Healing Trauma Through MusicHealing Trauma Through Music

Stories from the Hearth

The Wellbeing Summit Dhaka Session With:

Asif Iqbal

Musician and activist
🌍 Dhaka, Bangladesh

Asif Iqbal, the front-man of the music band Kaaktal, joined the first regional summit in Bangladesh in March 2024 to share the story of his life and how he overcame struggles through leaning into his music as a part of the Summit’s central conversation on Intergenerational Trauma. Listen to his story and music to be part of the journey from struggles to strengths. Watch the recording below.

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Healing Our Roots: Ground and Balance by Integrating Traditional Practices Healing Our Roots: Ground and Balance by Integrating Traditional Practices

Stories from the Hearth

Hearth Summit Philippines Webinar Featuring:

Jo-Anne Suriel

Founder, Energetic Well; intuitive energy healer and guide, certified reiki master, sound therapy practitioner, and akashic records reader
🌍 Los Angeles, USA

Nick Daez

Entrepreneur, life coach, sound healer, yoga/meditation practitioner
🌍 Philippines

Valerie Dinglas Iafrate

Past and future life progression healer
🌍 Port Washington, USA

Ahead of Hearth Summit Philippines, the Filipino community has been gathering to explore key topics before reuniting on Siquijor island. In this webinar, discover different traditional Filipino healing practices that will be used during the summit.

Guided by healers from the diaspora and the Philippines, Jo-Anne Suriel, Nick Daez, and Valerie Dinglas Iafrate, this session combined healing practices (breathwork, cacao healing, sound healing) and shared experiences. In the group discussion, the panellists addressed the decolonization of healing practices, as well as ancestral healing and its relation to the five elements (air, fire, ether, water, earth).

Watch the webinar below.

Headshots via LinkedIn (Jo-Anne Suriel, Nick Daez, and Valerie Dinglas-Iafrate)

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From Fire to Flow: Hip Hop’s Power to TransformFrom Fire to Flow: Hip Hop’s Power to Transform

Stories from the Hearth

Hearth Summit Philippines Webinar Featuring:

Bambu

Beatrock Music Artist, father, Emcee, and Organizer
🌍 Oakland, USA

Marikit Satura

Hip Hop Artist and Activist
🌍 Amsterdam, Netherlands

Ever since hip hop as an art form emerged as a vehicle for social justice and cultural empowerment, Filipinos have been among the most active participants in DJing, breakdancing, graffiti and MCing. Filipinos have been part of the music scene since the 1960s, but in the 1980s, hip hop became even more a form of self-expression. Many Filipinos were able to create a sense of selfhood that might have otherwise felt trampled on or neglected by previous generations and institutional ideologies.

Ahead of Hearth Summit Philippines, the Filipino community has been gathering to explore key topics before reuniting on Siquijor island. In this webinar, explore the unique connection between the Filipino diaspora, hip hop music, and social change.

Featured Filipino artists Bambu and Mirikit discuss how they have used their artistry and music to create change and also work for peace. They share how the hip hop industry has impacted them, how they use it to impact others, how artists practice wellbeing, and what impact their music has had on the community.

Watch the webinar below.

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Learning to Fly: Filipino Families, Mental Health, and Wellbeing Learning to Fly: Filipino Families, Mental Health, and Wellbeing

Stories from the Hearth

Hearth Summit Philippines Webinar Featuring:

Corazon Umali, MA

Special Education Expert, Teacher & Trainer, Co-Founder, Totz Learning Center

 Kirin Macapugay, DSW

Professor of Human Services and Social Work; AANAPISI Title III Program Director, San Diego Community College
🌍 San Diego, USA

Marygrace Buendia

Fulbright Scholar
🌍 Los Angeles, USA

Macy Castañeda Lee

Co-Founder, Talang Dalisay and photographer
🌍 Manila, Philippines

Ahead of Hearth Summit Philippines, the Filipino community has been gathering to explore key topics before reuniting on Siquijor island. In this webinar, the journey to Siquijor begins in celebration of the newest book for Talang Dalisay’s Project Tala at Libro (Project Star and Book), “Bayani Magalang,” that tells the story of the power of respect and kindness in times of conflict, bullying, and violence.

Featured speakers Corazon Umali, MA Special Education Expert, Teacher & Trainer, Co-Founder, Totz Learning Center; Kirin Macapugay, DSW, San Diego Community College Professor and Human Services, Social Work and AANAPISI Title III Program Director; Marygrace Buendia, Fulbright Scholar; and Macy Castañeda Lee, Co-Founder, Talang Dalisay and photographer; discussed how the themes of the story relate to Filipino families everywhere.

Focusing on how to support families and promote intergenerational healing, the discussion engaged in activities and coping skills, especially for children and youth, that incorporate Sikolohiyang Pilipino (Filipino Psychology).

