Postures for Peace

This project will help a group of Healthcare practitioners, Rolfers® and Structural Integration Practitioners (SIPs) in Central and Eastern Europe and their communities that are in need of more skills while living in a high stress region due to war in Ukraine.

Resources will go towards providing self care skills for practitioners in this region and teaching them specific skills they need to treat their clients in these affected communities.

Structural Integration (SI) is a therapeutic method designed to evoke whole-body improvement of function and wellbeing.

These practitioners are responding to the intense human needs of Ukrainians displaced by war in the region by:

1) Driving innovative, regenerative practices within the Structural Integration (SI) community.

and

2) Giving those treated by the SI community in the region a greater chance to remain connected to their sense of safety and vitality. This connection, safety, and protection is the critical foundation for recovery from traumatizing experiences and the ability to lead a functional, healthy life after such experiences.

We need your financial support to make this a reality.

Project Background

There are three distinct populations that need our help:

- The war-affected refugees (may not immediately receive SI but still in the mix)

- The bodyworkers providing them with healing touch

- The communities that have taken them in.

It's not known yet if refugee's will make it to the treatment table but we are aware that those that support this displaced population are in need of touch.

These mostly practitioners require a developmental framework, hands-on training, and additional tools to advance their skills.

In Person Support and Training is critical

- Practitioners will be taught innovative, regenerative practices for immediate use.

- Those treated by practitioners in the region have a greater chance to remain connected to their sense of safety and vitality.

- This connection is the critical foundation for recovery from traumatizing experiences and the ability to lead a functional, healthy life after such experiences.

The Problem

Central / Eastern European practitioners don’t have the financial resources required to get the continual education and mentorship they need from professionals with experience.

The Solution

This project will build a supportive foundation where practitioners can bring in their work challenges and tensions.

Specific skills required

Interpersonal and relational skills needed in sessions include:

-Attachment education (teaching beginning skills to create more safety, trust and cohesion with clients),
-Verbal skills specific to stay within the scope of SI, and
-Beginning approaches to working with high stress and trauma in the body.

Enhance Practical Skills

Deep dive into specific SI ways of working, focusing on skills needed to provide the integrative aspects of touch, including:
- Tracking,
- Pelvic lift,
- Back work,
- Neck work,
- Movement awareness,
- Verbal skills for cueing movements.

Ongoing Support and Mentorship

We’ll create a confidential space to deliver support, problem solve and understand challenges based on the needs of the practitioner.

Because bodyworkers are isolated, our support and a place to debrief and talk will offer a connection and community for them.

Group work invites peer learning and provides a shift into the collective work of becoming the teacher, as opposed to the community relying on a single person as a guru.

The teaching of these “soft skills” provides development of touch, observational, and communication skills. SIPs are experts at touching into the fascial system, but are rarely trained outside of a limited basic training experience for skillful listening, responding, and knowing when to effectively use language to support the body and client as a whole person.

Methodology and Logistics

Postures for Peace beginning in the winter of 2023 will provide hands-on, cohort, and mentor programming through six, four-day, in-person training sessions in Prague led by Liz Stewart and her team.

A series of twice-monthly Zoom sessions between trainings will allow for the cohort to consult on cases, and share their learning, insights, and emerging challenges.

Funding Requirements

Beginning in Winter 2023, the anticipated budget for the project, including transportation, lodging, food, staff, daily COVID testing, and classroom space is approximately $50,000 per year, for the two-year engagement.

- Funding will send a highly-qualified 2-person training and mentorship team into Prague, Czech Republic to include a senior trainer / practice mentor.

- Logistical support will be provided by an experienced local event organizer and an English/Czech interpreter with specialized knowledge of SI vocabulary.

- We’ve already have interest with 25 practitioners in this region looking to advance their skills and to apply them directly to their local population. Training groups will be limited to 12 participants which means two groups are already forming. This is exciting as the interest keeps is growing.

Metrics for Success

The funding will give us the capacity to train local participants who are in need of this education to advance their skills as SI practitioners and to apply these skills directly to the refugee community as well as those serving the refugee community, and by training future trainers.

Finally....

We are in the developmental stage of this project and an important goal is to collect enough funds to complete the project. This funding will provide a two-year window for access to a highly-qualified training and mentorship team, including a senior trainer, accompanied by a classroom assistant and practice supervisor. Logistical support will be provided by an experienced local therapeutic event organizer and an English/Czech (and Polish if needed) interpreter with specialized knowledge of the Structural Integration vocabulary.

The anticipated budget for the project, including transportation, lodging, food, staff, and classroom space is approximately $100,000 for the first two year engagement.

We need your financial support to make this a reality.