The lab focused on exploring trauma symptoms in women, emphasizing disconnection, violence, and societal challenges. Through shared experiences, participants fostered a collective consciousness, enabling healing and integration of collective trauma. They drew on cultural resources and ancestral resilience inherent in Latin American femininity.
- We reflected on the symptoms of trauma in women today, and their effects on our disconnection, rejection, violence and criticism towards our bodies.
- We explored our fragmentation and dissociation in relation to our self-contact.
- We created a field of connection and shared consciousness, where we could feel, transform, heal and integrate parts of the collective trauma.
- We connected with our being, becoming and belonging as women, in the face of the current challenges of our society.
- We recognized the wealth of resources we have as women connected to Latin America, including our cultural collective intelligence and ancestral resilience.
Our intentions were to attract more light and manifest it, practice abundance, and love, connect with the feminine, include polarity in the body, make teachings tangible, and create a healing path for women.
Spanish-speaking women who felt connected to Latin America and called to dedicate a year to exploring their body awareness, as well as to maintaining a sacred space for other women to do the same.
Opening and intention setting - January 26<br /> Earth, body, and relational resources - February 23<br /> Body Presence, wholeness, and fragmentation - March 22<br /> Nutrition - April 26<br /> Ancestry - May 17<br /> Self-contact - June 14<br /> Being a woman - July 26<br /> Our cyclical nature - August 30<br /> Receiving and Deserving - September 20<br /> Sisterhood (Sorority) - October 25<br /> The masculine in women - November 15<br /> Recapitulation, closure, and releasing the intention - December 13<br /> <br /> As facilitators, we were willing to be transformed by the questions this lab seeked to answer and committed to ongoing cycles of exploring our embodiment of the feminine, welcoming the possibility of integrating unresolved traumas within ourselves, our ancestry, our culture, and our collective. We started out with a group of 47 participants and completed with 31 participants. We met for 12 group sessions from January - December 2024. <br />
Before opening the Lab, as facilitators, we established coherence practices and spent several sessions focusing on our intentions for each lab. We engaged in meditation to cultivate safety and align on next steps, fostering humility and openness to navigate the complexities of our group dynamics.
During our first call, we connected each participant's individual intention with our collective purpose, establishing agreements for the lab. Our interaction framework included welcome sessions, meditations for the group to feel itself, reflective questions in small groups, and shared takeaways for home practice. By the end of the session, we invited participants to reaffirm their commitment, marking the beginning of our collective sisterhood.
To enhance motivation and trust, we created practices such as a WhatsApp group for engagement, self-organized triads for transparent communication, and aftercare calls. One cherished practice was “Scribing,” where a volunteer or other participants created artistic expressions as sense-making tools. Each session began with a reflection on the previous Scribing, helping us gauge the next topic. In our second session, we focused on identifying our individual and collective resources, incorporating definitions from Somatic Experiencing, such as Resource, Pendulation, and Titration.
We encountered patterns of absence and denial—arriving late, people-pleasing, self-criticism, comparison, and disconnection from our bodies. Personal stories emerged—being labeled in workspaces, navigating menopause, empty nests, and choosing not to become mothers. These stories revealed shared sensitivity and resonance.
The group space was held generously, allowing for relational depth. Some participants had never experienced such dynamics. Our facilitation felt collaborative, rooted in service rather than authority, and became emergent by embracing unpredictability and honoring each voice.
Each month, we explored dimensions of self—somatic, emotional, mental, and spiritual—through deep inquiry. Questions guided us through the fragmentations we carry and opened insight into identity, womanhood, and connection.
We explored:
— Connection with our body: What feels fragmented, numb, or nurturing?
— Nutrition and ancestral ties: What strengths or patterns do we inherit from female ancestors?
— Feminine essence and self-awareness: What does it mean to be a woman?
— Cycles: How do we relate to our current life phase?
— Receiving: Do we feel worthy? What societal layers influence that?
— Safety with women: How do competition and distrust appear in us?
— Masculine energy: What do we take or reject from male figures? How does it empower or limit us?
Many participants shared their suffering from gender-based violence, social discrimination, lack of autonomy, and economic disparities. Additionally, many of these women carry the scars of dictatorships, armed conflicts, and structural poverty. These trauma patterns manifest as hypervigilance, low self-esteem, a yearning for control, prioritizing others’ needs, normalization of violence, chronic stress, health issues, self-criticism, and disconnection from their bodies.
As facilitators, we aimed to create a safe environment conducive to discovery and collective meaning-making by:
- Slowing down and cultivating emotional sensitivity
- Listening to others’ experiences and feeling how they resonated with us
- Noticing our bodies and softening into our physical sensations
- Becoming aware of how it feels when the group listens to a participant
- Exploring in triads and small groups
- Welcoming comments and questions in the Zoom chat
- Asking for permission for feedback or reflection
- Deepening discussions to include emotions and body sensations
We recognized the importance of self-care practices and continuous development to remain spacious and grounded, allowing us to address any discomforts between us.