Watch the webinar below.

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The Filipino Changemakers Embracing Siquijor’s Traditional Healing PracticesThe Filipino Changemakers Embracing Siquijor’s Traditional Healing Practices

Talang Dalisay’s Macy Castañeda Lee Captures the Stories of the Island’s Most Sought-After Healers Ahead of Hearth Summit Philippines

Stories from the Hearth

Photo Essay From:

Macy Castañeda Lee

Co-Organizer of Hearth Summit Philippines 2025
🌍 Manila, Philippines

In July, I travelled to Siquijor Island, a Philippine island province located within the Negros Island Region. This beautiful and lush province lies in the south of Cebu, southeast of Negros Oriental, southwest of Bohol, and the North of Mindanao. I travelled there to help plan and organize Hearth Summit Philippines, alongside many passionate and dedicated Filipinos, Filipino Americans, and Americans.

From 14-17 January 2025, Hearth Summit Philippines will be the first regional wellbeing summit for social change held in the Philippines. The summit will be one of dozens of regional gatherings held around the world where changemakers are reflecting on, among many things, how embracing and reconnecting with local cultures and traditions can help inspire their social change work.

We are so excited to centre Hearth Summit Philippines on native Filipino healing practices, embracing lunas, the Tagalog word for “remedy” or “cure”. But like many words without a direct translation, lunas is more than that: it is an antidote, a medicine for what ails you in the broadest sense; the answers to help you get through a hard time. Lunas is an exhale after a long day, a comfort for weary souls, a balm for broken hearts, a practice of hope, and an invitation to come sit next to the fire with your loved ones.

In this sense, Lunas Pilipinas is our Indigenous/native/cultural understanding of the Hearth Summit Philippines, where we will engage 150 changemakers in an immersive journey to build a world that nurtures the wellbeing of our communities and the planet. Nestled in the lush Central Visayas region of Siquijor, the island’s unique cultural heritage and natural landscapes inspire our gathering. Once known as the mystical “Island of Fire”, Siquijor shares a rich history of traditional healing practices and environmental conservation – making it the ideal place to explore indigenous ways of knowing and their impact on our wellbeing.

Lunas is more than that: it is an antidote, a medicine for what ails you in the broadest sense; the answers to help you get through a hard time.

Lunas is an exhale after a long day, a comfort for weary souls, a balm for broken hearts, a practice of hope, and an invitation to come sit next to the fire with your loved ones.

To bring the wisdom of our native practices to our gathering, Lunas Pilipinas is a broad co-creation with many stakeholders, including my mental health organization, Talang Dalisay; the Siquijor Healers Association; local peoples; and other non-profits to help the Siquijor community, specifically its children and education.

Aside from working in advocacy and organizing, I also work as a documentary photographer. Ahead of the Summit, it was important for me to make sure I documented the Siquijor healers and highlight their work and identities. Annie, one of the leaders of the Siquijor Healers Association, is one of the key characters in this story. She lovingly invited us into her home up in the mountains to observe her healing process, to experience this healing ourselves, and to share her story. These images below are from those interactions at her home, where two other healers came to meet us; as well as some images from surrounding areas the Lunas  Pilipinas team explored around the island.

The wisdom of the Siquijor healers and the island itself will be deeply present at Lunas Pilipinas and beyond, inspiring our journeys in wellbeing and welldoing.

To learn more about the Summit and how you can participate, visit lunaspilipinas.com.

Butterfly larvae at a local butterfly farm in Siquijor. A part of the agenda of our trip as a team was to find feasible venues to host workshops and make participants interact deeply with local nature spots. This imagery caught my eye: it’s so symbolic of how aligned and grounded this island makes you feel. This is the start of the photo sequence; the budding of it all.

These are three of the oldest and most experienced Siquijor healers in Annie’s home in Siquijor.

The outside of Annie’s home. She lives on top of the mountain on Siquijor Island. She houses several chickens, piglets, bunnies, and cats. She lives with her family here, and community friends come often to the outdoor area to chat and hang out.

This is the entrance to Annie’s home, just outside of the room where she conducts her healing sessions. Many religious icons can be seen, such as statues of Mother Mary and Jesus Christ, reflecting the dominant religion that exists in many parts of the Philippines, which is Catholicism. Many Filipinos are both religious and spiritual.

Bolo Bolo

Annie healing one of our main Hearth Summit Philippines leaders and organizers, Renee. Annie blows river water with black stones in a clear glass with a bamboo straw. This is called the bolo bolo healing method, used to heal the patient from evil spirits and energy.

Here is a photograph of some oils that Annie makes, all sourced locally in Siquijor.

One of the healers, just outside Annie’s home. He has been working as a native healer for more than 20 years.

A Global Calling

Sessions at Annie’s home continue all day. Annie receives clients from all around the  world, as she is one of Siquijor’s most sought-after healers.

