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In Our Hands: Radical Approaches to Health and Collective Care

In Our Hands: Radical Approaches to Health and Collective Care

In Our Hands was a ten week programme of workshops facilitated by Lisa Fannen, Omikemi and Clay. The sessions explored radical approaches to health and collective care in the context of movement for liberation and social justice.

Each week we looked at particular aspects of health, share ideas and conversation. And each week we explored some simple embodied practices (e.g. massage, stretching, breathing etc.) and learned about herbal medicine together, getting to know some plants by doing group herb tastings (with herbs and practices to take away from each session).

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IN OUR HANDS PROGRAMME OUTLINE:

Week One

In this session we will look at the basics of using plant medicine, contraindications, preparations, dosage, kitchen pharmacy for common ailments and how to do a group herb study. (Facilitated by Lisa Fannen).

Week Two

We’ll be looking at personal constitutions and plant energetics, and exploring the use of herbs to support psycho-emotional health, considering ‘nervines’; herbs that support rest, relaxation, that soothe, ground, vitalise and nourish. There’ll be brief reference to entheogens as medicine. As in all the sessions questions and conversation will be welcome and clear introductions/explanations will be given to ideas and language that might be less familiar. (Facilitated by Lisa Fannen).

Week Three

In this session we’ll be exploring psycho-emotional health, the language of what gets called ‘mental health’ and deconstructing psych/iatry. (Facilitated by Lisa Fannen).

Week Four

We’ll be looking at decolonising ‘global mental health’. We’ll look at the concepts of decoloniality, of things being ‘culture bound’, and at hermeneutical injustice as ways to examine dominator knowledge systems, and the institution of psych/iatry. As in all the sessions questions and conversation will be welcome and clear introductions/explanations will be given to ideas and language that might be less familiar. (Facilitated by Lisa Fannen)

Week Five

We’ll be looking at reframing trauma, how we might understand trauma in the bodymindsoul, taking a look at the physiology of trauma, forms of trauma, and at ways to mitigate and heal trauma. (Facilitated by Lisa Fannen).

Week Six

We’ll look more at psycho-emotional health – exploring experiences as opposed to diagnoses. And exploring collective care and collective healing. (Facilitated by Lisa Fannen).

Week Seven

This session (open to all genders) will look at feminist health in relation to people assigned female at birth; we’ll be looking at the experience and politics of the menstrual cycle, cyclicity generally as a lived experience, exploring so-called ‘PMS’ (premenstrual syndrome), and holistic approaches to what gets called gynecological health. We’ll also take a brief look at what gets called the menopause. (Facilitated by Lisa Fannen).

Week Eight

In this session (open to transgender, intersex, non-binary and two spirit people) we’ll be sharing experiences and tools to gently understand the nebulous thing that gets called gender dysphoria. Moving away from the medical diagnosis that gatekeeps towards an understanding in the body, the session would like to question if it’s possible to untangle the social phenomena and individual felt sense to ideally move towards moments of healing and a greater sense of freedom. In the session we will be working with somatic practices, group conversation and connecting to trans ancestors and lineages. (Facilitated by Clay AD)

Week Nine

The workshop is open to Black and Global Majority people, such as those who are Asian, Dual Heritage, Indigenous to the global South or racialised as ‘ethnic minorities’

This workshop will engage gentle body-based activities and discussion to explore anger and its transformative power
It’s an emotion many of us find difficult to experience and express. It’s often perceived as counterproductive, negative or destructive

As Black or global majority person communicating anger can feel particularly tricky and unsafe in white dominant spaces. This can often lead us to suppress or dismiss our experience
Yet anger, like other emotions, offers vital information about what is important to us and can be a potent force for the changes we want to create
The session aims to leave participants with ways of working with anger and a clear sense of its uses
(Facilitated by Omikemi)

Week Ten

This closing session will be shaped by all the facilitators in a way that speaks to the content and experience of the whole 2022 In Our Hands programme. It will consolidate the programme and be a space for reflection and feedback. We can discuss how we might share widely what we have explored and learned in our communities of living, working and organising. It will be where we can also consider which other/future sessions might be useful. (Co-facilitated by Lisa Fannen, Omikemi and Clay AD).

Lisa Fannen
http://inthebody.uk/more-info

Omikemi
https://www.the-heartwood.co.uk/about-me

Clay
https://sentientsomatics.space/about/

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