Teachers & Inspiration
LIFELONG LEARNER
My constant curiosity keeps me learning and finding spaces of discovery to encounter, explore, question, unlearn, play, connect, risk, make conscious, reflect and adapt as our world constantly evolves.
I’ve been fortunate to encounter incredible teachers with each turn of my career. Below is my education in social & organizational transformation, and in embodiment and somatics, with links to some writers, thinkers and development collectives I love. Personal mentors have included Namgis Elder Ruth Alfred, Kwakwakwala Chief and global artist Walacx Kayam Beau Dick, theologian Dr. Donald Greystone, and Open Space Technology co-creator Anne Stadler.
Current Studies include continued embodiment learning with the School for BodyMind Centering, and with the Hellinger Institute on Facilitating Family Systems Constellations.
MASTERS OF ARTS,
Systems and Jungian Psychology in Leadership and Human Systems Change
Saybrook University, California
Saybrook University, California is known for visionary graduate programs branching from the Esalen Institute. My MA in Systems and Jungian Psychology for Leadership and Human Systems Change included Somatic Experiencing, full ICF Executive Coaching, Family Systems Constellations and Process Work.
My action-research thesis, “Building the Bridge in Indigenous-Ally Collaboration Practices” focused on ways of being for Allies in cross-cultural collaboration based in Indigenous ways of knowing and relationship-based development, connecting Indigenous peacebuilding protocols with reconciliation partnerships, and establishing the Restoring Collective, which continues today.
“Christine builds relationship containers of transformation, innovation, deep truth and witnessing.
She helps groups reveal what’s emerging in their underlying systems, and all the joy of them.”
Dr. Mark Jones, Sunyata Leadership Institute, Goddard College
SOMATICS & Embodied Intelligence
Somatic Experiencing & Embodied Intelligence I have trained for 20 years in Embodiment and Somatics, and they are essential tools to my liberatory practices.
The School for Body Mind Centering: World-leading school founded by Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, creating practices and process in Somatic Experiencing, embodied anatomy, healing trauma and transformative consciousness. Since 2006.
Indigenous Focusing Oriented Therapy and Indigenous Tools for Living brings Indigenous wisdom to Somatic Experiencing, healing trauma that’s held in the body through personal and collective ritual.
Mariah Moser, www.returningtograce: Mariah’s ground-breaking curriculum in Relational Somatics, Trauma and Psychotherapy is award-winning and internationally recognised, integrating the latest brain & physiology of trauma research with embodied practices for collective release and healing.
Dance Troupe Practice Movement Research & Improvisation Group embodiment & movement practices for group dynamics, collective meaning making and community engagement in public spaces, with artists Luciana Freire D’Anunciacao and Zoe Kreye.
Yoga Teaching Certification, Yandara Yoga Institute; Ongoing meditation and embodiment courses for social change with Mary Praffard Yoga Mendocino; Yoqi Qi Gong; Improvisation and Collective with Stephen Hill; Embodied collective agencyk workshops with Judith Marcuse, Brian Holden, and Ruby Rowat.
COACHING AND FACILITATION
George Lakey’s Training for Change Institute, Facilitation in Social Transformation, invitational trainings.
Conflict Resolution & Mediation Program, the Justice Institute of BC
Community Economic Development Certificate, Simon Fraser University
NonProfit Management Certificate, Simon Fraser University.
BOARDS AND VOLUNTEER
The Restoring Collective, Co-Founder and Co-Director since 2013
Uplifting Indigenous Families Association, Board member
Pandora Park Community Garden, Board member
Vancouver Indigenous Fashion Week, All My Relations Entertainment, Board member
Coastal Jazz Society & Vancouver International Jazz Festival, MC
BOARDS AND VOLUNTEER
Coastal Jazz Society & Vancouver International Jazz Festival, MC
Sunyata Leadership Institute, member and trainer
Dance Troupe Practice, public art engagement projects
Potluck Farm to Table Food Coop, Founding Board member
Status of Women Council Yukon, Board member
Thinkers, Practice Innovators, and Early Certifications
Jeff Vander Clute – visionary coach on intuitive leadership & consciousness, internationally recognised and a beloved collaborator.
Lee Maracle – Oratories: Memory Speaks guides non-Indigenous people into cultural practices of self-determination as nested and accountable to the fully sentient world. My daily companion.
adrienne maree brown – Pleasure Activism and Emergent Strategy, guides for liberatory practices in today’s social justice and collective transformation.
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson – As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through Radical Resistance – essential reading. anything she writes or sings.
Robin Wall Kimmerer – Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. the bliss and science of world interconnectedness.
David Abram – Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology, reconnecting our sensory consciousness with the reciprocal, communicating world.
Marion Woodman – a forerunner of guiding innovators into embodied collective consciousness.
bell hooks – clear words on racism, feminism, activism and engagement.
Complementary Educational Arenas and Certifications
The Eastside Institute NY, Art and Community Development: global art and theatre program as collective practices for belonging, evolutionary relationship, and improvisation, building social dynamics that transform cultures of violence, 2007-08.
Community Economic Development certificate at Simon Fraser University, 2001-03.
Justice Institute of BC Conflict Resolution & Mediation Program, 1996-98.
Bachelor of Arts, Anthropology and Cross-Cultural Communication, Rhetoric and Creative Writing, University of British Columbia, 1990