Transforming Your
Embodied Response to
Racialized Shame
A Free Two-Day Masterclass Series with Dr. Christena Cleveland
JUNE 8 + JUNE 9 | 7 PM - 8:30 PM EST
A recording will be shared with all who register!
Shame is the enemy of racial liberation. Whether our shame stems from internalized white supremacy, our lineage and how we have benefitted from white supremacy, our ignorance of the structures of white supremacy, harm we have caused, our fear of speaking truth to power, or not being as woke as our social media accounts might suggest – shame weighs us down and holds us back when all we really want is to embody liberation as we work to heal our racially-fragmented world. This Juneteenth, we’re celebrating Black liberation by calling all people to move beyond racialized shame and into embodied freedom.
During this free masterclass series, join social psychologist, somatic practitioner and activist Christena Cleveland, Ph,D. on this life-changing journey to confront, disarm, and transform racialized shame. Integrating social science research, somatic wisdom, art, and lively story-telling, Dr. Cleveland will uncover the subtle ways that racialized shame – the shame that arises in the context of internalized or externalized racial oppression, interracial interactions, and/or racial equity work – stifles our liberation journeys. Over the course of two days, Dr. Cleveland will share the 4 Signature Shame Spirals© – the Shame-full Shirker, the Shame-full Strangler, the Shame-full Scholar, and the Shame-full Space Cadet – which are the most common embodied responses to racialized shame. During this masterclass, you will identify your Signature Shame Spiral, disarm your racialized shame by discovering the specific ways your Signature Shame Spiral prevents you from moving into compassionate action, and develop somatic practices to transform your racialized shame even in the midst of a spiral. Additionally, you will learn how to tenderly and effectively recognize shame spirals in others and begin to hold shame-free space for them.
A recording will be shared with all who register!
Transformational Outcomes
Discover ground-breaking social science research that illuminates how shame impedes individual and collective racial liberation
Identify your Signature Shame Spiral, gain insight into its chaotic but predictable flow, and learn how to readily recognize it across the various aspects of your life
Engage in invigorating somatic practices that transform your shame into courageous action that aligns with your racial justice principles
Understand how to recognize a Signature Shame Spirals guide at work in others’ behaviors
Revitalize your compassion for yourself and others who experience racialized shame
Celebrate Juneteenth/Black liberation by working toward your own liberation
A recording will be shared with all who register!
MEET THE FACILITATOR
Christena Cleveland, Ph.D. is a social psychologist, public theologian, author, and activist. She is the founder and director of the Center for Justice + Renewal which supports a more equitable world by nurturing skillful justice advocacy and the depth to act on it.
A weaver at heart, Dr. Cleveland integrates psychology, theology, storytelling, and art to help justice seekers sharpen their understanding of the social realities that maintain injustice while also stimulating the soul’s enormous capacity to resist and transform those realities.
Dr. Cleveland holds a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of California Santa Barbara, a B.A. from Dartmouth College where she double majored in Sociology and Psychological and Brain Sciences, as well as an honorary doctorate from the Virginia Theological Seminary. An award-winning researcher and author, Christena is a Ford Foundation Fellow who has held faculty positions at several institutions of higher education — most recently at Duke University’s Divinity School, where she was the first African-American and first female director of the Duke Center for Reconciliation, and also led a research team investigating self-compassion as a buffer to racial stress. In 2022, she published her second full-length book, God is a Black Woman (HarperCollins), which details her 400-mile walking pilgrimage across central France in search of ancient Black Madonna statues, and examines the relationship among race, gender, and cultural perceptions of the Divine. Her work has been featured in a number of major media outlets including the History Channel, PBS, Essence Magazine, the Washington Post, NPR, and BBC Radio.
Though Dr. Cleveland loves scholarly inquiry, she is also an avid student of embodied wisdom. She recently completed the Art & Social Change intensive somatic training for millennial leaders, and is currently deepening her mind-body-spirit integration in a year-long embodied leadership cohort for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.
A bona fide tea snob, lover of Black art, and Ólafur Arnalds superfan — Christena makes her home in Boston.