Social Justice Summit 2023

Big Conversations:
Race, Trauma & Collective Healing
January 20th - 22nd, 2023
Overview
Speakers

Thank you to all who joined this conversation. We truly appreciate you.


Trauma research foundation is excited to announce our 3rd Annual Social Justice Summit

Dear TRF Community, 

We invite you to join us for the 3rd Annual Social Justice Summit. As we start this new year and find our way to post pandemic life, the questions of how visibility, inclusion, safety, and accessibility to healing impact trauma healing are foremost in our minds. We invite you to spend a thoughtful, purposeful time with us in conversation– openly exploring how to be present and embodied while witnessing and holding our stories and histories, how we are impacted socially, politically, collectively, and individually by them, and how we can create opportunities to heal.

This year’s Social Justice Summit is focused on Big Conversations, which is not always easy to have or even show up for. Big conversations where we don’t have easy answers, and where our vulnerability and willingness to listen are part of how we create safety and the possibility for healing. In this summit, we will explore the following:

  • Trauma as a social, political and collective issue, not just an individual experience.
  • Showcase and address the social contexts for and in which trauma happens -- Inequality, poverty, racism, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, and war.
  • To address the limited accessibility of mental health services and treatment for the most traumatized populations.
  • To showcase and present new models of services that provide mental health support and treatment for underserved, underrepresented people in need of care.

3 Days

Join us and key speakers, researchers, educators and healthcare professionals

Virtual - Join from Home

Register to join us online from all over the world.

Jan 20 - 22, 2023

Save the date in your calendar.

Overview
Speakers

Register Today!

Days
Hours
Minutes

JOIN US WITH...

Bessel van der Kolk, MD

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Bessel van der Kolk, MD, is the President and Co-founder of the Trauma Research Foundation. He is a clinician, researcher, and teacher best known for his work with PTSD. Kolk has been active in the mental health field since the 1970s and is the author of the New York Times best-seller The Body Keeps the Score, which has been translated into 35 languages, and of well over 150 peer-reviewed scientific articles.

Bio
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Title: Personal Identity & the Embodiment of Racial Trauma, Understanding Journeys 

 

Session Info

Licia Sky

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Licia Sky is co-founder and current CEO of Trauma Research Foundation, Licia Sky guides transformational experiences by incorporating dynamic observational exercises to foster safe, transformative inner and interpersonal connections. Her methods are informed by over 25 years as an artist, musician, bodywork therapist, yoga practitioner, and dancer; and integrate poly-vagal theory, parts work, and the latest research on trauma and the body.

Bio
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Title: Personal Identity & the Embodiment of Racial Trauma, Understanding Journeys

 

Session Info

Gwendolyn VanSant

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Gwendolyn VanSant is an experienced organizational change consultant and coach who works at the intersection of diversity leadership, equity and inclusion, and strategic planning. She serves as a non-profit leader as the CEO and Founding Executive Director of BRIDGE and the principal & owner of the consulting firm, Equity in Practice, LLC. Gwendolyn is a skilled community organizer, a well-recognized thought leader, and an advisor on racial justice, reparations, gender equity, and anti-poverty work. She is a pioneer in integrating research-based positive psychology practices into her equity and inclusion approach.

Bio
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Title: Personal Identity & the Embodiment of Racial Trauma, Understanding Journeys

 

Session Info

Dr. Nathalie Edmond

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Dr. Nathalie Edmond, PsyD, RYT-500 is a licensed clinical psychologist and experienced yoga teacher who takes an integrative perspective to her consultations and trainings. She believes that transformation happens when we integrate mind-body-spirit and have an embodied dialogue. She is trained in mindfulness, multiculturalism and intersectional feminism and takes a trauma informed approach to her work. She believes that anti-oppression work begins within one's self and includes addressing all oppressed groups and identities as we work towards liberation of all beings. She regularly leads anti-racism, trauma informed and diversity trainings for clinical practices, libraries, school districts, religious groups, corporations, nonprofits, activism groups and yoga communities.

