Seattle School of Body-Psychotherapy

We are a group of alumni from Seattle School of Body Psychotherapy (SSBP) raising funds to support the newly founded Core Energetics Evolution, an effort to dismantle systemic racism within Core Energetics.

We have experienced the transformational power of this work, and we believe in it! Please read this, share with possible donors and make a donation yourself if you are able. Every cent will make a difference.
http://https://www.gofundme.com/f/core-energetics-evolution

Why we support this program:

Seattle School of Body-Psychotherapy has initiated this transition with Holistic Resistance, a Black-led racial justice facilitation organization. Their joint approach is to engage in intensive evolution by centering future BIPOC trauma-healing practitioners and leaders.

The partnership between Seattle School of Body-Psychotherapy and Holistic Resistance marks a turning point in Core Energetics (CE). The CE framework maintains that adults can access safety, belonging, and connection through processing early developmental trauma. This may have seemed true, in an individualist context, for the white people who founded CE. But this framework ignored social and cultural contexts of ongoing oppression, and regrettably, it erases and pathologizes the lived experience of many students. It also diminishes more collectivist cultures.

Seattle School of Body-Psychotherapy's mission is to become inclusive, helping people to heal from oppressive trauma and to work towards collective evolution. In that spirit, welcoming and centering practitioners of color rather than including them as a minority in white spaces, is a way to move towards integrity.

Through these changes, we hope to see transformation in other Core Energetics Institutes worldwide and influence other training organizations in the healing arts, moving toward a more equitable and respectful system equipped to meet the needs of all people.

We welcome and applaud this transition, and we hope you will too!

So, what exactly are we trying to change?

Mental health services in the colonized world are white spaces that sometimes reach people of the global majority but often do not support different cultures and perspectives.

The goal is to certify Core Energetics practitioners that represent and will work with the multi-faceted cultures of our communities.

For many programs similar to SSBP, social justice means creating diversity statements and goals and providing scholarships for BIPOC people, but they retain an environment where students are expected to adapt to the dominant culture. Core Energetics Evolution is a radical change in every level of the program.

Why we need help:

The 8th cohort of SSBP, also referred to as Core Energetic Evolution, is the first and only all-BIPOC Core Energetics cohort. In order to be able to support them and create a space that is safe and attuned, activist Aaron Johnson has agreed to be present for all classes.

SSBP is also seeking to engage mental health professionals of color to co-teach, particularly for the classes that deal with domestic violence, suicidiality, law enforcement, etc.

SSBP is investing more than $25,000 in pro bono time and services in order to undertake this project meaningfully, but it doesn't have sufficient reserves to fully fund this project on its own.

All donations will be directly allocated to practitioners and consultants of color, including Aaron Johnson of Holistic Resistance, his Core Energetics practitioner, and other co-teachers.

Thank you for your time, please donate to this campaign and help get the word out by sharing this newsletter.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/core-energetics-evolution