Introducing Buried Wisdom
This post has been a long time coming. I’m both excited and mildly nervous to announce that I’m starting my own coaching and group facilitation practice, called Buried Wisdom.
So, what does a “coaching and group facilitation practice” even mean? Good question. But before I explain that, first here's some background on how I arrived on this path.
If you're reading this, you probably already know that I have always been avidly dedicated to education. In college, I decided I wanted to be a teacher, and that has been my main occupation over the past 15+ years. I chose that path because my own experience had taught me how education could broaden horizons, open doors to new opportunities, and help people find a sense of meaning and purpose in life. I believed that education was the best way to bring about liberatory social change in the world. Teaching adolescents how to analyze and make sense of history, government, psychology and other social science-related disciplines continues to be a primary passion and purpose of mine. I am still teaching history and psychology at Cincinnati Public Schools.
At the same time, over the past number of years working as a teacher and community organizer, my perspective on education, and the type of education humanity currently needs, has been evolving. On the one hand, I've realized that the standard classroom and traditional models of learning have their limits. What we learn in school has its value, but it usually doesn't begin to touch on some of life's biggest questions. Where do we go to learn how to build healthier relationships? Or to better understand the complex and sometimes hidden aspects of our own selves? Or how to recognize the connection between injustices and crises happening throughout the world with our own lives?
I started asking these questions during my decade-long sojourn outside of Cincinnati, largely in other countries and vastly different contexts. Since moving back home about ten years ago, I have been lucky enough to stumble into communities that have helped me explore them. I've experienced the power of personal healing and transformation that is enabled by spaces that allow for deep introspection, supported vulnerability, and brave intimacy. I participated in and eventually learned to help lead numerous retreats, classes, and groups dedicated to those ends. At the same time, I’ve experienced the liberatory power that comes with movement work that raises consciousness around systemic injustices—from police brutality, to housing insecurity, to labor-related issues we teachers face—and organizes with others to push for systemic change.
But I always noticed something missing in each of those two types of spaces—healing work and social justice organizing—almost as if each had something that the other needed, but ignored. Spaces encouraging self-help and personal transformation seemed to bypass our inter-connectedness, and the fact that structural inequities make it much harder for certain bodies to pursue transformation than others. Meanwhile, folks in the organizing world seemed to place all of their attention on changing systems, without acknowledging their own need for healing on a personal level. For a while, it seemed these two worlds operated in silos. I dreamt of integrating them, because I firmly believed that personal healing and collective justice have to go together.
It wasn't long before I realized that, surprise, I wasn't the first one to have this idea. I learned that thought leaders such as adrienne maree brown, Resmaa Menakem, Rev. Angel Kyodo Williams, Prentis Hemphill, Sonya Renee Taylor, and many others were laying out a path to collective justice that included healing as an essential ingredient. I had finally found a thread in movement work that lines up with my values. Over the past several years, I've been learning from these folks and dipping my feet into passing along what I've learned through men's groups, dream circles, and other one-off gatherings. Now, I'm starting Buried Wisdom with the hopes of making a more robust platform through which to offer a humble contribution to this work.
So what exactly is Buried Wisdom and what will it do?
Well, you can find out more by perusing other parts of the website. But here are the basics:
Coaching: I'll be offering one-on-one coaching sessions for individuals who are looking for someone to talk to about a range of things: relationships, personal growth, career transitions, or simply getting (back) in touch with their sense of purpose and passion. I'm currently pursuing certification in somatic coaching through the Strozzi Institute. "Somatic coaching" is a form of coaching that includes movement and attentiveness to the body as a way toward self-understanding, as opposed to only talking and learning through the mind.
Group facilitation: For the past several years I've been leading groups and teaching classes dedicated to the same overall goals mentioned above of personal transformation and collective liberation. Now I hope to facilitate classes and circles on a more regular and sustained basis, and have one starting in September.
There are a number of ways you can support me, many requiring only a few clicks:
Most helpful and easiest way: sign up for the Buried Wisdom mailing list (scroll to the bottom of the page to sign up). I promise not to flood your inbox, but only to send updates about classes or other offerings as well as writings posted to the website. You'll always be able to unsubscribe.
Help me find practice clients by sending/showing my website (see coaching services) to folks you know who may be interested, and/or by connecting me with them. I need to find 2 practice clients for my program by July 24. I can meet either online or in person in Cincinnati.
Forward the flyer and info about the men’s group I will be facilitating starting in the Fall, (or sign up yourself!). Especially if you have participated in a circle I’ve led before, I could use your help, because this kind of work relies heavily on word of mouth.
Like the facebook page and follow Buried Wisdom on Instagram
Reply to this message with some words of encouragement to cheer me on, or provide feedback.
I'd love to hear from any of you with thoughts, ideas, impressions, feedback, proposals to collaborate, or just words of encouragement! Of course, no pressure; it means a lot to me that you've taken the time to read this email; thank you!
Warmly,
John
