applied
trauma-informed
online course 2024
online course 2024
Global Social Witnessing Facilitator Training
Phase 3
From Learning to Living the Practice
Holding Space for a World in Transition
Dec 2025 - July 2026
Registration is now closed!
This phase of our shared learning journey offers a structured yet flexible container for embodied integration of all we have learned during the Global Social Witnessing Training and an application of this learning to the facilitation of Practice Sessions. It is an invitation to bring learning into lived experience.
Over six months, you will deepen your capacity to host and hold Global Social Witnessing (GSW) spaces in both peer-based and wider settings, supported by mentoring, community feedback, and real-world application.
The phase begins with a live opening call for all participants, offering applied teaching, “rules for the road,” interactive Q&A, and skill-building in small groups. This collective initiation grounds participants in shared intention and establishes the foundations for safe, generative, and self-organizing practice.
OPEN to all who have participated in GSW Phase 2
The training unfolds in three phases, each building upon the last. Phase III marks the final stage of the Global Social Witnessing Facilitator Training and is only open to participants who have completed Phases I and II.
This 6-module training is available by application only.
A seven-month, practice-focused phase led by expert facilitators …. this final stage supports participants in integrating their learning, hosting Global Social Witnessing spaces in real-world contexts, and stepping fully into the role of a facilitator grounded in presence, coherence, and integrity.
20% reduction: Early Bird price available for applications received by August 3 (with registrations completed by August 10).
Part 1: Facilitating Within Peer Learning Groups
Jan 2025 - Mar 2026
Participants will form peer groups of 8-12 members, meeting 2 times per month. Each group co-creates agreements that ensure enough safety for honest feedback and enough edge for growth.
Over these first three months, every participant will:
- Co-facilitate at least one GSW session within their peer group.
- Participate as a witness in several sessions held by others from their peer group to strengthen attunement, presence, and field sensitivity.
- Offer and receive feedback using shared templates for self, peer and mentor reflection.
Groups are encouraged to self-organize additional practice sessions as desired—some may prefer smaller circles or spontaneous sessions, depending on time and interest.
Part 2: Hosting GSW in the Wider World
Apr – Jun 2026
In the second half of the practice phase, participants are invited, not required, to bring their facilitation, with the help of their peer groups, into real-world contexts, experimenting with GSW sessions among friends, colleagues, or community members. Practice sessions within larger public settings require accompaniment by a mentor.
The Pocket Project team supports this step with:
- Mentoring and supervision during practice sessions (including +30 minutes for debrief and feedback).
- Guidelines and templates for peer, mentor, and public feedback.
- Some visibility and outreach through the Pocket Project newsletter, website, and community network, however, marketing will mainly be in the hands of the facilitators themselves.
This stage bridges inner transformation and outer action, nurturing the emergence of a wider GSW field.
Ongoing Support and Mentoring
Throughout the phase, participants join monthly mentoring calls with the facilitation team (Robert Buxbaum, Manda Johnson, Karen Simms, Wanjîkū J. Kîarîe, Kosha Joubert, and others). These sessions offer:
- Guidance on the “rules for the road” and group dynamics.
- Space for emergent questions, sharing challenges, and harvesting insights.
- Mentor feedback on facilitation subtleties and field development.
Across the network, we expect 20-30 peer groups to operate, gradually evolving into an estimated 50-100 “Witnessing Hubs” expected to open publicly from September 2026 onwards.
Mentoring dates
- Dec 1 20:00-21:30 CET
- Jan 12 17:30 – 19:00 CET
- Feb 9 17:30 – 19:00 CET
- Mar 9 17:30 – 19:00 CET
- April 6 18:30 – 20:00 CET
- May 18 18:30 – 20:00 CET
- Jun 8 18:30 – 20:00 CET
- July 13 18:30 – 20:00 CET
Vision Beyond Phase III
Phase III is a bridge between personal transformation and social engagement. Through structured practice, mutual feedback, and sustained mentoring, participants step into their role as Global Social Witnessing facilitators—rooted in presence, guided by integrity, and ready to serve as anchors of coherence in a world in transition.
By the close of this phase, participants will have contributed to laying the foundation for a living, global network of Witnessing Hubs—spaces where embodied awareness becomes a shared cultural practice.
7 months
Course Duration
50 hours
Certification
Live & Recorded
Online Sessions
2 hours
Weekly Time Investment
Global Social Witnessing (GSW) is the human capacity to mindfully attend to global and societal events with embodied awareness. It asks us to stay present in the face of suffering, to host the world within our own nervous systems, and to move from reaction toward meaningful participation.
As a social intervention technology, GSW recognizes that true healing and transformation emerge when we bring care and consciousness to what has been fragmented—inside ourselves and in the collective. At the Pocket Project, we understand that systemic and historical trauma inhibit human development and block pathways to peace. GSW is our invitation to become aware citizens, attuned facilitators, and vessels of collective coherence.
Basic Principles of Global Social Witnessing
Self-Study Version
A 6-module training featuring esteemed teachers such as Bayo Akomolafe, Deb Dana, William Ury, Thomas Hübl, and Kosha Joubert.
Focuses on cultivating mindful attention, personal and collective presence, and the ability to hold space to help overcome polarization in the face of the unfolding realities of our world.
Global Social Witnessing Facilitation Skills
Sept 3 – October 21 2025
A 6-module training led by expert facilitators including Thomas Hübl, Jens Riese, Karen Simms, Robin Alfred, Manda Johnson, Robert Buxbaum and Kosha Joubert.
