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Char (she/we/love/sister/mama) works with nervous system resilience, conflict transformation, and stress/trauma healing with the goal of increasing individual agency and collective liberation.

As a practitioner, facilitator, cook, and neighbor, Char orbits around vision & practice of beloved community.

Currently based between the river and the creek on Mahican land in Upstate New York, Char lives with the mugwort, roses and nettles. She works with individuals and groups around the world with a Somatic approach to conflict and chronic stress as positioned within cultural beliefs, cycles of harm, systems of oppression, generational and epigenetic lines, and spiritual practices.

Char is a white-bodied practitioner living with chronic dis/ability, deeply shaped by a childhood in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. We honor Tajik post-soviet resilience as one of our teachers, along with the STAR model, the SE model, Emergent Strategy, the Mawignack preserve, Nkem Ndefo, Shilpa Jain, Sage Hayes, Meenadchi, Devika Shankar and many others along with every client that’s trusted us with their stories and bodies.

Char is a graduate of Cohort 8 living in upstate New York. We chatted with Char about the incredible work she has done and continues to do with the Toolkit internationally, cross-culturally, and around conflict. 

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Vanessa Micale (she, they, ella) is the founder of Poderosa Voz LLC. “Poderosa voz” means powerful voice in Spanish. As a facilitator, she loves to support tender-hearted people who want to shine their authentic light on this earth. 

Vanessa has two decades of nonprofit and public sector experience from direct service to leadership roles in public health violence prevention, the movement to end gender-based violence, strategic communications and creative writing teaching in juvenile hall. As a bilingual and bicultural mixed Uruguayan American, she is fluent in Spanish. They have created bilingual curriculum, facilitated trauma-informed workshops and participated in public speaking in local, national and international settings. 

Vanessa Micale is a writer, multidisciplinary artist and performer. Vanessa holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Creative Writing and is currently a Randolph College MFA Blackburn fellow. She is a 2023 Latinx in Publishing mentee and a fellow of Anaphora Arts and VONA.

Vanessa is a graduate of Cohort 9 based in Portland, Oregon. We spoke with Vanessa this month about their work and what it was like to develop their own Resilience Toolkit offerings as a Certified Facilitator.

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Salina Gray, PhD, (she/they) has spent 26 years teaching in traditional public, charter and graduate schools. In 2014, she received her doctorate from Stanford University in Curriculum and Instruction in Science Education. She is the coauthor of a published framework called ‘The (W)holistic Science Pedagogy’ as well as various articles on climate education and justice. She currently volunteers for Trauma Informed Los Angeles (TILA) and the Human Rights Cadre for the California Teachers Association (CTA). Salina obtained her 200-hour yoga certification through Breathe for Change, and is a certified Resilience Toolkit Facilitator, through Lumos Transforms. 

Salina is a graduate of Cohort 4, and works in Moreno Valley, CA. We had the pleasure of speaking with Salina this month to learn more about how she is integrating The Resilience Toolkit into the incredible work she does. Read More

Kyla Thorne (she/her) is a body-based Trauma Recovery Coach, certified in The Resilience Toolkit and The Safe & Sound Protocol. She works with individuals who want to get unstuck, experience traction in their life, and peace, quietness & safety in their body.

Many of the individuals she works with have tried talking through their trauma or shifting their mindset & beliefs through a more cognitive approach and are ready to get their biology on board so they can experience a more effortless shift without trying to white-knuckle change.

Kyla is a graduate of Cohort 6, and works in Rogersville, TN, USA. Read on to learn more about the amazing work Kyla is doing and her experiences as a Resilience Toolkit Facilitator. Read More

Alison Novelli (they/them) is an intimacy coordinator, intimacy director, facilitator and consultant. They are passionate about decreasing stress and co-creating alchemically resilient artistic spaces. Alison practices cultural humility and takes an intersectional approach to all of their work. 

As an intimacy coordinator and intimacy director, Alison is dedicated to composing dynamic stories of intimacy for stage and screen. They are committed to realizing a show’s creative vision with an emphasis on authenticity, dignity, and empowerment.  Read More

With a specialization in executive coaching and team development, Sheila has worked extensively with professionals in financial services, international development, communications, nonprofit and healthcare organizations to enhance their results through effective leadership.  Areas of coaching include strategy development, designing strategies to actualize vision, enhancing emotional intelligence, leveraging diverse working environments, enhancing interpersonal communication, developing resilience, work/life balance and mindfulness. Sheila’s coaching/consulting style is described as results oriented, insightful and supportive with an ability to challenge limiting assumptions. Read More

Chantal Donnelly (she/her) is a physical therapist and owner of Body Insight – a wellness company. She has two rehabilitation videos on the market: Strong Knees and Pain Free at Work. After noticing that her patients’ physical therapy progress was often limited by stress, she joined the Resilience Toolkit program to improve her effectiveness as a healing practitioner.

Chantal is a Certified Resilience Toolkit Facilitator (a graduate of Certification Cohort 6)  working in the Los Angeles area. She does private facilitation with individuals as well as group workshops, and specializes in working with people with chronic pain or chronic illness. She has just submitted the first draft of a book she is writing with the working title SETTLED: How to Find Calm in a World That Requires Being Stressed. It is a stress guidebook from a physical therapy perspective. Read More