Rosen for a World in Crisis

An open-hearted discussion & Zoom gathering led by
Meg Butler and Kato Wittich, Rosen Method Bodywork colleagues.

On Sunday, March 12, 2023,  2:00 – 3:30 PM PDT

Some of the questions Meg and Kato explored with the community:

 ~ How do we as Rosen practitioners meet the needs of clients such as people of color or trans people for whom the world is a dangerous place and who are therefore continually subjected to new traumas? 

~ Is safety possible for anyone in this time when even the most privileged live with the trauma of a disintegrating ecology and the constant menace of violence and instability in our political realities? 

~ What can we learn from advocates of social justice who work with trauma and somatic practices and have a long history of adapting somatic work to the needs of communities at risk?  

~ How does Rosen Method become a practice that is fully inclusive, diverse, intersectional and skillful at supporting the fullest possible life for all humans, not just those who are privileged?

 We will open the discussion with a sharing of what matters to each of us around these issues, share about how we each work with them in our actual practices, and where we feel we might want more support and training.  We invite you to join us, and look forward to hearing your voices!

We opened the discussion with a sharing of what matters to each of us around these issues, sharing about how we each work with them in our actual practices, and where we feel we might want more support and training.  We invite you to join us, and look forward to hearing your voices!

 Warmly, Kato and Meg

These words from Kai Cheng Thom give a sense of some of the perspectives of social justice trauma workers to kick things off:

I think the major difference between a social justice and a white/colonial lens on trauma is the assumption that trauma recovery is the reclamation of safety—that safety is a resource that is simply 'out there' for the taking and all we need to do is work hard enough at therapy …

I was once at a training seminar in Toronto led by a famous & beloved somatic psychologist. She spoke brilliantly. I asked her how healing from trauma was possible for people for whom violence & danger are part of everyday life. She said it was not.

…

Colonial somatics & psychotherapies teach that the body must relearn to perceive safety. But the bodies of the oppressed are rightly interpreting danger. Our triggers & explosive rage, our dissociation & perfect submission are in fact skills that have kept us alive.

…

The somatics of social justice cannot be aimed at restoring the body to a state of homeostasis/neutrality. ….. we are not, in the end, preparing the body to ‘return' to the general safety of society (this would be gaslighting). We are preparing the body, essentially for struggle—training for better survival & the ability to experience joy in the midst of great danger.

- Kai Cheng Thom, https://kaichengthom.com

SPEAKER BIOS:

Meg Butler has been helping clients find their own path to wellbeing by exploring the connection between their habitual tension and their inner landscape since beginning her internship in 1998. She is a Rosen Method Certified Teacher and a Rosen Method Movement teacher. Meg also taught massage for six years before turning her focus completely to Rosen Method because Rosen Method allowed her to touch people more deeply. 

Katarina (Kato) Wittich is a Rosen Method Bodywork Practitioner, Yuen Practitioner, Family Constellations facilitator and Conscious Dance facilitator as well as a filmmaker/writer.  Rosen Method is the core of her approach to all her practices, and she continues to work regularly with Rosen clients.  Her Family Constellations work is the focus of episode five of the “Sex, Love and Goop” documentary series, available to watch on Netflix.