Equips participants with the skills to facilitate GSW spaces, build coherence within groups, and engage with conflict and emergence in transformative ways.
Global Social Witnessing Practice Phase
December 2025 – June 2026
Provides an extended period for practical integration while facilitating GSW spaces, ongoing learning, and guided support from experienced mentors, Manda Johnson, Robert Buxbaum, Karen Simms, Wanjikü J. Kîarîe and Kosha Joubert with Thomas Hübl.
Set a Clear Field – Learn how to create intentional, attuned, and ethically grounded containers for witnessing.
Resource the Group – Apply techniques to support emotional safety, nervous system regulation, and collective coherence.
Root Facilitation in Presence – Develop inner steadiness and clarity to hold others with compassion and discernment.
Host Polarization with Integrity – Facilitate dialogue across differences—holding space for tension, complexity, and emergence.
Deepen Systems Sensing – Strengthen your ability to sense, attune, and respond to subtle dynamics in group fields.
Navigate Emergence & Complexity – Engage creatively with what arises in real time—working with uncertainty, silence, and transformation.
Facilitators in Phase 2 are trained to hold nuanced group spaces that invite divergent perspectives. In doing so, we foster a deeper sense of belonging and understanding, where silence can speak, pain can be witnessed, and something new can arise. We explore how to meet the edges—without forcing consensus—so that integration, not further fragmentation, becomes possible. We learn how to navigate and soften polarization, allowing for the emergence of new pathways toward understanding and reconciliation.
In a time of multiple global breakdowns—from climate collapse to polarization, war, and systemic injustice—many of us are overwhelmed, disoriented, or shut down. Yet the world doesn’t need us to have all the answers—it needs us to be present, together.
This training cultivates facilitators who can hold space for the unknown, sense into systemic patterns, and host transformative witnessing processes. We need leaders who can host grief, truth, and emergence—without bypassing, collapsing, or dominating. This is the work of mature relational presence.
Karen Simms
Manda Johnson
Manda Johnson is a somatic therapist, group facilitator, artist, and core member of the Pocket Project’s Global Social Witnessing (GSW) team. She co-leads GSW practice groups and large-scale witnessing events and co-created the course “Witnessing the World in Me and Me in the World.” Manda also co-founded World Witnessing in partnership with the Pocket Project to grow witnessing as a vital practice for our times.
Trained in Somatic Movement Therapy, Hypnotherapy, and psychodrama, with degrees in Dance and Chinese Medicine, Manda has studied with Thomas Hübl since 2015 and supports his programs and trainings.
Based in New Zealand, she brings embodiment and mystical principles to leadership and group work. She shares life with her partner, children, stepson, and grandchildren and is deeply passionate about nature and living the sacred through embodied presence.
Christine Gerike
Christine Gerike is a transformational coach and group facilitator. She brings her love and witnessing competence to collective topics, guiding individuals and groups to integrate aspects of ancestral and collective fields we are embedded in. Christine co-founded the community practice of Global Social Witnessing. She is a graduate of the first Pocket Project Training, the Timeless Wisdom Training, and the Collective Trauma Facilitator Training. Christine is certified as a Co-Facilitator within the Pocket Project network. Originally German, lives outside of New York City. |
Robert Buxbaum
Robert Buxbaum is a coach and core member of the Pocket Project’s Global Social Witnessing (GSW) team. He has helped develop and refine GSW practice since it was introduced by Thomas Hübl in 2017.
Robert co-founded www.worldwitnessing.org and co-created and co-teaches “Witnessing the World in Me and Me in the World,” a six-session GSW training. He co-facilitates ongoing GSW Practice Groups and partners with the Pocket Project to make the practice widely available.
A long-time student of Thomas Hübl, Robert is a graduate of the Timeless Wisdom and Collective Trauma Facilitator Trainings. He co-led a Pocket Project International Lab in 2024, mentors for TWT Global 2025-26, and served on the TWT Global 2022-23 Assistant Team.
Kosha Joubert
Kosha Joubert serves as CEO of the Pocket Project. She holds an MSc in Organisational Development, is an international facilitator, author, coach and consultant, and has worked extensively in the fields of sustainable development, curriculum development and intercultural collaboration.
Kosha grew up in South Africa under Apartheid and has been dedicated to the healing of divides and collective trauma ever since.
She has been learning with Thomas for 15 years. She has served as a host and mentor for almost all of Thomas Hübl’s online courses, co-moderated two of the Celebrate Life Festivals and was a co-host of the 2019 and 2020 Online Summit on Collective Trauma.
Thomas Hübl
Thomas Hübl, PhD, is a renowned teacher, author, and international facilitator who works within the complexity of systems and cultural change, integrating the core insights of the great wisdom traditions and mysticism with the discoveries of science. Since the early 2000s, he has led large-scale events and courses on the healing of collective trauma.
He is the author of Attuned: Practicing Interdependence to Heal Our Trauma—and Our World and Healing Collective Trauma: A Process for Integrating Our Intergenerational and Cultural Wounds.
He has served as an advisor and guest faculty for universities and organizations, as a coach for CEOs and organizational leaders, and is currently a visiting scholar at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University.
Wanjîkū J. Kîarîe
Katherine Poco-Enders
These sessions are designed for individuals who identify as part of the Global Majority/BIPOC community. The Global Majority refers to people of African, East Asian, South Asian, Indigenous, Central and South American, and Arab descent, as well as those of dual- / multiracial heritage.
Session 1: 16 September, 2025
Session 2: 20 October, 2025
