It's Not Just Me

Ever since the Women's Movement of the 60s and 70s, we have known that "the personal is the political" – that individual suffering and challenges often have their source in the social systems within which we live.

How can we mobilize this insight in support of our own and others' healing?

This course is designed to shed light on how the social context into which we are born affects our experience, and what we can do about it at the individual level within the paradigm of nonviolence. 

Outline

• Session 1: Overcoming Modern Patriarchal Socialization 
  1. Obedience as a core value of all patriarchal societies
  2. Shaming as a core socializing strategy
  3. Tips for offering immediate freedom and relief by bringing attention to the systemic context and releasing self-blame
  4. The either/or of freedom and belonging
  5. Practices for moving towards integration and inner freedom

• Session 2: Reclaiming Interdependence
  1. Why we need others: transcending self-sufficiency as a core element of modern capitalism
  2. The dual role of authentic love and honest feedback in the process of healing
  3. Practices for transcending the paradigm of separation 

• Session 3: Social Location and Healing
  1. Why social location matters in shaping experience: shining a light on narratives of deserving
  2. Power differences between practitioner and client
  3. Where individual responsibility begins and ends: releasing blame of self and other
  4. Moving beyond othering: empathic imagination as a tool for self-liberation
  5. Practices for embracing liberation for all