FORMATION HEALING ARTS
SOMATIC SKILLS FOR SURVIVING, HEALING & THRIVING
WORKSHOPS WITH CITY OF MINNEAPOLIS EMPLOYEES
Please note that these sessions are only open to current City of Minneapolis Employees.
Healing Session for War-Related Trauma
4/13/22 12pm-1pm
On Zoom
During times of conflict, violence, and war, life can feel overwhelming. We may feel elevated levels of stress during chaotic times of unrest and uncertainty, increasing the stress load on our physical and emotional systems, and challenging our mental and physical health and wellbeing.
How do we find ease and renewal through these times? In this Somatic Skills session, we will learn about the impact that violence, war displacement, and disconnection have on our physical and emotional systems. We will learn and practice skills that support our physical and mental health through and after trauma experienced because of violence and war. We will practice simple techniques that can be used in our own day-to-day lives to support finding ease and reducing the wear and tear of stress on our systems, learning skills that increase the production of renewing and restorative biochemicals in our bodies.
This session centers folks who have experienced and are experiencing trauma related to civil unrest, violence, war, and forced migration, including those who may be impacted by the war in Ukraine.
If you would like to participate in this somatic healing session please follow this link.
This session will be hosted by Anna Meyer, Founder of Formation Healing Arts, who is a locally based Holistic Healing Practitioner and Consultant working for healing justice through creating restorative connections with ourselves, each other, our living natural world, and the systems we live within. Learn more at www.formationhealingarts.com.
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Somatic Skills for Trauma Healing
2/15/22, 2/16/22, 2/17/22, 2/18/22
On Zoom
Over the past couple of years, our Minneapolis communities have experienced increased levels of stress, isolation, trauma, and racialized violence; all of which, impact our everyday lives. Our City employees are part of those communities. Feb. 15-18, Anna Meyer founder of Formation Healing Arts, will be offering somatic healing sessions that offer skills to support our nervous systems through these overwhelming times.
The sessions will be held in both non-caucused and caucused spaces. In caucused spaces, folks who have similar experiences can come together to heal and grow in a way that acknowledges and allows for the unique ways their shared identities may impact their experiences and healing.
Black, Indigenous, Asian Pacific Islander, Latinx, and people of color -identified staff
5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 15
Register.
All staff
11 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 16
Register.
First responder-identified staff
5 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 17
Register.
White-identified staff
11 a.m. Friday, Feb. 18
Register.
Each 60-minute class is eligible for 250 wellness points, up to a total of four classes per year. Visit the Benefits webpage for more information.
In addition to the above sessions, Human Resources is working with Formation Healing Arts to plan future sessions throughout the year. We envision these to also include dedicated sessions for identities not listed above.
More about somatic healing Somatic healing refers to body and mind-based healing that works with our felt sense and imagery of experience. Our emotions create biochemical reactions in our systems and impact our heart rhythms, amongst so many other of the systems in our bodies and brains. What is felt sense? Think about a time when you have felt so angry you felt like you were going to explode – that is the felt sense of an experience of emotion. That felt sense of anger has an immediate impact on your biochemical reactions, heart rhythm and so much more. Learning skills to help increase your awareness and work with your felt sense of experiences and emotions, can support better overall health and wellbeing.
Stress is the leading contributing factor for over 90% of health challenges we experience. How we prepare for, respond to, and find resolution during times of ongoing, acute stress and trauma have huge impacts on our nervous systems. Together in these somatic healing sessions, we will practice techniques that can support our nervous systems to find more ease. Being both a City employee and a member of the community can create many layers of tension and stress in our systems and a duality for our minds, bodies, and spirits. We will learn skills that when practiced in our daily life, can offer small shifts of resolution and renewal for our systems so we can survive and keep working for the survival and wellbeing of our communities as we create systems that offer thriving for all.