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Title: Somatics of Being a Racial Being

Description:

What is the somatics of being a racial being in the United States? What does it mean to be socialized as a white person? What is the experience of black, brown, indigenous and asian individuals in the United States when they are talking to white bodies about being racial beings? What are indicators of unexamined whiteness (entitlement, white fragility, apathy, and ferality)? How can we resource to disrupt whiteness? How do we acknowledge racial trauma and work to heal it?

Session Info

Eugene Ellis

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Eugene Ellis is an activist, writer and public speaker on issues of race, difference and intersectionality. He trained as an Integrative Arts Psychotherapist and has a particular interest in body-orientated therapies and mindfulness. He is also the founder and director of The Black, African and Asian Therapy Network (BAATN), a network of therapists committed, passionate and actively engaged in addressing the psychological needs of Black, African and South Asian people in the UK.

Eugene’s book ‘The Race Conversation: An essential guide to creating life-changing dialogue’ explores the intersection of race and trauma, the non-verbal communication of race and how to navigate oppressive patterns. Eugene’s chapter in ‘Intercultural Therapy: Challenges, Insights and Developments’ entitled ‘Finding our voice across the Black/white divide: race issues in therapy’, reflects on the therapists’ process when issues of race become foreground for the therapist, the client or the trainee therapist and what processes encourage and maintain the ability to stay with race dialogue.

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Title: Finding Our Voice in the Race Conversation

Description: What racial differences impose on our minds and bodies as individuals and collectively is demanding and complex. The challenge is often simply to remain coherent in our thinking, and often there is a feeling of being under-resourced to stay with the process. I want to explore what happens in our minds and more importantly in our bodies in the midst of the race conversation and explore how a mindful and collective approach to our physiological responses might support us in staying at the contact boundary of our experience – and support us to find our voice.

Session Info

Erica Sandoval

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Erica Sandoval is a leader that delivers programs and services to non-profit organizations and diverse populations/communities. Erica has found great success as a Clinician, Executive Leader, and Fellow at the Karen Horney Clinic, enCourage Kids Foundation, Make-a-Wish Foundation, Hospital for Special Surgery, and Western Queens Consultation Center. Her dedication to serving the community is rooted in strategic partnerships with healthcare facilities and medical professionals. She supports children, adolescents, and young adults with chronic/critical illnesses, essential workers, medical professionals, LatinX professionals, and Clinical Social workers.

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Title: Holding the Weight of Whiteness

Description: Culturally relevant services are especially crucial when working with various ethnic groups. The program will allow us to discuss how whiteness relates to privilege and identity, and both become normalized and invisible. It will focus on key cultural themes (e.g. internalized racism, privilege, microaggressions, white identity) related to Latinx communities. The presenter will share personal stories and experiences that relate to her identities, and how these have been shaped by racism. Participants will leave this workshop with a better understanding of how to center themselves as a form of resistance against the harmful effects of whiteness in our lives, the organizations we work for or direct, and the communities in which we serve.

Session Info

Susan Burton

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Susan Burton is a visionary, inspirational leader of the criminal justice reform movement, and author of award-winning memoir, Becoming Ms. Burton. Her lived experience through prison to recovery serves as her motivation to continue leading the fight against mass incarceration. The impact of her work and leadership has been recognized through numerous awards. In 2010, she was named a CNN Top Ten Hero and received the prestigious Citizen Activist Award from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She is also the recipient of the Encore Purpose Prize (2012) and the James Irvine Foundation Leadership Award (2014) among many more.

In 1998, Burton founded A New Way of Life Reentry Project (ANWOL).  Now, over two decades later, A New Way of Life is an internationally recognized non-profit organization that promotes healing, leadership development, and safety for formerly incarcerated women. ANWOL has supported the reentry of over 5,500 individuals through safe housing, pro bono legal services and leadership development to date.  

After a 2017-18 tour with her award-winning memoir, Becoming Ms. Burton, in 64 prisons and jails throughout 26 states and three countries, Burton launched the SAFE (Sisterhood Alliance for Freedom and Equality) Housing Network to replicate A New Way of Life’s effective and humane reentry model. Since 2018, Burton has mentored and supported twenty four organizations in sixteen US states to open their own safe homes. It is through this work that she thrives, enjoying the progress of her foundations, all while knowing how many individual lives she has touched and changed throughout her own journey.  

