We invite you to explore offerings designed specifically for changemakers like you.

We’ll help you learn more about your body, how to listen for your inner wisdom, and ways to build community with both white people and people of color to advance racial justice.

In each of these offerings, you will learn body-based (AKA somatic) practices, build your anti-racist analysis, and create community.

Virtual Offerings
In-Person 
Virtual Workshops & Groups

Community of Practice

Beginner/ Intermediate/ Advanced

Drop-in practice space to practice with a teacher, be in community, and get coaching support to support you in your social justice work.

Weekly on:
Tuesdays 12-1 PM ET/ 9-10 AM PT
Thursdays 9-10 AM ET / 6-7 AM PT
Sundays 8-9 PM ET/ 5-6 PM PT

These community sessions are open to all and are an opportunity to support your practice and deepen your somatic commitments in community. We are building this community of practice as a commitment to ongoing support for each other and our racial justice movements locally, nationally, and internationally.

Sessions may include a short somatic opening practice, a short meditation practice, and some open space to bring whatever issues are on your body/mind/heart. Once you sign up, you will be added to the calendar invite. These practice spaces run on a sliding-scale monthly membership fee that supports the teachers and coaches who hold the space and ERJ.

Sliding scale supports us to keep making practice available in a sustainable way:

$41-$80 per month

$81-$120 per month ($100 / person/month the true cost per person)

$121-$200 per month

Apply now

Virtual Workshops

Beginner/ Intermediate/ Advanced 

Free online somatic practice sessions to support your capacity to meet this political moment

Periodically, we host free virtual workshops to support our community and introduce folks to somatics. No previous experience is necessary. Everyone is welcome.

Recent workshop topics include: Centered Accountability, Feeling Our Patterns Under Pressure, Holding Contradictions in this Movement Moment, and The Power of Practice: What is Possible in Community

This is where prospective students interested in an in-person course can come to receive answers to their questions. Embodying Racial Justice will share upcoming course calendars and related updates. We also build in time for community, connection, and practice. No previous experience is necessary.

Join our mailing list

Virtual Supervision Group

Beginner/ Intermediate/ Advanced

Six-month embodied supervision group to support and grow you in community to bring somatic practices and frameworks out into the world.

Are you ready to bring somatics into your one-on-one and small group work? Do you need support with any of the following?

  • Integrating somatics into your work

  • Growing as an anti-racist and organizer

  • Workshopping issues that you encounter with clients 

  • Bringing somatics into community organizing and base-building contexts in ways that translate and resonate with people with no connection to somatic culture. 

  • Other

An ERJ supervision group may be a good fit for you. This six-month virtual program is for senior students and politicized somatics students looking to deepen their work. We’ll pair you with an experienced coach in a small group of approximately 4-6 students. Once a month, you’ll meet for 90 minutes to practice, learn, and problem solve. Each session will include a check-in and check-out as well as an opening and closing practice.

Questions? Schedule a call with Dara.

    • coaching and/or facilitating clients -  or on the path to do so

    • incorporating somatics into their organizing spaces - or on the path to do so

    • demoing some somatic practices with a teacher 

    • leading a coaching circle with a teacher’s support

    • supporting individual and small group clients 

    • seeking continued multi-directional racial justice somatic coaching, supervision, and accountability

    • Folks who complete advanced coursework, such as the ERJ year-long program

    • ERJ students who have completed coursework with other somatics institutions (such as generative somatics, the Strozzi Institute, The Embodiment Institute, BOLD, etc.) 

    • In other words, participants are senior students who are in social movement, changemaking and/or racial justice work

  • We will offer groups on a sliding scale to make them as accessible as possible.

    • $41-$80 per month

    • $81-$120 per month

    • $121-$200 per month ($175 / person/month represents the true cost per person)

    All of this only works if everyone pays at the level they are able - not at a level lower than what they can pay. Together, we can create financial balance when we each pay in alignment with our abilities. 

