Dear Friends,
There are moments when the world asks something deeper of us.
When we witness injustice, something in the heart stirs and we can’t turn away. As the Dalai Lama reminds us, this kind of anger can be rooted in compassion, a felt sense that suffering is present and calling for a response.
And as Cornel West teaches, tenderness is how love is felt in the intimate spaces of our lives, while justice is what that same love looks like in public.
We are being asked to hold both.
For years, the work at Academy of Therapy Wisdom has focused on helping individuals heal, supporting therapists and transformational leaders in bringing trauma-informed, compassionate care into their practice and organization. That remains at the center of everything we do.
But a question is growing in many of us:
What comes next?
How does this work extend beyond the individual, into community, into systems, into the world we are all living inside of?
That question is part of why Ian (Co-Founder of ATW) and I have been so delighted in helping launch a new initiative called the Outer Work Project, led by Staci Haines, Nkem Ndefo, Karine Bell, and Kai Cheng Thom. These are trauma experts and social activists I deeply respect, people whose work sits at the intersection of embodied healing and social transformation.
This project speaks to healing professionals who feel what they describe as “the distress of mainly working downstream.” You name social conditions in your practice. Your comfort zone is in the treatment room. Movement spaces can feel unfamiliar, or too loud.
You worry about your nervous system. You wonder if there’s a place for someone like you…
There is.
The Outer Work Project is a three-month nonprofit program bringing together voices like Gabor Maté, Dick Schwartz, and Bessel van der Kolk alongside a wider community of practitioners, organizers, and people who care deeply about what is happening right now.
The intention is simple, though not easy: to support people in moving from personal healing into meaningful, grounded collective action.
While there is some urgency, what struck me most is a wisdom not asking you to sacrifice your nervous system for a cause. It’s about staying resourced, staying connected, and acting from a place of embodiment rather than overwhelm. Which is, of course, exactly what you try to offer your clients every day.
Perhaps the question is not only “How do I take care of myself?” but also, and in our own way, “What is mine to contribute?“
With warmth,
Brian Spielmann
P.S. If the Outer Works Project resonates with you, I invite you to a four week free series with Staci Haines, Nkem Ndefo, Karine Bell, and Kai Cheng Thom. Please note this is not a Therapy Wisdom course, it is simply something we believe is worth your attention, and we have no affiliate relationship. Click HERE to learn more.
What you´ll learn:
- Vestibular Engagement for Emotional Regulation
- Using the Eyes to Hack the Stress Response System
- Subtle Sounds to Release the Peri-Trauma Response
- Effective Self-Holding and Self-Swaddling Techniques
- How and When to Apply Bilateral Stimulation
- Integration and Completing the Stress Response Cycle
