New Seneca Village : An Offering for Healers
New Seneca Village (NSV) is a residency and social ecosystem space for cis, transfeminine and non-binary Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color leaders working to advance justice.
We provide nature-based residencies centered on restoration, connection and visioning within an intentional community designed for justice oriented leaders from across a wide array of social movements.
With this offering, we hope to contribute
to both the personal and professional development of leaders restorative practices in order to support their long-term sustainability as a leader which we believe is critical to ensuring a just future for us all.
We prioritize leaders who work in non-profit spaces, in particular frontline organizers and others whose work is about advancing collective progress. We look for healers who are skilled in working with this community.
Our intention in bringing together leaders and healers is to explore as a community what is possible when restoration, connection and visioning are centered in our lives and work.
Healers are intended to be an integral part of the NSV community, holding a container of support for our leaders while providing group and individual restorative practice offerings for the community.
Healers have time and space to deeply engage and embed restoration into their own offerings.
More on how we define healers here.
THE INVITATION FOR HEALERS
Healers are invited to join New Seneca Village to provide restorative practice offerings - sessions and experiences - for leaders on residency.
We are looking for healers across a wide range of modalities; energy, embodied, movement, somatic, therapeutic, ancestral and expressive arts.
Healers are asked to provide both individual and group offerings focused on restorative practices during residencies which range from 6 to 7 nights long.
Three to five healers will be a part of each residency and offerings will be spaced so that healers can have their own restorative space and time.
Healers are expected to attend 3 prep meetings (one of which will be on site) and participate in each of the 3 Restorative Vision Circle series sessions to begin to build relationship with the community. All Villagers including healers will attend opening and closing circles while at the residency.
After the residency, healers are expected to attend a final debrief session with the NSV team to reflect and share lessons learned about the residency
At the residency healers offer approximately 8-10 hours of group and individual offerings. Generally healers provide one group offering or 2-3 individual offerings per day, depending on preference and needs.
It is our intention that everyone on residency with New Seneca Village experience time and space to tend to their own restorative practice, including days off for healers.
Healers will receive payment of $2000 (depending on length of residency), travel stipends of up to $1,000 and accommodation and meals while on residency
More About the Village Residency
New Seneca Village hosts up to three in-person residencies annually as we work to create our permanent retreat center space as part of our Big Vision.
Residencies are centered around access to nature and the time and space for all Villagers to explore self and community restoration practices.
New Seneca Villagers on retreat have the opportunity to connect with one another and the space to expand their vision for their work and their communities, supported by light restorative and visioning programming.
Healers are a key part of New Seneca Village and each residency. They support the Village team in holding a container of restorative care while providing individual and group restorative practice offerings as a way of connecting leaders with a range of experiences.
“The [Restorative Vision] circles gave us an opportunity to build rapport, connect to our intentions, and gave me a sense of where our leaders were at in their journey of allowance and restoration.”
-Rosanna "Rose" Chang, MFT; Liberatory Psychotherapy and Healing, California
Our New Seneca Village Healer Philosophy
-
Each leader is on their own healing journey, sometimes explicit and sometimes implicit.
-
The power and ability to heal is alive and well within all of us. (There is nothing to fix, nothing broken nor missing.)
-
Each healer is offering leaders the opportunity to see | connect | feel | observe | encounter themselves | to pause | reflect | grow.
-
Each healer is responsible for the consequences of their restorative practices or techniques and each leader is responsible for their own healing process
Invitations
Healer Offerings@ Residency
To join New Seneca Village Residencies as a healer providing group and individual restorative offerings
We invite you to join New Seneca Village as a potential healer for our upcoming residencies.
We are looking for cis, transfeminine and non-binary women healers who are interested in supporting women of color leaders.
We will reach out to healers based on the needs of the leaders invited to each residency with the goal to pair healers with leader cohorts based on the emergent and shared requests expressed by the group.
If you are interested in applying to be a healer, please be able to offer both individual and group offerings.
Please also review our Living Values and if you align, complete the application below to be considered for a New Seneca Village residency.
Completed applications are not a guarantee
of residency invitation.
Healer Offerings:
Social Ecosystem
To host virtual restorative practice offerings within our emerging online community
We are developing a virtual Village community space within which we intend to offer restorative practices to our Villagers.
If you have experience in designing and hosting virtual offerings for groups centered on restoration, connection or visioning, consider this opportunity.
You can express interest within the healer application.
More details on time commitment and payscale coming soon.
Completed applications are not a guarantee of social ecosystem invitation.
Venues + Dates
We are closed for healer invitations to 2023 residencies.
