RooT
Healing Conference
And Clinic
2022
![A brilliant painted scene with sunset red, orange, yellow sky, elephant leaf plants growing on a green horizon over grey stones. A wave of pink and blue beneath this as abstract ground/earth as background to three green bodies emerging out of ying-yang bubbles. To the left the body extends into roots as legs beneath the thighs, naked torso with breasts, face looking upward towards center with eyes closed and lips slightly open. The middle body hugs one bent knee and hides face in arms’ embrace, on leg extended to root. Body at the right is open chested with head thrown back facing upwards towards the sky, eyes closed, mouth open. Legs are roots. A white spiral is imposed over the complete image. Artwork by Antone Olivier.](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2934e1_95d73519e36f41b58b2389478c3a7b56~mv2.jpeg/v1/crop/x_303,y_13,w_3087,h_2667/fill/w_990,h_850,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/IMG_1406.jpeg)
ARTWORK: ANTONE OLIVIER
A PEOPLE'S CONFERENCE FOR THOSE
IMPACTED BY VIOLENCE AND TRAUMA
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.
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.
Live captioning will be available for each session. Contact Rosa@wetakeroot.com with other access needs requests.
FREE for Oakland residents, thanks to funding from the Akonadi Foundation!
30% of all proceeds will go to Shumi Land Tax to support the rematriation of Ohlone Land
and directly into the pockets of Black trans women who are struggling with housing security and basic needs.
The rest of the proceeds are used to help make future workshops accessible to those furthest from economic access.
COLLECTIVE HEALING WORKSHOPS
ROSA
CABRERA
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ANTONE
OLIVIER
ROSA
GISELLE
CABRERA
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Intro To Somatic Healing
What is body/somatic awareness and how is it different than the cognitive-behavioral awareness often used in "talk-therapy?" This session invites us to release shame around our protective/stress responses to trauma, violence, and triggers. We will use large and small group dialogue, embodied visualization, and journaling as tools to help us begin to map the wounds in our bodies and provide the medicine and healing they signal. Our practice will utilize anti-capitalist tools of slowing down time, re-imagining self-care work as courageous self-explorative work beyond consumerism, and being curious about our discomforts. We offer a brave space for participants to explore consensual radical honesty about our shadows while acknowledging the tools and capacity needed to heal, already present within us. This workshop serves as a foundational workshop for all others in this Healing Conference and Clinic and is open to all participants.
Friday, September 9, 4-7 PM PST
ROSA
CABRERA
![Screen Shot 2021-05-14 at 1.41.24 PM.png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2934e1_04a02437a4cc41fa978d540c2d74731d~mv2.png/v1/crop/x_0,y_308,w_830,h_817/fill/w_132,h_130,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/Screen%20Shot%202021-05-14%20at%201_41_24%20PM.png)
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KEONNA
KNIGHT
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Breaking Free: A Practical Guide to Breaking Generational Cycles
What are you carrying that doesn’t belong to you? How can you begin to unravel and lay down the generational cycles (stories, habits and patterns) that no longer serve you? In this workshop, you will have access to a step-by-step guide to answering these questions. Community members will have space to:
(1) reflect on the generational cycles that feel heavy and challenging to navigate,
(2) gently unravel the roots of these generational cycles,
(3) gain practical tools to break free and stay free from generational cycles and
(4) dream, share and connect in community.
This workshop applies to and is for anyone who experiences systemic and internalized oppression, feels the weight of generational cycles and seeks to start or continue generational blessings/healthy ways of being and connecting.
Thursday, September 15, 2022, 3-5PM PST
ROSA
CABRERA
![Screen Shot 2021-05-14 at 1.41.24 PM.png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2934e1_04a02437a4cc41fa978d540c2d74731d~mv2.png/v1/crop/x_0,y_308,w_830,h_817/fill/w_132,h_130,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/Screen%20Shot%202021-05-14%20at%201_41_24%20PM.png)
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CANDICE
ROSE
VALENZUELA
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Reimagining Resilience
Reframing colloquial and colonial concepts of resilience; we explore eco-therapeutic, Indigenous, and arts-based interventions that invite us to reimagine mental health, self-care, and resilience as we face a climate-impacted reality, and fight for a liberated future.