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Title: Beyond Trauma: Healing, Hope, and Inspiration

Description: One woman's journey through tremendous negative circumstances led her to become a visionary and inspirational leader of the criminal justice reform movement. Susan Burton's lived experiences through prison to recovery serve as motivation to cultivate healing and advocate for positive change within communities impacted by incarceration. In this course, Ms. Burton will share how she overcame the obstacles in her life and became a mentor and guide for those effected by incarceration.

Session Info

Dr. Gary Bailey

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Gary Bailey, MSW, ACSW is a native of Cleveland, Ohio. He received his BA from the Eliot Pearson School of Child Study at Tufts University in 1977 and his MSW from Boston University School of Social Work in 1979.He is currently an Associate Professor at Simmons College Graduate School of Social Work where he chairs the Dynamics of Racism and Oppression foundation sequence. He is a member of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) I Hartford Foundation Gero Education Initiative to infuse gerontological content into curriculum. Professor Bailey is the Chair of the Simmons College Black Administrators, Faculty and Staff Council (BAFAS); and Chairs the School of Social Work (SSW) Awards committee. He is a member of the President's Inaugural Committee.

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Title: The Roles Intersectionality & Culture Play When Working with Diverse Client Populations

Description: Many individuals of color have not only experienced violence and discrimination at the interpersonal level, but also live in communities that are alive with symptoms of trauma, and as a result have an increased likelihood of developing health related problems because of this exposure.  Physical violence or threat of violence leads to trauma, which contributes to poorer health outcomes for those individuals who are impacted. The impact of primary and secondary trauma has been correlated with many medical conditions.   The stark reality of hate in America appears to disproportionally impact individuals who have been historically discriminated against and who have been generationally disenfranchised. Individuals who are a part of these communities deserve access to safe and affirming places to get much needed physical and emotional care. Dr. Bailey’s presentation will explore the intersection of trauma and racism that are experienced by individuals across the lifespan.

 
Session Info

Ifetayo Harvey

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Ifetayo Harvey is the founder of the People of Color Psychedelic Collective (POCPC), which educates and builds community with people of color interested in psychedelics and ending the war on drugs.

Ifetayo is a member of the Federal Policy Guidelines for Psychedelics Working Group led by Healing Equity and Liberation. She was also a member of the Research to Reality: Global Summit on Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Medicine Advisory Committee.

Ifetayo’s experience growing up with her father in prison brought her to drug policy reform work in 2013 as an intern at the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and then joined them full-time in 2016. In 2013 Ifetayo was the opening plenary speaker at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference in Denver, Colorado.

Ifetayo comes from a family of seven children raised by her mother in Charleston, South Carolina. She has a Bachelor’s degree from Smith College in history and African studies, where the college awarded her Outstanding Student Leader of the Year in 2014.

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Title: The Promises & Pitfalls of Psychedelic Healing for Trauma

Description:Humans and animals have used mind-altering substances for centuries for spiritual and healing purposes. With the war on drugs launching during Nixon's presidency, his administration banned these substances, and users criminalized them. The war on drugs is responsible for the disproportionate incarceration of Black and Latinx people. In the past decade, psychedelics have gained attention in the mainstream for their healing potential. Often, psychedelics are compared to antidepressants and juxtaposed as a better, more improved version of their pharmaceutical counterparts. Yet, is healing that simple? In this course, panelists will discuss the promises and pitfalls of psychedelic healing for trauma. How can psychedelics help heal trauma, and what else is needed to support those seeking healing? What are the risks associated with psychedelic use?

Session Info

Dr. Jack Saul

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Jack Saul, PhD is the founding director of the International Trauma Studies Program (ITSP), a research and training institute based in New York City. ITSP is committed to enhancing the natural resilience and coping capacities of individuals, families, and communities that have endured and/or are threatened by traumatic events. He has served on the faculties of New York University School of Medicine – Department of Psychiatry; the New School for Social Research, Clinical Psychology Program; and Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health.

