Show Notes
Poem written and performed by Carolina Herbert. Used with her permission. Introduced by Matthew Green. Produced by J'aime Rothbard. In this special episode, we bring you a poem by Carolina Herbert, a PhD Arts Psychotherapist, clinical supervisor, and expressive arts practitioner. Entitled 'Between Inheritance and Hiraeth,' the work explores ancestral work, collective memory and forgiveness. The poem grew out of Carolina's experience in Being White British: Colonised and Colonisers, one of more than 40 Integration Labs the Pocket Project is hosting this year to address different aspects of collective and intergenerational trauma around the world. Carolina writes: "What the Lab created was a quality of collective presence and witnessing that I have rarely encountered, and it became the conditions in which something that had been forming for a long time could finally find its shape. "The deeper roots of the poem go back several years. I have been on a long exploration of ancestral work, collective memory and forgiveness, asking what it means to truly reckon with what we have inherited, both the wounding and the wisdom, and what responsibility we carry to those who came before and those who will come after. "This inquiry took a very specific form through Sori, a travelling podcast I created exploring apology and forgiveness in communities and cultures around the world through creative arts, therapy, music and songwriting. We have recorded 14 episodes across several countries, holding conversations about what forgiveness means across different cultural and ancestral traditions. "When I returned to the UK after twenty years of living and working in Cambodia, I found it deeply confronting, the sense of collective sleeping around the level of harm that colonisation has caused and continues to cause around the world. Coming home, in that sense, was not a homecoming but an awakening to something I had perhaps been circling for years without being able to name it so directly. The Lab has helped me begin to focus and explore my own deeper response to this, to find a form for what I was carrying, and for that I am profoundly grateful. "The Lab gave me the opportunity to consolidate and channel all of this into this poem. I arrived with all that accumulated inquiry sitting in me somewhere, and the quality of witnessing in the group gave it permission to emerge in this form." We hope this episode will mark the first in a series featuring creative work emerging from the Pocket Project Integration Labs. We welcome any Lab participant who would like to submit poems or other forms of creative expression for consideration to contact Matthew here. Further Resources: Carolina Herbert Blue Pearl Institute Carolina on LinkedIn Carolina on Facebook Carolina on Instagram Pocket Project Integration Labs 2026 Contact Matthew About Carolina Herbert: Dr Carolina Herbert is a PhD Arts Psychotherapist, clinical supervisor, educator, consultant, celebrant and expressive arts practitioner with over 25 years of international experience in trauma-informed practice, humanitarian mental health and psychosocial support, and leadership development. Her work has taken her across South East Asia, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Latin America and Central Asia, accompanying individuals, communities and organisations through some of the most demanding circumstances human beings face. At the heart of her practice is a deep trust in the creative and imaginal capacities that human beings carry, the capacity to make meaning from suffering, to find form for what has no words, and to discover in the arts a pathway back to what matters most. This trust has shaped everything: her clinical work, her training programmes, her organisational consultancy, her songwriting and her writing. She is the founder of Blue Pearl Institute for Expressive Arts: Therapy and Leadership, based in Gower, Wales, the UK's first nature-inspired expressive arts therapy and
More from What is Collective Healing?
