Speak Up Louder: Recent Episodes
The OMPowerment Project
"Speak up Louder" is born of our intention to elevate the voices of our community, including the leaders we serve, the partners we collaborate with, and the experts who inspire us. Through these conversations, we aim to raise collective consciousness around the transformative potential of mindbody practices for individuals, communities and our environment, and the importance of making these practices more inclusive and accessible for all.
In this episode, OMPowerment Project founder Julia Midland speaks with Psychotherapist, Trauma Informed Counselor, and Refugee Mental Health specialist Dr. Sanaz Yaghmai. Sanaz speaks to the power of community in finding space to feel seen and heard, and how her community has come together to grieve, heal, and act in response to the ongoing revolution in Iran.
About Dr. Sanaz Yaghmai
Sanaz is an Iranian-American, cis-gender woman, working at the intersections of mental health and social justice. She is a psychotherapist + trauma-informed consultant + yoga teacher with a commitment to people and communities of color. Her work centers around trauma-informed practices at the individual and collective level. She is also currently deeply focused on the #WomanLifeFreedom revolution in Iran; co-creating a grassroots coalition with Iranian activists, advocating for human rights in Iran.
Links to work:
Instagram: @dr.yaghmai
Reputable Accounts to follow for more information on what is happening in Iran:
@IranianDiasporaCollective
@diasporaforiran
@centerforhumanrights
@raeekayassaie
Thank you for listening to Speak Up Louder brought to you by TheOMPowerment Project. Special thanks goes to Dave Pickering, Julia Midland, Sally Balfourth and Jessica Green. Music was produced by Sofia Papadopoulos with vocals by Ava Riby-Williams. If you've enjoyed this conversation, please consider supporting our work by buying us a ko-fi or pledging via our Patreon page. Every bit contributed supports our efforts to continue creating meaningful content. Links to both are in the show notes.
In this episode, we welcome back Ompowerment Project founder Julia Midland and member of our board of trustees Abi Nolan. This episode is part of a bigger body of work that makes up our forthcoming training Conscious Activism. Abi andJulia discuss their experience and knowledge of how to design a project that addresses social justice and the practicalities of bringing a project into action.
About Abi Nolan
Abi is a social entrepreneur with a devoted interest in how health inequality and social disparity can be tackled through accessible wellbeing services. She is the Founder of Supply Yoga, a London based social enterprise that works hard to democratise access to psychosocial health improving wellness practices for underserved communities across the UK’s capital. Whilst currently on hold due to the C19 pandemic, she is also due to undertake an overseas research fellowship that will catalyse a project titled ‘ Shared social experiences as therapeutic interventions for psychosocial health: a community based model’ - her report will focus on the experiences of displaced communities. In her spare time, she contributes to casework for my local migrant centre and is a Mental Health Advocate with familiar knowledge of the complex, intersectional challenges faced by migrant communities in the UK.
Links to work:
Instagram: @supplyyoga
Website: www.supply.yoga
About Julia:
Julia has worked in international policy and humanitarian aid for over 15 years, evaluating the efficacy of aid programming and assessing impact against intended achievements. Specialising in gender and conflict, she has worked across numerous sectors, including education, humanitarian assistance,governance, health, counter-trafficking, illicit finance, and counter-terrorism. Her work across the globe, with particular expertise in conflict and post-conflict environments such as Somalia, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo,has given her an acute understanding of the problems with the typical aid model, and insight into how to make development programming more sustainable through equitable, community-centered intervention.Julia’s experience working with marginalised communities and her understanding that community-led interventions are more effective, have greater impact, and are more likely to generate sustainable change, led to the foundation of The OMPowerment Project.
Links to work:
Instagram: @jhmidland
Website: www.ompowerment.org
Thankyou for listening to Speak Up Louder brought to you by TheOMPowerment Project. Special thanks goes to Dave Pickering, Julia Midland, Sally Balfourth and Jessica Green. Music was produced by Sofia Papadopoulos with vocals by Ava Riby-Williams. If you've enjoyed this conversation, please consider supporting our work by buying us a ko-fi or pledging via our Patreon page. Every bit contributed supports our efforts to continue creating meaningful content. Links to both are in the show notes.