As a psychologist and family therapist, Dr. Saul has created a number of programs both in New York and abroad for populations that have endured disaster, war, torture, and political violence. His book Collective Trauma, Collective Healing, documenting his experience, was published by Routledge in 2013. Dr. Saul is currently working on a public arts and conversation project entitled Moral Injuries of War about the need for a national public reckoning about United States war-making and war culture.

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Title:  Moral Injuries of War

Description: Moral Injuries of War seeks to spark critical social conversations about war-making and collective responsibility. It brings the voices of veterans, journalists, and other witnesses to the public through an immersive audio experience. By listening to these testimonies, people are encouraged to confront the anguish, uncertainty, and moral complexities of war—and their own consciences. 

Moral Injuries of War also creates space for a larger, much needed dialogue about morality. We hear veterans and journalists grapple with loss and grief, the goodness of humanity, sacrifice, and impossible decisions. They give voice to the moral distress felt by many in the world today as we confront crises such as climate change, systemic racism, and vast social inequity.

Session Info

Prentis Hemphill

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Prentis Hemphill (They/Them) is a writer, an embodiment facilitator, political organizer and therapist. They are the Founder and Director of The Embodiment Institute and The Black Embodiment Initiative, and the host of the acclaimed podcast, Finding Our Way. For the last ten years, Prentis has practiced and taught somatics in social movement organizations and offered embodied practice during moments of social unrest and organizational upheaval. They have taught embodied leadership with Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity and generative somatics and served as the Healing Justice Director of Black Lives Matter Global Network from 2016 to 2019. Their work and writing have appeared in the New York Times, the Huffington Post. They are a contributor to ‘You are Your Best Thing’, edited by Tarana Burke and Brene Brown, ‘Holding Change’ by adrienne maree brown, and ‘The Politics of Trauma’ by Staci Haines. They live in North Carolina on a small farm with their partner, child, two dogs, two chickens while working on an upcoming book on healing justice.

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Title: What Somatics Can Offer to Racial Justice, and What Racial Justice Can Offer to Somatics

Description: My work in the last decade has been about utilizing somatics principles and practice to build the capacity of the black movement. In that work and experimentation, I’ve seen the social and political impact of more embodied leaders and more embodied culture inside of racial justice movements. I also see how the call for racial justice asks us to reexamination of our systems, organizations, and cultures in ways that have implications for how somatics as a field and canon conceptualizes bodies, wellness, and our interconnection. This talk will weave the lessons of a movement practitioner to show the transformative potential for our practices of healing and social change.

Session Info

Staci Haines

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Staci K. Haines is a leader in the field of Somatics, specializing in intersecting personal and social change. Her latest book The Politics of Trauma: Somatics, Healing and Social Justice (North Atlantic Press 2019) is based on her work to transform the impact of individual and social trauma, and strengthen the interdependence of personal and social change. Staci is the co-founder of generative somatics (gs), a multiracial social justice organization bringing somatics to social and climate justice leaders and organizations. She leads programs in somatics, trauma and resilience, and embodied leadership for healers, social change leaders, and innovators. Staci is also to author of Healing Sex: A Mind Body Approach to Healing Sexual Trauma (Cleis 1999, 2007), and is the founder of generationFIVE, whose mission is to end the sexual abuse of children within five generations using transformative justice approaches. 

For more information visit: thepoliticsoftrauma.com, generativesomatics.org 

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Title: Embodied Hope and Grounded Action

Description: How do we cultivate embodied hope and grounded action in times so in need of racial and climate justice, love, and interdependence? Embodied transformation can help us to grow our capacity to meet life and the world on its terms - while bringing our deep values, our fierceness, and our hopes with us. When we become more present and embodied, we feel more. We sense more of ourselves, others, and the environment. This can allow us to discover more deeply what we are made for, what we long for, and who we want to align with. When we become more embodied, we also feel more of the pain and struggle of the world. In transformational work, we say this is “good news.” Not the pain, but the opportunity to feel, to empathize, and to tend to what needs tending.

Session Info

Marshall Davis Jones

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Marshall Davis Jones is the founder of MindBodySpeak; a leading authority in vocal communication and affects management.

Marshall’s techniques have won negotiations, deescalated conflicts, and acquired business relationships across multiple industries.


He sits on multiple advisory boards for tech companies as an expert on human vocal performance and affective presence.