  • By joining, you are making a six-month commitment. We hope you will be able to attend each session and we understand that life happens and that may not always be possible. Please note that if you need to miss a month, the payment will still be due for that month.

    Our preference is to receive payments via Venmo or PayPal. 

    • Venmo: @dara-silverman or PayPal: dara@riseup.net - please use the friends and family payment method.

    • Check to Dara Silverman: 23 North Brett St. Beacon, NY 12508

    • You will have the option to pay in a lump sum or in monthly, biweekly or weekly installments.

    • Your monthly balance is due by the last day of the month. 

    • If you are making multiple payments, we ask you to set reminders for yourself and pay on the cadence you outline (monthly, biweekly or weekly.) 

  • In your application, you’ll choose from a list of times you could be available for a group. These times are a guide that is subject to change. The final group assignments and schedule will be distributed at a later date.

  • Dara Silverman and Cari Caldwell

  • If you need to miss a session, please discuss the potential of recording with your group and teacher ahead of time. That way, the group can be in choice and practice consent around recording.

Apply now

  • "This course was one of the most impactful and transformative capacity-building experiences I’ve had. I’ve been in movement and healing spaces for 20 years, and this is what I’ve been longing for- Skillful integration of somatics and antiracist praxis."

    —Simon, Politicized Healer

  • "This course was a great way to reconnect with how I show up in the world as a white woman and how my allyship can be centered in my dignity."

    —Allison, Community Funder

  • "When I was first exposed to somatics, I was a little scared. I felt nervous talking about bodies. So if you are nervous I’ve been there. But the somatics courses are totally worth it. I see somatics as an investment in myself and my leadership. It helps me show up, meet this political moment, and be the parent I want to be."

    —T., Teacher

  • "This session rooted me in my humanity, connecting me to parts that had been severed, and deepened my sense of connection and interdependence. It helped me feel hope and possibility, which has empowered me to lean into my racial justice work with not only a more powerful commitment but also confidence that a new way is possible, even if I can't see the entire path. That confidence makes me more humble, rooted and bold in my work."

    –Jo, Teacher

  • "Being part of the four day retreat challenges and supports me on personal and professional levels. I am learning to be in my body and to improve the depth and quality of my relationships with family and friends. As a white female educator working in a diverse school system, the somatic practices I am learning are helping me see opportunities to transform power dynamics in my school and to be in relationship with educators and students of color with greater accountability and authenticity."

    –Sarah, Educator

  • "I'm so grateful for the way that I was able to learn and be stretched by Dara's workshop in ways that I hadn't known I needed. It especially challenged the ways that white supremacy culture has taught me to separate myself from my body, to the detriment of myself and those around me. Months later, I still find myself coming back to lessons learned in the workshop and putting them into practice both in the context of social justice and my day-to-day life. A specific takeaway that was big for me was that I can work to hold different, conflicting perspectives in the context of social justice work while still remaining settled and present in my body."

    –Hannah, Human RIghts Organizer

In-Person Workshops & Groups

One-Day Introductory Courses: Embodied Resistance

Beginner

An in-person somatic skills intensive for movement workers

Gainesville, FL • February 22, 2026 • Centering Queer and Trans Leaders
Atlanta, GA • March 22, 2026 • Centering Queer and Trans Leaders
Spokane, WA • Date TBD •For white leaders 

This in-person, interactive course will build your capacity, embodiment, and understanding of yourself in fighting authoritarianism and building liberation movements in the US at this time. Participants will explore the role our bodies, the land, and our lineage(s) play in building a different future and world. Courses typically infuse a combination of neuroscience, physical movement, song, connection to nature, and practical and theoretical grounding materials into a unique curriculum customized for changemakers.

One-day courses are typically designed as a preview of a longer forthcoming course that will take place in the same geographic area. We focus on foundational practices and concepts, as well as relationship building among participants.

One-day courses are an excellent opportunity to gauge your interest in pursuing more intensive courses. They are typically taught by Dara Silverman, sometimes in partnership with other teachers like Adaku Utah.

