applied
trauma-informed
online course 2024
online course 2024
Global Social Witnessing Facilitator Training
Self-Study Course
Holding Space for a World in Transition
Guided by leading voices in trauma healing, systems thinking, and conflict transformation:
Bayo Akomolafe, Deb Dana, William Ury, Thomas Hübl, and Kosha Joubert
In times of climate crisis, war, injustice, and rising polarization, our ability to witness and respond with presence and compassion is more crucial than ever.
The 6-part Basic Principles of Global Social Witnessing Training offers a deep exploration into the practice of attuning to world events with an embodied awareness, fostering a culture of conscious global citizenship.
This training is designed for individuals who seek to move beyond passive consumption of news and into a space of active witnessing, where presence becomes a transformative force for healing and change.
Enrollment for Phase 2 of this training is now open – See more here
The training unfolds in three phases, each building on the last. The self-study version of Phase 1 of the Global Social Witnessing Facilitator Training is now open for registration. This foundational phase is a prerequisite for continuing into the later stages of the training. Registration for Phase II is now open and available by application only – see here. This training is certified.
A 6-module self-study 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.
MODULE 1:
Global Social Witnessing –Mindfully Attending to our World
WITH KOSHA JOUBERT
- Understand the core principles and practice of Global Social Witnessing (GSW) as a means of engaging with global challenges.
- Develop the ability to cultivate mindful attention and presence when witnessing events or realities in the world.
- Explore the interconnectedness of personal, relational, and systemic dimensions in the practice of GSW.
MODULE 2: Cultivating our Interiority as a We-Space – Coherence and Resonance
WITH BAYO AKOMOLAFE
- Discover the dynamics of creating a “we-space” through shared intention, resonance, and relational presence.
- Practice deep listening and empathetic connection to enhance coherence within a group.
- Explore the transformative power of collective witnessing and its impact on group dynamics.
MODULE 3:
Cultivating my Interiority as a Witness – Resourcing, Presence, and Relating
WITH DEB DANA
- Learn practices to develop inner resources such as mindfulness, resilience, and compassion for sustaining presence.
- Explore the role of personal awareness and emotional regulation in the process of witnessing.
- Strengthen your capacity to relate to yourself and others with openness and nonjudgmental awareness.
MODULE 4:
Exploring the Edge of our World - Growing our Vessel
WITH WILLIAM URY
- Engage with practices that expand your capacity to hold uncertainty, complexity, and difficult emotions.
- Develop awareness of your growth edges as a witness and learn to approach them with curiosity and openness.
- Strengthen your ability to stay present and grounded when encountering the unknown or challenging realities.
MODULE 5: Weaving the Threads – Integrating Presence, Practice, and Purpose
WITH KOSHA JOUBERT
- Synthesize and integrate key learnings from the training to deepen embodied and systemic awareness.
- Articulate transformative moments during the training, and recognize areas of strength and edges for further development.
- Anchor in inner and social agency, exploring how witnessing translates into social coherence, thoughtful action and a sense of ethical contribution.
Module 6: Growing Fertile Soil - Trusting the Impact
WITH THOMAS HÜBL
- Reflect on the personal and collective impact of GSW and its potential to inspire change and healing.
- Develop trust in the unseen yet profound effects of mindful witnessing on systemic transformation.
- Integrate the practice of GSW into daily life as a way of nurturing a deeper connection with the world.
12 hours
Certification
Recorded
Self Study Course
2 hours
Weekly Time Investment
Global Social Witnessing is the human capacity to mindfully attend to global events with an embodied awareness, thereby creating an inner world space that mirrors and brings compassion to these events. Rather than being mere bystanders, we learn to witness with our bodies, hearts, and minds—turning toward, rather than away from, the challenges of our time.
At the Pocket Project, we recognize that unresolved systemic and multigenerational trauma delays human development, harms the natural world, and inhibits higher evolution. True healing and peace-building begin with our ability to be present with what is happening both internally and externally. This practice cultivates a more precise and embodied sense of relatedness to world events, acknowledging that the social body is developing through all of us.
Through Global Social Witnessing, we actively co-shape events by our intentionality and awareness. This training provides a foundation for deepening our capacity to witness, relate, and respond to global events with integrity and compassion.
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
September – October 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
November 2025 – May 2026
Provides an extended period for practical integration while facilitating GSW spaces, ongoing learning, and guided support from experienced mentors, Manda Johnson, Robert Buxbaum and Kosha Joubert with Thomas Hübl.
Respect and Resource Your Inner Capacity – Recognize your limits, self-regulate, and stay resourced—building sustainable ways to engage with world events.
Move from Reaction to Thoughtful Action – Respond to global events with clarity and care—replacing urgency and shutdown with presence and discernment.