About Anna Meyer
Anna Meyer, Founder of Formation Healing Arts, comes to this work passionate about her communities. Meyer is a longtime Southside Minneapolis resident and has worked in local and national communities for social and healing justice for over 25 years. The skills and practices Meyer shares are ones that she utilizes in her own daily life to survive and continue to work for social and healing justice amidst the chaos, trauma, and violence in communities and white supremacist systems of colonization. Meyer is a light skinned mixed race queer who lives, works, plays, loves, and heals on the Southside of Minneapolis and beyond. Learn more and connect with Meyer.
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11/29/21 A Note from Anna...
Dear City of Minneapolis Employees,
I invite you and your colleagues in the city to the Somatic Skills for Stress Management that I am hosting over the next month for City of Minneapolis employees. Please feel free to forward this email to folks who might be interested in learning skills to help support more ease and resiliency in their day to day lives.
Our stress and trauma levels have been high the past couple of years. We have experienced so much. Some things have shifted and still, there is much work to still be done in our city and communities. We have anger, hopelessness, frustration, despair and shame impacting our nervous systems and communities at escalated levels. This workshop offers participants an opportunity to learn and practice body based skills, such as breathing, focus and gentle movement to help settle our nervous systems and create more ease in our systems to help us survive another day to continue working for our families and communities to thrive.
This workshop will offer information about our nervous systems and teach participants skills that they can practice in their own day to day lives to offer healing and renewal in times of stress and trauma. The skills taught will include HeartMath techniques that focus on coherence between our hearts and brains and create new patterns of renewal. This somatic based work will support individual healing and stress management and also offer skills that support our communication with other people.
I hope you will join me for this workshop once or more! I live, work, play, and love in South Minneapolis and love our communities deeply. I have worked with various city departments over the years on projects; the most recent was being a CreativeCity Making Artist working with NCR to achieve a complete count for the Census 2020. I am honored to have an opportunity to support the folks who work so hard on our City staff. I use these skills myself daily to survive and move our communities to thriving and hope to practice these skills with you over the next month.
Sessions are offered during all three shifts – 11am, 5pm and 9pm between Tuesday, November 30th through Wednesday, December 22nd. Sessions are offered in four identity groups – Citywide employees (all employees are welcome), BIPOC identified employees, First Responder identified employees and White employees.
To learn more and register for sessions, please visit: https://www.formationhealingarts.com/cityofmplssomaticskills
This workshop was created in partnership with Regulatory Services and is offered to all current City of Minneapolis Employees.
With deep gratitude for all you do for our communities, Anna
Founder, Formation Healing Arts
Somatic Skills for Stress Management
November 2021 - December 2021
Attend somatic healing sessions to learn skills for stress management.
Following the election and leading up to the upcoming trials, many City of Minneapolis employees are experiencing increased levels of stress and trauma. Learn skills to support your mental health and well-being and increase resilience to process the impact of the past 18 months and find more ease now and in the future.
Anna Meyer, founder of Formation Healing Arts, will lead participants through somatic-based practices in a dozen caucused somatic healing sessions Nov. 30-Dec. 22. All classes will be 60 minutes long and held virtually on Teams. Each class is eligible for 250 wellness points, up to a total of four classes per year.
Somatic simply means body-based. How do we work with our nervous systems to help us find more ease in our day-to-day lives when stress and trauma keep lingering? The skills we will be practicing are body- and mind-based skills to utilize in our own day-to-day lives to support coherence in our systems. HeartMath Institute's research demonstrates that practicing coherence between our heart and brain has powerful positive effects on our mental, emotional and physical health; stability and resilience. It also impacts our heart rhythms, rate, immune system, sleep quality, and overall energy levels. We will be practicing HeartMath skills as a part of these classes that are easy to apply to our day-to-day lives.
The sessions, organized as a follow-up to the Day of Racial Reckoning events in May, will be held in caucused spaces. In caucused spaces, folks who have similar experiences can come together to heal and grow in a way that reduces or eliminates the harm on staff identified as Black, Indigenous, Asian-Pacific Islander, Latinx, and people of color.
These sessions are only open to current City of Minneapolis Employees.
City of Minneapolis Employees: Learn more and register here.