In a world reeling from violence at international, regional, community, and personal levels, there is much to learn from those professionals who help individuals, families, groups, and communities move from collective trauma and retaliation to grieving, reconciliation, and healing. This course will present the work of mental health professionals and grassroots workers in breaking cycles of violence, based on their work in the Middle East, Kosovo, inner-cities in the United States and other settings. Each day will be a separate offering, with the full five-days interspersing experiential exercises, theoretical material, reports on grass-roots community-based work, small group discussions, multimedia events, (including a brief play by a Palestinian and an Israeli), and film clips. Every session will begin and end by attending to our own and others’ well-being, through various forms of relaxation and mindfulness.

Monday
Laying the framework: Psychological contributions to healing from violence, violation and dehumanization and to the work of healing, rehumanization and peace building.

Tuesday
Compassionate Witnessing and the Transformation of Legacies of Violence and Violation: Kaethe Weingarten will present a model for understanding how witnessing violence and violation, not just being a victim or perpetrator, contributes to individual, family, community and societal trauma.

Wednesday
Dialogue Between Political Trauma and Personal Defenses: Yousef AlAjarma and Keren Barzilay-Shechter, expressive therapists from Palestine and Israel, respectively, will perform their mini-play, enacting their different experiences of chronic violence and conflict in the Middle East, and then will use the play as a starting-point for a workshop focusing on the use of creative arts to move from rage to dialogue and from grief to hope.

Thursday
Professional and Grassroots’ Projects To Transform Violent Neighborhoods into Peaceable Communities: Reconciliation, Healing, and Justice

Friday
Pulling It All Together. What have we learned and how can we apply it in our daily work, in our personal relationships, and in future projects?