Hosted by Matthew Green. Produced by J'aime Rothbard. Register for the Community Call Building Islands of Coherence: Growing a Global Movement for Collective Healing on October 21 This week we're excited to dive deeper into the mystical dimension of collective healing with a much-anticipated, visionary dialogue with the teacher, mystic and award-winning poet Richard Rudd. Richard is best known for developing the Gene Keys, a grand synthesis of practical wisdom designed to guide you to a deeper understanding of yourself and your true potential. Richard has also won acclaim for his many books, including The Art of Contemplation: Expand Time, Transform Your Emotions And Unleash Your Natural Brilliance and the forthcoming The Sage: A Gene Keys I Ching for the Future Human. In this episode, Richard and Matthew explore the newest insights emerging from Richard's lifelong quest to liberate humanity's latent capacity for collective intelligence in service of personal and planetary healing. Richard believes that we're entering a new phase as we complete a 400-year cycle in the evolution of consciousness. As we near the end of this process, familiar political and economic structures are collapsing and the earth is experiencing climatic and environmental chaos. But Richard sees these distressing realities as the crucible for a deeper shift as more people begin to experience the possibility of inner freedom and activate collective forms of intelligence capable of opening radical new potentials. Just as a dragonfly can only assume its true form as an iridescent flying marvel after completing an incubation period trapped in brackish water, humanity is poised to make an equivalent leap beyond its current impasse, Richard says. "We can barely glimpse what's going to emerge," Richard tells Matthew. "If you've got your eye on the world that's crumbling, you're not going to notice it at all. But if you're looking inside, you will feel the new shoots, little nubs, that are just beginning to appear in our consciousness." Among the themes Richard and Matthew explore: Are we on the cusp of a new form of human consciousness?
Hosted by Matthew Green. Produced by J'aime Rothbard. Register for the Community Call Building Islands of Coherence: Growing a Global Movement for Collective Healing on October 21 When Gaye Donaldson first encountered Systemic Constellation Work in 1994, the revelation she experienced made new sense of her life up to that point — and propelled her onto an unexpected path. Gaye has since spent more than 30 years exploring the practice, also known as Family Constellations, in which a facilitator leads a group of people through a process aimed at mapping and resolving unconscious patterns shaping the lives of individuals, families or larger groups. Gaye continues to work with personal and family issues, in organisations, within the creative arts, and with the land. She has also been a teacher at the UK's Centre for Systemic Constellations for over two decades. In this episode, Gaye becomes the first guest to bring a Systemic Constellations lens to the question at the heart of What Is Collective Healing? — namely, how can we support people to integrate the collective and intergenerational trauma fuelling the world's interlocking crises? In her dialogue with Matthew, Gaye emphasises both the importance of discerning what is truly our work to do, and assuming the posture of "not knowing" that Constellation facilitators learn to hold. Their conversation covers topics including: Learning to ask: "What's mine and what's not mine?" How we get entangled in other people's stories Reawakening our right place in relationship to the planet A Systemic Constellation with a descendant of a Holocaust survivor Working in Kairos time Experiencing ancestral grief from World War Two Family stories: The compulsion to complete what is incomplete The Five Generational Imperative Working with victim-perpetrator dynamics in organisations When we tell the whole story, the system is complete A big part of the mission of What Is Collective Healing? is to provide a platform where practitioners of diverse approaches to trauma integration can come into generative dialogue. We loved our deep and inspiring dive with Gaye into Systemic Constellations, an increasingly influential approach that's already familiar to many in the Pocket Project community. If you enjoy exploring multiple approaches to trauma work, we recommend these previous episodes featuring other pioneering practitioners: Organic Intelligence®: Activating Self-Healing Through the Power of Pleasure and Joy, with Steven Hoskinson The Wholeness Work: A Precise Path to