This episode discusses the balance, reciprocity and contractions in Self and Collective Care. We talk about the meaning of the individual and what is the collective, burn out and capitalism. The natural systems in forests are an example of self and collective care. The massive global system that we are challenging and the rage that this important for of activism can create.
Ava Riby-Williams, Sally Balfouth and Jessica Green are members of the OMPowerment Board of trustees and deliver the content in module 3 of Conscious Activism.
About Ava Rigy-WilliamsAva is a Creative Facilitator and Yoga Teacher. Her work focuses on using creativity to connect people, and guiding groups into deeper contemplation about issues concerning their liberation and wellbeing- on personal and collective levels. As a guide, Ava is clear that the point of her work is to encourage students to become their own inner teachers: she does this with young people and adults.
Links to work:
Instagram: @avazarah
Website: https://www.avazarah.com
About Sally Balforth
Sally is happiest when her hands and mind are occupied in a creative project. After spending years working in the creative industries, she moved to India in 2015 to deepen her study into the practices of yoga while assisting teacher training. Having returned back home in London in 2018, she teaches regular classes and serves as a committed volunteer to projects within her community. Sally's fascination with the therapeutic qualities of breath, mind and body practices have led to her current training to become a Yoga Therapist.
Links to work:
Instagram: @sally.balfourth
Website: www.sallybalforth.com
About Jessica Green
Jessica a mover and a grower, has worked in the communities of East London for 25 years. Since 2002 she has practiced yoga, slowly moving her work to teaching yoga full time and spending less time sitting at a desk. Jess was keen to see OMPowerment Project become a fully fledged Charity and has believed in its mission since its early stages of development, bringing her knowledge of the UK non-profit and charity sector into a beautiful synergy with experience of how movement and mindfulness can regulate the nervous system. She supports all aspects of Programming and regularly participates in the OMPowerment projects. She is already working in London sharing Yoga inspired movement practices and is dedicated to making her offerings available for all. Currently Jessica specialises in working with seniors, refugees and those in recovery from mental and physical ill health.
Links to work:
Instagram:@jgmovingandgrowing
Website: www.jessicagreen.net
Ava and Nadia discuss the dynamics of social justice and in-equity within society and culture. The responsibility we all have to address imbalances within society and ensure the availability of support and access for all. What it means to be aware of the inherited trauma within a culture and the healing necessary. What it means to meet everyone's needs.
About Nadia Gilani
Member of the Board. Nadia Gilani is a yoga teacher and author of the Yoga Manifesto. Her working background is in news journalism and communications, which she did for a decade before teaching yoga. After starting life out as a blogger and music reviewer, Nadia trained as a hard news journalist working on local papers before moving onto national titles. After a decade on news desks, having worked as a crime reporter, covered several elections and written dozens of features and front pages, Nadia worked as a communications manager at petition’s website Change.org and later crowdfunding platform GoFundMe.
Nadia has extensive experience of working with people with different bodies and from all walks of life. She is deeply committed to making yoga inclusive. Her teaching approach is contemporary, non-dogmatic and explorative, while maintaining a deep respect for the ancient Indian practice. In her view, anyone can practice yoga - it’s down to the teacher to take a flexible, compassionate and intelligent approach to help students find what best suits them.
Links to work:Instagram:@theyogadissident
Website: https://nadiagilani.co.uk/
About Ava Rigy-WilliamsAva is a Creative Facilitator and Yoga Teacher. Her work focuses on using creativity to connect people, and guiding groups into deeper contemplation about issues concerning their liberation and wellbeing- on personal and collective levels. As a guide, Ava is clear that the point of her work is to encourage students to become their own inner teachers: she does this with young people and adults.
Links to work:Instagram:@avazarah
Website: https://www.avazarah.com/
References:
James Baldwin - The Fire Next, Return of the Native, No Name in the Street
Nicole Cardoza - Anti Racism Daily
“Trauma in a person, decontextualized over time, looks like personality. Trauma in a family, decontextualized over time looks like family traits. Trauma in a people decontextualized over time looks like culture!”
Resmaa Menakemwww.fractalenlightenment.com **‘Social justice for me is really a framework for seeing the world and also acting, participating in the world aimed at resisting the unfairness and the inequity in the culture we live in and making a commitment to enhance freedom and possibility for all people.’
