Roots of Resilience
|
Collective & Intergenerational Healing
Through Art
A 6-Session Training for Palestinian Mental Health Practitioners
Roots and Wings: Remembering, Reclaiming, Reimagining is a 6-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 six 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. 🌿
This course uses a solidarity-based pricing model with the following options: €175, €75, or €0, selectable upon acceptance.
A live expressive arts-based course supporting Palestinian health practitioners in collective trauma healing, nervous system regulation, and sustainability- rooted in culture, creativity, and lived experience.
6 SESSIONS
Course
Duration
12 hour
Certification
live only sessions
Not recorded
2 HOURS
Weekly Time Investment
Session One - February 26 | 4:00–6:00 pm CET
Creating Sanctuary
Cultural, Somatic & Collective Safety
Objectives
- Establish emotional, cultural, and relational safety
- Build group trust and collective agreements
- Introduce expressive arts as a healing modality rooted in Palestinian context
- Ground participants in body and senses
Session Two - March 12 | 4:00–6:00 pm CET
The Body Remembers
Somatic Awareness & Trauma Under Occupation
Objectives
- Understand somatic responses to chronic political stress
- Identify activation, numbness, and embodied memory
- Develop body-based self-regulation tools for practitioners
Session Three - March 26 | 4:00–6:00 pm CET
Lineage, Memory & Inherited Strength
Intergenerational Trauma and Resilience
Objectives
- Explore inherited trauma from the Nakba and ongoing displacement
- Recognize transgenerational patterns of survival
- Reconnect with ancestral wisdom and cultural continuity
Session Four - April 9 | 4:00–6:00 pm CET
Collective Trauma & the Land
My Story, Our Story, the Story of Place
Objectives
- Understand collective trauma under occupation
- Explore fragmentation and connection across Palestinian geographies
- Reclaim relationship with land as a source of grounding
Session Five - April 23 | 4:00–6:00 pm CET
The Shadow & Silenced Emotions
Grief, Anger, Fear & Protection
Objectives:
- Create safe space for suppressed emotions
- Normalize emotional protection in conditions of conflict
- Support practitioners’ emotional hygiene and sustainability
Session Six - May 7 | 4:00–6:00 pm CET
Sumud, Imagination & Integration
We Are Still Here
Objectives
- Activate cultural and internal resilience resources
- Reclaim imagination as a tool for hope and continuity
- Integrate learning and close with ritual and meaning
This course is grounded in expressive arts therapy and collective trauma healing, drawing on Trauma Relief’s experience supporting communities impacted by displacement, political violence, and intergenerational trauma. Using accessible creative practices—such as movement, visual expression, storytelling, and reflective dialogue—participants are invited to explore regulation, meaning-making, and connection without verbal processing or clinical analysis. The approach centers collective experience rather than individual pathology, honoring Palestinian resilience, cultural knowledge, and communal ways of healing. Sessions are trauma-informed, choice-based, and non-invasive, allowing participants to engage at their own pace while fostering safety, dignity, and embodied presence.
Amanda AI Arja
Being born and raised in Bethlehem, Palestine she developed a deep interest to understand collective & transgenerational trauma. She holds a Master degree in Community Psychology from Birzeit University and a Diploma in Expressive Arts Therapy. living in India Now, she is continuing her mission of creating safe spaces for healing, compassion, community, art, creativity, and hope.
Palestinian Health Practitioners / الممارسون الصحيون الفلسطينيون
If you want to participate in the Course "Palestinian Health Practitioners" please fill out the form below. / إذا كنت ترغب في المشاركة في دورة "الممارسين الصحيين الفلسطينيين"، يرجى تعبئة النموذج أدناه.