No prior somatics experience is needed. Typical course size is 10-30 people.

Interested in hosting a one-day workshop? Contact us

Course Details and Application Information

  • This course is offered on a sliding scale. The true cost of this program is $12,000 per participant. All prices include room and meals for each course. We support participants in carpooling to the training site. 

    Organizational: $7,000-$20,000: For participants with organizational sponsorship, the registration tier is based on each organization’s annual budget. 

    • $20,000 per registrant if the budget is above $30 million 

    • $16,000 per registrant if the budget is between $20-$30 million 

    • $14,000 per registrant if the budget is between $10 - $20 million

    • $10,000 per registrant if the budget is between $5 - $10 million

    • $7,000 per registrant if the budget is below $5 million

    Individual: $4,000-$20,000+ for participants who are registering as without organizational sponsorship, the registration is based on personal capacity. 

    • Builder $16,000-$20,000+- for those who have generational or inherited wealth and want to off-set the costs of the program for other participants

    • Sustainer $12,001-$15,999: for those who have generational or inherited wealth

    • Supporter $10,000-$12,000: for those who have a regular income and additional support, either from other employment or alternative sources, and have funds to support other projects beyond paying their rent or mortgage ($12,000 is the true cost to cover the costs of running a course)

    • Capacity $8,000-$9,999: for those who have a regular income and are comfortably paying their rent or mortgage

    • Grounded $6,000-$7,999: for those who are paying their mortgage or rent

    • Equity $4,000-$5,999: for those who are challenged to make ends meet

    Please note that we allocate a specific number of registrations at each tier for each course. That way, Embodying Racial Justice can cover the costs associated with running the course. The specifics vary for each course, and one sample breakdown of the slots available at each tier is: 

    • 1- Builder- $16,000-$20,000+

    • 2 - Sustainer  $12,001-$16,000

    • 3 - Organizational $6,000-$16,000

    • 6 - Supporter (this is the true cost to ERJ per course participant) $10,000-$12,000

    • 4 - Capacity $8,000-$9,999

    • 3 - Grounded  $6,000-$7,999

    • 3 - Equity $4,000-$5,999

    This infographic provides more details on the sliding-scale tiers for consideration. 

    Offering a sliding-scale registration system allows the widest range of participants to pay at a level that is meaningful to them and within their means. Some forms of embodied work are inaccessible to people across income levels and class backgrounds. At ERJ,, our commitment is to making somatics as accessible as possible for the sake of growing our movements for justice. 

    All of this only works if everyone pays at the level they are able - not at a level lower than what they can pay. Together, we can achieve financial balance by each paying in line with our abilities. 

    The registration fee pays facilitators a living wage, supports the redistribution of funds to local Black and Indigenous groups as well as Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity, and includes the organizing and administrative support associated with the course. This also includes all meals and snacks during the course.

    We want to make this work financially for as many people as possible, and we want to be in dialogue with you about what will support you to participate. Please contact us if you would like to discuss finances.

Four-Day Intensive Courses:
Embodied Leadership

Beginner-Intermediate

In-person somatic retreat especially for organizers and movement workers to build resilience to fuel your ongoing work

Southeast, Midwest, Northeast, Northwest

Four-day course typically focus on: 

  • Deepening your ability to feel what is happening in your body, build your toolbox of somatic practices, and growing your capacity to learn from the body up 

  • Bringing your body into action in your work and life

  • Creating a community of practice that will support you to keep exploring, letting your body reveal more depth, and unearthing your longings

  • Building your commitment to racial justice and your capacity to confront racial capitalism

Four-day courses are typically taught by a three-person teaching team, including a song leader. The teachers are experienced in teaching politicized somatics, in community building and organizing efforts, and in the ongoing fight to end racial capitalism. 

No prior somatics experience is needed. However, participants do need to be ready to deepen their connection to their body in a group, explore their feeling selves, and move toward their longings and visions for the future. The typical course size is 12-25 people.

