This is a new workshop series for people who identify as women or non-binary, offered by Jenny Leis and Tasha Harmon. Join us this winter for facilitated reflection dedicated to listening to our own hearts and wisdom in service to transformation. We will use interactive facilitated exercises, writing, art, and gentle movement to explore where you are now, and what you want to create in your life going forward.
Are you asking:
Who am I now?
What do I want?
What are my strengths and gifts?
What do I offer the world?
What are my truths?
What life do I want to be living?
What are my resources?
How do I do this?
As humans, we often find uncertainty deeply challenging. It is easy to fall into fear, but there are gifts in these times of upheaval:
- Distractions fall away; we see bigger questions and discover what is most important.
- Previous assumptions disappear; possibilities emerge that we would not have seen.
- Where there is fear there is power; times of chaos reveal our power.
- Our courage and passions emerge; we are more open to our own wisdom.
Will you lock down, or reach out for who you are becoming?
Gain access to your best self. Step into your power, and feel joyful giving your gifts. The world, and the people you love, need you.
Workshop #1 (Feb. 2): Roots
Your roots run deep and wide and have much nutrition to offer your continued growth — take a day to explore where you come from, the ground you stand on. Identify the seeds you have already planted or ideas that may be germinating. By starting with reflection on and visually mapping your life journey, you will build the ground to grow and learn from your own path.
Workshop #2 (March 1): Trunk
Your trunk is your strength and connection from roots to branches — past to present. In workshop #2 you will focus on getting to know your personal “operating system” in deeper ways that will help you be effective moving forward. Who are you now? What are your personalized leadership qualities, skills and desires to give the world?
Workshop #3 (April 5): Branches
In Workshop #3 we celebrate your branches! What future are you creating? What are you reaching for? Strengthening? Pruning? Letting go of? What steps can you take to create what you can almost see? We will offer tools for getting unstuck, welcoming personal transformation and continuing your reflective action as you move forward with your evolving self.
We will base each workshop with identifying your core values as a way to make decisions.
The Details
The workshop series will happen on three Sundays: February 2nd, March 1st and April 5th from 10:00 to 5:00. We will meet in the beautiful community yurt at Tryon Life Community Farm in SW Portland. The setting will be rustic, but comfortable (heat, chairs, pillows and blankets, composting toilets). It is not ADA accessible, and requires crossing unpaved and somewhat rough ground. Please ask if you have accessibility concerns.
The cost for all three-sessions is $475. That price reflects our direct costs and a modest payment to the facilitators. We want to make this group as accessible as possible. If $475 is unaffordable for you, you may give between $350-$475. If you are able to contribute more to help others attend, please consider $475-$650.
If you plan to attend one or two days then we ask for $175/day. If $175 is unaffordable for you, you may pay between $125 and $175/day. If you are able to contribute more to help others attend, please pay between $175/day and $300/day.
You can pay via check, cash, Paypal or Venmo. We ask you to pay in full before the first session, but call us if you need a payment plan.
Workshop participants also get a special rate of $50/hour for individual coaching sessions done with Tasha between February 1st and May 31st, 2020. (The normal rate is $80/hour.)
To Register: Email your interest to Jenny at jennyleis@gmail.com or call/text her at 503-548-8459. She will respond with a confirmation, answers to questions, and payment details. The registration deadline is January 15th. We need a deposit of $100 by then to secure your spot. Payment in full is required by January 27th (ask if you need a payment plan). This training will be capped at 12 people so we recommend signing up soon.
Refund Policy: Cancellations before January 15th can apply their $100 deposit to coaching with Tasha, or get a $50 refund. Cancellations between January 15th and January 27th forfeit the $100 deposit, but anything else paid will be refunded. After January 27th we cannot make refunds.
Parking: Parking is limited at the Farm, so once we know who is coming, we will help you arrange carpools either from your homes, or from a nearby public parking lot.
Workshop Leaders
This workshop will be co-led by Jenny Leis and Tasha Harmon.
Jenny is a spark of enthusiasm! She has 20-years experience developing organizational systems for grassroots non-profits, facilitating collective group process, managing volunteers, organizing campaigns, raising funds and hosting events. Immersed in the “movement of movements” since 2001, she is inspired and informed by innovative social change efforts that foreground healthy group process as a necessary foundation for creating external change.
Jenny’s master’s degree in Whole Systems Design is accompanied by decades of practical experience in learning what makes groups and individuals thrive. Over the past several years, she has deepened her commitment to anti-oppression and is working to better understand and change both the systems and behaviors that perpetuate oppression.
After a decade of working with small non-profits, Jenny is now focusing her skills, energy and experience on facilitating, teaching and supporting individual and group changemakers. She specializes in consensus decision-making, visual thinking (translating ideas into folk graphics), facilitated reflection, and helping people thrive (even have fun!) as they navigate complex social and interpersonal issues. Her teaching style is based in compassion for the hard work of social change, lighthearted silliness, interactive activities and commitment to healthy communication.
Jenny lives in the Cedar Moon intentional community located at Tryon Life Community Farm, a seven-acre non-profit sustainability/anti-oppression education center, which she co-founded in 2005.
A bit about me (Tasha) as it relates to this workshop series.
I am a facilitator, trainer and coach for individuals, relationships and organizations of all shapes and sizes. While that work takes many forms, it is always focused on transformational (not just incremental) change, and I always invite the wisdom of the whole person, including the body, to lead the process of discovering what each of us needs to thrive, as individuals and in relationships and groups. Practices I draw from include co-active coaching, participatory decision-making, nonviolent communication, voice dialogue, and others.
I am a lifetime social justice activist, and am currently deepening my practice around privilege and anti-oppression work. I am a cis-gendered bisexual woman, obsessed with neuroscience and how it helps us understand humaning and get better at it. I am also a practicing writer, musician, step-mother and grandmother. These days I am learning a whole new set of perspectives and skills as a care-partner both for my partner who has Parkinson’s Disease and my aging parents. You can find yet more about me on the about Tasha page of this website.