Ava Riby-Williams**
Episode Summary: We're delighted to be in conversations with Mei Lai Swan and Dr Lee Watson for the final episode of our first season. Mei Lai and Lee have come together in collaboration to create a powerful project called Circles of Connection. We talk about sustaining online community, creating containers for authentic conversation and the importance of connection.
Links to work: Fierce Calm/Yoga for Humankind/Circles of Connection Mei Lai Swan: Falling in love with the path of self-inquiry and personal evolution in her teens, Mei Lai has been studying eastern philosophies and meditation for over 20 years, and yoga for 18 years. A senior yoga teacher, Mei Lai is a certified Embodied Flow™ and trauma-informed yoga facilitator, with years of study and practice in Ashtanga, Vinyasa and Anusara yoga, meditation and yoga nidra.
Mei Lai is deeply interested in creating authentic spaces for fostering conversation, building community and sharing practices around embodied social justice and collective wellbeing.
With a BA in International Development/Environmental Studies and a Master of Social Work, Mei Lai spent many years working in remote Aboriginal communities running community development programs, before returning to Melbourne to run psychosocial programs with people seeking asylum. She has trained broadly in somatic-based trauma therapy, counselling, and Trauma Centre Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY-F) and combines these skills to deliver individual counselling, group work programs, and specially-tailored yoga programs for asylum seekers, refugees, disadvantaged youth, and people experiencing chronic pain and trauma.
Yoga for Humankind is where her passions for yoga, social justice and embodied social change unite, for a more just, awake and compassionate world for all.
Dr Lee Watson: After spending a large part of my professional life as an academic, consultant and in the media, I somehow found my way onto a yoga mat several years ago after using exercise as way to combat the kinds of mental health issues that affect more of us than many would readily admit.
With a background in the Humanities and a Cultural Studies PhD, my area of expertise is based upon narratives of identity. The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves. The more time I spent amongst the yoga community, the more I became aware of the incredible stories of transformation and recovery that stem from this ancient practice and it's incredible capacity for healing.
And in sharing those stories I've been introduced to the most incredible community of people doing great work helping and healing others - including themselves - through yoga. Connecting the healers and the healing. I am passionate about working for the greater good, about social justice and equity: simply, supporting and empowering others. Fierce Calm was created as a space for us to unite behind our individual stories and is evolving into a global movement committed to making a difference.
Thank you for listening to Speak Up Louder brought to you by The OMPowerment Project. Hosted by Sally Balfourth. Special thanks goes to Julia Midland, Izzie Owens and Richard Balfourth. Music was produced by Sofia Papadopoulos with vocals by Ava Riby-Williams.
If you've enjoyed this conversation, please consider supporting our work by buying us a ko-fi or pledging via our Patreon page. Every bit contributed supports our efforts to continue creating meaningful content. Links to both are in the show notes.
Episode Summary:In this episode, we have the pleasure of being joined by Fallone. Fallone was introduced to The OMPowerment Project when she attended their 2019 training in Nairobi, Kenya.
Today is about Fallone’s story, her first hand experience of the yoga training, her challenging journey to the United States and her experience with the practices of yoga.
Links to work referenced:RefuSHE. Nairobi, Kenya
Guest Bios:I'm Falonne Nganga, from Congo. I went to Kenya with my sister as refugees with no parents because our dad died and we were separated with our Mom. In Kenya, the refugee agency UNHCR sent us to RefuSHE, An organization that helps young refugee women. While there, I met other girls from different countries and we became sisters. I also had the chance to study and complete vocational training, and I got to participate in yoga training, which I really enjoyed because it was one way I used to deal with trauma and stress.
Since meeting Falonne during an OMPowerment training in May 2019, she has moved to the United States with her sister and is attending university.Thank you for listening to Speak Up Louder brought to you by The OMPowerment Project. Hosted by Sally Balfourth. Special thanks goes to Julia Midland, Izzie Owens and Richard Balfourth. Music was produced by Sofia Papadopoulos with vocals by Ava Riby-Williams.
If you've enjoyed this conversation, please consider supporting our work by buying us a ko-fi or pledging via our Patreon page. Every bit contributed supports our efforts to continue creating meaningful content. Links to both are in the show notes.
Episode Summary:
In this episode, we’re thrilled to be joined by Jessi Wolz and Mercy Owalla who both work with RefuSHE. Today you’ll get to hear more about the organisation, the work that they do, the impact it has and how the practices of yoga have been threaded through.