This workshop does heavy lifting in reducing shame in marginalized people and survivors by offering a new vision of resilience that honors lived experience, validates past coping, and reframes resilience as something inherent rather than something to be acheived. Participants receive concrete tools and reflection to bring this new learning into their lives in the form of self-advocacy, self-compassion and/or new practices for self-care.
Thursday, September 29, 2-5 PM PST
ROSA
CABRERA
![Screen Shot 2021-05-14 at 1.41.24 PM.png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2934e1_04a02437a4cc41fa978d540c2d74731d~mv2.png/v1/crop/x_0,y_308,w_830,h_817/fill/w_132,h_130,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/Screen%20Shot%202021-05-14%20at%201_41_24%20PM.png)
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TEREZA IÑIGUEZ FLORES
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Ancestral Medicine to Mend and Re-awaken Our True Essence for Mixed Race People
We all enter a world filled with historical confusion and discomforts which have influenced our lineage's beliefs! These beliefs bring confusion to our truth of self. We spend a large portion of our adult life searching for connection, acceptance, and healing. In this circle you will experience Ancestral Medicine to release shame, judgement, guilt, blame and invite the beauty of walking with clarity to an intentional path.
Within Sacred Platica, we will discover the root of our discomforts as we embrace tools to help us foster our self-worth and build healthy relationships with all our diverse identities. Through story sharing and reflection, we’ll gain understanding to the stems of generational and intergenerational harm and the complexity that exists because of our mixed lineages. Inviting Ancestral Medicine gives us the opportunity to reflect and discover heartfelt solutions to our healing. In sacredness, we will mend inherited disconnect and invite ourselves home to our inner wisdom, acceptance, and knowing.
Monday, October 3rd, 3-6 PM PST
ROSA
CABRERA
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ROSA
GISELLE
CABRERA
Xochicoatl
Bello
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Uses of Anger
For BLACK PEOPLE, INDIGENOUS PEOPLE, PEOPLE OF COLOR, AND MIXED RACE PEOPLE
Audre Lorde taught us that anger is a source that can be used "in the service of our vision." This workshop invites us to examine the fear, shame, stigma, and distortions of power associated with anger. Collective exercises and personal reflection in this workshop will guide us to look to anger as a site of wisdom, clarification, and long-sought answers. How is anger an invitation to uncover, learn, and love ourselves more deeply? What does it look like when anger empowers us without overwhelming us? How can we develop a healing relationship with our anger without silencing it?
Thursday, October 6, 3-6 PM PST
ROSA
CABRERA
![img-2746-001.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2934e1_3a116c5ae9d54410b17b1f999aa9ea69~mv2.jpg/v1/crop/x_0,y_5,w_666,h_656/fill/w_132,h_130,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/img-2746-001.jpg)
AMY
PAULSON
ROSA
GISELLE
CABRERA
SAGE
HAYES
HOLDING CONNECTION CENTERED SPACES
This workshop is open to all who hold space for others and want to explore this question: What barriers to growth and connection surface when we hold space and how can we address what needs care when they surface?
Recognizing that top-down, rigidly held spaces informed by a culture of white supremacy are the norm, we often become nervous when we deviate from that norm (or when others do) and feel “out of control” inside and outside of our bodies. When our bodies feel threatened, it tends to lean into what is familiar, which is often in alignment with the oppressive patterns of thought and disconnection.
Our invitation here is to pump the brakes and pull off to the side to observe how our bodies express calls for help and invite care where needed in order to have the capacity to hold space in ways that feel more emergent, especially when conflict arises.
Note: this workshop is an opening for ongoing practice. It is meant to springboard us into practice as we continue to hold space in our places of work, activism, and other space of collective connection.
Modules (Must Attend All)
Session One |Tues, Oct 11, (3-6PM PST)
Observing and connecting to the self when holding space.
Session Two | Tues, Oct 18 (3-6PM PST)
Moving into humanizing action when the invitation to practice arises.
Session Three | Tues, Oct 25, (3-6pm PST)
Practice - meeting ourselves and each other where we’re at.
