Palestine Trauma Relief Project
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Roots and Wings:
Remembering, Reclaiming, Creating
For Palestinians in the Diaspora
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.
The program weaves together traditional music, poetry, and symbolic
Palestinian imagery, offering participants a meaningful and culturally-rooted
path toward healing and emotional expression.
6 SESSIONS
Course
Duration
12 hour
Certification
live only sessions
Not recorded
2 HOURS
Weekly Time Investment
Session One - February 19 | 4:00–6:00 pm CET
Arriving Together:
The Circle of Belonging
Theme: Safety, arrival, and shared identity
Objectives:
- Create safety and group trust
- Ground participants in the present while honoring shared roots
- Establish the group as a cultural and creative home
Session Two - March 5 | 4:00–6:00 pm CET
Roots That Hold Us
Theme: Identity, ancestry, and belonging
Objectives:
- Explore lineage, land, and ancestral wisdom
- Strengthen connection to cultural and family stories
Session Three - March 19 | 4:00–6:00 pm CET
Echoes of Memory
Theme: Intergenerational memory, loss, and resilience
Objectives:
- Explore memories carried across generations, transforming grief and longing into shared storytelling and creative expression.
Session Four - April 2 | 4:00–6:00 pm CET
Body as Land, Voice as Home
Theme: Embodiment, emotional expression, and voice
Objectives:
- Reconnect with the body as a site of memory, resistance, and belonging, allowing emotions to move, sound, and transform.
Session Five - April 16 | 4:00–6:00 pm CET
Threads of Connection
Theme: Community, solidarity, and collective resilience
Objectives:
- Strengthen communal bonds
- Recognize interdependence and shared healing
Session Six - April 30 | 4:00–6:00 pm CET
Harvest and Homecoming
Objectives:
- Honor the journey and collective growth
- Create ritual closure with gratitude and continuity
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
Amanda Al Arja is a humanitarian at heart, dedicated to holistic well-being and human connection through her work as a psychologist, and expressive arts therapist. She facilitates groups using expressive arts, psychodrama, body and mind holistic practices to nurture personal growth and a sense of community. Amanda’s research extends into existential psychology, focusing on finding meaning through creativity while also offering personal growth training for care providers in a spectrum of international humanitarian institutions.
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.
Palestinians in Diaspora / الفلسطينيون في الشتات
If you want to participate in the Course "Palestinians in Diaspora" please fill out the form below. / إذا كنت ترغب في المشاركة في دورة "الفلسطينيون في الشتات"، يرجى تعبئة النموذج أدناه.