Building Emotional Resilience in Community: Community Counseling Level 1

Mending the Heart

October to November 2024​

We know that the last four years have been difficult for many of us in the world. In our society many were already struggling with feeling lonely, anxious or stressed, and the pandemic has made things worse.

For those of us in social change, the stress is heightened because we already deal with people’s pain in our work – whether it’s through fighting an eviction or a deportation, helping work through a political campaign or people’s traumas, or being a first responder to a crisis. This was true even before the pandemic.

When we feel stressed, we use whatever tools are available to deal and cope. But sometimes, many of us realize that we need more personal tools if we’re going to deal with so much pain, and that we also need tools in our groups or organizations.

Sometimes in that journey we need a refresher, and other times we need a whole new set of tools and practices so we can be more resilient in the face of isolation, stress, anxiety, trauma, etc.

For some years now and alongside many others, we have been thinking about creating more tools for people to do just that. This is what our Mending the Heart Cohort is for. It is tailored for people who are doing social change work, whether you’re just starting or have many years of experience, so you can get a framework (an understanding or perspective) on emotional resiliency that is based on psychotherapy, neuroscience, Indigenous wisdom, and community work. That can honor all of these perspectives and addresses both individual and group resiliency. Where we can also learn simple, key practices that you can do regularly to build resiliency for yourself and for a group. 

Our Mending the Heart cohort is a 7 week group experience where we will:

  • Learn frameworks that will help us understand our anxiety, stress, loneliness, and group tensions better.

  • Be together – sharing stories, doing rituals, and trying on practices to mend our hearts. We want this experience to give you some love and healing, where you will be tenderly supported and challenged to grow.

  • Reflect and do some self-inventory to face some of what you are struggling with, get support from others, and find ways to intentionally build emotional resiliency for yourself.

  • Come up with small things we can do to create better results for the group work we already do.

LaRae, California

“The training gives fundamental tools for shaping a mindful work culture that holds space for people to have a sense of communal care amongst one another. This type of mindfulness is vital for the sustainability of the people who stand for social justice.”

Gloribell, Massachusetts 

“Mending the Heart is not for the faint of heart. This cohort guided me to reach deep into my heartbreaks and be vulnerable like never before. It allowed me to stretch my capacity as well as find the courage to explore my deepest loss, fears, and shame with practices grounded in mutual support with peers on the same path of mending our brokenness.”

Who is the Mending the Heart Cohort for?

  • If you want to feel more connected, you need support in letting go, you want to strengthen your heart muscles, or you want to address some things that came up during the pandemic through a group process, please come! We hope this can be a balm of love to your heart where you’ll be able to connect with others doing social change work.

  • If you want to learn some new tools or rethink how you think about individual and group resiliency, join us to hear our frameworks and try some things out.

  • If you want to think about resiliency and how it affects your group or organization and some of the small things you can do to increase group resiliency, this is also for you!

  • This program operates according to the Gift Economy, which means the Ayni Institute will subsidize the cost of trainers, preparation, coordination, logistics, training location and food for all days of the training. We ask participants to cover their transportation/travel costs and lodging if you would prefer not to be housed communally (stay at a community member’s house). We are seeking to make this experience as financially accessible as possible. Because of this, there will be no entry cost or charge for any accepted applicants. At the end of training, if you have benefited from the experience, you are welcome to donate and gift the experience to the next Mending the Heart Cohort, according to your volition and your means.

  • We will have an Orientation Training and then weekly sessions. See below for more information.

    Number of participants: We’re going to have a maximum of 27 participants. The application closes on August 15th and we will be notifying people about their acceptance by September 3rd. We encourage you to apply early. If you previously attended, you can find the alumni application here.

    Orientation Dates: We have two options for the Orientation:

    In-person: on October 4-5 in either Revere, MA or upstate NY.

    Online: October 12, 10am-6pm

    After the orientation, we will have 6 weekly sessions virtually from October 23rd to November 25th.

  • Transportation/Travel

    We ask participants to arrange and cover their own travel/transportation cost.

    Lodging

    The in-person Orientation will either be in Revere, MA or upstate, NY. Below you can find out more about either option.

    In Revere, MA there are a few options:

    There is a hotel located just a few minutes away from the training school, The Comfort Inn, which you can book if you want to be as close to the training site as possible.

    You can arrange shared accommodations (Airbnb, etc.) with other participants. Please let us know if you are interested in this option in your application.

    We may be able to arrange humble accommodations with one of our Ayni community members. Please let us know you need it in our application here.

    In upstate, NY we will all be lodging together at a retreat center. More information will be shared once the Orientation location is confirmed.

  • COVID Precaution (In-person participants):

    For our in-person training, our Ayni Team will be testing consistently. We ask that before attending the Orientation you test negative, this ensures we don't accidentally put others at risk of COVID-19 (especially those that are immunocompromised in our training team and within our participant cohort).

    We encourage you to wear a mask, especially if we are indoors, but they are not required in order to participate. Please do what you feel most comfortable doing.

    If COVID symptoms arise, please contact us immediately and refrain from coming in person. Even if symptoms do not arise and you feel you have been exposed, please get a PCR test (it can be done at your local CVS) to ensure you are negative before coming back to being in-person.