ROSA
CABRERA
![Headshot (2018).jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2934e1_434aaaeda0b7414f90e51fe3678987c6~mv2.jpg/v1/crop/x_276,y_153,w_269,h_265/fill/w_132,h_130,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/Headshot%20(2018).jpg)
SAL
TRAN
VIC
AGUIRRE
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nEW dATE
Uses of Anger: For Trans and NonBinary People
Audre Lorde taught us that anger is a source that can be used "in the service of our vision." This workshop invites us to examine the fear, shame, stigma, and distortions of power associated with anger. Collective exercises and personal reflection in this workshop will guide us to look to anger as a site of wisdom, clarification, and long-sought answers. How is anger an invitation to uncover, learn, and love ourselves more deeply? What does it look like when anger empowers us without overwhelming us? How can we develop a healing relationship with our anger without silencing it?
This workshop is open only to trans and nonbinary people.
Thursday, November 10, 3-6PM PST
ROSA
CABRERA
![eugenia.jpeg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2934e1_36796b697ae24de596701c457284bc08~mv2.jpeg/v1/crop/x_488,y_193,w_1261,h_1246/fill/w_132,h_130,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/eugenia.jpeg)
EUGENIA
PARK
SAL
TRAN
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EMBODYING Boundaries
In this workshop, we'll explore, play, and tend to our boundaries as an instrumental step in healing our trauma. Through various somatic practices, we'll move towards reclaiming and deepening the felt sense of choice, clarity, trust, and empowerment in ourselves. We'll explore the somatic ranges of where we begin and end, our clear "NO" to our joyful "YES", and everything in between.
*Please have a dowel, broomstick, or wood stick nearby.
Wednesday, November 2nd, 3-6 PM PST
ROSA
CABRERA
![img-2746-001.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2934e1_3a116c5ae9d54410b17b1f999aa9ea69~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_130,h_130,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/img-2746-001.jpg)
AMY
PAULSON
ANTONE
OLIVIER
ROSA
GISELLE
CABRERA
Transformative Grieving
The acute pain of grief has been so real since the start of the pandemic - yet we and our communities are no strangers to loss and sorrow. Grief can be experienced after a loss of anything or anyone foundational and endearing to us. For many, it’s linked to generational wounds that have been pushed deep down in order to survive. As white supremacy and capitalist culture urge us to “move on” from our grief, we’re making space to be seen and witnessed in our pain, and discover the wisdom that emerges when we befriend it. In doing so, we’ll also hold space for the complexity of love, connection, and gratitude that live side by side with loss - and practice radical self-love & community care through it all.
Friday November 18, 4-7 PM PST
Healing Clinic:
One on One Healing
This segment of our conference is intended for people who want to try non-Western and holistic healing modalities for the first time in a private space. This allows people who might not otherwise have access to these services to explore new healing practices while walking away with usable tools.
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BLACK SEEDS SESSIONS:
MEDITATION AND RELAXATION
DOMINIQUE COWLING
Black Seeds are one- on- one mindfulness sessions in nature. Using a peer counseling model, there will be a non-judgmental, collaborative & trauma-sensitive environment to better understand emotional and spiritual health. In addition to being outdoors with the elements, each session will be tailored to specific needs with guided meditation, Restorative yoga and / or somatic practices to support one's unique healing journey. Each session ends with an option of journaling or shared reflection. Props will be provided.
Availability:
Sunday, September 25 (New Moon) 10am-11am PST (BOOKED)
Sunday, October 9 (Full Moon) 10am-11am PST (BOOKED)
Tuesday, October 25 (New Moon) 10am-11am PST (BOOKED)
Tuesday, November 8 (Full Moon) 10am-11am PST (AVAILABLE)
One on One healing sessions are free and intended for people who would not otherwise have access to these sessions due to economic hardship.
![Screen Shot 2021-06-10 at 7.47.37 PM.png](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2934e1_314abb341b5b4c07a66380a8f8496bde~mv2.png/v1/crop/x_4,y_0,w_535,h_550/fill/w_165,h_170,al_c,q_85,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/Screen%20Shot%202021-06-10%20at%207_47_37%20PM.png)
MESO-AMERICAN HOLISTIC COACHING
TEREZA IÑIGUEZ FLORES
CURRENTLY OVERBOOKED
A unique holistic approach to life coaching, with the integration of mesoamerican healing traditions, contemporary healing arts and Tereza’s intuitive gifts. Her commitment is to empower individuals into self-acceptance, expression, and connection with purpose. Each session is held within safe sacred space to share your story and uncover the root of trauma along with the understanding to the effects of adversity, using a gentle approach to discover your inner wisdom and build tools to support you as you step forward into transformation.
