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Meet Vanessa Micale. "I seek to work with tender-hearted people."

Facilitator Feature: Meet Vanessa Micale

By Blog, Certified facilitator, Feature

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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Meet Salina Gray. The Resilience Toolkit saved my life - literally - and has allowed me to thrive.

Facilitator Feature: Meet Salina Gray

By Blog, Certified facilitator, Feature

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

Facilitator Feature: Kyla Thorne

By Blog, Certified facilitator, Feature

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

Facilitator Feature: Juliet Hwang

By Blog, Certified facilitator, Feature

We recently had the pleasure of hosting a Facilitator Live Chat with Resilience Toolkit Facilitator Juliet Hwang (she/her; Cohort 7) about her experiences of implementing The Toolkit with first-year medical students at Kaiser Permanente. Read below for a brief excerpt from Juliet’s live chat with Nkem. This exclusive content is available only to certified facilitators. Don’t miss the opportunity to visit Mighty Networks and catch the recording of our entire chat!

My name is Juliet Hyun Jung Hwang. I’m Korean-American, a cis woman, and identify as queer. I live here on the land of the Tongva people, otherwise known as Long Beach, CA. I was born in Korea, and my parents left Korea at that time it was under military rule. So we immigrated here in the 70s. I grew up in New York in a mostly Korean community. I witnessed a lot and grew up in a home with a lot of trauma – internal, systemic, intergenerational. My parents are both physicians, and so I think that’s how they were resilient – was creating community and figuring out ways to heal. And so I went to medical school with that model in mind – clearly, things had been passed down to me. Read More

Facilitator Feature: Alison Novelli

By Blog, Certified facilitator, Feature

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

Facilitator Feature: Camille Barton

By Blog, Certified facilitator, Feature

Camille Sapara Barton (they/them) is a Social Imagineer who operates as a catalyst for social change, dedicated to creating networks of care and liveable futures. They work as an artist, facilitator, consultant and curator across the realms of embodied social justice, grief, pleasure and drug policy. 

Rooted in Black feminism, ecology and harm reduction, Camille uses creativity, alongside embodied practices, to create culture change in fields ranging from psychedelic assisted therapy to arts education. Read More

Facilitator Feature: Sheila Diggs

By Blog, Certified facilitator, Feature

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

Facilitator Feature: Chantal Donnelly

By Blog, Certified facilitator, Feature

Headshot of Chantal smiling. She is wearing red and white.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