The Intersection of Personal Empowerment and Collective Liberation
I have a love-hate relationship with group spaces. As a neurodivergent person, I find navigating them—much like navigating relationships—extremely challenging. I often feel like an outsider, and the question of belonging (especially to a neurotypical world) feels like a pebble in my shoe. Yet, on a professional level, I love facilitating group fields. Being in a clear role supports my brain’s functioning, and my intuition fully activates when I can see the whole field and hold space for group processes and connection. The collective weaving of individual energies is truly unique—if you know, you know.
One of my biggest challenges with group fields, workshops, or trainings is that I find many of these spaces unsafe and rife with microaggressions. In the past, this mostly stemmed from a lack of basic trauma and nervous system education. Thankfully, this has shifted somewhat in recent years, and many spaces now claim to be trauma-informed. But what I feel is still deeply missing—and something that’s becoming more apparent to me—is awareness of the social and systemic context of trauma.
What’s often lacking is education and understanding around social justice issues. Whether it’s about disability (I tend to see neurodiversity as a form of disability, especially in relation to societal norms), racism, transphobia, or heteronormativity, these crucial issues are still missing from the awareness of many group facilitators.
I long to meet facilitators who hold these issues at the forefront in their group spaces. If you’ve been in a space infused with this level of awareness, I’d love to hear about your experience!
Why?
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