Benefits those in struggle with:
· Self-doubt
· Anxiety/Depression
· Decision Making
· Internal Fear
· Communication/Expression
· Relationships
Availability:
September 27, 4-5 pm (BOOKED)
October 17, 4-5 pm (BOOKED)
November 15, 9-10 am (BOOKED)
November 15, 4-5 pm (BOOKED)
One on One healing sessions are free and intended for people who would not otherwise have access to these sessions due to economic hardship.
![eugenia.jpeg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2934e1_36796b697ae24de596701c457284bc08~mv2.jpeg/v1/crop/x_410,y_309,w_1320,h_1341/fill/w_167,h_170,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/eugenia.jpeg)
SOMATIC HEALING
EUGENIA PARK
CURRENTLY OVERBOOKED
Somatic healing sessions provide a space of deep holding and presence to help the nervous system metabolize and integrate what's been challenging, and help settle, resource, and bolster the whole body. Sessions may help:
• reduce stress, anxiety, and overwhelm
• build capacity, grounding, and resilience in our body-minds
• offer a welcome sense of calm, clarity, choice, and balance.
Weaving somatics, bodywork, mindfulness, and trauma-healing modalities of Somatic
Experiencing, Touch Skills Trauma Therapy, and Somatic Resilience +
Regulation. Sessions may be online or in-person in Berkeley, Ca.
More info here, www.eugeniapark.com
Availability
Online Sessions:
Sept 21, 2-3pm PST
Oct 12, 3-4pm PST
Nov 7, 4-5pm PST
Nov 14, 4-5pm PST
One on One healing sessions are free and intended for people who would not otherwise have access to these sessions due to economic hardship.
![IDpic.jpeg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2934e1_79b020b1bab74423bb465cd18d4ab352~mv2.jpeg/v1/crop/x_78,y_145,w_2242,h_2284/fill/w_167,h_170,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/IDpic.jpeg)
ACUPUNCTURE
PAOLO CHICO FLORES
Acupuncture is an essential part of a 2,000-year-old medical system. Treatments can support your nervous system, ease pain, boost immunity, improve mood, and increase energy levels. Sessions will be masked and socially distanced. Please note this is a semi-private event with up to two appointments per hour.
Availability:
Friday, September 23
4PM-8PM PST in 30 minute increments
Only 3 slots left
One on One healing sessions are free and intended for people who would not otherwise have access to these sessions due to economic hardship.
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REIKI AND ANOINTING
BOGAR ARGON CARILLO
CURRENTLY OVERBOOKED
Reiki is a beautiful form of energy healing that is versatile, gentle, and effective. Reiki safely and effectively clears the pathways and enhances the flow of energy throughout the entire body, and in doing so promotes Relaxation, Balance, Internal Harmony, Greater Focus, and Wellness in life.
Embracing an integrative approach to understanding the effects of trauma and chronic stress on the body and mind, these individual Reiki sessions provide an accessible introduction to enjoying a trauma-informed Reiki experience. For those interested, when conducting energy healings, I use crystals, anointing oils (essential oil blends), and healing sound to focus the healing energy and to enhance its effectiveness. It will be an honor for me to be able to work with you during a Reiki healing session.
Sessions include: Tuning fork sound therapy, energy centers balancing, Reiki healing flow, and third eye anointing.
Feel safe, empowered, and cared for by having control over the process and providing you with opportunities to practice making clear choices and setting boundaries.
Client and Practitioner work in harmony to create the balanced energetic flow that is optimal for wellness, and the practitioner does not need to touch the body, it can be done hands-off.
Learn breathing techniques and hand mudras with the intention to assist the individual in utilizing a daily self-care practice amidst a busy life.
Availability:
Tue Sep 6, 12PM PST
Tue Sep 13, 12 PM PST
Tue Sep 20, 12PM PST
Tue Sep 27, 12PM PST
One on One healing sessions are free and intended for people who would not otherwise have access to these sessions due to economic hardship.
