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Personal Transformation

Global Grassroots does not believe in the concept of "empowerment" - as something we do to another - because we see people as already innately powerful. Instead we focus on facilitating a process of reconnecting with, reclaiming and manifesting power from within. By supporting change agents in mapping out their gifts, assets and capabilities that can be leveraged for social change, we support the deepening of agency and autonomy, and the identification of ways to make one's unique contribution to the common good.

We also employ practices in mindfulness, meditation, breathwork, movement, ethical leadership, self-expression and personal growth work. Our objective in this phase of training is to help these future change leaders expand their sense of self-awareness, develop tools for transforming oppression and suffering, cultivate compassion and develop the capacity to initiate social change responsibly. We invite women to contemplate the roots of the oppression they have experienced so they understand their role in transforming suffering among their immediate neighbors and larger society. This mindfulness practice helps women develop the capacity to find clarity grounded in their unique sense of purpose.

We believe it is essential for future social change leaders to invest as much in inner transformation as they do in outer solutions, so that they may avoid the pitfalls of burn-out, abuse of power, reactivity, or pursuits that detract from the potential for positive social change.

Mind-Body Trauma Healing

Incorporated within our Academy for Conscious Change, Global Grassroots has been utilizing a unique breath-based, mind-body approach for trauma healing among women and children earthquake survivors in Haiti and with genocide and violence survivors in Rwanda. The program, called Breath~Body~Mind (BBM), involves a form of yogic breathwork called Coherent Breathing (coined by Stephen Elliot), studied and refined by Dr. Richard Brown, Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University, and Dr. Patricia Gerbarg, Professor of Psychiatry at New York Medical College, and integrates Qigong movements (taught by Master Robert Peng) and guided meditation to help restore balance to the nervous system. By combining modern scientific knowledge with holistic healing methods from many cultures, BBM rapidly relieves stress, anxiety, sleep problems, and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress. These techniques have been used with Tsunami survivors, Katrina survivors, 9/11 first responders, combat vets and rape victims in Sudan.

Gretchen Wallace leads Haiti earthquake survivors in mind-body trauma healing practices at a Petion-Ville tent camp. Photo credit: Bradley Rae

Because the experience of terror during a traumatic event is closely linked to one's sense of helplessness, we can argue that additional efforts to support empowerment, connection and self-sufficiency can augment the treatment of trauma from extreme fear, long-term abuse, torture and violence that causes psychological trauma. For example, in her book Trauma and Recovery, Judith Herman states about the healing process of rape victims, "...we do know that women who recover most successfully are those who discover some meaning in their experience that transcends the limits of personal tragedy. Most commonly, women find this meaning by joining with others in social action." Further, we propose that endeavors that not only give a voice to the disempowered but allow for the survivor to identify her value to community and, even further, realize her capacity to change the aspects of community that failed her, provides a deeply powerful path for both individual and community healing.

Global Grassroots' Academy for Conscious Change explicitly incorporates an avenue for personal and social repair. First, Global Grassroots program introduces and provides training in a range of mind-body techniques that have had a scientifically demonstrated impact in addressing holistically the broad range of symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Mind-body techniques, such as meditation, Qigong, yoga, mindfulness and breathwork are utilized for several reasons. They allow for a direct physiological benefit that can be felt immediately when practiced by the survivor. When utilized overtime, they have the ability to support autonomic nervous system self-regulation, which is one of the core physiological functions that is disrupted through trauma. Mind-body techniques are also easy to learn and teach to laypeople across religious, cultural and language barriers, do not require a long-term therapeutic relationship as does conventional talk-based psychotherapy, are accessible to communities with little cost, can be made available immediately post disaster where the existing mental health infrastructure has been destroyed, and can be continued to be practiced individually and on a grassroots level in families and in other community groups.

Second, Global Grassroots provides opportunities for women to form teams, which can also serve as support groups of survivors with similar experiences who have not previously had the opportunity to connect and discuss their circumstances. Since the context in which participants are gathering is on the basis of creating their own non-profit, teams can avoid the stigma associated with survivor support groups that stand alone in that purpose.

Third, Global Grassroots incorporates in its issue diagnosis work and creative problem solving skills training a process of identifying one's power that comes from within and the assets and gifts that one has that can be leveraged to create social change. This supports a reclaiming of one's sense of agency for self-care and self-improvement and sense of value to others.

Finally, Global Grassroots provides a pathway for understanding suffering and designing a civil society organization that will advance one's own solution from a place of deeper consciousness. With funding and high-engagement support, participants launch their own non-profit organizations and engage in a direct experience of creating social change. This process provides a self-led opportunity to combat the failures of society, advocate change within and by existing institutions and create new programs to serve others in need and advance transformation. We believe this multi-pronged approach which integrates personal and social transformation offers an optimal and holistic approach to trauma healing and post-conflict or post-disaster reconstruction.

See tools for the Consciousness Practitioner for sample workshops and personal transformation practices.

Read about our Social Transformation program