We started off as a small working group who met during an international training on sustainable activism in November 2014. All of us were (and still are) committed to working at the intersection and interdependence of activism, personal growth and systemic change. Slowly but surely, we began to spread generative somatics strategies to activists.
We are part of a transnational networks of trainers around sustainable activism and engaged in grassroots networks in Central & Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. Given the unequal distribution of resources and access to support inside of Europe, we are particularly committed to supporting activists and grassroots organizing in these regions.
It is now 2024 and (as has remained true over the past 10 years of our existence) there are numerous interconnected crises, stripping human and other beings of their dignity, resources and lives, all over the world. Many of these tragedies are playing out in our corner of the globe and our movements are tired. In these circumstances, having strategies and spaces for mourning, feeling the feelings, growing resilience and finding allyship through politicized somatics is no luxury, but a matter of survival.
The dedicated online work that our community did together in the unique years between 2020-2022 kept many of the participants of the 2015 and 2019 courses engaged in somatic practice and studies together.
We ran an online course on healing shame in 2021, and an introductory online course on somatics and anti-racism in 2022, followed by the second part of the anti-racism training in-person, which took place in Poland in January 2023.
Even though our community members are spread across Central & Eastern Europe and the Caucasus, we stay in contact through weekly practice calls. Friendships between individuals and alliances between organizations have developed, and the community has grown and stabilized.
Somatics is about transformation, and true to this, the in our bodies – on the streets small teaching team constellation, which diligently took on all the work for a number of years, is reaching the end of one phase and is in the process of taking on a new, more expansive shape.
1) The teaching team itself has been enhanced by 3 new somatic coaches who have been in the community since 2019 and working on their knowledge and skills intensively for some time now. More members of the community are seeking further education in somatics so that we can offer more and more high quality, experienced, layered support;
2) Two somewhat fluid teams (with some consistent core members) have emerged as people in the practice community have been deeply impacted by their own and others’ somatic transformations and become committed to spreading the teachings. (The former small constellation has welcomed and been happy to share leadership with those who want to contribute to the work!):
- an organizational team who has taken charge of our events since 2021;
- a small finance team since 2023, searching for funding so that we can continue to move towards our goal of bringing politicized somatics to social and climate justice movements in Central & Eastern Europe and the Caucasus… and beyond.
These three bodies are intertwined, and have had several online and offline gatherings to delve into the question of clearly naming our vision(s) and how to get there. As the community expands, we are fine-tuning how we can structure ourselves and work consciously and lovingly with the power differentials in the organization. We dream of and aspire to allow a non-hierarchical, horizontal structure to take root and grow – to whatever degree possible organically- and are learning by doing and by being in conversation with collectives that hold similar visions.
We partner with generative somatics in Oakland, California, USA:
