how qualified am I?
Irk. What even are qualifications? Oftentimes a form of elitist gatekeeping and “proof” whiteness has officially warped and colonized a certain practice.
Some of my so-called “qualifications” are as follows:
Yogacise* (Yoga Exercise)
2023 CCA Yoga Nidra Teacher Training Course - with Rita Burgos - LA
2020 Trauma-Informed YTT 30 hours - with Sarit Rogers - LA
2020 Menstruality Leadership Programme - Virtual
2019 Restorative YTT 30 hours - LA
2018 Yin YTT 30 hours - LA
2017 Yin YTT 30 hours - SF
2014 YTT 200 hours - London
Anti-Racist, Anti-Colonial, Facilitation & Organizing
2023 The Colonial History of Climate
2023 Cultivating Culture
2022 Rhythm, Race and Revolution
2021 Bad Girls Race and Gender in Popular Culture
2021 Unmasking Whiteness Institute
2020 SURJ Abolition House Party organizer
2020 Coaching Essentials with CHJL
2019 - present JusticeLA - volunteer
2016 - present Light/Slant - facilitator
Other stuff
I’ve also sat two vipassanas. Sometimes I’m not sure I would recommend a vipassana, they definitely aren’t for everyone* or easy/peaceful - like life I guess. Sometimes I feel like it’s the best spiritually experiential process I’ve ever had (those that know will know I should also take ‘I’ out of all of that). I always want to talk about those experiences if you want to have a chat about it*.
I’ve also done a bunch of shorter silent retreats, in a bid to be more intertwined with my spiritual and energetic self. Preparing for the final leap.
Some of the best ‘training’ I’ve ever had is years and years and years (ongoing into infinity) of unpacking my family’s intergenerational trauma wound which is big and bloody. Now that deserves some kind of qualification.
Keep scrolling to the asterisks below
*My friend Priyanka says, white people should just call it yoga-exercise, so those are my yogacise et al qualifications.
**Paternalistic, heteronormative, rigid structure, a very (literal) hard thing to do, especially as a neurodiverse human. Amongst other things, I got a lift there with a Stanford University bro whose favorite book (passed on by his dad) was Fountain Head Revisted yikes, yeah he was only interested in what vipassana does to his magnificent mind.