Besides writing and speaking globally, he has played a narrative consultant role for two documentaries and contributes to industry strategy via think tanks.

Marshall was awarded recognition as one of the top 100 Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD  Class of 2022) via the UN.

He’s also had poems flown by NASA into space. 

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Title: Your Voice Can Change The Score

Description: The human voice is a printout of the moment and an accumulation of life experiences.

Finding your way into your body to return to your voice is a path of self discovery and relating to the world around you.

Session Info

Dr. NiCole T. Buchanan

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NiCole T. Buchanan, PhD, is an associate professor of psychology at Michigan State University (MSU) and faculty affiliate of MSU's Consortium for Multicultural Psychology Research, Research Consortium on Gender-Based Violence, and the Center for Gender in Global Context. She received her doctorate in clinical-community psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2002. Dr. Buchanan's research focuses on the interplay of race, gender, victimization and a unique form of harassment called racialized sexual harassment and how social identity dimensions, such as race, gender, sexual orientation and social class relate to well-being and professional development.

Dr. Buchanan is a fellow of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Society for the Psychology of Women (Div. 35), Society for the Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues (Div. 45), and the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (Div. 9) and has been the recipient of several awards for her research, teaching, and service contributions to campus and the field, such as the Carolyn Payton Early Career Award, Michigan State University's 2007 Excellence in Diversity Award in the category of "Individual Emerging Progress" and 2015 in the category of "TEAMS-Excellence in Community" for Sustained Effort Toward Excellence in Diversity (SEED)-(5 years to 15 years). Dr. Buchanan was honored to receive both APA's Society for the Psychology of Women's 2015 Mary Roth Walsh Teaching the Psychology of Women Award for the development of innovative ideas and learning activities to enhance the teaching of diversity and APA's Committee on Women in Psychology's 2015 Leadership Award as an Emerging Leader in the categories of research scholarship and service in psychology.

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Title: Psychedelics JEDI’s: Ensuring Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion (JEDI) in Psychedelics

Description: Psychedelic justice moves beyond the focus on individual freedom and instead pulls for a societal level social justice movement. Such a movement demands that we focus on justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) broadly and comprehensively. Justice, as proposed here, requires we center on the collective, communal needs of all members of society. Enacting true justice requires we do so with an intersectional lens that prioritizes the needs of those who embody multiple intersecting marginalized identities because creating a psychedelic community that best meets the needs of those who stand in these intersections elevates us all. To this end, this presentation will discuss strategies for moving toward psychedelic justice that liberates society and all of humanity.

Session Info

Linda Thai

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Linda is a trauma therapist, storyteller, educator, yoga instructor, and former child refugee. She is sought after for her trainings about adult children of refugees, trauma and the body, compassion fatigue resilience, and vicarious trauma recovery skills for human services professionals. As an adjunct faculty member in the Social Work Department at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Linda's decolonized approach to education, and engaging teaching style makes her well-loved with students. She has assisted Dr. Bessel van der Kolk and Licia Sky with their private small group psychotherapy workshops aimed at healing attachment trauma.

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Title: Fawning, Appeasement, & the Somatics of Trauma within the Dynamics of Oppressive Systems 

Description: The role of fawning and appeasement — although distinctly different responses, and distinct from dorsal vagal shutdown — are often overlooked survival mechanisms to a traumatic situation, experience, circumstance, or inhabiting an identity that is marginalized or stigmatized by society. In this timely presentation, Linda Thai will explore the dynamics of domination and subordination in all forms of trauma. Her framework for conceptualizing the impact of the philosophical and structural nature of oppression on identity ( -isms, such as sexism, classism, racism, ableism, as well as homophobia, and transphobia,) will allow you to recognize the relationship between internalized oppression and lateral/horizontal violence, and their impact upon the well-being, sense of self-identity, and sense of cultural identity of BIPOC individuals and communities. Through this presentation, you'll be equipped to meaningfully engage in an anti-oppressive approach to offering mental health services to individuals whose identities are marginalized by society.

