In this episode we talk with one of our teachers in the healing centered education world, Dr. Kia Darling-Hammond. Dr. Kia is a psychologist, researcher, educator, and coach, as well as creator of the Bridge to Thriving Framework©, co-author of The Civil Rights Road to Deeper Learning: Five Essentials for Equity, and co-editor of T* Is for Thriving: Blueprints for Affirming Trans* and Gender Creative Lives and Learning in Schools. As CEO of Wise Chipmunk LLC, a research and education firm, she leverages over 25 years of experience in organizational leadership, education, and youth development to offer research, advising, coaching, and public speaking, as well as designs for professional learning, curriculum development, and organizational growth. Dr. Kia’s work emphasizes the importance of combining the science of learning and development with healing- and transformative justice to promote an evolution toward true thriving for all. This approach is grounded in the knowledge that innovation driven by the wisdom of those furthest from power is key to improving everyone’s lives.
Have a listen to Episode 6 at any of these locations: Youtube (includes captions), Apple, Spotify, WebsiteSacred is hosted by executive producers, Angela Carolina Garcia and Lauren Stauble, and produced by RJ Bee. It’s brought to you by Engage: feel.think.connect.
Episode 6 Reflection Prompts:
- When are the times when you feel least connected? As Dr. Kia recommends asking ourselves, what might be getting in the way of connection for you in those moments?
- When do you need to practice saying, “No”? Where do you feel it in your body?
- Dr. Kia provided this provocation: “If you let yourself mourn, you’re gonna probably have an easier time letting yourself laugh…Is there anything here that I could let go of or move or get help with so I could have a little more spaciousness?” Where are places/spaces in your body that you can soften during the mourning process?
- Sometimes we experience children’s resistance and defiance as bad behavior. Or their dreaming as a distraction from what we feel is more important at the time. We might be triggered in lots of ways because these concepts can be, or be perceived as, related to power. What daily practices can help you cultivate softness towards children’s dreaming, hopefulness, resistance, defiance? How might this practice guide you in your liberation work?
- Dr. Kia invited us to “reclaim the park” as a way of playing in a third space. What spaces in your community need reclaiming? What role might you play in reclaiming them?