Freedom, with Connirae Andreas Further Resources: Gaye Donaldson (website) Centre for Systemic Constellations (website) Centre for Systemic Constellations (LinkedIn) Centre for Systemic Constellations (Facebook) Centre for Systemic Constellations (Instagram) Pocket Project: Pocket Project Global Social Witnessing Calls Pocket Project About Gaye Donaldson: Gaye Donaldson is a systemic constellations facilitator, trainer and consultant. She experienced Constellation Work for the first time in 1994 and it changed her life in a very personal way, but the experience of the work also made sense of her whole story up to that moment. Now, decades on from this revelation and opening, Gaye has continued to deepen her understanding of the philosophy and methodology, and she has been teaching the work to wonderfully diverse student groups for over 20 years through the Centre for Systemic Constellations, the first systemic Constellation school in the UK, which she heads up. Gaye uses the whole-system Constellation approach with personal and family issues, in organisations, within the creative arts, most particularly film and theatre, and also with the land. She is based in the South-West of England and has a herd of Icelandic horses who teach and restore her. She is a mother to five grown-ups, and grand-mother to a further five children. Her joy is to see the work expand into where it is needed and to evolve n
Hosted by Kosha Joubert Produced by J'aime Rothbard. Register for the community call Mapping the Conditions for Collective Trauma – From Data to Deeper Awareness on October 8 Lots of people talk about 'healing Earth'. But what if we need Earth to heal us? Could we learn to see beyond a narrowly scientific worldview to embrace more of nature's mystery? In this episode, we welcome Tiókasin Ghosthorse, a musician, activist, and author most recently of Earth Mind, which is due to be published in May. A citizen of the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation of South Dakota, who hosted the longest-running Indigenous affairs radio show in the United States, Tiókasin has long been a leading voice sharing how Indigenous wisdom can cast our personal and planetary challenges in a new light. Tiókasin speaks with Kosha about how we can learn to transcend a mindset based on separation from nature to come into deeper resonance with the more-than-human world. It's this process of recognising our essential oneness with life that can open new pathways to wholeness. The dialogue covers topics including: Understanding that nature understands us How modern psychology can separate us from Earth Experiencing resonance with nature through the body Returning to a more intuitive culture Ancestors as guides to the 'ancient future' Addressing the legacy of colonial perpetration Mycelial consciousness Awe and wonder as nature's "original language" We hope you enjoy this nourishing dialogue and also offer you these previous episodes featuring carriers of Indigenous wisdom: Tending Wounded Places With Furious Love, with Hāweatea Holly Bryson "How Can We Listen in a World That Is on Fire?," with Joshua Konkankoh Restoring Relationships with the More-Than-Human-World, with J Dallas Gudgell The Prayers of Our Ancestors, with Solea Anani Pocket Project: Pocket Project Global Social Witnessing Calls Pocket Project About Tiókasin Ghosthorse Tiókasin Ghosthorse is a citizen of the Cheyenne River Lakota Nation — Oceti Sakowin — Oyate Itazipčola-Mnikȟówožu Lakȟota — Mníša tióšpaye na Četáŋǧi thiwáhe, paternal band of Without Bows, of the Red Water Clan from the extended family Yellow Hawk and maternal band of Plants By The Water. He hosted First Voices Radio National/International from 1992 until the show's final broadcast in 2025, one of the longest-running Indigenous-produced radio programs in the United States, broadcasting weekly from Pacifica Radio Affiliates-WBAI in New York and centering Indigenous perspectives on ecology, culture, and "original wisdom." He carries the name Oyáte TȟokáheyA Wičhákiye (Places Nations First) and Tiókasin (Spirit Coming In). He considers himself a perfectly flawed human being. He founded Akantu Intelligence, an institute dedicated to contextualizing Indigenous wisdom for contemporary crises, and has spoken internationally, including at United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues gatherings, on the relational worldview of Indigenous peoples toward water, land, animals and one another. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2016 for his global advocacy and peace education. He co-authored Butterfly Against the Wind in 2017 and Earth Mind, to be released in May 2027.