A word of warning: this episode makes reference to sexual and gender based violence
The RefuSHE Mission Statement
Through their extensive work with refugee communities in East Africa, co-founders Anne Sweeney & Talyn Good saw that the most vulnerable refugees – separated and orphaned girls and young women – often fell through the gaps of protection and became invisible. Understanding the risk of exploitation and abuse facing refugee girls in Kenya and in their home countries, Anne & Talyn wanted to take action. They set out to create a one-of-a-kind community for young, refugee women to learn, grow, and become leaders in their own right.
Over a decade later, RefuSHE has served thousands of women, girls, children, and infants through our holistic model. We are the first and only organization dedicated to refugee girls in Kenya. RefuSHE's programs have grown alongside the young women we serve, ensuring that our organization is for and by them.
Guest Bios:
Mercy Owalla
Mercy Achieng Owalla is a 25-year-old Kenyan. She holds bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Moi University and Higher Diploma in Project Management from Kenya Institute of Management. Mercy has over three years technical experience and expertise in programs in the urban refugee context. She joined RefuSHE early last year as a Case Management and Child Protection officer whereby she has been providing case work and counselling services to asylum seeking children and young adults who have experienced trauma, conflict, and violence. She recently also started teaching hatha and trauma informed yoga to the unaccompanied and separated children at the RefuSHE safehouse after her completion the 200-hour teacher yoga training with Rainbow Light France.
Jessi Wolz
Jessi Wolz completed her 200-hour YTT with Himalaya Yoga Valley in Goa, India and a 40- hour trauma-informed yoga training with Hala Khouri and Kyra Haglund in 2017. Jessi lives in Nairobi, Kenya where she founded and directs a yoga for trauma program for young gender-based violence survivors in Kibera slum. She also teaches trauma-informed yoga to unaccompanied refugee girls at RefuSHE, a non-profit in Nairobi. In 2019 she collaborated with The OMPowerment Project to train girls from both of these groups to become leaders of a trauma-informed yoga practice in their communities, and, in the process, became certified to facilitate OMPowerment trainings. She continues to deepen her education in trauma through the Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) program at Eastern Mennonite University and the Harvard Global Mental Health: Trauma and Recovery program.
Thank you for listening to Speak Up Louder brought to you by The OMPowerment Project. Hosted by Sally Balfourth. Special thanks goes to Julia Midland, Izzie Owens and Richard Balfourth. Music was produced by Sofia Papadopoulos with vocals by Ava Riby-Williams.
If you've enjoyed this conversation, please consider supporting our work by buying us a ko-fi or pledging via our Patreon page. Every bit contributed supports our efforts to continue creating meaningful content. Links to both are in the show notes.
Episode Summary:In this episode, we have the pleasure of speaking to Julia Midland and Jessica Green from The OMPowerment Project! We discuss the evolution of The OMPowerment Project, accessible tools for self regulation and the importance of co creation within the community space. Links to Works Referenced:Lifting Hands International. Serres, Greece:Willow International. Kampala, UgandaRefuSHE**. Nairobi, Kenya
Guest Bios:
The OMPowerment Project Mission Statement
The OMPowerment Project empowers individuals in at risk and marginalised communities across the world to build safer space and promote healing through the practices of trauma informed yoga. In training communities we co-create a sustainable wellbeing culture, which is transformative in relieving anxiety and restoring confidence and self esteem
Julia Midland
Julia has worked in international policy and humanitarian aid for over 15 years, evaluating the efficacy of aid programming and assessing impact against intended achievements. Specializing in gender and conflict, she has worked across numerous sectors, including education, humanitarian assistance, governance, health, counter-trafficking, illicit finance, and counter-terrorism. Her work across the globe, with particular expertise in conflict and post-conflict environments such as Somalia, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, has given her an acute understanding of the problems with the typical aid model, and insight into how to make development programming more sustainable through equitable, community-centered intervention. Julia’s experience working with marginalized communities and her understanding that community-led interventions are more effective, have greater impact, and are more likely to generate sustainable change, led to the foundation of The OMPowerment Project**
Jessica Green **Jess has worked in the communities of East London for 20 years. Since 2002 she has practiced yoga, slowly moving her work to teaching yoga full time and spending less time sitting at a desk. She now teaches in schools: with parents, teachers and students, in her local studios in Leyton and Walthamstow, in Hackney with a special project aimed at the over 50's to reduce isolation and aid wellbeing. Jess was keen to support/participate in The OMPowerment project as she already works in London with female refugees, sharing mindfulness, meditation, movement and breathing skills to help them cope with the symptoms of PTSD and anxiety.
