guitar and piano. She is also a mom to twins–her must fulfilling endeavor. 

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Ms. Omulepu received her BA in English from Cornell University (1998). She completed her MA in Integrative Health Studies at the California Institute for Integral Studies (CIIS) in 2017 and was the class valedictorian. Currently she is a PhD candidate in the East West Psychology program at CIIS. She lives in Oakland, CA.

(En Español Abajo)

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Alysia Mann Carey (they/she) was birthed from the sweet and saltwater crossings of Harbour Island, Bahamas and Madison, WI. Born and raised with her 4 younger siblings and many cousins in Madison, Alysia played many afternoons with the Gingko tree her grandfather planted and nurtured back to health in the 1940s, planting many seeds of healing they are still uncovering each moment of everyday. Alysia is a godmother, mama-auntie, auntie, sister-sibling, queer beloved soul that seeks to offer and embrace healing magic with Mother Earth.  As a multiple language learner, translator and interpreter, they connect Black diasporic communities by bridging languages and co-creating spaces and experiences where Black folx can re-encounter, thereby transforming language barriers into expressions that explore the different meanings of the world that we carry within ourselves. Alysia works as a transformative & healing justice facilitator and curriculum developer consultant and offers workshops around embodiment & trauma, intergenerational healing in Spanish and English with the purpose of weaving these knowledges into the creative efforts that continue to work of liberation. Alysia is also finishing up her doctoral studies in political science at the University of Chicago. 

Alysia Mann Carey (elle/ella) nació del tejido de aguas dulce y salada de Harbour Island, Bahamas y Madison, WI. Nacide y criade con sus 4 hermanes menores y muchos primes en Madison. Alysia pasó muchas tardes jugando con el árbol Gingko que su abuelo plantó y cuidó hasta que recuperó la salud en la década de 1940. Alysia anda plantando semillas de sanación e insiste en disponerse en curiosidad para irlas encontrando cada momento de cada día. Alysia es madrine, tía-mamá, tía, hermana-hermane, alma amada queer que ofrece y abraza la magia sanadora con la Madre Tierra. Como amore de varios idiomas, traductore e interprete, elle conecta a las comunidades negras de la diáspora relacionándose con los idiomas como puentes de intercambio e intimidad, creando espacios y experiencias en los que pueblos negros nos reencontrarnos transformado las barreras idiomáticas en expresiones que exploran los distinto sentidos del mundo que portan en sí mismos. Alysia trabaja como facilitadora de justicia transformativa y sanadora, es consultore de desarrollo curricular, ofrece talleres sobre corporalidad y trauma, sanación intergeneracional  en español e inglés con el propósito de entretejer estos saberes a los esfuerzos creativos que siguen el trabajo de la liberación. Alysia también está terminando sus estudios de doctorado en ciencias políticas en la Universidad de Chicago.