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.

One & Two Day Introductory Courses

Embodied Resistance

Beginner

in-person somatic skills intensives for our movements

Gainesville, FL • February 22, 2026 • Centering Queer and Trans Leaders
St Louis, MO • March 22, 2026 • Centering Black, Indigenous and Queer and Trans Leaders
Portland OR• October 17, 2026 • Climate Organizers Spokane, WA • October 18, 2026•For Movement 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 per participant is $150.

    • Sustainer Rate - $250+: for those who have generational or inherited wealth.

    • Supporter Rate - $151-249: for those comfortably paying their rent or mortgage and those being sponsored by an organization with sufficient budget.

    • Grounded Rate - $101-150: for those who have a regular income and are paying their mortgage or rent.

    • Equity Rate - $50-100: for those who are challenged to make ends meet.

    This infographic includes more about the sliding scale tiers for consideration. 

    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. 

    Your registration fee pays facilitators a living wage, allows us to redistribute funds to local Black and Indigenous groups as well as Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity, and includes paying the ERJ Practice Manager for organizing and administrative fees associated with the course.

    Donations and sponsorships to offset the course cost for other registrants are always welcome.

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

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

yearlong course

Opening to Freedom

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

    • 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.

Course Details and Application Information
Group of people standing apart on a grassy field, engaging in somatic practices
In-person Regional Practice Groups

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

Advanced courses

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

ERJ Reunion

Intermediate-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!

Can’t make it in person? Check out our Online Courses

Our Teachers

Questions?

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