“The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free.” – Maya Angelou

Colonialism is not an event of the past – it is a living modern system of suppression by dominant Western Euro-American paradigms that preserve colonial demarcations of power and privilege proliferated through dimensions of power, institutions, and being. Decolonization is not an end goal – it is an ongoing process in the direction of creating a world that is equitable and just.
For us to re-imagine and co-create new ways of relating with each other, we need to first decolonize ourselves and our systems. We need to recognize that we all carry remnants of colonization.

For Gestalt to remain relevant and to be a force of liberation, it needs to critically examine itself.

We will critically examine and name the growing edges of Gestalt, as a system of knowledge and as a global community.

Our Approach:
For us to lean into I-THOU in a holistic way we need to account for our power differentials and our different social-cultural context, the workshop offers opportunities to engage in:
(1) critical consciousness and reflexivity

(2) embodiment of decolonizing and liberation praxis

(3) dialogical seeing and listening to “Other-ness”, and

(4) envisioning a shared decolonized Gestalt future.
With welcoming yet provocative dialogue, we will create an experience for participants to engage with critical consciousness in an embodied way, with the intention of leading some experiential shift in the way we perceive the world.
The overall process brings up content for learning, provides time for individuals to reflect and consider their own context for learning and potential action, and allows participants to engage in a flexible process framework that seeks to give a more liberatory spatial experience.
The organizers have facilitated similar group processes in different Gestalt spaces over the last few years. These Gestaltists bring with them richness, diversity, and wisdom from different professional backgrounds  (psychotherapist, organizational development consultant, coach, attorney, and advocate) whose expertise is informed by lived experience in Asia, Australia, and North America.

Kirti Singh (she/her), MA, GPCC, PCC is a Clinical Therapist, a certified Executive Coach, and a Group Facilitator who brings with her a decade of knowledge and understanding of self and different systems. As a Clinical Therapist, Kirti provides supervised therapy services to individuals, couples, and groups at Toronto Psychological Services & Research Centre. She is an Experienced Professional Certified Coach offering Executive Coaching services to mid-senior level leaders; specializes in creating leadership workshops and leading group facilitation sessions. She is serving as a Teaching Faculty at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland, Ohio. She has lived and worked in Canada, the USA, and India adding to her experience of working with clients from culturally diverse backgrounds.

Martha Potts (Bibi) (she/her), PhD left a career in public transit to pursue a doctorate in organizational behavior at Case Western Reserve University. Her research conducted in Rwanda, Africa, focused on human systems transformation. Upon completion of her travels, she worked in the non-profit sector where her passions continued to evolve. She recently ended retirement to join ThirdSpace Action Lab where she functions as the Awareness
Building Manager. She is currently immersed in understanding ways in which Gestalt theory can support and nurture the multidimensionality of Black identities in a society in which systems, institutions, and policies are designed to disenfranchise them.

Margaret Yao (she/her), MBA, ICF ACC, GPCC coaches executives and emerging leaders who seek to live their values and bring their whole identities and talents to bear on work worth doing. Margaret also does group facilitation and teaches at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland, where she trained. Recent coaching clients include leaders in democracy-related spaces, climate action, diplomacy, and human rights. Prior to serving as Chief People Officer of Democracy Fund, a private foundation that she helped establish, she led or facilitated organizational change in nonprofits and government and has published on leadership and inclusion.

Maya Simek (she/her), ESQ, LISW-S, MSSA, serves as a Clinical Law Professor/Director of Case Western Reserve School of Law’s Human Trafficking Law Project. Ms. Simek further serves as the Legal Director at Equality Ohio, where she developed, launched (2019), and is now supervising a state-wide legal clinic for the lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer (LGBTQ+) community. Ms. Simek focuses her practice on the interdisciplinary issues
impacting the LGBTQ+ community and human trafficking survivors, community lawyering, and the intersections between law and social work.

Zoom ID A:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85675525658?pwd=bR4CSv9gJDR6L2abHKXOs3zRArqnwX.1

ID de reunión: 856 7552 5658
Código de acceso: Open24

In case you have an error with the first zoom meeting, use Zoom ID B:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88528851454?pwd=pxhvCpdR4dCZcHoX6YFEHZ6kjesdnG.1

ID de reunión: 885 2885 1454
Código de acceso: Open2024