Cultivating Trans Safety Workshop
As a Trans person in a binary world, I have noticed so many ways that containers and facilitators could deepen their capacity to hold Trans and Non-Binary folks with more safety and understanding.
Inclusion is not just about language. Using the right words is the tip of the iceberg. Creating safety for Trans and Non-Binary beings is about approaching with a justice mindset. It’s about going to the foundation of your beliefs and making sure Gender-Blessed* folks are included there first and foremost.
Participants
These workshops are designed for practitioners, coaches, and teachers. They are also a wonderful option for anyone wanting to develop their capacity to hold space for or meet their Trans and Non-Binary community members with deeper understanding and expanded empathy.
More Details
Future dates and times, tbd
These workshops are available for groups, for more information please email me at ma.george.co@gmail.com
Why am I teaching this workshop?
Many folks have asked me for advice or wisdom around making their offerings and work more available to Trans and Non-Binary folks. It seems like there is a real need and desire for this information.
While inclusive language is important, it is just the tip of the iceberg. The bare minimum in my opinion, yet it seems to be the focal point. It takes more than the correct language to create safer spaces. Which is why I am offering these workshops. It’s not as simple as using the right words, we must do more to create greater safety for our Gender Blessed clients, students, and community members.
Why take this workshop?
Justice work is integral as we move into new paradigms. Creating extra safety for marginalized community members is of the utmost importance. The Gender binary is rooted in white supremacy and colonialism.
As you decolonize yourself and address your internalized white supremacy, it is imperative that you begin to understand and break down the binaries all around. Transphobia and cis-supremacy are symptoms of the culture we live in. Even if they are sub-conscious they can harm your clients, students, or community members.
These workshops are designed to give you a better understanding of Trans and Non-Binary beings. These teaching will also help you begin looking at your own beliefs and strengthen your resilience as you cultivate more embodied empathy.
This workshop is…
~ An introduction.
~ A brave space.
~ A place of openness and empathy.
~ A place of non-judgement.
~ An invitation into deeper understanding.
~ A beautiful beginning.
~ For anyone who wants to join.
~ A labor of love.
~ Rooted in Trans & Non-Binary Justice.
~ A place for tender community learning.
~ A place where curiosity and vulnerability are encouraged.
This workshop is NOT…
~ A complete education.
~ Focused on your gender. (If you desire that, look here)
~ Intended to guilt or shame.
~ A place to get political or argumentative.
~ Focused on the history of the gender binary or white supremacy.
~ A quick fix for inclusion.
~ Designed using an academic approach.
Cultivating Trans Safety ~ Part 1
Binary Beliefs
As many of us know, our beliefs are the foundational ground that our words and actions are built upon.
Whether we like it or not: we were raised in a binary. We were taught transphobia, it may be subconscious, but it is there, in us. And left unexamined, it is harmful.
Acknowledging our binary beliefs is the first step to creating safer spaces for folks of all genders.
Introducing Safety
With so much talk about pronouns and the importance of language, this is a great starting point. In many ways, language is just the beginning of our justice journeys.
We will talk about how language, including pronouns, is the first step to creating safer, more conscious spaces for Trans and Non-Binary folks. We will do a practice to expand our embodied empathy and get us thinking about pronouns in a new way.
Q&A
What’s on your heart and mind? What do you wish you knew about creating safer, more welcoming spaces for Trans and Non-Binary folks? This is your change to ask.
While there are many questions about gender, I would really like to dig into these questions in particular. It is my deeply held belief that we don’t have to understand someone to offer them love, compassion, and empathy.
Cultivating Trans Safety ~ Part 2
Layers of Safety
Marginalized folks require added layers of safety. The safety that we offer in held spaces should be centered around them.
Accommodating the most marginalized folks actually creates more safety and holding for everyone. It allows the space to be more equitable and accessible.
Accountability Practice
Accountability is a practice! It isn’t something you learn once and are all set with. It is a commitment, an ongoing, lifelong practice.
So let’s practice. In this session we will learn by doing. We will make a game plan for being accountable, especially for how to create repair when we have harmed someone.
Holding Ourselves
As a practitioner, teacher, or coach, part of our job is holding ourselves as we hold others.
An important part of our accountability practice will be learning to hold ourselves so that we don’t disappear into a shame spiral or lose ourselves to arrogance. We will create a personal resource list so we aren’t alone.
What are my qualifications?
~ 32 years living in a Trans body in a binary culture
~ Many, many hours inside of wellness spaces designed for cis-women
~ Years of self advocacy as a Trans person and POC
~ Experience coaching and holding space for Trans and Non-Binary beings
~ Holding space for Cis practitioners and colleagues and offering my sacred Trans wisdom on how to be more inclusive
See what others have to say ~
“MaryAnn is an insightful, compassionate truth teller and wise companion to those creating their own path as they walk it. They hold what’s true for me without judgment or fixing while challenging me to see potential pitfalls and possibilities outside my limited view. I consistently emerge from our conversations feeling reoriented, grounded and inspired.” — Kathy Bresler, my friend & mentor, Founder of Altar Community
“MaryAnn is a pioneer in what they do. It is through MaryAnn that I deepened my own coaching practice to be holistically inclusive in my space holding, in my language, in my energy and in my heart. MaryAnn has a commanding energy and indeed is a force, guided by their ancestors, spirit guides and other beings of ether. You know you are in the presence of a person who was sent to change the broken bits of our society when you work with MaryAnn.” — Chloe Adriana, my colleague
Recommended Resources
~ Queer Sex Ed Podcast, in particular Episode #63 and Episode #64
~ Hidden Brain Podcast episode The Edge of Gender
~ Disclosure Documentary on Netflix (CW: Violence against Trans folks, especially Trans BIPOC folks)
One More Thought
Trans Magick* is real. Trans and Non-Binary divinity is astoundingly beautiful. It is my belief that once you see this, once you feel this, you will be in awe.
I believe that once you acknowledge and begin to address your internalized transphobia, once you practice accountability and understand how to better hold yourself as you hold others, your inclusion will blossom. It will spring forth from your heart center in ways you may have never imagined possible.
Even I, as a Trans Non-Binary being, have internalized transphobia and must practice cultural humility. I only know the experience of one Trans person: myself. While my lived experience does allow me to have greater understanding and empathy, it doesn’t make me exempt from examining my own beliefs. I often ask myself how I can continue to create safer spaces and work towards Trans Justice. This work is a life long commitment. And I’m proud to doing it.
*I learned the word Gender-Blessed and about Trans Magick from Dr. Pavini Moray
The images on this page were made by me for Save Art Space’s + Jonah Welch’s Trans People Are Sacred Billboard project