The bed where Annie and her family use to lay and rest, but also for her clients and  visitors. Light and shadows in her home fall very beautifully. Annie mostly relies on natural light in her home.

Community friends and healers visit Annie’s home often. This is a healer with Jang, one of the Hearth Summit Philippines’ local organizers and leaders.

One of the healers, just outside Annie’s home. He has been working as a native healer for more than 20 years.

Mothering

The sequence ends here, with one of Annie’s pigs with her piglets, right outside her home. The family has been raising all kinds of animals for the longest time. This photograph is so symbolic to me as it reflects the many people that Annie helps feed and grow. She is the mother of many in Siquijor island, after all. Life continues, life provides. When one gives, many grow. 

We are all so excited to share more about Filipino culture and wellbeing practices with the world.

Hearth Summit Philippines (Lunas Pilipinas) will take place from 14-17 January 2025 in Siquijor, Philippines. For more information, including how to participate, visit lunaspilipinas.com and find us on social media at @lunaspilipinas.

About Macy Castañeda Lee

Macy (they/them) is a non-binary Filipino photographer, organizer, public speaker, & curator. They focus on advocating for psychology, mental health, social justice, and education in the work they do.

Passionate about human beings, identity, vulnerability, and the mind, Macy calls themselves a “student for life”, consistently challenging the relationship between our external world with our internal one. With an early exposure to students with mental exceptionalities such as autism & down syndrome, Macy advocates for creating a more kind & empathic world through multi-media storytelling & research. They study how factors such as cultural movements, generational trauma, & societal norms affect the inner workings of our mind. In turn, they hope to share how humans are active agents that turn those factors over to the next generation & how important it is for one to break stigma in order to create more sustainable futures.

They run and founded a Philippine based non-profit, Talang Dalisay alongside its special project based organization, Bayan Kinaadman. They are the head curator & organizer of Worlds Through Minds, which is a people funded photography gallery and photo publication house which takes place around the world.

To date, they have organized & hosted over 50 community events online & in-person, given over 100 keynote speeches, written & copy edited over 30 articles, and worked & collaborated with around 200 non-profits/movements/individuals for their cause & passion.

About Talang Dalisay

Talang Dalisay is a non-profit organization founded in Manila, Philippines centering on mental health for our fellow Filipinos.  We are a young community of storytellers and change-makers, opening conversations on the current mental health stigmas in the country as well as aiding in the integration of persons with disabilities (PWDs) as members of our global community.

Our mission upholds the values of empathy, compassion, and empowerment. We aim to focus on action oriented projects that center on moving towards a society that validates the mental health and neurodivergence of Filipinos. We acknowledge that mental health is a systemic issue — it is an ever-changing and controversial topic especially as a BIPOC community. Thus, through our art and stories, we hope to create a higher consciousness and understanding of how to create inclusive spaces for all amidst these intersectionalities.

Our vision as an organization is to become a stepping stone for Filipinos to create spaces of inclusivity. Collectively, we hope to amplify the individual’s potential to shine purely; living in authenticity, truth, and purpose. Through our projects in elevating the mental health discourse, we hope to be one of many facets that encourage others to create more avenues for positive change, always embracing the ability in any disability.

To date, they have organized & hosted over 50 community events online & in-person, given over 100 keynote speeches, written & copy edited over 30 articles, and worked & collaborated with around 200 non-profits/movements/individuals for their cause & passion.

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Strengthening Community Resilience in Kuwait with Storytelling Strengthening Community Resilience in Kuwait with Storytelling

Insights from en.v’s Eleanor Burton and Mohammed Marafi

With a vision of a united, compassionate and resilient society, a small organisation is making a big impact on collective wellbeing across the Gulf states.

en.v facilitates positive social transformation within Kuwaiti society with an integral focus on empowering Kuwait’s migrant population – as well as youth and other traditionally silenced communities – through storytelling. Recognised by the International Labour Organization (ILO) for its impactful work supporting the human rights of migrant workers, en.v practices community-building through socially responsible ways. We talked with Eleanor Burton, en.v’s training and relationship manager, and Mohammed Marafi, en.v’s programs manager, about their use of storytelling as a tool for social transformation. Here’s how they do it.

Storytelling to Build Trust, New Narratives, and Healing Bridges

As an organisation committed to the collective wellbeing of communities in Kuwait, an integral focus for en.v is on the country’s migrant population, whose wellbeing is significantly impacted by the grave consequences they often face working under the Gulf labour market’s kafala system. Broken trust, mistreatment, and abuse are common, as are trauma and mental health struggles. Beyond legal frameworks, cultural attitudes in Kuwait have helped normalise the effects of the kafala system: with certain long-held beliefs about migrant workers and commonplace employment practices, de-facto segregation and a deeply ingrained power balance are the norm. 

While important efforts are in motion to update migrant worker schemes in the Gulf and protect migrants’ wellbeing, en.v recognises migrants themselves are missing from these conversations. In response en.v passes the mic to the migrant community in Kuwait to support systemic change from the ground up. Working with employers of migrant workers and the migrant community, it offers spaces for both groups to meet and begin to build healing bridges. The process is complex, but it is working, and its Global Migrant Workers Network (GMWN), Compassionate Communities programme, and BUILD Ideathon community projects have been recognised as important actors in this process.

“The insight and connection with and from the vast network and community that en.v has nurtured over the years is unrivaled. Their ability to get straight to the beneficiary and those most in need has been inspiring to witness, and a great honour to support.” – International Labour Organization

en.v’s Theory of Change (Credit: en.v/@blancheillustrates)

en.v’s community-led approach to social change is founded on bringing different groups together to work across differences. Building bridges that lead to social change is a complex process – and for en.v, it all starts with a story. 

“In every single piece of our work, whether it’s with labour inspectors, activists in the migrant community, domestic workers, students, academics, or officials from the ministry, we always start with storytelling and connection,” says Eleanor. “We start with some sort of space where we try and get people into an intimate, authentic conversation with each other. It’s in every single thing that we do – having that first moment of building trust and connection, but in safety.”

As different people come together – many for the first time – to express themselves and listen to each other, these moments of connection are rich with opportunity. They help pave the path to reconciliation by the way of self-exploration, bonding, and movement-building. With long-held beliefs contributing to divisions within the community, this is an important step towards sustainable behavioural change.

“It changed my viewpoints on others around me. I lived in a bubble and thought that there wasn’t a community of people who genuinely wanted change too.” – en.v BUILD Ideathon Participant

The AWAKEN journey.

In supporting the migrant community, this storytelling can involve facilitating conversations between workers and employers and creating space for both groups to reflect on their experiences with their peers. For example, generations-long employment practices in the Gulf shape how employers view domestic workers and how domestic workers view themselves. Through dialogue, en.v encourages everyone to practice self-inquiry and reflection. Sharing one’s story and listening to others serves as a foundational, and often emotional, step towards reconciliation. 

“With storytelling, we can think about roots and forces shaping our value systems,” says Eleanor. “We can ask questions: what’s your power in the society? What privilege do you have? How do you move through the society? It’s ultimately a practice in building empathy, deconstructing a lot of the cultural norms, and thinking about how we relate to one another.”

One example of a project defined by storytelling is en.v’s Women’s Circle Project. Held in partnership with the International Labour Organization’s FAIRWAY Project, it brings together female employers of domestic workers in safe spaces to talk about employment practices. These Women’s Circles help to shift employer mindsets, leading to improved relationships and increased fair treatment of workers.  

Storytelling with the migrant community also focuses on understanding values and shifting mindsets, while also caring for the deep traumas felt by the community. Their experiences in Kuwait are often defined by deep feelings of loss: a loss of self while facing exploitation at work and having to support family back home, and a loss of community due to the transient, impermanent type of residency available under the kafala system.

In response, en.v uses storytelling to help the members of the migrant community create a new sense of self and belonging, which can help strengthen their resiliency, increase feelings of agency, and promote healing – an empowering process that helps unlock doors to a new future. 

Mohammed explains this process is essential for empowering community-led action: “If you want for people to really feel like they want to change this place, they first have to feel like they belong here. A lot of what we try to do in our work is try to create a space within Kuwait where they can at least feel like they belong to each other.”en.v helps create these spaces physically – with community gatherings such as its AWAKEN festival or its Aswatna program promoting inclusion in the country’s schools– and figuratively, through various activities such as Mapping Belonging and art therapies. Through different methodologies practiced in safe spaces, migrant and other traditionally silenced or marginalized communities are offered the opportunity to own, share, and rewrite their stories.

While the process of behavioural and systemic change is complex and challenging, these meaningful moments of storytelling are also important marks of progress. At the heart of this storytelling is a true sense of compassion and unity, says Eleanor: “It’s very intimate. It’s really loving work we do, that creates a space where people can really connect.” 

With a vision of solidarity among communities in Kuwait, these emotional connections are the first step towards community wellbeing and healing. 

en.v is a proud member of The Wellbeing Project’s Wellbeing in Higher Education Network. Learn more about en.v’s work to foster transformational leadership and community-building in the Gulf at www.envearth.com.

Cultivating a Thriving Inner Landscape Where Our Potential Can Bloom: 7 Learnings on How Mental Health Helps Achieve Social Change and PeacebuildingCultivating a Thriving Inner Landscape Where Our Potential Can Bloom: 7 Learnings on How Mental Health Helps Achieve Social Change and Peacebuilding

Guest post by:

Catalina Cock Duque

Co-Founder and President, FundaciĂłn Mi Sangre

Growing up in Colombia, a country with an armed conflict, filled with bombings, massacres, and displacement, I always felt the need to heal our wounds of violence and work towards the construction of peace. FundaciĂłn Mi Sangre, co-founded with songwriter and singer Juanes, has been my primary vehicle for pursuing this purpose. Since 2006, Mi Sangre has played a pivotal role in fostering systemic cultural change in Colombia by involving youth and the actors surrounding them as key contributors to personal, community, and systemic transformation. This model equips participants with life, leadership, and entrepreneurial skills, empowering them to co-create positive changes in their communities, including solutions towards peace.

Our work encompasses a multifaceted vision of leadership, emphasizing the development of both individual and collective skills. It involves nurturing awareness, empathy, critical thinking, and curiosity while fostering collaboration. We address the challenges young people face due to living in impoverished and violent environments, providing comprehensive mental health support as a valuable resource for personal and collective transformation. With this emphasis on inner work, mental health, and wellbeing, we have seen positive results not only in our participants’ lives but in the systems all around us.

From more than 15 years of service to young people in Colombia, here are some of the lessons from our journey that have now become integral to our work.

1. We can support the individual through the collective.

In dealing with trauma and other mental health challenges, some specific cases require individual psychosocial support. However, our organization and country lack the resources to provide it individually at scale. Therefore, we have integrated mental health skills into leadership programs, to offer support in a collective setting while integrating a preventive approach. These programs blend self-discovery and introspection, with safe spaces, fostering social connections and a sense of belonging. The mental health dimension of our leadership programs holds a special place in the hearts of our participants. From our retreats, I recall with emotion their warm hugs, the tears of healing they shed, and the laughter that set their spirits free, all within the safe space we helped create for them.

2. Holistic wellbeing – connecting mind, heart, body, and spirit – is essential.

Our programs prioritize a holistic approach encompassing the mind, heart, body, and spirit. Engaging the mind fosters critical thinking, self-awareness, and informed decision-making. Emotional aspects, represented by the heart, nurture empathy and meaningful relationships. Physical well-being, supported by the body, ensures energy and vitality, offering valuable wisdom through a strong mind-body connection. Nurturing the spirit, which encompasses purpose and resilience, provides inner strength to face challenges. Collectively, these dimensions empower individuals to lead authentically, while achieving significant change. Our young participants have successfully created more than 1,800 change initiatives, achieving profound systemic transformations in areas such as violence prevention, reconciliation, gender equity, migrants’ inclusion, and prevention of forced recruitment to armed groups.

3. The creative arts and nature are our biggest allies.

Creative arts and nature are central to our programs. We offer creative outlets like painting, music, and writing to serve as therapeutic outlets, hellping to alleviate stress, anxiety, and depression. Art encourages mindfulness, fostering social connections and deep interactions. Simultaneously, nature provides purpose and tranquility and teaches the vital concepts of oneness and interconnection. Whether it’s a simple walk in the park, incorporating plants, or outdoor experiences in natural settings, these holistic approaches significantly enhance our program’s effectiveness. My heart fills with gratitude when I remember a participant who shared that she had discovered the wisest counselor in nature and had never received such profound guidance from anyone else.

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Credit: FundaciĂłn Mi Sangre/Alejandro Bonnells

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Credit: FundaciĂłn Mi Sangre/Alejandro Bonnells

“My heart fills with gratitude when I remember a participant who shared that she had discovered the wisest counselor in nature and had never received such profound guidance from anyone else.”

4. Mental health and wellbeing have to be cultivated.

From our community engagement, it is clear to us that mental health and wellbeing are not static conditions; they are cultivated over time through a combination of self-awareness, self-care, and positive life choices. To help our communities make these choices, we have developed several strategies, including an open-source library with tools and resources, along with trainer approaches and curriculums for parents and educators, on how to develop 17 different holistic leadership skills. To our surprise, this library, originally created for our team, has more than 2,500 visitors per month, demonstrating its regular use. We also don’t limit our mental health support to our participants: since the pandemic, our full team holds weekly online meetings to share various practices, encouraging us to lead by example and embody the change we want to be in our communities.  

5. We must shift paradigms around mental health. 

Transforming mental health paradigms is a crucial piece to this puzzle, given historical stigma that discourages those who are struggling from seeking support. To help change this dynamic, we have  launched grassroots and national campaigns at Mi Sangre to normalize mental health discussions, emphasizing the importance of open, empathetic, and non-judgmental conversations. Recognizing that change starts at the individual and community levels, we are committed to creating tailored approaches to mental health, considering differences in ethnicity, gender, and age while incorporating local wisdom. We also seek to expand the dialogue on mental health to include wider audiences: inspired by the Wellbeing Summit for Social Change in Bilbao, we co-created the Wellbeing Summit Bogotå in September 2023. Mental health was a central topic at this event, which convened changemakers from the social change, business, academic, and public sectors. We aspire to extend this initiative to other Latin American cities, further advancing this crucial agenda for mental health.

