Upcoming 90-Minute Workshops for Clergy
& Lay Leaders
w/Dr. Kimberly George
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Finding Words Through The Silence:
A Contemplative Writing Workshop for Clergy and Religious Leaders
with Dr. George via Zoom
Feb. 25 from 1:00-2:30 pm EST (information & registration are available below)
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Clergy Leading Change:
A Workshop to Resource Religious Leaders in a Time of Violence
with Dr. George and Dr. Hilary Scarsella
April 7, 8, 9 ( information is forthcoming)
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Finding Words Through the Silence: A Contemplative Writing Workshop for Clergy and Religious Leaders—2/25/26
Registration is OPEN.
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Mainline churches and clergy were critically important leaders amidst the recent assault on the Twin Cities, showing faith practices of beloved community that forged a historic movement of non-violent resistance. White Christian nationalism powers the violence toward Black, brown, and immigrant communities, but we are also building an ecumenical and interfaith movement to challenge the abuse. At the same time, what has not been engaged by mainline churches is the centrality of patriarchy to white supremacy. The stunning silence of most mainline churches on the Epstein files is just one example of the lack of language and tools for how to engage the links between patriarchy and other systems of violence that converge in white Christian nationalism.
Dr. Kimberly B. George will lead participants through a contemplative writing process to begin to find language—including words for engaging the silence and the silencing force of patriarchy, in a time of Epstein. If your church/diocese/synod has not made a formal statement on Epstein, this workshop will help you begin to generate language and to feel supported.
Please note:
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This workshop is being recorded for future use for clergy trainings.
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The workshop is not primarily a discussion or external process space. Rather, the learning experience is internal and contemplative, guided by Dr. George's methods teaching writing as a tool of spiritual formation and activism.
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If you are a visual processor, and if written words are not your main medium of expression, please bring materials to collage or to sew instead of to write. Tactile and neurodivergent reflection is encouraged since engaging trauma requires knowledge of our own sensory needs.
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You are not required to have your video on; and while there will be a time to share what you wrote or collaged in our workshop, you will never be pressured to share. You also will be given trauma-informed teaching for the vulnerability of finding language around systems of silence.
Date/Time: Wednesday, February 25th, 1:00-2:30 EST
Registration: Please contact Dr. George to register (you will be sent the Zoom link by her). Your payment confirms your spot.
Cost: $100/participant, paid via PayPal. The link to pay is here.
Or Venmo: Kimberly-George-5
.
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5 Themes for Learning How to Change Systems of Harm
(Or, Some Things You Can Expect from My Pedagogy)
As a psychosocial theorist of change, my research is guided by by work in religious history, feminist studies, ethnic studies, and trauma-informed and contemplative pedagogies. To that end, in all my workshops you can expect these five themes:
Re-experiencing somatic reconnection as a form of powerful knowledge, as we navigate systems shaped by inequalities, erasures, and power dynamics. I use contemplative practices, including teaching contemplative writing and/or visual or tactile art-making, as a container for mind-body reconnection and spiritual formation.
Investigating how sensory processing needs (which are often unmet and unnamed) are affecting our nervous systems, attachment patterns, and relationships. I also believe that recognizing the intersections of sensory processing needs, neurodivergence, and disability is essential to creating holistic, nourishing communities of learning.
Reflecting on positionality. For example, I teach how men can learn a mindfulness-based feminism and how unequal distribution of "invisible" domestic, emotional, and reproductive labor affects relationships and communities. I help women unpack how they experience patriarchy and other intersecting systems. I help white folks (or those with proximity to white identity) unpack where their unexamined conditioning is blocking relational growth, accountability, and meaningful participation in challenging racial injustices.
Doing integration work: All of us of all genders, sexuality, race, ability, and class positions can re-find a more integrated sense of voice, suturing the parts of ourself we split off to conform and survive within systems marked by abuse of power. We will explore language to name these systems and their impacts on relationships—systems like histories of patriarchy, white supremacy, and mind-body disconnection, and how these systems affected our family and early childhood experiences of emotional and physical survival.
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Honoring grief work as spiritual work: Through honoring our grief from living inside systems designed to fragment us, we can then use grief to move us toward our creative power and more life-giving experiences of love.​​​​​​​​​​
Is a contemplative writing workshop a form of therapy? No, it is not therapy or medical advice! I am not a licensed therapist, though I have studied in the fields of psychodynamic research, relational psychoanalysis, and trauma theory for 20 years; I have also built, directed, and taught programs teaching social theory to therapists. The western therapeutic models can lack language and rigorous intersectional awareness of how our lives are shaped not only by early attachment and family of origin, but also by the material realities of race, class, gender, sexuality, capitalism, colonialisms, and ability/disability. Furthermore, many therapeutic models and lineages of trauma theory are not intersectional in their approach to identity, meaning they lack awareness of how our experience of race is always gendered, or how our experience of vulnerability, shame, and desire are being impacted by large-scale systems.
While therapy can offer invaluable tools, some people recognize they need more tools for more access to language that brings together the lived experience with systemic-level awareness. They also need models that give greater attention to the dynamic intersections of identity within themselves, and why it can be so hard to access language for the unnamed. It is in these deep gaps in the western mental health model that is where my research, consulting, and teaching can be of help. However, I will also strongly advise you to work with a therapist alongside our work, especially if developmental trauma is present. ​​​
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