One of our labs focused on connecting with our ancestors from the maternal lineage, coinciding with the international celebration of Mother’s Day. In this session, each participant voiced their name, along with the names of their mother, grandmother, and any other chosen ancestors. We remained present during moments of disorientation that led to deeper insights, especially when some participants wished to include their masculine ancestors as well.
As facilitators, we acknowledged deep fears that reside within us beyond our personal histories, such as fears of illness, regrets over enjoyment and pleasure, disembodiment during sexual encounters, idealization or disillusionment regarding father figures, and fears of sin and punishment.
One voice that felt ancestral emerged from a woman contemplating leaving her romantic partner due to her inability to tolerate his mistakes. She softened her rigidity toward both him and herself.
Another participant expressed her constant desire to change her mother. As we explored our relationships with our mothers, she learned to accept more of her mother as she is. Throughout the journey, we addressed the ethical breach of "hating the mother," inviting awareness and connection to the Divine Law, which resonated deeply with the participants.
Many participants shared significant experiences of reconnecting with their feminine bodies and identities as women, aspects that had been disconnected or in "hibernation." This reconnection encompassed not only greater physical awareness but also emotional, sexual, and spiritual dimensions, emphasizing self-care, enjoyment, and pleasure. This reflected a transformation in their self-perception, shifting from a distant or negative relationship to a more integrated and loving one with their bodies.
Participants noted a shift in perspective regarding womanhood and aging. Several mentioned that the lab helped them rediscover their power and wisdom, regardless of age. Some felt more empowered and connected to their sexuality and their capacity to give, both to others and themselves.
The lab also encouraged participants to expand their horizons, question beliefs and prejudices, and adopt a more inclusive and gentle outlook toward differences. This transformation affected not only their self-perception but also their interactions with others and the world. The importance of accepting discomfort in relationships and holding the tension between differences without judgment was emphasized.
An ethic of care emerged, as some participants began therapy and actively sought grounding resources to integrate their experiences from the labs.
We recognized embodiment as essential for healing—meeting numbness, anxiety, and fear with love, compassion, and honoring the body as the vessel for transforming trauma. One key insight in the lab was learning to honor reality as it is. By staying with present energy instead of idealizing other scenarios, we allowed fragmented patterns to transform within a soft, coherent healing space.
Trust in the group and process was vital. With participants from 15 countries—mostly Latin America, along with England, Russia, and Spain—the container transcended cultural barriers. Toward the end, we addressed colonial and neocolonial dynamics. Every participant added to the collective puzzle, creating space for intimacy and transformation.
Some experienced new sensitivity to creativity. From this, other Pockets are emerging: (1) a hiking group for women, connecting with nature; (2) an initiative—“Trauma and Collective Healing in Latin America”—to share facilitation practices; (3) Argentinian participants supporting a Theory U process in a public institution using systemic coaching, regenerative cultures, and trauma-informed leadership.
We, Karla, Stephanie, and Maria, feel inspired to continue this healing journey through retreats, podcasts, rituals, and trainings for women—offering from the trauma we carry as Latin American women, creating space for personal and cultural healing and progress.
“Before being in this lab, I could only feel my body in pain; now I can also feel it in pleasure and joy. I feel very alive through my body. I am excited to inhabit my space with emotion. I have done many women’s circles and cacao ceremonies, but none had the impact on me that this lab has had.”
“This lab was a beautiful experience, a journey month after month through different topics and perspectives of what inhabits us as women. It has been a privilege to do this accompanied and nurtured by women with awakening and profound wisdom; every group or plenary meeting has enriched and expanded my experience…”
“... When I began, I was coming from a deep disconnection with my body. I leave the Lab connected with myself, with my body. I leave connected with those things that are now in the light. Thank you for being wise and welcoming mothers. I have felt much healing. ”
“It was a wonderful experience. When I started, I realized how disconnected I was from my body; I could only feel it when it hurt. My main reflection was wanting to experience it in enjoyment and pleasure. As the year passed, I began to realize how I started to feel it... and now that we’ve finished, I can say ACHIEVED! I can feel it in enjoyment and pleasure!”
“This is the materialization of a collective wish for the work and connection between participants to grow and expand, bringing positive impact first to Latin America and then to the entire world. It was incredible—the resonance...... The seed we’ve planted over the course of this year, every single month, has now become a flower, then it will become a sturdy tree. Something like an Amazon that we can create among us to give air to this world”.
“I experience a deepening feeling little by little, like flashes of awareness, that those countless unnamed experiences I have individually had—overwhelming, painful, and unthinkable to approach—belong to a realm that transcends me as an individual and even the family..Once again, I have confirmed that opening up to share, in a safe context, allowed me to release those burdens, feel at peace with my emotions..This was very stimulating and illuminated aspects of my experience that were in shadow"
Crisis Trauma Relief
Trauma-Informed Practice
Collective Trauma Integration
Community of Practice
Raising Awareness
Overview
What we do
Who we are
Підпишіться на наші інформаційні листи. Допоможіть нам зцілювати колективну травму та зменшувати негативні ефекти для нашої глобальної культури.
Stephanie Pizarro 
Spanish