Interested in hosting us for a four-day retreat? Contact us

Courses
Embodied Leadership: Four Day Intensive
Mar 12
White
Embodied Leadership: Four Day Intensive
White

Chicagoland, IL

White
Embodied Leadership: Four Day Intensive
May 14
Multiracial
Embodied Leadership: Four Day Intensive
Multiracial

South

Multiracial
Embodied Leadership: Four Day Intensive • Multiracial
Jul 23
Multiracial
Embodied Leadership: Four Day Intensive • Multiracial
Multiracial

Bent Birch, MA

Multiracial
Embodied Leadership: Four Day Intensive • for Teachers
Oct 9
Multiracial
Embodied Leadership: Four Day Intensive • for Teachers
Multiracial

Bay Area, CA

Multiracial
Embodied Leadership: Four Day Intensive • for Jewish Organizers
Oct 22
Multiracial
Embodied Leadership: Four Day Intensive • for Jewish Organizers
Multiracial

East Coast

Multiracial
Embodied Leadership: Four Day Intensive • for Climate Organizers
Dec 10
Multiracial
Embodied Leadership: Four Day Intensive • for Climate Organizers
Multiracial

Seattle, WA

Multiracial

Course Details and Application Information

  • Organizational: $2,500-$4,000: for those who have an organization paying for their registration, we invite you to a registration tier based on your organization’s annual budget. 

    • $4,000+ per registrant if the budget is above $20 million 

    • $3,500 per registrant if the budget is between $10 - $20 million

    • $3,000 per registrant if the budget is between $5 - $10 million

    • $2,500 per registrant if the budget is below $5 million

    Individual: for those who are registering as an individual, we invite you to base your registration based on your income and wealth.

    • Sustainer $3,500-$4,500+: for those who have generational or inherited wealth

    • Supporter $2,500-$3,499: for those who have a regular income and are comfortably paying their rent or mortgage

    • Grounded $1,500-$2,499: for those who are paying their mortgage or rent

    • Equity $1,000- 1,499: for those who are challenged to make ends meet

Intermediate/ Advanced*
For white racial justice leaders

In-person and online training program for white racial justice organizers and movement workers to build community, capacity and courage to fuel your ongoing work.

April - December 2026
Midwest and Northeast

Opening to Freedom, a nine-month somatics training that combines in-person retreats, one-to-one coaching, and virtual group sessions.

The yearlong program, which starts online in April, is focused on applying somatic practice and principles to your organizing and everyday life. The curriculum is not focused on learning to teach somatics, but rather bringing the principles of somatics into your life, your organizing, and how you show up in the world.

*Prerequisite: a four-day somatics course or the equivalent in this lineage, like Embodied Leadership

Yearlong Course:
Opening to Freedom

    • The ability to align your body, words, and actions with your longings in the world 

    • A community of practice and relationships with peers who are in it with you

    • Practices that deepen your embodied physical awareness and ability to be present, open, and connected

    • Understanding of embodied anti-racist frameworks

    • Monthly one-to-one coaching with a member of the teaching team 

    • Three in-person retreats spread across seven months

    • Monthly practice & methodology calls in between retreats to stay in practice together and go deeper on concepts and political analysis

    • Virtual small groups with members of the teaching team

    • Practitioner track for those who have completed more than 12 days of in-person courses

    • Peer-to-peer groups to go deeper into topics and practices based on interest and experience

  • A four-day somatics course or the equivalent in this lineage, like Embodied Leadership

  • This course is offered on a sliding scale. The true cost of this program is $12,000 per participant. All prices include room and meals for each course. We support participants in carpooling to the training site. 

    Organizational: $7,000-$20,000: For participants with organizational sponsorship, the registration tier is based on each organization’s annual budget. 

    • $20,000 per registrant if the budget is above $30 million 

    • $16,000 per registrant if the budget is between $20-$30 million 

    • $14,000 per registrant if the budget is between $10 - $20 million

    • $10,000 per registrant if the budget is between $5 - $10 million

    • $7,000 per registrant if the budget is below $5 million

    Individual: $4,000-$20,000+ for participants who are registering as without organizational sponsorship, the registration is based on personal capacity. 

