applied
trauma-informed
online course 2024
online course 2024
8-Session Expressive Arts Therapy Program
Roots and Wings: Remembering, Reclaiming, Reimagining
For Palestinians in the Diaspora
An expressive Arts Journey of Belonging, Memory, and Hope
Roots and Wings: Remembering, Reclaiming, Reimagining is an 8-session online Expressive Arts Therapy program created for Palestinians in the diaspora. Grounded in Palestinian cultural heritage, this course offers a gentle, creative space to explore identity, memory, embodiment, and hope through art, movement, music, storytelling, and community connection.
Across eight sessions, participants are invited to reconnect with their roots while cultivating inner “wings” — resilience, voice, and imagination — that support life in exile. Drawing on poetry, traditional music, symbols, and shared rituals, the program centers safety, belonging, and collective strength. Rather than reliving trauma, it focuses on resourcing, witnessing, and empowerment, honoring both personal journeys and the collective story.
This is a space to remember where we come from, reclaim what lives within us, and reimagine futures shaped by sumud (steadfastness), creativity, and care – carrying Palestine with us, wherever we are. 🌿
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Session 1 – Arriving Together: “The Circle of Belonging”
Sun, Sep 28, 2025 - 19:00-21:00 CEST
Creating Safety and Belonging
Establish group trust and a shared sense of cultural and emotional safety, honoring participants’ roots and identities.
Cultural Grounding and Arrival
Use Palestinian music, poetry, blessings, and personal introductions to ground participants in the present while connecting to heritage and place.
Creative Expression of Inner Home
Engage body–breath grounding and visual art to explore and reflect on personal symbols of safety, rootedness, and home in diaspora.
Session 2 – “Tracing Our Roots”
Tue, Sep 9, 2025 - 18:00-20:00 CEST
Exploring Roots and Ancestry
Deepen connection to lineage, land, and ancestral wisdom through reflection on family and cultural heritage.
Sharing Cultural and Family Stories
Engage Palestinian folk songs, sayings, and proverbs to strengthen ties to intergenerational memory and belonging.
Creative Mapping of Identity
Create a “Tree of Roots” artwork using natural and cultural imagery to reflect on the values and roots that sustain participants wherever they are.
Session 3 — Echoes of Memory
Tue, Sep 23, 2025 - 18:00-20:00 CEST
Honoring Intergenerational Memory
Explore inherited memories of loss, resilience, and continuity within Palestinian family and collective history.
Cultural Storytelling and Symbolism
Use lullabies, folk music, and cultural symbols (key, sabr, khamsa) to evoke shared memory and meaning.
Transforming Memory Through Art
Express memory fragments through writing, image, and gentle movement, weaving individual stories into a collective poem.
Session 4 — Body as Land, Land as Body
Sun, Sep 28, 2025 - 19:00-21:00 CEST
Reconnecting Body and Land
Experience the body as an extension of the land, restoring a sense of belonging and presence.
Embodied Cultural Imagery
Engage guided visualization, music, and sensory memory of Palestine’s landscapes to support embodiment.
Creative Embodiment and Reflection
Use movement and visual art to map the body as landscape, reflecting on where “home” lives in the body.
Session 5 — Voices of the Heart
Tue, Sep 9, 2025 - 18:00-20:00 CEST
Reclaiming Voice and Expression
Create space for emotional release and expression of silenced or held feelings.
Poetry, Rhythm, and Cultural Voice
Draw on Palestinian poetry, rhythm, and movement to awaken collective strength and resonance.
Sound and Written Expression
Explore sound, song, and writing to transform grief and longing into creative expression.
Session 6 — Threads of Connection
Tue, Sep 23, 2025 - 18:00-20:00 CEST
Strengthening Community and Solidarity
Deepen communal bonds and recognize shared resilience and interdependence.
Embroidery as Living Story
Use tatreez-inspired patterns to honor ancestral knowledge, particularly women’s traditions of resistance and care.
Collective Art and Reflection
Co-create a shared artwork and reflect on how collective patterns support healing and belonging.
Session 7 — Imagining the Future: Seeds of Return
Sun, Sep 28, 2025 - 19:00-21:00 CEST
Cultivating Hope and Imagination
Envision personal and collective futures rooted in healing, dignity, and freedom.
Sumud and Creative Agency
Reflect on steadfastness while fostering creativity and agency in the face of exile.
Art as Vision and Witnessing
Create and share artworks that embody seeds of hope, with the group offering presence and witnessing.
Session 8 — Harvest and Homecoming
Tue, Sep 9, 2025 - 18:00-20:00 CEST
Integrating the Journey
Reflect on personal and collective growth across the program.
Ritual Closure and Gratitude
Use music, shared symbols, and ritual to mark completion and continuity.
Carrying Forward
Co-create a collective piece and close with affirmations, grounding, and blessing for what participants carry onward.
2 months
Course Duration
12 hours
Certification
Live & Recorded
Online Course
2 hours
Weekly Time Investment
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Amanda Al Arja
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The training unfolds in three phases, each building on the last. Phase I has been completed, serving as the foundational prerequisite for continuing. The self-study version of Phase II of the Global Social Witnessing Facilitator Training is now open for registration.
Scholarships
We are offering 75%, 50% and 25% scholarships for the Global Social Witnessing Facilitator Training 2025 to participants from crisis areas, members of the Global Majority and indigenous leaders.
Scholarships
We are offering 75%, 50% and 25% scholarships for the Global Social Witnessing Facilitator Training 2025 to participants from crisis areas, people of colour from the ‘Global South’ and indigenous leaders.