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Call & Response: A conversation on Race, Identity and the Act of Will

When
Sunday, September 20, 2020
Location
Zoom

with Celia Hilson & Didi Firman

(socializing at 12:30pm, program starts at 1pm)

In this conversation and personal exploration, Celia and Didi will guide us through some of the deep inner work that we all need to do. We will look at social identities as a form of subpersonality work rarely addressed in psychosynthesis; the experience of shame and guilt that white people are likely to be carrying, consciously or unconsciously; the challenge of knowing (and possibly saying) what we are thinking/feeling so that we can identify and disidentify from our own limited social identities, our privilege and our fear. The goal is to live, as an act of will, our deepest truths, beyond not only personal limiting stories, but social constructs that we have internalized from our births, The Act of Will that we will aim towards is the one in which we each take responsibility for our own work (inner) and our own actions (outer). This will, inevitably, require change. Welcome to the Uprising!

RSVP here to receive Zoom link

Pre-Reading/Listening options:

Celia in a podcast on Race and What We Don’t Say

Stages of Racial Identity Development

Social Identity development and Integral Theory

Suggested Donation $20: If you are able to, please make a donation directly to our presenters by clicking here.

About our Presenters…

Celia O. Hilson, M.Ed., M.A., MFT

Celia O. Hilson holds a Master’s Degree in Individual, Couple & Family Therapy. She is currently a Relational Therapist at Williams College Integrative Wellbeing Services (IWS) where she largely works with First Generation International and Students of Color. Her professional experiences include 25 years as a teacher, group facilitator, social justice educator, and multicultural coach. Her client base includes diverse populations largely from diverse communities. She has advanced training in Social Justice Education, Authentic Movement, Somatic Mindfulness, and Intergroup Dialogue Process. Celia is fully trained in psychosynthesis through the Synthesis Center and her work reflects the best of psychosynthesis theory and practice. Celia has a special interest in cross cultural identities and is deeply committed to bringing awareness to and deconstructing racial oppression. It is her mission to help foster & facilitate important dialogues regarding privilege and systemic divides. Her vision is to promote healing through a learned process of self-awareness and collective responsibility for positive change.

Didi Firman, Ed.D, LMHC, BCC is the founder and the director of the Synthesis Center in Amherst, MA. She is also one of the original founders of AAP. Her work now is largely through the Center’s sister organization, Synthesis Center San Francisco, with her partner Susan Jewkes Allen, where ongoing international coach training is offered with Didi as director and lead trainer. In addition, SCSF offers a powerful personal growth process based on the Act of Will (Psychosynthesis for Life), short workshops on “What Matters”, podcasts, you tube meditations in many languages and a group coaching practice which includes affordable coaching for all. Didi and Celia and have been friends for about 15 years, though neither of us can remember exactly! It is my deep pleasure to be working with Celia as we invite psychosynthesis to step up into a next level of understanding and development towards a fair and just society.

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