Exploring Dimensions of Spirituality on the Front Lines: A Workshop for
Personal Exploration in Troubled Times
Date and time: Friday, June 27, 2008, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Location: Charlottesville, VA; Cost: $95 (includes beverages, snacks,
and lunch)

To register, click here
<http://www.mettaknowledge.com/training/workshop-registration> .

In this workshop, we will explore how the experience of violence often
opens up in ourselves and others a yearning for a more spiritual way of
seeing the world and life. We will examine how and why this happens and
how to harness it in ourselves and our clients in the process of forging
greater peace. In the process, we will learn how to talk about religion
and spirituality in a way that is respectful of differences in beliefs.

Violence and trauma are ubiquitous in our world today. Many people are
seeking answers to pressing questions. How can we stop the cycle of
violence? Why is there so much violence? How can we find peace? These
are fundamentally spiritual questions, no matter what our religious,
moral, or spiritual beliefs and values. The answers, if we find any,
touch upon basic questions about why there is suffering and our faith in
whether healing and change in ourselves, the people we work with and the
world at large are possible. Indeed, an experience of violence towards
ourselves or others can lead us to a crisis of meaning and faith.

Many of us work with client populations dealing with these challenges.
Many of us have faced our own. Working with survivors of trauma can also
deplete us or trigger our own crisis. While there is greater acceptance
of the need to address the psychological and physical causes and effects
of violence, as professionals, we tend to skirt the issue of meaning and
spirituality in the interest of not imposing our own belief systems on
others. Or we lack a constructive vocabulary to do so. This workshop
helps us explore how we can address our own and each individual's
spirituality and experiences of violence and peace in respectful ways.
It helps us explore the spiritual dimensions of violence and if and how
real peace can be achieved.

The Art of Surviving is a collaborative project of the Virginia Sexual
and Domestic Action Alliance <http://www.vadv.org/> (VSDVAA) and the
University of Virginia Women's Center and is funded by the Virginia
Foundation for the Humanities <http://www.virginiafoundation.org/>
(VFH) since 2006 as a way to explore the spiritual dimensions of
violence revealed in the artwork and writings of survivors of sexual
violence. We will use samples of this work as a way to launch into
exploring the spiritual questions evoked by experiences of violence and
how self-expression may or may not address them.

We will use and teach methods and theories from psychology and various
experiential, action-oriented tools drawn from healing traditions
worldwide. The goal will be for participants to emerge with the
following:

• Personal renewal and a greater sense of hope about the future
of the world.
• A deeper understanding of the intersection between physical,
emotional, and spiritual effects of violence.
• Tools to support maintaining inner peace in the "war
zone" of working with sexual and domestic violence.
• Tools and understandings about how to evoke spiritual issues and
questions while respecting differences in value and faith systems.
• Information about The Art of Surviving project and how to use
it in your professional setting to foster similar questions about
"the art of surviving" and spiritual life.

To register, go to http://www.mettaknowledge.com/training/workshop-registration
.

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Shamanism and the Art of Play: Finding Wholeness through Creativity

Date: Saturday, July 19, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Location: Charlottesville, VA

In this workshop, we engage our natural spontaneity and courage to be ourselves
and to release ancient traumas through play, ritual, and art. Indigenous healing
practices are rooted in the use of art, ritual, and play to engage directly with
the unconscious and the energies in our lives. In the western model of working,
we use talk therapy to bring us to deeper understandings of ourselves and to
enable to see how we can change patterns. In shamanic work, we work with art,
ritual and play to engage change processes natural to our body's healing
mechanisms. Working at this level can bring dramatic changes in ourselves and
the world around us with great ease and fun. For those of us who work in the
role of helper in our homes or workplaces, this workshop will be restorative and
will help us rediscover the ability to play as a path to good self-care.