Session Info
Gillian-Scott-Ward

Dr. Gillian Scott-Ward

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Gillian Scott-Ward, Ph.D., is an internationally-known Clinical Psychologist, filmmaker, and advocate for social justice. She specializes in healing through the mind-body-soul connection, integrating various clinical tools such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, Energy Psychology, EFT/Meridian Tapping, Somatic Therapy, and EMDR (Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) with Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy. She is a recent graduate of the Certificate in Psychedelic Assisted Therapies and Research program at the California Institute of Integral Studies. She recently held her first KAP group for Clinicians of Color in New York City. She is passionate about the power of sounds, music, smell, and touch to shift us into altered states of consciousness. She is currently exploring ways to weave Strength-Based EMDR resourcing into integration work to support journeyers' ability to shift into healthier, embodied ways of being. She believes in the healing potential of ancestral wisdom and is committed to expanding education about the burgeoning psychedelic healing movement and psychedelic tourism happening throughout the Caribbean.

Bio
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Title: The Promises & Pitfalls of Psychedelic Healing for Trauma

Description: Humans and animals have used mind-altering substances for centuries for spiritual and healing purposes. With the war on drugs launching during Nixon's presidency, his administration banned these substances, and users criminalized them. The war on drugs is responsible for the disproportionate incarceration of Black and Latinx people. In the past decade, psychedelics have gained attention in the mainstream for their healing potential. Often, psychedelics are compared to antidepressants and juxtaposed as a better, more improved version of their pharmaceutical counterparts. Yet, is healing that simple? In this course, panelists will discuss the promises and pitfalls of psychedelic healing for trauma. How can psychedelics help heal trauma, and what else is needed to support those seeking healing? What are the risks associated with psychedelic use?

Session Info
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Dr. Diana Quinn

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Dr. Quinn is a licensed naturopathic doctor with a focus on psychoneuroimmunology and integrative mental health. Her clinical work has centered care of marginalized communities, including people of color, the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, and low-income populations for nearly 20 years. She is a graduate of the CIIS Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Research program.

Dr. Quinn is the Assistant Director of Community Care at the Naropa University Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy training program. As the Training Director of Alma Institute, she headed curriculum development for the first non-profit psilocybin facilitator training program in Oregon under Measure 109. She is a member of the American Psychedelic Practitioners Association, where she serves on the Ethics Working Group, and is a former member of the Board of Psychedelic Medicine and Therapies. She serves on the board of Source Research Foundation, where she chairs the Community Grant Program. She serves on multiple advisory boards dedicated to building ethical integrity, equity, accessibility, and cultural humility in the field of psychedelics.

Bio
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Title: The Promises & Pitfalls of Psychedelic Healing for Trauma

Description: Humans and animals have used mind-altering substances for centuries for spiritual and healing purposes. With the war on drugs launching during Nixon's presidency, his administration banned these substances, and users criminalized them. The war on drugs is responsible for the disproportionate incarceration of Black and Latinx people. In the past decade, psychedelics have gained attention in the mainstream for their healing potential. Often, psychedelics are compared to antidepressants and juxtaposed as a better, more improved version of their pharmaceutical counterparts. Yet, is healing that simple? In this course, panelists will discuss the promises and pitfalls of psychedelic healing for trauma. How can psychedelics help heal trauma, and what else is needed to support those seeking healing? What are the risks associated with psychedelic use?

Session Info
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Dr. Dominique Morisano

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Dominique Morisano, PhD, CPsych is a clinical psychologist and Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto and University of Ottawa, living in Toronto, Canada. She is an alumni of the CIIS Certificate in Psychedelic Assisted Therapies and Research program and received additional training in psychedelic therapies from MAPS, Compass, Polaris, Synthesis, Fluence, Beckley Retreats, and the Ketamine Training Center. She served in executive leadership at the psychedelic therapy company Field Trip Health for 2 years and currently runs a trauma/addiction focused private practice in Toronto and NYC and consults for several companies in the psychedelic-therapies space. She is a co-Founder and Chair of the Board of Psychedelics R2R, which was behind the recent hybrid, non-profit, and submissions-based psychedelics research conference “From Research to Reality: Global Summit on Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies and Medicine”.