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An example of posters co-designed with local communities, written in Nasa Yuwe, the language indigenous communities of Toribio, Norte del Cauca, Colombia, with an invitation to reach out to mental health support services. Literal translation: “Weaving the good life. Mental health is harmony, source of inspiration and wisdom”. Credit: FundaciĂłn Mi Sangre/Alejandro Bonnells

6. Our personal journeys influence our professional work

Leading Mi Sangre has been a profoundly personal journey.My pursuit of inner growth and wellbeing commenced 18 years ago after facing burnout during my first venture. However, this journey evolved recently when I developed a deeper understanding of trauma’s impact on my work, through participation in the Inner Development Program by The Wellbeing Project. In a retreat with fellow change agents, I was transported back to a poignant childhood memory. I overheard the tragic fate of our neighbors, the parents of children my age who were kidnapped and brutally murdered. The re-emergence of this memory unleashed profound emotions, revealing the lasting impact it had on me. This experience unveiled the roots of certain unhealthy patterns in my entrepreneurial drive – a fear of losing what I cherish, an unconscious drive to do everything to survive and protect my loved ones, and a limiting belief that I must accomplish everything now because tomorrow is uncertain. I have undergone profound transformations as a result. When leaders embark on deep explorations of their inner selves, a much deeper layer of meaning emerges about who we are, what we do, how we pursue it, and, more importantly, how we want to pursue it. I have witnessed numerous stories of leaders similarly elevating their modes of operation (and impact!) by embarking on journeys of inner work.

7. Inner work can help heal systems.

In the pursuit of positive social change and lasting peace, inner work stands as a pivotal force that transcends individual growth to mend the very systems that have been fractured by violence and turmoil. The power of inner work is not confined to self-discovery and personal development; it extends to our collective consciousness and societal structures. Mi Sangre’s  work involves weaving ecosystems, bringing together a wide array of participants from the public, private, and third sectors – sometimes even including former enemies and victims – to co-create solutions. Through our methodologies, we have witnessed the potential to transcend differences, hate, and fear in order to act collectively towards peace. By delving into the depths of our inner selves, we unearth the empathy, resilience, and wisdom required to reshape these systems.

“By delving into the depths of our inner selves, we unearth the empathy, resilience, and wisdom required to reshape these systems.”

Both through my work and personal experience, I’ve learned to embrace pain and struggles as inherent aspects of life. However, I’ve also seen the potential for leading a life filled with profound meaning, even in the face of persistent challenges. Equipping leaders with the skills to address trauma, support their mental health, and enable wellbeing is essential. In doing so, we are able to help them cultivate resilience, enabling them to reach their highest human potential, foster healthy relationships, and serve life with freedom and joy. 

Looking back at the dream Juares and I had 16 years ago – working towards peace – I am convinced that including inner work in our systemic approach has been pivotal in catalyzing extraordinary leadership. Without it, we may have never been able to advance the reconstruction of our social fabric, influence decision-makers, and help heal systems that impact over 2 million people who have undergone profound transformations toward peace-building and social change.  I invite you to explore how mental health, healing, and inner work may transform your work in social change – with a thriving inner landscape, there’s no limit for our how our potential can bloom. 

About the authorAbout the author

catalina-cock

Meet Catalina Cock Duque

Catalina Cock Duque, a seasoned catalyst for systemic change with over 25 years of experience, is a passionate leader in sustainable development, peace-building, and social impact. Distinguished as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and recognized by Silla VacĂ­a in Colombia, she co-founded FundaciĂłn Mi Sangre, impacting over 2 million people in Colombia. As a Co-Founder of Oro Verde and the Alliance for Responsible Mining, Catalina played a pivotal role in establishing the first global certification for artisanal gold mining, expanding its reach to over 10 countries. She holds a BA from the University of Maryland and a Master’s from the London School of Economics, complemented by executive courses in leadership and innovation from top institutions worldwide.

Hear from Catalina's experience on taking part of The Wellbeing Summit BogotĂĄ: Hear from Catalina's experience on taking part of The Wellbeing Summit BogotĂĄ:

Four Seasons Under One Sky: Arts as a Collective Approach to Creativity and Healing in South Africa Four Seasons Under One Sky: Arts as a Collective Approach to Creativity and Healing in South Africa

Guest post by:

Marlize Swanpoel

Co-Founder & Director, sp(i)eel arts therapies collective (Cape Town, South Africa)

sp(i)eel is an arts therapies collective (including drama, music, dance/movement, and art) of arts therapists, applied arts practitioners, and arts activists addressing intergenerational and complex trauma in South African communities. Over two centuries of colonialism and the oppressive regime of apartheid has left a nation grappling with systemic inequity and intergenerational trauma. Ongoing poverty and high incidences of violence and crime coupled with a dire lack of mental health services are contributing to complex and ongoing trauma, with more than a quarter of South Africans suffering from probable depression (Craig et al, 2022). This mental health crisis our country is facing is a systemic issue, not an individual one, and it needs a collective response. Our approach to mental health is culturally informed and sees people as each other’s greatest resource and source of support. As a result, our ultimate goal is to develop collective resilience that can affect social change.