You are warmly invited to join Kosha and Adrian Wagner of the Pocket Project's research team, who has been deeply involved in the Conditions for Collective Trauma Map, for a live presentation: Register for the community call Mapping the Conditions for Collective Trauma – From Data to Deeper Awareness on October 8 Hosted by Kosha Joubert Produced by J'aime Rothbard. We're joined by Pocket Project co-founder Thomas Hübl and technologist, facilitator and researcher Max Roth to explore the new Conditions for Collective Trauma Map, which goes live on October 8. Please sign up for an event introducing the map here. Developed by the Pocket Project in collaboration with Max's organisation Connecting Intelligence, this three-dimensional visualisation draws on dozens of datasets to make the conditions associated with collective trauma – such as conflict, interpersonal violence, environmental degradation and forced migration — more visible. The map also points to societal resilience by representing factors such as democracy, peace, gender equality and wellbeing. The aim is to support a wide range of actors — from policymakers, researchers and philanthropists to governments, international organisations and relief agencies — to locate their work in a wider landscape, and recognise the need for integrated approaches. A wealth of data embedded in the map can also be used to support public dialogue on how to address the lasting legacy of collective trauma fields like colonialism, slavery and resource extraction. As Thomas and Max explain, the Conditions for Collective Trauma Map does not attempt to measure how traumatised a society is: It offers a landscape for inquiry, intended as a starting point for asking deeper questions. Their conversation with Kosha explores themes including: Genesis of the vision for the map
Register for the Pocket Project Community Call, Neuroinclusive Approaches: Cultivating Spaces Where We Can All Belong on September 23 Hosted by Kosha Joubert. Produced by J'aime Rothbard. Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a psychologist, Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center, founder of the Global Compassion Coalition, and New York Times best-selling author. His seven books have been published in 33 languages — with a million copies sold in English alone. He's lectured at NASA, Google, Oxford, and Harvard, and taught in meditation centers worldwide. An expert on positive neuroplasticity, he is co-host of the Being Well podcast, now downloaded 30 million times. In this cutting-edge conversation, Rick and Kosha explore a question at the core of the Pocket Project's mission: How can we draw on what we now know about neurobiology, cultural evolution and trauma-informed practice to build social movements capable of tackling global crises? Rick draws on his work on Restoring Healthy Human Politics at the Global Compassion Coalition to share his vision of how a species that spent 99 percent of its history as hunter-gatherers can leverage mechanisms that retained social cohesion in groups of 30 to 50 people to deliver transformation at a planetary scale. "I'm very interested in fostering structures and frameworks so what worked in our bands of 50 people can be scaled up to eight billion people," Rick tells Kosha. "That's why I love the idea of the Pocket Project, because you're creating cells of sanity inside the larger body of humanity." Themes Rick and Kosha discuss include: Our naturally whole and healthy state of being How early experiences structure our nervous system Cultivating compassion and self-responsibility Evolutionary origins of our 'negativity bias' Three ways to practice: 'Let be, let go, let in' Need for larger-scale groups to impact systems Addressing past injustices and present harms Toxicity of 'helpless outrage' How human culture is grounded in our tribal nature How to scale up the mechanisms that maintained balance in hunter-gatherer bands for global impact Opportunities to build up the cellular structure of civil society Need for deeper coordination among nonprofits Using the power of compassion to mobilise collective action This conversation will be a source of insight for anyone interested in how the work we do as individuals and groups to integrate collective and inter-generational trauma can form a foundation to address systemic challenges. This episode also sounds a clarion call for individuals, networks and organisations to embrace the depth of collaboration needed to address inequality, social fragmentation and injustice at a global scale. For more on these themes, please see these previous episodes: Relational Resourcing Before Repair: The Missing Foundation of Systems Change, with John Kania Walking the Talk: How Organisations and Non-Profit Cultures Can Truly Become Trauma-Informed, with Maria Leister Impacting Systemic Injustice & Collective Healing, with Karen Simms More From Dr Rick Hanson: Global Compassion Coalition Global Compassion Coalition: Restoring Healthy Human Politics Learning to Learn from Positive Experiences (Journal of Positive Psychology) Dr Rick Hanson on Social Media: Instagram Facebook LinkedIn Pocket Project Links: Register for the Pocket Project Community Call, Neuroinclusive Approaches: Cultivating Spaces Where We Can All Belong on September 23 Pocket Project Global Social Witnessing Calls Pocket Project About Rick Hanson: Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a psychologist, Senior Fellow at UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center, and New York Times best-selling author. His seven books have been published in 33 languages and include Making Great Relationships, Neurodharma, Resilient, Hardwiring Happiness, Just One Thing, Buddha's Brain, and Mother Nurture –- with over a million copies in English alone. He's the founder of the Glob