Bio
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Title: The Promises & Pitfalls of Psychedelic Healing for Trauma

Description: Humans and animals have used mind-altering substances for centuries for spiritual and healing purposes. With the war on drugs launching during Nixon's presidency, his administration banned these substances, and users criminalized them. The war on drugs is responsible for the disproportionate incarceration of Black and Latinx people. In the past decade, psychedelics have gained attention in the mainstream for their healing potential. Often, psychedelics are compared to antidepressants and juxtaposed as a better, more improved version of their pharmaceutical counterparts. Yet, is healing that simple? In this course, panelists will discuss the promises and pitfalls of psychedelic healing for trauma. How can psychedelics help heal trauma, and what else is needed to support those seeking healing? What are the risks associated with psychedelic use?

Session Info

Jeff W. Jones &
Leslie Salmon Jones

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Leslie Salmon Jones and her husband Jeff W. Jones are co-founders of Afro Flow Yoga®. Together they have developed an integrated embodied practice, combining dances from the African Diaspora, yoga, and live healing music. Through their skills and knowledge of African Diaspora music and movements, Leslie and Jeff have connected to their roots and healed the legacy of trauma.

For the last 15 years, they have been passionate about community building and bringing healing and transformation to people of all backgrounds in an inclusive and non judgmental environment. Afro Flow Yoga® offers in-person and virtual classes, workshops, retreats, discussions, and teacher training programs.

To connect with Leslie and Jeff and learn more about their work, please visit www.afroflowyoga.com.

Leslie is an Alvin Ailey trained dancer, yoga practitioner, teacher, and wellness coach. She speaks, coaches, and teaches internationally and in addition, is a co-creator and faculty member for the annual Omega Women’s Leadership Intensive.

Jeff W. Jones is a professional engineer, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, and musical director who has traveled the world with musical greats including Little Richard, Al Green, and Zap Mama, to name just a few. He has also performed for the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Through music, Jeff creates an intuitive flow with mastery, and his inspired use of an eclectic array of tonal instruments ground and center the yoga practice.

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Title: Healing Racial Trauma through Music and Movement

Description: The Afro Flow Yoga session will consist of an introduction to Leslie and Jeff and the work of Afro Flow Yoga; then a broadcast of a 30 minute previously filmed class; followed by a Q&A portion with Leslie and Jeff.

Session Info

Bridget McCarthy

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Bridget McCarthy is a creative multi-hyphenate at the intersection of mental health and the arts. Her primary role is that of mental health coordinator for theatre, TV, and film, working alongside organizations and producers of all sizes to bring trauma aware, resilience focused tools into their most challenging conversations. Proud to call Atlanta home, Bridget is committed to supporting humans all over the world engage with their most creative, most authentic self with humor, compassion, and courage. To connect with Bridget and learn more about her work, please visit associationmhc.com.

 

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Title: Somatic Collaboration: A Toolbox for Supporting Authentic Creative Community

Description: What is the elephant in the room? "Deep Breath" uses our understanding of how bodies react to cues of danger and safety to build experiences of felt safety necessary to connect to our authentic community and navigate our most challenging conversations.

Session Info

Dorian Wallace & DeMarisa Steeley

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Mederi Muzik is a partnership between DeMarisa Steeley, a healer, community organizer, and activist, and Dorian Wallace, a music therapist, composer, and activist. Based in New York City, we met at Rikers Island Correctional Facility, where we became acutely aware of the difficulties of connecting with underserved communities, especially youth, and how the system did not meet their needs. We identified a need to offer culturally relevant programming for the people we served, applying music as a technology to communicate with their deeper unconscious and mend unresolved trauma repressed within the psyche. Our programs treat transgenerational trauma and mental health issues, build coping skills and establish a sense of equilibrium in their daily lives. We offer non-invasive alternative therapeutic approaches to address more severe challenges in the individual and collective psyches and the community, applying evidence-based practices via a sociocultural context. We serve all underrepresented groups, including incarcerated people, targeted neighborhoods, vulnerable communities, and the socially and economically disadvantaged.