Our name, spieel, is derived from two words that have different meanings in the Afrikaans language: “to play” or “mirror”. To “play and mirror” speaks to several reasons for our use of art as a healing tool. It refers to the function of the arts as a mirror to society for expression, reflection, and understanding. It also speaks to the therapeutic aspect of art therapies, where an art form is applied as a mirror to Self for exploration and understanding. Furthermore, it is through the playful nature of the arts that we can connect with our innate creativity.

It also speaks to the therapeutic aspect of art therapies, where an art form is applied as a mirror to Self for exploration and understanding.

In South Africa, access to therapeutic arts programmes is limited and not accessible to everyone. We aim to enable accessibility to the intentional use of various art forms to further have a positive impact on general health, wellbeing, development, and transformation for all.

Given our deep connection with the arts, our story and impacts can best be shared visually. This photo essay illustrates the journey of healing and wellbeing experienced through our Families and Collective Futures programme. It is a resilience-focused, trauma-informed programme that applies the arts and creativity to build psychosocial support systems. These systems are created through research (in collaboration with Brunel University), training, and the implementation of arts-based groups for children and their social circles.

The journey of this programme is presented within the frame of one of our core guiding metaphors: the four seasons. It represents the following. Firstly, just like the seasons, our mental health and wellbeing are not in a fixed state. We experience constant ups and downs. By accessing tools such as embodied awareness, reflexivity, and regulating skills, we can support ourselves and each other to navigate through these seasons of illness and health. 

Secondly, this metaphor understands mental health and wellbeing in the context of the ecosystem. Communities are made up of people in different seasons of life. Collective resilience implies that the pressure to bounce back from hardship is not the sole responsibility of the individual. When one person suffers, it affects everyone. Everyone plays a role in collective health; as a collective, we are stronger together. 

Collective resilience implies that the pressure to bounce back from hardship is not the sole responsibility of the individual. When one person suffers, it affects everyone.

Lastly, the seasons mirror people’s relationship with nature, and offer a platform to reflect on cultural and indigenous knowledge embracing nature as a source of healing.  

We begin our journey in the season of (re)birth: Spring.

SPRING SPRING

Tending to the Soil So the Seedlings Can Thrive

Three generations of men raise a baby boy in the air. Cerderberg, 2022. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective

In a community workshop, participants create an embodied image of Spring. A healing-centered approach to intergenerational trauma in family systems involves the adults developing reflective and regulating skills to take care of their own mental health, so that they are better aware of unhelpful patterns of relating in their families and community.

Burning David’s Root. Cederberg, 2022. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective

Arts activist Gershan Lombard facilitates a ritual of gratitude at the end of a community workshop, with the small children keeping a close and curious eye. Culturally-informed psychosocial practice includes honouring indigenous knowledge and spiritual practices of health and wellbeing to share this wisdom with the next generation.

Summer Summer

Young People’s Shining Stories

A Summer of Self-expression: Making our stories known. Robertson, 2023. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective
A Summer of Self-expression: Making our stories known. Robertson, 2023. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective

A group of young women share their story about Summer as a starting point to explore themes of health and wellbeing. It is vital to offer young people multiple ways to share their thoughts and feelings, as words are not always readily available to express their inner worlds. As one participant (grade 11, high school leaner) revealed to us:“You might have noticed that we are a generation that keeps to ourselves, and we don’t trust anyone with our feelings and our thoughts. Especially because we don’t know how to talk about our feelings and our thoughts. You have come to show us that we can also show you through our songs and through our dances how we feel and what we are thinking. And that is freedom.”

Glimmer Boxes shine light on tools for health. Koue Bokkeveld, 2023. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective
Glimmer Boxes shine light on tools for health. Koue Bokkeveld, 2023. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective

A young woman creates her “Glimmer Box”, a tool that supports participants to explore what resources are available to them to support their mental health and wellbeing. These include positive relationships, safe spaces, and activities that regulate their emotional states. Some of these are drawn, painted on stones, or represented by found objects in nature and placed in the box as tangible reminders of available support systems. 

“You have come to show us that we can also show you through our songs and through our dances how we feel and what we are thinking. And that is freedom.”

