At Thousand Waves, all our programs are rooted in values I embraced in my youth and young adulthood from the feminist, LGBTQ and social justice movements of that time. They seem as relevant and important today as they were 50 years ago. Our Center strives to be trauma informed and to promote active allyship. Much effort goes into articulating our values and fostering conversations within the community about them. This articulation of values and fostering conversation is an ongoing process as new people come into the dojo, new situations arise, and cultural changes occur.

In this class we will investigate our individual practice-cultures to see how they are, and sometimes are not, congruent with our core values. Points of incongruity may exist because we inherited methodology from our teachers and never really examined it through this lens. Or maybe we just need help on HOW to drive the culture change that we are seeking to create. Or maybe we have done this work but with the growth of our programs/school or other challenges, we haven’t had the time to do so recently.
Martial artists who take this class will share and discuss topics like hierarchy, rank, partnerships, uniforms, changing rooms, or sparring culture to check their alignment or misalignment with core values.

ESD practitioners will talk about what being trauma-informed within their sphere of work really means, looking at each pillar – safety, trustworthiness, peer support, collaboration, voice and choice – to identify concrete actions they do or could take in support of each one.

Facilitated small-group discussion will be our primary modality. I hope you will join our conversation.

Bring: n/a

Wear:  comfortable clothes