    • Builder $16,000-$20,000+- for those who have generational or inherited wealth and want to off-set the costs of the program for other participants

    • Sustainer $12,001-$15,999: for those who have generational or inherited wealth

    • Supporter $10,000-$12,000: for those who have a regular income and additional support, either from other employment or alternative sources, and have funds to support other projects beyond paying their rent or mortgage ($12,000 is the true cost to cover the costs of running a course)

    • Capacity $8,000-$9,999: for those who have a regular income and are comfortably paying their rent or mortgage

    • Grounded $6,000-$7,999: for those who are paying their mortgage or rent

    • Equity $4,000-$5,999: for those who are challenged to make ends meet

    Please note that we allocate a specific number of registrations at each tier for each course. That way, Embodying Racial Justice can cover the costs associated with running the course. The specifics vary for each course, and one sample breakdown of the slots available at each tier is: 

    • 1- Builder- $16,000-$20,000+

    • 2 - Sustainer  $12,001-$16,000

    • 3 - Organizational $6,000-$16,000

    • 6 - Supporter (this is the true cost to ERJ per course participant) $10,000-$12,000

    • 4 - Capacity $8,000-$9,999

    • 3 - Grounded  $6,000-$7,999

    • 3 - Equity $4,000-$5,999

    This infographic provides more details on the sliding-scale tiers for consideration. 

    Offering a sliding-scale registration system allows the widest range of participants to pay at a level that is meaningful to them and within their means. Some forms of embodied work are inaccessible to people across income levels and class backgrounds. At ERJ,, our commitment is to making somatics as accessible as possible for the sake of growing our movements for justice. 

    All of this only works if everyone pays at the level they are able - not at a level lower than what they can pay. Together, we can achieve financial balance by each paying in line with our abilities. 

    The registration fee pays facilitators a living wage, supports the redistribution of funds to local Black and Indigenous groups as well as Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity, and includes the organizing and administrative support associated with the course. This also includes all meals and snacks during the course.

    We want to make this work financially for as many people as possible, and we want to be in dialogue with you about what will support you to participate. Please contact us if you would like to discuss finances.

Group of people standing apart on a grassy field, engaging in somatic practices
Courses
Yearlong Course: Opening to Freedom • Session 1
May 28
White
Yearlong Course: Opening to Freedom • Session 1
White

Chicagoland, IL

White
Yearlong Course: Opening to Freedom • Session 2
Jul 9
White
Yearlong Course: Opening to Freedom • Session 2
White

Millerton, NY

White
Yearlong Course: Opening to Freedom • Session 3
Nov 12
White
Yearlong Course: Opening to Freedom • Session 3
White

Chicagoland, IL

White

Course Details and Application Information

More Details

Intermediate Courses: Bodywork

Intermediate

​​Four immersive days to offer and receive bodywork to develop somatic awareness, a greater presence, and deepen transformational practice.

June 2026
Upstate New York

Somatic bodywork is a form of body-based learning that allows us more access to the wisdom of the body. In this lineage, bodywork is a way that we listen to the body, hear stories it holds, and receive accompaniment. Participants will receive and offer bodywork with support from demonstrations and teachers in the room. By working with and through the body, we will be present with sensation, emotion, story, and narrative, and make sense together.  This course will be led by a multi-racial team. A prerequisite is a four-day somatic course in this lineage.

    • Seeing and working with armoring bands–patterns of contraction that lessen or prevent body sensation, movement, emotion, and aliveness

    • Skillful use of breath and movement

    • Supportive expert supervision

    • A contained, safe learning environment

    • Direct somatic opening and change

Apply here

Coaching & Bodywork

Beginner/Intermediate/Advanced

one-to-one coaching or bodywork to support you to move towards your longings.

ERJ teachers are available for one-to-one coaching, both virtually and in person. Some teachers also offer in-person somatic bodywork sessions. Coaching and bodywork rates are set individually with your practitioner and offered on a sliding scale.