Autumn Autumn

A Season of Trust and Letting Go

Leaning into each other. Worcester, 2022. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective
Leaning into each other. Worcester, 2022. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective

A couple rests back-to-back and connects with each other’s breath. Our embodied, trauma-informed practice is drawn from Stephen Porges’ Polyvagal Theory as a way to understand the autonomous nervous system’s responses. This helps us understand our reactions to triggers and to develop tools for regulating and finding safety and connection in the present moment. The couple shared afterwards: “My partner and I are having difficulties in our relationship. This workshop has given us the space to sit and just be with each other, to re-connect, and we were able to talk about things. This had a positive influence on our children and family life.”

Bridging generations. Worcester, 2023. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective
Bridging generations. Worcester, 2023. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective

In a workshop for mothers and daughters, mothers embody the support of a bridge, coming together to keep a girl above water. This workshop took place during a time of heavy flooding in the area in which some participants had lost their homes. This role-playing offered a way to express the traumatic experience: “The only way to keep safe is when we all look after each other’s children. We are not alone in this world, and your child is my child,” shared one mother. The embodied work where non-verbal communication is encouraged also supported bonding between mothers and daughters: “Girls don’t open up to parents, this exercise helped us to open up to each other,” said a young participant.

“We are not alone in this world, and your child is my child.”

Women’s circles and cycles. Vlottenburg, 2019. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective
Women’s circles and cycles. Vlottenburg, 2019. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective

A group embodies the word “women” in Circles of Support, one of our workshops for women. This workshop explores the female menstrual cycle as its four phases are linked with the four seasons, inviting conversations around menstrual and sexual health, menopause, and mental health and wellbeing. These circles are filled with generational knowledge, beauty, hope, and wisdom. One participant expressed her joy:  “My experience was that I can be comfortable with myself as a woman. And I can express my feelings and accept my body. To be a woman is great!

Winter Winter

Embracing the Wisdom of the Elderly

Offering stories to the next generation. Cederberg, 2022. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective

A whole community, including the elderly, adults, youth, and children, are enchanted by a storytelling circle. We witnessed a beautiful moment where the children sat and listened to the stories of the elderly, and asked them questions about the history of their community. Such events where the stories of the elderly are centralized, offer a means to narrate collective and cultural history to the next generation.

Glimmer Maps. Cederberg, 2022. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective

Elderly men create their own Glimmer Maps to identify their “glimmers”: small moments when we are in a place of connection or regulation, which cues our nervous system to feel safe or calm – the opposite of triggers. They are made by tracing a hand on paper, followed by a symbol of nature representing the Self drawn into the palm. Each finger represents a glimmer with prompts from nature, for example: air for breath, fire for warmth, love, comfort and rest, water for movement, and earth for grounding. Finally, we connect the glimmers to our community, and include the name of a person who makes us feel safe.

Concluding Concluding

One Cycle, Inspiring Another

A core element of the Families and Collective Futures programme is the creative methodology. One participant reflected that the manner in which we engaged with them has helped people to come out of their shell, as “ons mense neem nie maklik deel nie” (“our people do not engage easily”). To help ease our participants out of these shells, we understand several contributing factors help create a sacred and safe space where mental health and wellbeing can be addressed:

A scaffolded approach to introduce arts-based work; 

The invitation to engage in any way that feels comfortable;

The knowledge that attendance is voluntary; and 

The modeling of respect, tolerance, and kindness. 

The above learnings speak to a healing-centered approach to trauma and essentially it is a message of hope. When we work within the ecosystem in a culturally-informed way, it creates space for innate and indigenous knowledge to be heard and received. As a result, when we understand that healing is available to everyone and happens in relation to each other, we can create circles of psychosocial support that are resilient enough to affect social change.

When we understand that healing is available to everyone and happens in relation to each other, we can create circles of psychosocial support that are resilient enough to affect social change.

Glimmers of girlhood: Families and Collective Futures are in our hands. Ganyesa, 2022. Credit: sp(i)eel arts therapies collective

We conclude this photo essay with a reflection of a participant on the theme of seasons and the image of a Glimmer Map, made by a young girl. “Every season produces something for the other season so that, in the end, nature can provide for us. Everything is a circle. And we are all part of the cycle.”

About The Author About The Author

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Meet Marlize Swanepoel

Marlize Swanepoel is a Dramatherapist and the founding director of sp(i)eel arts therapies collective, an NPO that addresses intergenerational trauma and co-create community-based models of mental health care that are culturally informed and relevant to the South African context. She serves on the Secretariat of the South African National Arts Therapies Association (SANATA) and is a guest lecturer at the University of Cape Town. She is an enthusiastic advocate for the Arts for Health movement in South Africa that speaks to healthcare from a global South perspective. She loves being in spaces of learning, unlearning and dancing.