Thank you for listening to Speak Up Louder brought to you by The OMPowerment Project**. Hosted by Sally Balfourth. Special thanks goes to Julia Midland, Izzie Owens and Richard Balfourth. Music was produced by Sofia Papadopoulos with vocals by Ava Riby-Williams.
If you've enjoyed this conversation, please consider supporting our work by buying us a ko-fi or pledging via our Patreon page. Every bit contributed supports our efforts to continue creating meaningful content. Links to both are in the show notes.
Episode Summary:In this episode, we have the honour of speaking to the incredibly knowledgeable Hala Khouri! We define trauma informed yoga, discuss the intersection of yoga and social justice and consider sources of division within the yoga and wellness industry.
We hope you enjoy the show! About Hala:Hala has been teaching yoga and movement for over 25 years and has been doing clinical work with people struggling with trauma, depression, anxiety or life transitions for 15 years. She also trains clinicians and yoga teachers, as well as educators and non-profits, to be trauma informed.
And, she is a co-founder of Off the Mat, Into the World, a training organization that bridges yoga and activism within a social justice framework. She says that her work is shaped by her life experiences and the stories that are shared with her the thousands of people she's had the privilege to be in contact with. Links to work:Hala’s WebsiteOff the Mat, Into the WorldRadical Wellbeing Thank you for listening to Speak Up Louder brought to you by The OMPowerment Project**. Hosted by Sally Balfourth. Special thanks goes to Julia Midland, Izzie Owens and Richard Balfourth. Music was produced by Sofia Papadopoulos with vocals by Ava Riby-Williams.
If you've enjoyed this conversation, please consider supporting our work by buying us a ko-fi or pledging via our Patreon page. Every bit contributed supports our efforts to continue creating meaningful content. Links to both are in the show notes.**
Episode Summary:
In this first episode, we are delighted to be joined by the wonderful Jonelle Lewis. We discuss belonging and inclusion in yoga and wellness spaces, the importance of self-study and steps to taking meaningful action, with particular attention to anti-racism work. About Jonelle:Be brave, be fierce, be free is Jonelle’s personal mantra and an invitation she extends to everyone who practices with her. She's passionate about movement & spiritual students which makes her an eternal student.
Jonelle dabbled with Ashtanga in 2004 when she was pregnant with her daughter Francesca. After a long break from yoga, in 2011 she began practicing with a purpose. While going through a difficult divorce she found her yoga practice really helped her get her life back. It was liberating, invigorating and healing.
In March 2014 she left London behind and went to India to complete her 200 hour yoga teacher training. She’s completed over 1000 hours of training and is certified in Ashtanga, Hatha, Hot, Mandala, Qi Gong, Rocket, Vinyasa & Yin yoga. Jonelle teaches live & online classes, retreats & teacher trainings.
Her classes are set to an urban sound track which is reflective of her roots and her passion for music, creativity and fluidity in life. From growing up in Philadelphia, living in London, NYC, LA and travelling the world extensively she brings an international vibration and an authenticity into classes which are edgy and filled with a lot laughter. She enjoys teaching inclusive classes and firmly believes ‘Yoga is for EVERYBODY’.
Links to work:Instagram: @jonelleyoga
Website: www.jonellelewis.com
Practice online: https://movementformodernlife.com/yoga-teacher/jonellelewis
**Thank you for listening to Speak Up Louder brought to you by The OMPowerment Project. Hosted by Sally Balfourth. Special thanks goes to Julia Midland, Izzie Owens and Richard Balfourth. Music was produced by Sofia Papadopoulos with vocals by Ava Riby-Williams.
If you've enjoyed this conversation, please consider supporting our work by buying us a ko-fi or pledging via our Patreon page. Every bit contributed supports our efforts to continue creating meaningful content.**
Welcome to Season One of Speak Up Louder: Stories for Justice, Change and Collective Awakening. In this snippet, we introduce you to what the podcast is all about.