Completion of the survey will be for 2024 residencies.
Residency details coming in late fall.
What Comes Next?
Open Houses
Healer Application
We sporadically host open houses to connect, discuss this offering, provide clarity and hear your feedback.
Open House dates below.
Healer applications are always live!
New Seneca Village chooses healers for residencies and social ecosystem offerings based on the direction of Villagers.
Completed applications are not a guarantee of residency or social ecosystem invitation.
Healer Consults + Invitations
"The whole experience felt extremely safe, held,
and very nourishing!
The high quality of attention and thought given to each phase and the execution was felt. As a healer, I felt looped in and clear throughout the process thanks to the quality of communication and organization.
Leading up to the retreat, the calls really helped me ground into the opportunity, prepare, and get a sense of the group. What was just right? Each person who was in the retreat was a joy to be around and brought unique wisdom, everyone moved with love and respect, we were all given so much permission to Be as we needed to be.
I know that was because of the way the retreat was curated and the intention, thoughtfulness, structure, and care put into creating the container."
- Taraneh Sarrafzadeh, Healer, Artist,
& Embodiment Guide, CA
If your restorative offerings are a match for our Village offerings we will reach out for a consultation to see if we are aligned on the invitation.
Residencies: It is our goal to invite healers to a particular residencies 2 months in advance, so that you will have ample time to accept, book travel and participate in our Cohort Circle (details below in the Practices section) if you choose.
Social Ecosystem: It is our goal to invite healers to social ecosystem offerings at least 6 weeks in advance so that you will have time to co-design your session agenda and pre and post engagement with the NSV team.
I was asked by a white friend how was the retreat and what made it different from other retreats.
I replied, "You know how you walk through your life without any worries of being harmed, exploited, abused or micro-aggressed and how the system works in your favor?
I was able to experience that for the first time in my life...for seven days."
Teresa R Ellis, Pilates Barre and Jams, Decolonizing Movement for Marginalized Bodies, Oakland, CA
Open Houses
To connect, share about the New Seneca Village offering,
hear your feedback and answer questions.
Please check back in the summer for more Open Houses.
Please note: This space and opportunity is for cis, transfeminine and non-binary women of color leaders.
If you do not identify this way and still are interested in learning more about NSV,
please visit our FAQ page.
Restorative Vision Circles
Pre - Residency Connection
[not a requirement for Social Ecosystem healers]
Each New Seneca Village residency cohort will come together in advance of their respective residency for three sessions of exploration, connection and sharing.
The Restorative Vision Circle Series is an opportunity for Villagers to prepare for the residency and the longer-term practice of integrating restorative practices into their work and life while also building relationship within the group.
Restorative Vision Circles support Villagers ability to be present and grounded when we gather in person, so that they are able to more quickly access restoration, connection and visioning during the residency.
Healers participate in these sessions as Villagers and partners with the New Seneca Village team in creating the residency container. Healers are not expected to lead in these sessions.
Time Commitment: 3 Months - 4.5 hours
Feedback
In order to co-create tailored residency experiences, evolve our programming and further define (and fundraise for) the intentional community of New Seneca Village, we rely on Villager feedback.
We anticipate asking for 4 - 6 hours of your time providing feedback via surveys and potentially interviews over a 6 - 8 month time period.
Your participation in this feedback process during the NSV pilot years will enable opt-in feedback for future Villagers.
It will also support our ability to fundraise if we can gather and share about the impact of this offering.
Meet the folks stewarding this
intentional community
Village Exchange
Participation in New Seneca Village is complimentary and we believe in energetic exchange.
Our request is that you exchange at least 12 hours of your time - within the year following your residency - to connect with, learn from, share with and support others within the NSV community.
We know how much brilliance lies in our collective community. And that brilliance shows up beyond your work in the world.
We encourage you to bring your full self to this exchange - what delights and intrigues you, in addition to your areas of professional expertise. In this way, we intend to build a strong community of sustained leaders who are uniquely interconnected with one another.
Practices for Mutual Sustainability
Once accepted into a New Seneca Village residency,
healers - as part of the Village -are asked to commit to the following.
Invitation to Pause
As You Consider This Invitation for Your Self
Sit quietly and comfortably with your feet on the ground.
Take 8 cleansing breaths. [In through the nose. Out through the mouth.]
Imagine the feels, smells, tastes and sounds of intentional community. Sense the energy of those around you as you gather virtually and physically to co-create spaces centered on restoration, connection and visioning.
~ Is this an offering I want to say yes to?
~ What am I willing to offer to this space?
Close with 3 deep breaths.