The following teachers have availability for new clients:

Becca Meredith: website occasional availability
Cari Caldwell: email
Dara Silverman: email website
J Sikes: email website
Michael Strom: email
Rachel Plattus: email website
Sarah Abbott: email website
Tyler Grillo: email bodywork only

Contact Us

In-Person Regional Practice Groups   

Intermediate/Advanced

Ongoing, local, small groups that grow your community of practice

Various Times

After learning online and in person, many participants meet up to practice somatics and connect locally. Participants created a network of 15+ local groups where folks meet, in person or online, to connect and build together. This is modeled in part on Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity's Local practice groups. We are grateful they shared their model with us.

Sign up to connect with a group in your area. See below to locate a list of active or forming groups. Please fill this out whether you live in one of those places or not–people are practicing everywhere!

Practice Group Locations

Atlanta, Georgia
Boston, Massachusetts
Elkhart, Indiana
Lansing, Michigan
Leelanau County, Michigan
Los Angeles, CA
Gainesville, FL
Hudson Valley, NY
Oakland, CA
Portland, OR
Seattle, WA
Spokane, WA
St Louis, MO
Washington, DC
Western Massachusetts
Whidbey Island, WA

Sign up

Advanced Courses: ERJ Reunion 

Advanced

The first-ever ERJ reunion. Come for the community, the practice, the songs and to make meaning of this political moment and how we can turn and face it together. 

September 25-28, 2026
Upstate New York

Between 2020-2025, ERJ trained over 600 people online and in person. For the first time, we’re offering a time to get together with other members of the ERJ community. This four-day retreat will be in beautiful upstate New York, and we’ll have a chance to explore some of the most pressing political questions, practice together, share resilience practices, and build relationships across ERJ. 

Cost and details to come!

Course Details and Application
Group of 10 people smiling and gathered closely for a selfie outdoors, with trees in the background.

  • "This course was one of the most impactful and transformative capacity-building experiences I’ve had. I’ve been in movement and healing spaces for 20 years, and this is what I’ve been longing for- Skillful integration of somatics and antiracist praxis."

    —Simon, Politicized Healer

  • "This course was a great way to reconnect with how I show up in the world as a white woman and how my allyship can be centered in my dignity."

    —Allison, Community Funder

  • "When I was first exposed to somatics, I was a little scared. I felt nervous talking about bodies. So if you are nervous I’ve been there. But the somatics courses are totally worth it. I see somatics as an investment in myself and my leadership. It helps me show up, meet this political moment, and be the parent I want to be."

    —T., Teacher

  • "This session rooted me in my humanity, connecting me to parts that had been severed, and deepened my sense of connection and interdependence. It helped me feel hope and possibility, which has empowered me to lean into my racial justice work with not only a more powerful commitment but also confidence that a new way is possible, even if I can't see the entire path. That confidence makes me more humble, rooted and bold in my work."

    –Jo, Teacher

  • "Being part of the four day retreat challenges and supports me on personal and professional levels. I am learning to be in my body and to improve the depth and quality of my relationships with family and friends. As a white female educator working in a diverse school system, the somatic practices I am learning are helping me see opportunities to transform power dynamics in my school and to be in relationship with educators and students of color with greater accountability and authenticity."

    –Sarah, Educator

  • "I'm so grateful for the way that I was able to learn and be stretched by Dara's workshop in ways that I hadn't known I needed. It especially challenged the ways that white supremacy culture has taught me to separate myself from my body, to the detriment of myself and those around me. Months later, I still find myself coming back to lessons learned in the workshop and putting them into practice both in the context of social justice and my day-to-day life. A specific takeaway that was big for me was that I can work to hold different, conflicting perspectives in the context of social justice work while still remaining settled and present in my body."

    –Hannah, Human RIghts Organizer

Our Teachers

Questions?

Schedule a brief call with Dara Silverman to talk about your needs. 
Schedule a Call