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Title: Liberation Music Therapy

Description: Liberation music therapy integrates a liberation psychology perspective through music therapy practice to actively understand the psychology of oppressed people by challenging the oppressive sociopolitical conditions they exist. Through praxis and theory, we strive to address the traumatic wounds in relationships, experiences, and culture inflicted by oppression, integrating the perspectives of those who have become psychologically and socially alienated. A liberation music therapy position emphasizes the interconnection and co-creation of culture, psyche, self, and community, together with the significance of music in all of these dimensions. We must explore the ever-changing multiplicities of perspectives, activities, and voices in various interplay degrees.

Session Info

Schedule

The Social Justice Summit 2023 will take place over 2 days, on Friday the 20th and Saturday the 21st of January 2023, with a 3rd day of networking. 

Day 1
Friday, January 20

  • 8:30 AM - 8:45 AM - Welcome and Introduction
    with Licia Sky & Gwendolyn VanSant
  • 8:45 AM - 9:20 AM - Building the Container
  • 9:20 am - 09:50 am - Accountability Conversation
  • 09:50 AM- 10:05 AM - Morning Break & Care Space
  • 10:05 AM - 10:50 AM - Finding Our Voice in the Conversation with Eugene Ellis
  • 10:50 AM - 11:35 AM - Somatics of Being a Racial Being
    with Dr. Nathalie Edmond
  • 11:35 AM - 12:20 PM - Somatic Collaboration: A Toolbox for Supporting Authentic Creative Community with Bridget McCarthy
  • 12:20 PM - 12:35 PM - Afternoon Break & Care Space
  • 12:35 PM - 1:20 PM - What Somatics Can Offer to Racial Justice, & What Racial Justice Can Offer to Somatics with Prentis Hemphill
  • 1:20 PM - 2:05 PM - Embodied Hope & Grounded Action with Staci K. Haines
  • 2:05 PM - 3:05 PM - Lunch Break & Care Space
  • 3:05PM - 3:50 PM - Psychedelic JEDIs: Ensuring Justice,
    Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion (JEDI) in Psychedelics
    with Dr. NiCole Buchanan
  • 3:50 PM - 4:35 PM - The Promises & Pitfalls of Psychedelic Healing for Trauma with Ifetayo Harvey, Dr. Gillian Scott-Ward, Dr. Diana Quinn, & Dr. Dominique Morisano
  • 4:35 PM - 4:50 PM - Conversation
  • 4:50 PM - 5:00 PM - Day 1 - Closing Remarks
    with Licia Sky & Gwendolyn VanSant

Day 2
Saturday, January 21

  • 8:15 AM - 8:30 AM - Welcome to Day 2 with Licia Sky & Gwendolyn VanSant
  • 8:30 AM - 9:30 AM - In Conversation: Personal Identity and the Embodiment of Racial Trauma, Understanding Journeys with Bessel van der Kolk, Licia Sky, & Gwendolyn VanSant
  • 9:30 AM - 10:00 AM - Liberation Music Therapy
    with Dorian Wallace & DeMarisa Steeley
  • 10:00 AM - 10:15 AM - Morning Break & Care Space
  • 10:15 AM - 11:00 AM - Holding the Weight of Whiteness
    with Erica Sandoval
  • 11:00 AM - 11:45 AM - The Roles Intersectionality & Cultural Humility Play When Working with Diverse Client Populations with Dr. Gary Bailey
  • 11:45 AM - 12:00 PM - Conversation
  • 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM - Lunch Break & Care Space
  • 1:00 PM - 1:45 PM - Your Voice Can Change The Score
    with Marshall Davis Jones
  • 1:45 PM - 2:30 PM - Moral Injuries of War with Dr. Jack Saul
  • 2:30 PM - 3:15 PM - Fawning, Appeasement, & the Somatics of Trauma within the Dynamics of Oppressive Systems with Linda Thai
  • 3:15 PM - 3:30 PM - Afternoon Break & Care Space
  • 3:30 PM - 4:15 PM - Beyond Trauma: Healing, Hope, & Inspiration with Susan Burton
  • 4:15 PM - 4:30 PM - Conversation
  • 4:30 PM - 5:30 PM - Healing Racial Trauma through Music and Movement with Jeff W. Jones & Leslie Salmon Jones
  • 5:30 PM - 5:45 PM - Day 2 Closing Remarks with
    Licia Sky & Gwendolyn VanSant

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