Healing the Healers

In the Fall of last year, I had the opportunity to be in community with a group of “DEI”* consultant practitioners in “conservation”* to discuss how we saw the field, what connected us, what bubbled up for us in how we approached the work, and what we felt like we needed as practitioners - along with any other associated topics that came up. The idea was to see what we could generate in a way that could lead to future efforts and recommendations for us as:

1)? a field of practitioners,

2) for the field of “DEI”

3) for funders of and grantees implementing this work.?

A relatively ambitious agenda was created by the facilitators to structure the couple of days we would be together. Yet, being a good group of practitioners who were also facilitators, we blew up the agenda at the start. But it was generative destruction, and the collective wisdom of that act proved right as it led to some needed discussions that healed our individual and collective hearts, rather than simply engaging in cognitive flexes of the work.?

It was a reminder to me of what it meant to honor the expression “the work moves at the speed of trust” and how before we could engage deeply in the strategic and tactical nature of the work, it was clear that the space would be better served by starting with nurturing the relationships with each other, and which in turn led to what I myself considered a little bit of healing for the healers.?

I say that because a model I often reference in how I approach the work has been as a physician or physical trainer where I think we are invited as consultants into an organization or space that has experienced hurt and we essentially come in to maybe do a little wound analysis, fracture setting, pain prescription, treatment, and so forth. Figuratively speaking of course. So to me, it’s an invitation to create and support the conditions for healing.

Now in terms of that word, “healing.” In its etymology it has a relation to “whole” and I also often think of justice-oriented work about “how to make whole.”?

But I’m also cautious not to make healing sound Pollyanish in its aspirations or approach-- healing can still be a very painful or messy process.? And, as consultants and practitioners we are in there in the treatment, holding the space for the necessary actions and conversations, putting in a lot of emotional labor along with our respective expertise and experience.?

So I think about how we continue to support healing for ourselves and who we can do it with. Much like the restorative aspects of an affinity group, what can support us when we are in a space where we both share a common experience that also invites the diversity of our approaches, aspirations, and practices??

What are the spaces that provide healing for the healers??

That Fall convening provided a clear example for me and it was a key takeaway that I want to keep supporting and stressing as a recommendation for the field and the funders that support this work. Beyond the cliche of “physician heal thyself,” I want it to be clear - to our clients, funders, and communities - how it is needed as structural work, not just individual aspiration and responsibility. Much like when we talk about “self-care” but maybe do not see the questions about “structural care” and “community care.”?

So I am deeply grateful that my peers and colleagues in that convening not only provided healing to me as individuals but also how they modeled a structural and community approach to supporting each other just as we are called to support clients and grantees. And I hope funders know that and support accordingly because to me it is part of restorative work in the systemic change we work for. It is part of the “whole-making”, or as I say a bit humorously, a WHOLEhistic approach.

One that includes healing the healers.?

* One of the first things that came up was that several of us do not refer to ourselves as "DEI" consultants and that alignment around this might be something for us to pursue in conversation.

*"Conservation" was another placeholder since many of our clients used that term along with "environmental" and "outdoors"