Foster Care Training

When we engage in conversations about self-care, the representational politics of this discourse are generally steeped in whiteness.  Self-care, and often the mindfulness movement in general, uses language and framing that speak to a white-dominant middle class culture, and which therefore poorly meets the needs of other cultures to see themselves reflected in its basic worldview, assumptions, language, and values.  How then do we extract the value of restorative practices, including mindfulness, and nature connection, which are truly ancestral and universal, but set them within a cultural context that makes them relevant and accessible within other cultural frames?  How do we (re)claim appropriate symbols and frameworks that take into consideration culture, race, class, and gender and the ways these shape understanding of what self-care and restorative practices might mean.  In this training we’ll tackle these questions, and work to formulate cultural-specific framings of self-care and restorative practice that are more effective in translating universal concepts into particular cultures and conversations.