![VIC PIC.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/2934e1_b69936101c0e497baff4698222973af2~mv2.jpg/v1/crop/x_6,y_78,w_1878,h_1926/fill/w_166,h_170,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/VIC%20PIC.jpg)
TRAUMA-INFORMED MASSAGE FOR TRANS BODIES
VIC AGUIRRE
These sessions are closed to People of Color who identify as Trans, Non-Binary, Gender Nonconforming, Two-Spirit, Genderqueer, Genderfuck or otherwise outside of traditional gender roles. Priority is given for Black, Indigenous and women ID’d folks. More often than not, these communities are discriminated against and barred access from the services that help them thrive. Bad experiences with bodywork and/or practitioners deter those who have ventured into this healing to be turned off from it in the future. These sessions are intended to help the individual settle into a relaxing atmosphere without fear of misnaming, misgendering, outing, unnecessary/uncomfortable conversations regarding gender, medical insurance coverage or body assumptions.
Availability:
TBD
One on One healing sessions are free and intended for people who would not otherwise have access to these sessions due to economic hardship.
ABOUT OUR CONFERENCE FACILITATORS AND HEALERS
CANDICE VALENZUELA
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.
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.
ANTONE OLIVIER
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.
PAOLO FLORES CHICO
Paolo Flores Chico created For the Love Acupuncture & Wellness Events in 2014. For the Love includes a private practice, wellness workshops, and a donation-based event series for and by Queer & Trans BIPOC.
For The Love events include live sound healing, community acupuncture, massage, free food, care packages, and visual art.
Paolo is a trans Filipino acupuncturist that enjoys studying qigong, floating in water, hiking with their dog Kiko, and eating all the dumplings. Paolo believes without accessible healthcare, the end of capitalism and prisons, and the liberation of all, we will never truly be well.
ROSA GISELLE CABRERA
Rosa is a Harlem native, born to Dominican parents, and is a single mother of a magical child scientist. She has published personal essays and fiction writing on motherhood, sexuality, Black feminism, and transnational identity. 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 teaching and writing endeavors.
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. Currently, she teaches English at Chabot College and founded InkRise, a writing workshop for survivors of violence in 2012. She founded Reclaiming Our Own Transcendence in 2018 to explore abolitionist and transformative healing methods to address and end violence.
BOGAR ARGON CARILLO
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.
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.
SAL TRAN
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.
KEONNA KNIGHT
I am a liberation coach, wellness educator, counselor-in-training and facilitator of liberated learning/healing experiences. Through my business, Heal with Keonna, I design and facilitate transformative curriculum, consulting and coaching programs centered around wellness, healing and liberation. My work includes, but is not limited to, facilitating community healing events, leading workshops and liberation-centered trainings at educational institutions across the country and providing both group and private coaching for Black womxn who are ready to live out their most liberated, fulfilled lives.
When I am not in a session with a client or holding space for our community, I am investing in my personal healing and liberation. This currently looks like skateboarding, letting myself be seen and supported by loved ones and shaking my ass to Beyoncé’s Thique after a full day of work.
VIC AGUIRRE
Vic Aguirre 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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TEREZA IÑIGUEZ FLORES
For over 35 years, Tereza Iñiquez Flores has combined Mesoamerican (Curanderismo) traditional healing practices with contemporary healing arts. Integrative and intuitive, her work transforms the lives of individuals, couples families and communities seeking to find a healthier and meaningful life. She provides tools to solve pressing issues in their day-to-day lives, which invites transformation and freedom to weave a colorful tapestry of self-acceptance, expression, and connection with purpose.
Her focus is the healing of ancestral, childhood, and present trauma for a stronger sense of self for successful living. As a teacher, Tereza shares the gifts of Curanderismo with healing professionals and individuals in search of transformation with the integration of ancestral traditional healing modalities.She has facilitated trainings and made presentations at San Francisco StateUniversity,UC Berkeley, San Francisco Health Department of Mental Health, Good Samaritan Family Resource Center, San Francisco Department of Human Services and San Mateo Rape Trauma Services.
GABBY MOMAH
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.
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.
DOMINIQUE COWLING
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.
Her heart is guided by curiosity and a blooming relationship with the earth. To learn more, visit her website.
XÓCHICOATL BELLO
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
AMY PAULSON
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.
EUGENIA PARK
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...