Host Dialogue Beyond Division – Hold space for differing perspectives, softening polarization and fostering connection, understanding, and resilience.
Engage in Subtle, Regenerative Activism – Practice witnessing that nurtures healing, solidarity, and the quiet transformation of collective consciousness.
Facilitate Spaces that Restore Agency and Connection – Guide witnessing processes that awaken insight, resilience, and the power to act—together.
One of the most urgent challenges of our time is the increasing polarization within societal spaces. This training equips facilitators with the ability to host spaces where multiple perspectives can be held with care, fostering dialogue rather than division. Through deep listening, embodied awareness, and compassionate witnessing, we learn how to navigate and soften polarization, allowing for the emergence of new pathways toward understanding and reconciliation. By developing the capacity to remain present with differing viewpoints, we support a culture that moves beyond fragmentation into deeper relationality and collective wisdom.
When we fail to fully embody and process the events we hear about, we lose our ability to relate deeply. A desensitized social body lacks compassion, resilience, and regenerative power. This training invites participants to reclaim the witnessing consciousness within culture—an essential step toward self-correction and collective healing.
In the face of issues like climate change, social injustice, war, and systemic trauma, Global Social Witnessing equips us to hold space for difficult realities while fostering greater collective coherence. As we refine our ability to relate to global events, we co-create a more conscious and compassionate world.
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.
Deb Dana
Bayo Akomolafe
Bayo Akomolafe, PhD, rooted with the Yoruba people in a more-than-human world, is the father to Alethea Aanya and Kyah Jayden Abayomi, the grateful life-partner to Ije, son and brother. A widely celebrated international speaker, posthumanist thinker, poet, teacher, public intellectual, essayist, and author of two books, These Wilds Beyond our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity’s Search for Home (North Atlantic Books) and We Will Tell our Own Story: The Lions of Africa Speak, Bayo Akomolafe is the Founder of The Emergence Network, a planet-wide initiative that seeks to convene communities in new ways in response to the critical, civilizational challenges we face as a species. He is host of the postactivist course/festival/event, ‘We Will Dance with Mountains’. He currently lectures at Pacifica Graduate Institute, California. He sits on the Board of many organizations including Science and Non-Duality (US) and Ancient Futures (Australia).
William Ury
William Ury is a co-founder of Harvard’s Program on Negotiation and a globally recognized expert in negotiation and mediation. He is the author of Getting to Yes, one of the world’s best-selling books on negotiation, and currently serves as a Distinguished Fellow at the Harvard Negotiation Project.
For over 35 years, William has advised and mediated in complex conflicts worldwide, ranging from labor disputes such as the Kentucky wildcat coal mine strikes to ethnic conflicts in the Middle East, the Balkans, and the former Soviet Union. He has worked as a trusted mediator in high-stakes environments and has trained tens of thousands of individuals—from corporate executives to diplomats and military officers—in negotiation and mediation skills.
William Ury is renowned for his ability to bridge divides, foster understanding, and create pathways to peace in even the most challenging situations.
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.
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: 01 July, 2025
Session 2: 06 August, 2025
Wanjiku J. Kiarie
Wanjîkū J. Kiarie, M.Div., SD, SEP™, is a Nairobi-based trauma-informed teacher, Spiritual Director, and the founder of Integrated Living, a holistic well-being program she launched in 2008 to support mental, emotional, physical, social, and spiritual wholeness. A certified Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner, she integrates SE, family constellations, ancestral healing, art, and nature-based practices into her work with individuals, groups, and organizations.
Wanjîkū serves on the board of Spiritual Directors International and the Global Culture Committee of the Somatic Experiencing Institute. She is currently helping bring the first in-person SE Practitioner training to Nairobi to expand access to trauma-healing modalities across East Africa. She holds a Master of Divinity in Biblical Studies and lives in Nairobi with her family.
Katherine Poco-Enders
Katherine Poco-Enders lives in the Pacific Northwest on Duwamish land. She is a descendent of Comanche war chiefs, warriors, and medicine men. As she walks with her ancestors, she has also held witnessing grounding meditative space for families and survivors of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People and for her community processing the traumatic legacy of Indian boarding schools. Katherine has been a student of Thomas Hübl since 2011, is currently in the American and European Core Group, was a participant in the 2022 Collective Trauma Facilitator Training, and is a part of the current TWT Global Team.
Phase I of the training is now open for registration. Registration to Phase II & III will open subsequently.
The training unfolds in three phases, each building on the last. The self-study version of Phase 1 of the Global Social Witnessing Facilitator Training is now open for registration. This foundational phase is a prerequisite for continuing into the later stages of the training. Registration for Phase II is now open and available by application only – see here.
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.
